Which expansions had the best lore?

[ercarp]

People like to condemn the lore of the later expansions while looking back on the past with rose-tinted glasses, but I would personally argue that every expansion has had something going for it in terms of lore. Asinine gameplay systems and class changes aside, the lore of the game is the one uniting force that has kept me invested throughout the many years I've played this game.

That said, nothing's stopping us from playing favorites. If you were to ignore everything else about an expansion and judge it based solely on the lore (story, setting, etc.), which expansions would you rank at the top?

My favorites would probably be Legion and Wrath. The Nordic themes of Wrath were enough to make me fall in love with it, but it also had one of the coolest villains the game has ever seen. Legion, on the other hand, was the first time when the game felt like it was actually making leaps and bounds to move the main story forward, and there was a wide array of smaller storylines, all of which introduced interesting characters and stories. I was especially a big fan of the night elf lore (Azsuna, Suramar, and Black Rook Hold).

[pandaman]

WotLK has a unique advantage given we all love Warcraft 3, and there are so many throwbacks. TBC had a few too of course, but WoTLK was something else

[Eazy]

Wotlk, and not only because of Arthas, but mostly Ulduar. But the questlines and overall the lore was kinda messy.

Legion probably second best.

[McNeil]

WotLK. It continued where WC3 left off and ended the Arthas and Third War story. Arthas had the best build up for a Warcraft villain, his death felt rather beautiful where he is held by his dad as a spirit. The side stories also got a lot of proper attention with the titan/Ulduar and Yogg-Saron being build up in several zones and come to a satisfying encounter. Malygos and the blue dragonflight, the vrykul, iron dwarves and the nerubians were all good villains for their zones. The entire death knight story is just solid, and as a DK you also get a proper conclusion of getting to kill the one that raised you in the end.

[ercarp]

WotLK has a unique advantage given we all love Warcraft 3, and there are so many throwbacks. TBC had a few too of course, but WoTLK was something else

I didn't even play Warcraft 3 and Wrath is still one of my favorites.

[ParanoiD84]

Easily wrath.

Lore and writing is a big deal for me in ip's and I think that's one of the biggest reasons I don't play wow atm as it's garbage in bfa.

But I must say that lore in wow was never really that good but wrath was when it was the best.

[Tarba]

Cataclysm for the revamp of old zones.

Wotlk wasted arthas as a cartoon vilain and the main story was particulary stupid.
BC wasted all war3 and added interstellar spaceship. Mop wasted Garrosh and pandaren were fucking boring, Jaina became skysophreniac and nobody noticd.
Wod was just an extension of the stupidity started with bc.
Legion did what it could to salvage what was broken with bc. Would be the second less garbage.
Bfa is particulary stupid. On par with bc.

[Aucald]

WotLK, Cata, MoP, and Legion in my estimation. Cata being a special case where there were problems with gameplay aspects of it (e.g. the Dragon Soul raid) but the lore itself was pretty good - storytelling wasn't a problem in Cata.

[Newname1234567890]

For me its MOP. Since Pandaland was an entirely new creation (for the most part) ifelt all of it's lore slide into place better then most other expasions. I enjoyed that about it

[Ludvig]

Never thought wow's lore/story was that great, but MoP had some interesting stuff.

[Varodoc]

Lore.... or Story? Because they are two different things.

[Voidism]

Wrath, MoP and Legion.

[Aucald]

Quality of story is subjective, and I've always liked WoW's lore. The only exception is WoD - which in itself was a cool story, but I just hate time travel and multiple universe theory etc

WoD also had some pretty blatant paradoxes introduced in its lore, which I think pulls it down even further from a lore perspective.

[Mirishka]

People like to condemn the lore of the later expansions while looking back on the past with rose-tinted glasses, but I would personally argue that every expansion has had something going for it in terms of lore. Asinine gameplay systems and class changes aside, the lore of the game is the one uniting force that has kept me invested throughout the many years I've played this game.

That said, nothing's stopping us from playing favorites. If you were to ignore everything else about an expansion and judge it based solely on the lore (story, setting, etc.), which expansions would you rank at the top?

My favorites would probably be Legion and Wrath. The Nordic themes of Wrath were enough to make me fall in love with it, but it also had one of the coolest villains the game has ever seen. Legion, on the other hand, was the first time when the game felt like it was actually making leaps and bounds to move the main story forward, and there was a wide array of smaller storylines, all of which introduced interesting characters and stories. I was especially a big fan of the night elf lore (Azsuna, Suramar, and Black Rook Hold).

For me, Wrath/Mists/Legion were the strongest lore expansions.

BFA has some great story here and there, but there's too many loose ends IMO. Like Azeroth herself, the story seems to have forgotten that we were trying to save her...

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Wrath, MoP and Legion.

+1

/10chars

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For me its MOP. Since Pandaland was an entirely new creation (for the most part) ifelt all of it's lore slide into place better then most other expasions. I enjoyed that about it

It really did feel exceptionally cohesive in that regard.

[omeomorfismo]

oh cata.
i will always remeber smashing human heads in hillsbrad with my forsakens

ah, and gilneas conquering with belmont is by far the best thing that this game gave me

[Syegfryed]

talking strict about lore wotlk>mop>cata

i still can't believe people liked the elf-fest and shitshow of Legion and that last raid

[Wilfire]

BfA had good lore bogged down by terrible execution and a rushed latter half of the story.

[ArunTheRogue]

Wrath>WoD>TBC>Cata>MoP>Legion>BfA

[Varodoc]

The problem with WoD is that they introduce concepts out of nowhere then do nothing with it. Void Ner'zhul ---> Dies in a raid (at least the small Void Alleria arc in Legion served to foreshadow the Ren'dorei). Giant ogre continent ---> Never even gets referenced. Yrel's dark secret ---> Is never actually developed until 2 expansions later. Archimonde's return ----> Dies 5 minutes later.

[Syegfryed]

The problem with WoD is that they introduce concepts out of nowhere then do nothing with it. Void Ner'zhul ---> Dies in a raid (at least the small Void Alleria arc in Legion served to foreshadow the Ren'dorei). Giant ogre continent ---> Never even gets referenced. Yrel's dark secret ---> Is never actually developed until 2 expansions later. Archimonde's return ----> Dies 5 minutes later.

in wod is where they start introducing things out of nowhere and then doing nothing with it, or doing shit things

we can clearly see the pattern of wod-legion-bfa, like the entire expansion is about one thing then the last raid/patch is different or totally different