How will BfA be remembered?

[Salty Maud]

Being a raider in WoD was nice. No endless busywork to keep up with the demands of raiding, heck, even consumable farming was nonexistent with the garrison garden providing the herbs for consumables. But i can imagine being a casual player in WoD was pretty pointless given that the expansion had very little to do outside of raiding. Garrison missions were also a pretty idiotic expansion feature that came with no meaningful gameplay, but that came to stay so that complaint continues being relevant to date. BfA is the opposite, being a raider sucks - i've spent more time doing mind numbing busywork than actually raiding in this expansion. Consumable farming was awful especially at the start of the expansion, AP grind never ends, much of the gear comes from M+, or in case of 8.2, world quests because benthic. I mean, why the fuck are world quests and island expeditions relevant content to cutting edge raiders? From what i've heard, casual players seem to like having stuff to do though. Classes were also overall better in WoD. Raids themselves have been good in every expansion, that's the one thing wow excels at.

As an expansion WoD was half baked, but i liked playing in WoD much better than i like playing in BfA. The defining characteristics of BfA to me are busywork and dumbed down classes. And, i guess i'll also be remembering BfA as the expansion where i finally quit after 14 years too, i highly doubt SL will make drastic enough changes to the right direction to bring me back to the game. I don't think i've ever called any expansion definitively the worst, but to me, BfA was the worst expansion so far.

[Kalisandra]

if u'll use the class design point, MoP/Wrath had far better, and if u exclude healing Legion also will join them (for me healing in legion was sh8t)
WoD only real advantage was gold making, logging for 10 min a day with 11 class max garrison (which takes min a month to build btw) give u ~ 5k gold daily minimum, beside that i can't name a single thing that WoD did any other exp didn't do far better, heck if WoD was as good as wrath but just introduced token wow it still will make it one of worst exp

WoD had a pretty good version of Ret, despite the trimming. At one point we could talent for a 16-yard radius Divine Storm (and pull everything in sight - I swear it reached further than that) until they nerfed it, and DS still did a minor bit of healing. The Legion version where DS fired a secondary version in a frontal cone was nowhere near as good. Oh, and the Hellfire Citadel tier set for Ret was pretty sweet, giving two charges to Avenger's Wrath.

One thing WoD brought that I think everyone thinks is a good thing - armour is no longer typed as an 'Int' or 'Strength' or 'Agility' piece, but has a main stat for any spec that should be wearing it.

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Also if they didn't want players to macro CDs together then they should just have reduced the amount of CDs by merging them or removing some of them. Having players pop 3-5 CDs one by one before they can start combat is a completely horrible option. Sometimes I don't know what Blizzard are thinking when they make those decisions.

Or they could simply make them share a short CD on use, so if you use one you can't use another for 20 seconds or whatever. That way you could chain them but not stack them. Or make each one over-write the others. Instead, they chose the option that feels worst.

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Yes, i was a holy paladin from vanilla to late wotlk where i switched over to protection and been playing it since apart from during dragon soul when i forced myself to heal for a few months again.. never gone back since, prot paladin and ret paladin is the least changed specs and holy gets overhauled every damn expansion and im tired of it, i want the core design of healing to stay the same not get changed all the time...

That's one thing I like about Resto Shaman healing - it's still recognisable as what it was in LK, when I first hit the level cap with my Shaman. There are some new tools, and a lot of stuff has gone missing in the latest three expacs, but overall it works much the same (though Cloudburst Totem can go and DiaF - I hate playing round a short cooldown like that, and it's really not what Resto healing's been about prior).

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Being a raider in WoD was nice. No endless busywork to keep up with the demands of raiding, heck, even consumable farming was nonexistent with the garrison garden providing the herbs for consumables.

The garden, mine, etc., were very handy for many crafters (but leatherworkers and tailors still had to get mats from exterior sources), but it pretty much wrecked the AH and crafter/gatherer economy and in some ways it's never recovered. Great for crafters, terrible for gatherers.

As an expansion WoD was half baked, but i liked playing in WoD much better than i like playing in BfA. The defining characteristics of BfA to me are busywork and dumbed down classes. And, i guess i'll also be remembering BfA as the expansion where i finally quit after 14 years too, i highly doubt SL will make drastic enough changes to the right direction to bring me back to the game. I don't think i've ever called any expansion definitively the worst, but to me, BfA was the worst expansion so far.

I quit in WoD over the no-flight thing, came back when they relented. I stayed subbed for all of Legion, but my play time from when we beat Nighthold through to getting flight from Broken Shore was pretty minimal - just enough to get flight as fast as possible (and thanks to work schedules I couldn't get it as soon as possible, which annoyed me quite a bit - the strict gating was BS). Currently I've been subbed about one month in two for the past year or more, and I've not even tried to find a guild or group that raids at a time where work doesn't interfere, nor PuG raids as I used to. Even raiding, which I've always loved about WoW, isn't enough to keep me subbed - instead of finding a way to raid, I just don't play except real casual with a few even more casual friends. Too much grind, too much all the same.

[xStevooo]

Good start to the xpac looked promising.
All systems and features they introduced were downright dreadful, everysingle one of them.
8.3 laughable, people saying how fun and immersive the whole n'zoth visions thing was - shows how desperate they are to play WoW because it has to be the most uncreative uninspiring piece of crap I've seen in this game.
Decent zones, music, theme etc which is quite normal, the rest of it (systems, features, alt freedom, class and spec immersion) is a solid 0/10.

Overall 2/10.

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

neutral.

i'll remember it as the expansion that ruined alts for everyone.

[Protean]

It is the only expansion to give player choice with the rewards from your tier set, so for that and that alone I will remember BfA with joy.

The story was so unbelievably forced and fragmented though.

What choice? You equip whatever the sim says is best, everything else is trash. If you're really lucky it's not the same set of azerite traits the entire expansion.

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Good start to the xpac looked promising.
All systems and features they introduced were downright dreadful, everysingle one of them.
8.3 laughable, people saying how fun and immersive the whole n'zoth visions thing was - shows how desperate they are to play WoW because it has to be the most uncreative uninspiring piece of crap I've seen in this game.
Decent zones, music, theme etc which is quite normal, the rest of it (systems, features, alt freedom, class and spec immersion) is a solid 0/10.

Overall 2/10.

How's crazyland? In what world is visions less creative AND less inspiring than island expeditions? At least visions can be somewhat difficult.

[tankbug]

I think I'd go with worst one so far. There are some improvements to existing features, and I do like the concept of the Warfronts/Islands, but it's very lacking compared to earlier expansions, and I absolutely hate the Garrosh 2.0 storyline. Also, there is nothing to do in 8.3 other than getting a little higher ilvl items. BFA is probably the least interesting expansion from a transmog point of view. At least the music is good, and the cinematics are the best ever.

[DeltrusDisc]

I guess rate them by unsubbing.

vanilla, never quit
bc, never quit
wrath, unsubbed for half of it.
cata, only played when the 10th anniversary event was going on
mop, never played it
wod, sub for all of it but only because i bought game time with gold
legion, subbed for all of it but bot game time with gold
bfa, unsubbed during 8.2, returned for 8.3.

mop was worst, then cata, then wrath, then bfa, wod and legion tied, vanilla and bc on top

Translation: I never played MoP/gave it a proper chance therefore it is the worst.
You never unsubbed from MoP... you just didn't come back, based on what you're saying.

I really didn't like MoP at first but later on I approached it openly and actually fell in love with it. It had some of the best lore and story-telling the game had seen since at least Wrath, since all of Cata was an absolute joke. What I played during MoP was maybe the last third/or even quarter of the expansion's time and frankly, I regret that tremendously.
On top of the lore, questing, story-line aspect, the raids were also incredibly gorgeous, expansive, and well thought-out, and can I just say: Thunder. Isle.

[unbound]

So was Cataclysm, pandaria and WOD.

Cataclysm: less hated now, only for its long drought and Thrall jesus
Pandaria: hated by all who left, maximum rose tinted glasses by white knights remaining
WoD: pretty much still hated by everyone for too many missed and half assed opportunities
BFA: will probably be remembered for great starter content (people loved BFA when it launched), but progressively worse patches with a totally shitty finale even worse than Cata's.

You should realize that the descriptions for WoD and BfA can be easily interchanged.

Whether WoD or BfA were truly the worst is like arguing which type of poop is more disgusting. Does it really matter?

As for Cata and MoP, they were terrible considering what had come before them, but the vast majority that actually experienced all of the aforementioned expansions will not put them at the bottom.

And I did literally lol at the those that voted that BfA was one of the better or was the best expansion. That made my day.

[Amarys]

Thematically it's not bad at all.. in fact it's one of the best. Gameplay wise.. bleh, it sucks. I guess it's gonna be remembered as an average expansion. Sort of like Cata.

[Michael Jackson]

You should realize that the descriptions for WoD and BfA can be easily interchanged.

Whether WoD or BfA were truly the worst is like arguing which type of poop is more disgusting. Does it really matter?

As for Cata and MoP, they were terrible considering what had come before them, but the vast majority that actually experienced all of the aforementioned expansions will not put them at the bottom.

And I did literally lol at the those that voted that BfA was one of the better or was the best expansion. That made my day.

Yeah I guess you're one of those people who criticize others for voting for one political party instead of the other huh?
You actually inspect people's votes and use that as an "argument"? Jesus fucking christ.

Yeah, it was better than WOD (for me), it was better than pandaria (for me), it was better than pre-bc (for me), it was better than BC (for me) but it's below Cataclysm WOTLK and Legion.

DIFFERENT OPINIONS, INCREDIBLE RIGHT?

[erpox]

In my personal opinion, bfa sucks, I mean I'm playing wow since the last patch of wotlk and Ive enjoyed the next expansion, sure not all has been good but I always found a reason to log into wow. I was super excited for bfa like so many people but since the first content patch I can't fin a reason to log in, I even bought a new pc only to play wow, payed the subscription but I didn't last more than 3 days playing.

It's sad, I really love this game and I always finding a reason to defending for other people that say the game suck, now I completely agree with them.

Hope shadowlands will be better.

I'm sorry for my bad English.

[xStevooo]

Island Expeditions is a good idea, with absolutely shocking implementation.
Jog on kid.

[Varodoc]

Neutral feeling to be honest. Definitely better than WoD, I have many good memoeries from BfA, but overall it was nothing spectacular. It was average.

I will say one thing though, Blizzard really nailed the pre-patch. Sylvanas committing genocide in literally the first 10 minutes of the expansion? That shit was crazy.

[Thalassian Bob]

Mag'har, void elves and a couple of N'zoth raid fights (dragons mainly) are the only things I will remember fondly from BfA.

Always suspected it was going to be a decidedly underwhelming "filler" expansion and I think my suspicions were vindicated.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Shadowlands. Wildhammer!!!

[Jonnusthegreat]

What choice? You equip whatever the sim says is best, everything else is trash. If you're really lucky it's not the same set of azerite traits the entire expansion.

There is more than one option. You have choice. Very interesting play with a good bonus low ilvl vs bad bonus high ilvl. In the old version, high ilvl was always better. I don't know how you don't see this obvious fact.

[Powerogue]

Going with neutral. I for one had a lot of fun with it, but it was held down by a relatively small amount of catastrophically stupid decisions like azerite gear. Separated from the overwhelming, nonstop, oppressive community negativity, it was not worse than average, and I appreciate the allied race feature the most. Lots of good alts from that. It's good that the extra player customization is continuing in shadowlands.

[DeltrusDisc]

The more I think about it, the more I honestly feel like this was worse than WoD. I never thought they could go worse.
I just haven't even felt compelled to go back during these "end days" for it and I know I am missing out on some stuff.
I went back for like the last probably 8 months of WoD and had a lot of fun. I enjoyed the raid content a lot, overall some pretty fun dungeons, the zones were certainly far better looking, and idk, even though I never cared to level a Draenei, I always loved their lore and temples and such, so that was a benefit. The Shadowmoon Valley questline and climactic story-ending was really awesome, imo.
BFA hardly had any of this. Ugly fat boat people with goofy facial expressions and boring storylines. I would have always expected Nazjatar to be a lot more fun but holy cow was it a massive let-down. Mechagon was fun... still need to do that mega-dungeon, but honestly, fairly easy to forget. Don't really miss it.
With all of this said... how can I agree BFA is better? It has a lot of dull content. A lot of content that showed promise but went no where, i.e. warfronts and island expeditions.
Sitting around in the garrison was pretty boring but it was also pretty easy to leave the garrison and do dungeons, pet stuff, achievement-hunting, and Tanaan Jungle was pretty fun at the time. Don't get me wrong though, WoD was and is still bad, overall.

And then there's Cataclysm. Cataclysm was offensive.

[Beefkow]

we can see this with every expac, even wod has hit the "it was actually pretty good"
proof of this is in this very thread, the amount of people somehow pretending BFA is worse then WoD.

What if I pretended that BFA was better then WOD? How would that make you feel?

Or better yet, BFA is better than MOP, that would definitely stir up some tension.

[Qck]

Poorly, for sure.

I'd put it maybe slightly ahead of WoD purely because there was more stuff to do outside of raiding and PvP, but in terms of the actual gameplay in those areas it was worse, IMO.

The corruption system sealed the deal for me, it might be my least favourite system ever, outside of the Honor system of Vanilla that I didn't even really know was that bad when I was playing it.

Even the raids have felt pretty uninspired for me, certainly nothing memorable that will stick with me for years to come and then you tack on the horror show of the RNG loot systems, azerite armor, and basically every piece of added content like Islands and Warfronts being an absolute disaster. You know what, maybe it was worse than WoD overall.

[bloomy]

poorly. game has been boring/bad since the changes leading into WoD and the only expac to deliver a somewhat fun experience was legion, and that had everything to do with the systems as opposed to the base game. the base game was trash but m+ was new, artifact weapons were fun, legiondaries were fun despite their initial issues, mage tower was good... and even with all those wins the expac barely got a passing grade imo, because the class design and game design behind it all was pretty terrible.

this new crew seems lost, they need to just look at ToT/SoO from MoP and copy that game/class design, because it's the best the modern game(post cata) has been and there's no close 2nd place.

it's as if they create a badass car and we all agree that the car could use minor touches but it's a great car, ton of fun. then they come along and say "if you liked that last car, you're going to love our new boat"... we don't need or want a boat, just make the fcking car better.