Which expansion was the absolute worst?

[Zeebaz]

Easily BFA its been painful

[Demithio]

After 5-6 years or so, when we get next sub-par expansion there will be topic on MMO-champ how current is the worst and BfA was actually not-so-bad, just the same as we have now for WoD.

Let's make a tier list, with note that Vanilla - with it's flaws and strengths cannot be judged since it was the first and none of the other will exist without it. Also it is technically not an expansion. It is really not fair to judge Shadowlands now.

S TIER:
Burning Crusade - first expansion, we got Illidan and lore-familiar characters, we got COOL new races, we got whole new world, we got flying, MANY dungeons, raids that stayed relevant for whole expansion, arena, actual PLAYABLE specs - basically what WoW should've been at launch. [/QUOTE]


Can you say epic? This is what WoW is suppose to feel like. It was an amazing and very memorable expansion the likes of which was not seen again.

Wrath of the Lich King - We got the best written villain in WoW (before and since), death knight, great raids and trial of the crusader, MANY dungeons, superb lore, absolutely best zones in the game (Grizzly Hills, i am looking at you). It is one idea behind BC because some of the systems that degrade the community started there. [/QUOTE]


Amazing at first, it was however, as you say, the first signs of degrading the game systems. However, we really didn't notice it back then so much, as overall, wotlk also fits in the 'epic' category.

A TIER:
Legion - lorewise Legion ticked all the boxes - greatest threat we've known to day as a main villain, Illidan's, Tyrallion's return, Suramar and other great zones, superb raids, great aesthetics (Nighthold tier is great for almost every class). The idea of artifact weapons (not so much the systems), class order halls. Not to mention the systems we got that will last (rare thing for Blizzard) - mythic+, scaling zones and world quests. Great cinematics as well, a significant step ahead in storytelling. It is behind BC and Wrath just because of the mess with initial artifact system and RNG legiondaries. Other than that - may be the most significant expansion in terms of end-game content with introduction of M+.[/QUOTE]


I didn't play a lot of it, to me it was just another version of the "new wow". However, it seems to be well remembered here.


B TIER:
Mists of Pandaria - Blizzard actually put all their skill and imagination in this - in every system, class balance, endgame content, class balance, stories, artwork...and it wasn't enough to salvage the panda thing. If only the theme and the new race was something that did not start as an April fool's joke it may have been up there in the A TIER or even S. The unfortunate collateral damage of this was also the monk class - really fun to play, but forever associated with Pandas. Also may be the best class balance that ever was in the game up to this day.[/QUOTE]


Panda Island Adventure. It never caught on with me, and the 'ooka ooka' monkeys throwing bananas at me was more than I could stand. Interesting artwork, but so much of the game was sadly corny.This is when it really stopped feeling like WoW.


C TIER:
Battle for Azeroth - It swung...and missed - so much systems that could've been great - warfronts, islands, alternative progression system. All of them missed the mark. But this wasn't the worst - i personally liked the idea of faction conflict...which finished in the second patch. Then we killed in two patches and one zone two of the most iconic and hyped Warcraft villains - Azshara and N'zoth - both of them could've been entire expansions on their own. Azerite armor have all the flaws of Artifact system MINUS any of the positives. The stories in the zones were great...and still in the shadow of Legion content. Corruptions were interesting...and impossible to balance. Essences - great...but mindless grind. Raids - hit and miss and the greatest of them - Battle for Dazar'alor - in first major patch.[/QUOTE]


Just another example of Blizzard's piss poor design philosophy and corporate influence. Not much else to say about it.

Cataclysm - The world revamp was needed - anyone who says otherwise either have nostalgia googles or simply did not played before that. Leveling, compared to Wrath zones or even BC was terrible. It was ok in vanilla when we didn't know otherwise - after two expansions it's flaws showed intensely. At this point it was not even challenging it was just boring and a chore. Some questlines were great before that, yes - but the improvement in questing was immense. And now anyone who is in dire need to experience Rescue OOX-22/FE or Zevra Hooves quests can do so - in classic. Besides that Deathwing is one the greatest villains we've known of at this point - and his presence ingame was underwhelming. The boss fight was innovating and frustrating - not fun in both encounters. Endgame zones was passable and some of them innovative (Vas'Jir) but generally all over the place. Raids was cool, besides....the end tier which left a sour taste. Firelands patch was top notch. [/QUOTE]


It started out strong, albeit somewhat short of content. I was having fun in the very early days of Cataclysm, until Blizzard went full idiot with it and I quickly lost interest. It was somewhat of an under rated expansion, and I believe Blizzard had it correct at the beginning. It did however have an overall incomplete feel to it.


D TIER:
Warlords of Draenor
Wait, wait, hear me out - i don't hate WoD - i am just sad, because it had so much potential and ruined it. Garrison systems was supposed to bring player housing and expand upon it - instead we got something that replaced endgame and player interaction on every level. Zones and leveling were great...but missing large chunks of content. (Karabor, Shattrath, Bladespire, not to mention whole Ogre continent) Azshran was supposed to be a Wintergrasp / Tol Barad Improved but instead it ended up, somehow, even worse and in addition - underwhelming capital hub. Raids were some of the best done in this game up to this date, especially Blackrock Foundry - but only three. Dungeons was also few but on top of that - tedious. Almost half of the story was scrapped altogether and BAM! - Archimonde. WoD could've been right there with BC and WotlK, but it was halfway scuttled and abandoned. Let's not forget that it's launch was the WORST in WoW history (besides vanilla). It's the missed potential, not the expansion itself.[/QUOTE]

Wasn't heavily invested in it, just boresville; but then, I find most of the newer expansions uninteresting anyway. I was somewhat hopeful that it would have been TBC v2, as Blizzard implied, but that was not the case obviously. The truth is, the original TBC design philosophy was forever buried by this point.

[Castration]

With the end of an expansion comes my biannual worst expansion poll.

Which expansion/era is the absolute worst, and why?

Your poll is trash... Your topic says "which expansion" yet your poll says "which era".

[oblakoff]

It started out strong, albeit somewhat short of content. I was having fun in the very early days of Cataclysm, until Blizzard went full idiot with it and I quickly lost interest.

Grim Batol pre-perf was hilarious to observe after whole year of aoefesting WotlK dungeons. Too bad they nerfed it :/

[Dejavuproned]

S TIER:
Burning Crusade - first expansion, we got Illidan and lore-familiar characters, we got COOL new races, we got whole new world, we got flying, MANY dungeons, raids that stayed relevant for whole expansion, arena, actual PLAYABLE specs - basically what WoW should've been at launch.


Can you say epic? This is what WoW is suppose to feel like. It was an amazing and very memorable expansion the likes of which was not seen again.

Wrath of the Lich King - We got the best written villain in WoW (before and since), death knight, great raids and trial of the crusader, MANY dungeons, superb lore, absolutely best zones in the game (Grizzly Hills, i am looking at you). It is one idea behind BC because some of the systems that degrade the community started there.


Amazing at first, it was however, as you say, the first signs of degrading the game systems. However, we really didn't notice it back then so much, as overall, wotlk also fits in the 'epic' category.

A TIER:
Legion - lorewise Legion ticked all the boxes - greatest threat we've known to day as a main villain, Illidan's, Tyrallion's return, Suramar and other great zones, superb raids, great aesthetics (Nighthold tier is great for almost every class). The idea of artifact weapons (not so much the systems), class order halls. Not to mention the systems we got that will last (rare thing for Blizzard) - mythic+, scaling zones and world quests. Great cinematics as well, a significant step ahead in storytelling. It is behind BC and Wrath just because of the mess with initial artifact system and RNG legiondaries. Other than that - may be the most significant expansion in terms of end-game content with introduction of M+.


I didn't play a lot of it, to me it was just another version of the "new wow". However, it seems to be well remembered here.


B TIER:
Mists of Pandaria - Blizzard actually put all their skill and imagination in this - in every system, class balance, endgame content, class balance, stories, artwork...and it wasn't enough to salvage the panda thing. If only the theme and the new race was something that did not start as an April fool's joke it may have been up there in the A TIER or even S. The unfortunate collateral damage of this was also the monk class - really fun to play, but forever associated with Pandas. Also may be the best class balance that ever was in the game up to this day.


Panda Island Adventure. It never caught on with me, and the 'ooka ooka' monkeys throwing bananas at me was more than I could stand. Interesting artwork, but so much of the game was sadly corny.This is when it really stopped feeling like WoW.


C TIER:
Battle for Azeroth - It swung...and missed - so much systems that could've been great - warfronts, islands, alternative progression system. All of them missed the mark. But this wasn't the worst - i personally liked the idea of faction conflict...which finished in the second patch. Then we killed in two patches and one zone two of the most iconic and hyped Warcraft villains - Azshara and N'zoth - both of them could've been entire expansions on their own. Azerite armor have all the flaws of Artifact system MINUS any of the positives. The stories in the zones were great...and still in the shadow of Legion content. Corruptions were interesting...and impossible to balance. Essences - great...but mindless grind. Raids - hit and miss and the greatest of them - Battle for Dazar'alor - in first major patch.


Just another example of Blizzard's piss poor design philosophy and corporate influence. Not much else to say about it.

Cataclysm - The world revamp was needed - anyone who says otherwise either have nostalgia googles or simply did not played before that. Leveling, compared to Wrath zones or even BC was terrible. It was ok in vanilla when we didn't know otherwise - after two expansions it's flaws showed intensely. At this point it was not even challenging it was just boring and a chore. Some questlines were great before that, yes - but the improvement in questing was immense. And now anyone who is in dire need to experience Rescue OOX-22/FE or Zevra Hooves quests can do so - in classic. Besides that Deathwing is one the greatest villains we've known of at this point - and his presence ingame was underwhelming. The boss fight was innovating and frustrating - not fun in both encounters. Endgame zones was passable and some of them innovative (Vas'Jir) but generally all over the place. Raids was cool, besides....the end tier which left a sour taste. Firelands patch was top notch.


It started out strong, albeit somewhat short of content. I was having fun in the very early days of Cataclysm, until Blizzard went full idiot with it and I quickly lost interest. It was somewhat of an under rated expansion, and I believe Blizzard had it correct at the beginning. It did however have an overall incomplete feel to it.


D TIER:
Warlords of Draenor
Wait, wait, hear me out - i don't hate WoD - i am just sad, because it had so much potential and ruined it. Garrison systems was supposed to bring player housing and expand upon it - instead we got something that replaced endgame and player interaction on every level. Zones and leveling were great...but missing large chunks of content. (Karabor, Shattrath, Bladespire, not to mention whole Ogre continent) Azshran was supposed to be a Wintergrasp / Tol Barad Improved but instead it ended up, somehow, even worse and in addition - underwhelming capital hub. Raids were some of the best done in this game up to this date, especially Blackrock Foundry - but only three. Dungeons was also few but on top of that - tedious. Almost half of the story was scrapped altogether and BAM! - Archimonde. WoD could've been right there with BC and WotlK, but it was halfway scuttled and abandoned. Let's not forget that it's launch was the WORST in WoW history (besides vanilla). It's the missed potential, not the expansion itself.

Wasn't heavily invested in it, just boresville; but then, I find most of the newer expansions uninteresting anyway. I was somewhat hopeful that it would have been TBC v2, as Blizzard implied, but that was not the case obviously. The truth is, the original TBC design philosophy was forever buried by this point.

Mostly agree with your list aside from a few things.

Personally I would put legion up in S tier, the systems didn't bother me and god damn that expansion was fun. Mind you I took a break (as I often do) right around 7.1 so I didn't experience too much of it lol

I can't speak for BC, since I started late BC and didn't cap until wrath so I can't really rate it. But based on popular perception it certainly seemed like an S tier expansion. Plus it gave us Karazan, like nuff said right there.

I would drop Cata to D tier. I agree the revamp was probably needed but what I disagree with is that it was actually good. It was shit. What I wanted was lore heavy zones that showed the evolution of zones since vanilla and hopefully, using phasing, further evolution after im done as well as finally seeing what some of those locked away areas of the map were. What I got was blizzard turning up the pop culture references to 11, cheese, and not much meaningful lore and gross and utterly terrible mishandling of zones like uldum, twilight highlands and Hyjal. Also I main alliance and Alliance got totally DUMPED on in their version of the revamp. At least horde got stuff like silverpine. Alliance side has this sinister "everything is going to shit" vibe that just makes everything feel like a bummer. Horde side is more like "rah rah let's take over everything!".

Heck after typing it out I think I would put Cata in F teir actually. At least WOD is forgettable.

Sent from my SM-G981W using Tapatalk

[Zephire]

So wierd thing, "worst"... My worst one is still a great expansion. So small difference between top and bottom that it's not really noticable :P

By Tiers it would be something like:
S: none
A: TBC, WotLK, Cata, MOP, WOD, Legion, BFA
B-F: none

I think every single expansion brought new things to do, adjusted bad things and over all improved the game. Every expansion also brought some things that didn't really work that great but that's easy to say in retro-perspective.

Been playing for some 15 years and It has always been fun mixed with obligatory things which wasn't so fun but I think that in the mix, the fun could shine.

"You do with what you have" is how I play. Really sceptical about Covenants atm, I like switching around experimenting and stuff which I don't think I can do very smoothly with covenants sadly. We'll see, gonna have a blast as usual, either way

[Lightning-]

For me BfA was the worst by far, haven't played much, it was just too bad in the aspects I personally enjoy. I haven't played WoD nor Vanilla WoW.

[Tic Tacs]

Legion was the worse for me which is very unpopular opinion, keep in mind I enjoyed all of the expansions including Legion, otherwise, I wouldn't be playing the game.

Why? Because of introduction of gear scaling in bgs, you see before I would farm the best possible gear I can get and queue bgs to "pwn some noobs" but guess what? Because of gear scaling this was now impossible, everyone were more or less on the same plainfield no matter of the gear.

Now, what happens in the open world pvp? If you happen to be one of these "one shot macro" classes you win in less than 5 seconds, otherwise, you are in the world of pain so gear doesn't really matter here either if you are not playing one of these classes.

Also, since legendaries were a random drop for the most of the expansion, I was lucky and got the best ones for my spec relatively quick and I didn't play Legion as much as some "hardcore" players so you see time invested didn't really matter when it came to acquiring legendaries.

[Kallor]

Expansions that have captivated me fully: TBC, Wotlk

Expansions that were good despite modern WoW's failure to be a proper MMORPG: MoP, Legion

Expansions that had some redeeming features, but ultimately was boring most of the time: Cataclysm, WoD

Expansions where I've had no motivation to play because it's so goddamn bad: BFA

[Nyel]

Battle for Azeroth. WoD was barely better, but it was overall better in the end.

[jazen]

Cataclysm, no doubt. Deathwing was awful-he broke the world and could barely hold onto the ledge.....

[Osmeric]

Grim Batol pre-perf was hilarious to observe after whole year of aoefesting WotlK dungeons. Too bad they nerfed it :/

Cataclysm was an expansion they designed for customers that they wished they had, not the ones they actually had. An egregious mistake.

[Frandaero]

WoD was the worst. Followed by a tie between Cata and BfA.

[Aphrel]

form the perspective of a mostly pve player. Id say wotlk was the worst expansion ever mainly because it had the worst raid systems.. Rehashed raid i cleared 2 years earlier.. Limited attemps in two of its raids.. 8 weeks of icc heroic clears be4 we could even do the proper difficulty.. Only ulduar delivered and its not enough to carry the expansion.

On top of that the dungeons were tuned so easily that they might aswell not had existed.

[TheRevenantHero]

I will simply say this. BfA is garbage but at least you have shit to do if you're not a raider. WoD had absolutely nothing for you if you didn't raid.

[Osmeric]

form the perspective of a mostly pve player. Id say wotlk was the worst expansion ever mainly because it had the worst raid systems..

lol no. Wrath expanded raid participation dramatically. The raid systems were far better than BC or (the first two thirds of) Cataclysm, for the average player.

[khazmodan]

BFA is the worst, not a single redeeming quality about it. From start to finish it was a terrible, out of place, unfinished product.
WoD is the second worst, what it did have was awesome, but it was missing a lot.
Legion is next, rose tinted glasses. People thought it was good, but that was because WoD was pretty soulless.
Cataclysm wasn't bad, but it also wasn't great. Pretty middle of the road expansion.
Vanilla, only here because everything else was just better, but Vanilla was and is still awesome.
MOP, great for PvP, great for raiding, great scenery.
TBC, amazing expansion, felt completely different from Vanilla. Arenas began, PvP was fun, PvE was awesome.
Wrath. Can't argue this one. Its just the GOAT of WoW so far. Peak WoW. Great story telling, amazing raids, zones were all engaging.

Almost perfect list, I agree about Legion, it could have been great but they doubled down on too much bad stuff that ruined all the good stuff. I do think Nazjatar is impressive visually but the rest of the expansion is so much doubling down on the bad that it finally burned away the last of the player loyalty. R.I.P. WoW expansion hypetrain, you finally ran out of fuel because of untalented, overly greedy, leftover developers and executives.

- - - Updated - - -

I will simply say this. BfA is garbage but at least you have shit to do if you're not a raider. WoD had absolutely nothing for you if you didn't raid.

So true, the garrison was depressing as hell about a week after I hit max level. Leveling was fast and not totally miserable but end game was a fun vacuum without raiding.

[Malikath]

Here's the thing, BFA gameplay is a bit better then WoD's, but BFA is the hope diamond of expansions.
between R. Lee Ermy whom's reference character was apart of the alliance voldun storyline died in 2018 to the more recent deaths of Chadwick Boseman and Byron "Reckful" Daniel Bernstein, among others, have all died in the life-time of this expac.

BFA is WoW's first cursed expac.

[Delano]

Cataclysm broke things in ways that are functionally irreparable, and I don't just mean the world. It was the beginning of WoW's end.

[Ticj]

Cataclysm broke things in ways that are functionally irreparable, and I don't just mean the world. It was the beginning of WoW's end.

That's kind of a dumb thing to say considering that was almost 10 years ago now? Like I don't disagree that Cataclysm was a major flop, but calling it the beginning of wow's end is something else lol