What would you say is the most enjoyable of the 3: BFA, SL, or WoD?

[FelPlague]

This. People just tend to forget the bad stuff, that's why [current xpac] is always the worst of all time.

Yeah, while a fair bit of wods content was amazing (the raids) people tend to go "well the content it did have was amazing" forgetting that a lot of it wasnt, it was literally raid or die, with only 1 major patch, and outside of "ok" pvp, and the raids, you had the horrid garrisons and shipyard and thats it...

Wod was also by far the least amount of content, like dear fucking lord. longest expansion yet, longest drought yet, least amount of patches yet, funnily even though 1 of its "major patches" was not major at all, it was a .5 patch.

wod was the worst at literally eveything, the only saving grace being the leveling was fun first time through, and that blackrock and hellfire were great raids.

but as usual people have that rose tintend glasses and forget farming the same bosses for over a year, almost a year and a half.

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WoD had actually a lot of content...

It just wasn't included in the expansion itself... but in older expansions

I aquired more transmogs in WoD than in any other expansion on my characters.

I just logged 3 days on my main for the raid (arms/fury warrior, worst class design in the entire history of wow in WoD) and rest of the time I just spent on alts floofing around...

oh and challenge mode? you mean the one I did in one day and then forgot it ever existed? yea... 10/10 content

Reminder, transmog was not till legion. that is when we got the transmog thing, before that you had to actually keep the gear in your banks, so you cant even priase wod for that.

[Pheraz]

These 3 expansions are the most negatively critiqued expansions I've seen in my 10 years of playing the game. Cataclysm wasn't even this badly critiqued. However, I'd want to know from the community here which is the best or "most enjoyable" of these 3: Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands, or Warlords of Draenor.


WoD:
Pros: New character models, questing revamp, great raids and some of the best music of the expansions. Best and most viewed opening cinematic of all time.
Cons: Rushed and incomplete expansion. Barely any content outside of raiding and arenas. Garrisons and the shitpyard. Over hyped to sell a terrible product. 1 patch expansion.

BFA:
Pros: Great cinematics. Good leveling stories for both factions. Allied races. Great in game story-telling. 2nd most viewed and 2nd best opening cinematic of all time.
Cons: Too many stories all going on at once. Systems on top of 5000 other systems. Most grindy expansion of all time. Characters making weird 180's and taking odd directions [I.e: Sylvanas, Anduin, Saurfang, Jaina, Thrall]

Shadowlands:
Pros: Most casual friendly of the three. Character customization. Outstanding PvE content. Best selling expansion of all time.
Cons: Borrowed Power. Covenants & RIPChord. Confusing story and controversial story directions. Long patches due to in company drama and COVID-19. Expansion becomes 1 year old with only 1 full patch released. Devs fighting with the players. Quickest expansion to lose the most players. Zovaal is Lucifer and Thanos copy-paste.



Which is or was the most enjoyable for you out of these 3?

I'm going to say..? Shadowlands. What about you?

Going with BFa. Though WoD had very slick leveling i reeeeeeally dislike the theme. Orcs and time traveling. Horrible.

Bfa had really great casual content, a very nice mid-expansion patch with Azshara and enough content over the whole expansion. The music was supreme, the alliance zones are one of the best zones ever done in WoW. But yeah, azerite system was indeed very bad.

[Mr. Smith]

I enjoyed WoD the most: I enjoyed what little content that WoD had, I only stopped playing because, well, there was so little content. Whereas the reason I stopped playing BfA and SL quickly was that, despite there being plenty of content, I actively despised most of it.

[Soon-TM]

I enjoyed WoD the most: I enjoyed what little content that WoD had, I only stopped playing because, well, there was so little content. Whereas the reason I stopped playing BfA and SL quickly was that, despite there being plenty of content, I actively despised most of it.

This is the key point. It was quite apparent from the beginning that WoD wasn't going to be exactly overflowing with content, but I didn't really matter because my favourite classes had great gameplay, raids were top notch (probably topping everything that came later except maybe Nighthold ) and I didn't have to go through hoops and loops in order to play the good bits of the game at a decent level. As a matter of fact, I never unsubbed during WoD, drought and all, whereas I couldn't stand the #$&%show that was Azerite at the beginning, or the entirety of Systemlands.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Don't lie.

I'm not lying. BFA is the worst expansion they've ever released thus far. Every patch added something to make it worse than better. The most redeeming factor of BFA would be the BOD raid and allied races.. that's about it.

[LionSinMaikeru]

I will never understand anyone who could say WoD was better.

WoD was a hot mess.

BFA at least had good cinematics, some interesting twists, and brought us allied races which really helped with the monotony of leveling.

[Depakote]

I'm not lying. BFA is the worst expansion they've ever released thus far. Every patch added something to make it worse than better. The most redeeming factor of BFA would be the BOD raid and allied races.. that's about it.

About having the most content. That's not true. The rest? 100% accurate.

[Daedius]

WoD might have lacked some content in the long run, and had the focus on the Garrison... but aside from that I honestly liked it the most from the three.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I will never understand anyone who could say WoD was better.

WoD was a hot mess.

BFA at least had good cinematics, some interesting twists, and brought us allied races which really helped with the monotony of leveling.

How do allied races help with the monotony of leveling? They are just new races (most of them made on the cheap) that do the same leveling...

[Divada]

Warlords of Draenor, easily. WoD's endgame might have been a disaster but it had some of the finest levelling in WoW's history -- great zones, music, exploration and experimenting with the garrison DURING LEVELLING was a lot of fun. BFA and SL's levelling is dull and boring in comparison. Oh and WoD's music was incredible.

[Sondrelk]

You're not wrong, but the end result was still markedly great in several aspects. You could pvp easily and without hassle on mains or alts, and pve wasnt neccessary to excel there. Healer regen no longer rising with spirit meant for the first time, dot-and-rot style gameplay was truly valuable, and affliction could finally feel like its fantasy promised since classic. (In mop affliction had amazing design but healers mana regen meant you'd almost never kill through rot dmg and have to rely on cc/burst). Legion was the funnest i ever had arenaing despite not having the absolute peak of class design.

M+ was an innovative and generally well liked addition to the game that made dungeons relevant again and gave you fun easily accessible group content instead of waiting for 30+ minutes in raid queues.

Ye, Legiondaries were shit that for some reason they decided should only be fixed in the last patch, and ye the AP grind was annoying, but the expac had its solid points that gave you actually fun stuff to do for long streches of time, even more then some of its awesome predeccesors...

...and then we got BFA and SL.

Don't get my wrong, I absolutely loved the shit out of Legion. I just find it fascinating as a case study of nostalgia how Legion had far worse grinds and busywork than BfA did by a long shot, but still ended up being loved once it was no longer current content.

Legion absolutely wasnt despised like now for sure, but most of its goodwill seemed to originate from actually having content compared to WoD.
M+ was nice and all, but it was also plagued with problems the first few patches, and really didnt really hit its stride until BfA introduced seasonal affixes.
I absolutely loved Suramar, both for its story and engaging gameplay, but for everyone that loved it there seemed to be an equal amount that absolutely hated how timegated it was, and how it forced you to stay on the ground instead of being able to fly immediately.

Then one day, specifically a month or so into BfA that flipped, and suddenly Legion was the hottest shit on the block. Most of that was absolutely deserved, but the fanbase seemed to complain about the same stuff in Legion that they blindly ignored was ever an issue in Legion.
And then of course I noticed something even more interesting, that players were starting to defend WoD as objectively better than BfA, which was even more intriguing.
It was around that time I realized how the collective mind of the playerbase worked. Once a new expansion starts up it almost immediately gets called the worst shit ever and the end of WoW as we know it, once its over the last expansion starts getting glorified, and by the time we are two expansions out, said expansion is suddenly almost completely free of problems, and whatever problems there were are only minor niggles on an otherwise perfect expansion.

[Dracullus]

Don't get my wrong, I absolutely loved the shit out of Legion. I just find it fascinating as a case study of nostalgia how Legion had far worse grinds and busywork than BfA did by a long shot, but still ended up being loved once it was no longer current content.

Better, some people really think both SL is some hellish grindfest and Legion was great time. Discussion about expacs is devoid of any logic/facts. People listen to some youtuber instead of using brain and if youtuber is wrong, topic is simply ignored (like "let loot matter" and not giving freebies to casuals in 9.0).

[Kalisandra]

Don't get my wrong, I absolutely loved the shit out of Legion. I just find it fascinating as a case study of nostalgia how Legion had far worse grinds and busywork than BfA did by a long shot, but still ended up being loved once it was no longer current content.

Legion absolutely wasnt despised like now for sure, but most of its goodwill seemed to originate from actually having content compared to WoD.
M+ was nice and all, but it was also plagued with problems the first few patches, and really didnt really hit its stride until BfA introduced seasonal affixes.
I absolutely loved Suramar, both for its story and engaging gameplay, but for everyone that loved it there seemed to be an equal amount that absolutely hated how timegated it was, and how it forced you to stay on the ground instead of being able to fly immediately.

BfA also gated flight...

Legion had issues, but compared to BfA it was a masterpiece. The weapons and their lore were at least interesting. The class halls were interesting, unlike the mission table in BfA. The weapon, being functionally a talent tree, grew in a consistent manner over the expansion, unlike azerite gear, which kept changing as you got different pieces (and which was pretty boring into the bargain). At least once you had your weapon filled out your character felt like a complete integrated spec, unlike in BfA where it was a base-bones spec with some (mostly pretty generic) shinies slapped on top. LAter in BfA the essences and then corruptions were just more of the same, but without any class or spec customisation at all.

Then one day, specifically a month or so into BfA that flipped, and suddenly Legion was the hottest shit on the block. Most of that was absolutely deserved, but the fanbase seemed to complain about the same stuff in Legion that they blindly ignored was ever an issue in Legion.
And then of course I noticed something even more interesting, that players were starting to defend WoD as objectively better than BfA, which was even more intriguing.
It was around that time I realized how the collective mind of the playerbase worked. Once a new expansion starts up it almost immediately gets called the worst shit ever and the end of WoW as we know it, once its over the last expansion starts getting glorified, and by the time we are two expansions out, said expansion is suddenly almost completely free of problems, and whatever problems there were are only minor niggles on an otherwise perfect expansion.

I still strongly dislike a lot of Cataclysm, and really don't like WoD aside from it having had good levelled and the crafting being good. I just BfA a good deal less, and so far SL is coming in under WoD (but it might come out ahead, if Blizzard unf**ks things).

You're lumping everyone that differs from your opinion into one basket, and it's not that simple.


BTW, one thing that I think shows the messed up design philosophy of SL - world bosses, or rather, getting to world bosses. It's a pain (or was until flight came in - but that only helps for the old ones). What purpose does making getting to a world boss a real nuisance for everyone who isn't a tank or stealthy serve? To remind us that we failed at the class choice screen?

[Watchers]

from those 3? wod

[Soon-TM]

If WoD had had more content, for example Farahlon or the (in)famously cancelled Shattrath raid, it would have been a decent expansion (lore shenanigans aside). But with BfA or SL, it doesn't really matter (imo) how much more content they could be thrown upon, they would still be bad expansions anyway, because they are flawed at a basic level. Of course, the evident dearth of content in SL makes the issue all the more pressing.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Glad to see after 7 days that BFA isn't being rose-tinted too badly and acknowledged as the worst expansion. A lot of the features from BFA are things people complained about in 7.3 [Netherlight Cruicble [Proto-type azerite powers] & 9.0 [borrowed powers, invasions, etc] are things that people complained about then and now

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I don't know, "I WILL NEVER SERVE" is now in the running for overthrowing this as the stupidest cutscene line ever

It honestly isn't that bad of a line if you consider the full situation and context. She should've just instead said:

Jailer: "I will forge a new reality and all shall serve..
Arthas: Serve
Lich King: Serve
Zovaal: me.
*Sylvanas fires her black arrow and is caught by Zovaal*
Sylvanas: "And never more."


That way it asserts her knowing her wrong doings and being a servant to multiple masters.

[TheWorkingTitle]

This is scary stuff. It shows just how bad WoW has gotten over the years. I chose WoD, but damn that feels so wrong. The beginning of it before we knew we were trapped and abandoned for years was more enjoyable than anything else bar Legion since.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Glad to see after 7 days that BFA isn't being rose-tinted too badly and acknowledged as the worst expansion. A lot of the features from BFA are things people complained about in 7.3 [Netherlight Cruicble [Proto-type azerite powers] & 9.0 [borrowed powers, invasions, etc] are things that people complained about then and now

I think the issue is more that alot of people have forgotten how bad WoD was. Because even if the leveling was decent (so was BfA imho), the 21 months that followed were not. People underestimate how bad it is to play an expansion with no content, even though they are currently experiencing it in SL again. While this was always going to be a difficult descision, the langslide win for WoD right now is certainly not free of rose-tinted goggles. I've seen Ashran being mentioned positively alot as well, which iirc is not how it was received back then at all, since people were constantly complaining how it was neither rewarding nor fun.

[sam86]

WoD was a complete abortion! How the holy hell can it be topping this poll? Do you people have short memories? Or just raid loggers?

Same for everyone who didn't like Legion. Baby raiders that didn't get their BiS legendary in the 1st few weeks...

for me it is easy, WoD is 2nd worst exp so far, but at least class gameplay was better
BFA is far better content, but logging on my pally was so painful that i couldn't play, i had less spells than wrath, and wrath is over 10 years old now
SL 9.0 is better than WoD 6.0, but seems that SL will stay at 9.0, WoD 6.2 is better than SL 9.0 for simply flying everywhere vs fucking ground mount

TLDR: WoD for me win because SL still not finished and BFA class gameplay is the WORST in wow history

[Kalisandra]

I think the issue is more that alot of people have forgotten how bad WoD was. Because even if the leveling was decent (so was BfA imho), the 21 months that followed were not. People underestimate how bad it is to play an expansion with no content, even though they are currently experiencing it in SL again. While this was always going to be a difficult descision, the langslide win for WoD right now is certainly not free of rose-tinted goggles. I've seen Ashran being mentioned positively alot as well, which iirc is not how it was received back then at all, since people were constantly complaining how it was neither rewarding nor fun.

Oh, I allowed for Ashran being awful. It was, is, and always will be. But my experience of BfA PvP was that it was worse than that, even. Okay, BfA's world PvP was okay for a week or two, and then the "Raid rolls over everyone in the zone" effect started, and that was that. SL's PvP was something I actually quite liked at start - plenty of people playing (if only because it was the best source of gear), purchasable gear again, and fast arena fights. However, apparently nobody else liked it and once the non-PvPheads had their gear, it dried up.

Note that I only rate WoD because the poll's choices were WoD, BfA, or SL. IMO they are the worst four expansions, though I'm willing to note that SL can still be saved (currently I rate it a little under WoD, but over BfD).

I rate WoD up because it had decent crafting - crafted gear was relevant across most of the expansion, and was in some demand because of the constant need of swap pieces and upgrade tokens as one's gear changed. Gathering was destroyed by the garrison, and the farm had already hurt it in MoP, so that was bad, but both crafting and gathering have sucked ever since (including in Legion, which introduced all those annoying levels of skill and gathering quests) so WoD wins on crafting. Actually, gathering would be alright now if only half the crafting skills had relevance and thus demand past those few people on each server who do legendaries. As it is, on my server the vast majority of crafters never bothered grinding up the legendary pieces because the mat and gold requirement was so high for a very chancy return.