Originally Posted by
Inahu
I don't remember anything like the scale of complaints that were directed at Cataclysm being present during TBC/WotLK. It seems to be a furphy thrown out by fans of Cataclysm as an impotent attempt to put the complaints in a false context. I do remember minor complaints about the levelling process of vanilla content during TBC, and of TBC content during WotLK, though - until XP requirements were lowered for each. I do remember that a very small percentage of people, special snowflakes in their own eyes, complained that WotLK delivered access to more areas of the game to casual players - it was a spectacular "How dare you give my old toys to the poor kids" moment for high-progression raiders, who still don't seem to recognise what an infinitesimally small portion of the playerbase they represent.
Cataclysm attracted criticism from all crowds. For the player who only played one or two hours a night, gear progression at 85 was painstakingly slow. 5-mans weren't necessarily more challenging or engaging, they were just more difficult and slow-moving, which made the stingy Justice/Valor point system seem even worse when compared with its predecessor. Though both move faster now, the problem is still present to some degree in MoP, and exacerbated by gear being gated behind rep and daily quests.
In other areas of the game, PvP was a total mess throughout the whole expansion, and Tol Barad was no exception - nowhere near as fun as Wintergrasp. Raiders had legitimate complaints about lazy raids, or cancelled raids.