Which Expansion Were you Most Invested in?

[KOUNTERPARTS]

From TBC to SL, which expansion were you most invested in?


It could be time investment, as you had the most drive to play a certain expansion and committed the most time to playing it. Was it because of the story? Game play? Game mechanics and/or balancing?


It could be an emotional investment, in terms of the story being told and seeing how it would play out. Were you attached to certain main characters? Did you want to see a specific antagonist finally be beaten?


Was it something else altogether?

Were you/are you invested in every single one of them... or have you never been invested in an expansion?


Personally, it was WotLK for me. Not saying this because WotLK Classic, although I am choosing to play that exclusively over retail due to the following: WotLK was the first expansion that I got to experience from beginning (leveling to 80) and to the end. I was young during vanilla WoW and did not play it "seriously" until the near-end of TBC, when I first got to 70. After catching the proverbial "WoW itch" there was only like 2 months until WotLK came out... and the rest was history.

[Myradin]

I'd say Wrath or MoP.

Wrath was great from a 'feels' point of view. It used nastalgia well and ambience well. Its plot was extremely simplistic and weak, but was still a huge step up in presentation from prior expacs.

MoP hooked me cause it had an actual story going on. I didn't mind the ton of dailies. It felt like the writers were having fun with new ideas rather than just milking WC2&3, while also doing stuff to tie it back in.

Honorable mention to Cata. I hated its max level content but leveling was so much better I leveled pretty much every class.

[Lochton]

They share the top three, Wrath, Legion, and MoP but Mists of Pandaria had me most invested.

[saintminya]

Cata hooked me after dabbling in BC and Wrath, and I was active for the entire expansion without any significant gaps/breaks. I didn't raid or PVP all that much prior to Cata, but consistently engaged in more of both throughout. I actively pugged throughout MoP and continued to PVP, even sporadically testing my luck in arenas. Ashran disappointed me but not enough to turn me against random battlegrounds. The raids were all excellent and inspired me to devote more and more time and effort to them, and to eventually settle in a dedicated guild. Legion had me treating it more seriously than ever before, which continued mid-way through BfA. Guild splintering affected my devotion to raiding, but I also simply got burned out.

Thematically, Cata and WoD were huge draws. N'zoth being wasted on what I'd consider a small major patch drove me to stop playing. I attempted to come back with SL but didn't even play a full month before bailing once more. DF does have me itching to dive back in, which is nice.

[Sinfelle]

Legion was huge and the climax of the WoW story for me. Was a top 100 CE raider in Antorus. Got the class fantasy I always wanted as a DH (hate how shit Dh is now). The artifact weapons were cool af. The mage tower. The cinematics were awesome and I loved all the stories for the class order halls. We got some kick ass class mounts too. It was so good all the problems it did have didn't bother me.

[McNeil]

It would be both TBC and WotLK because my guild was the most active and I had more free time to play the game.

[Kokolums]

I was most active in vanilla, but that wasnt an option, so i chose bc.

i quit half of wrath. wrath was a disaster. most of my original friend group fled wrath and you had an influc of "wrath babies" that played in a toxic way.

didnt really come back until WoD, and only stayed for half.

played half of legion. half of bfa. onyl played first patch of sl.

utterly unimpressed with dragonflight. its more of the same. some new systems. not fixing the social scene at all.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

In terms of time I actually spent having fun? MoP, by far. In times of sheer time investment? I think Legion might be close to MoP which lead me to burning out in 7.1, I just hated about 70% of what I did in Legion because traveling to WQs and doing WQs while bolted to the ground was fucking miserable and massively time consuming.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Draenor and Legion. I loved the storyline. I felt like a true guardian of Azeroth with epic legendaries and stuff. A true hero. Having Khadgar as a mentor and a mage hall that looks like a palace Shadowlands looked very exciting at the beginning. I enjoyed the Kyrian and Venthyr covenant quests and zones. I hated Stlvanas being everywhere, and the ending story completely ruined everything. Haha!

[Big Thanks]

Wrath

Had the most friends IRL playing the game
Met a gf
Did all the raids (never did this again after it)
Best PvP rank in my life
Played the most hours

[KingSapmi]

Classic, Wrath, Cata and Mists.
The guild was super active back in 2005, then it fell off for a bit during TBC, but bloomed in Wotlk and exploded in Cata. But mostly Wrath, lots of friends played together, raided together, got busy in Wintergrasp as much as we could. Was just a good expansion/era for the Guild and the friends in it.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Mists of Pandaria. I played every day, even during the 14 month long SoO content drought, because there was just so much to do.

• It wasn't a "raid or unsub" expac like what came after. There was so much content to do if you were a solo player. MoP had so many questlines, not just levelling questlines but postgame content like the Tillers, the Order of the Cloud Serpent, the legendary questline, finding the scrolls and reading them, the Brawler's Guild, Timeless Isle, etc.

• Scenarios were really fun.

• Class design was at its peak; your character actually felt fun to play.

• The RP scene on Moon Guard was thriving. There were huge events being organized and happening multiple times per week. You had huge RP-PvP wars happening in Arathi where we fought over the Thandol Span. We had warcrime trials at the Mogu'shan vault and hundreds of people showed up and people's characters were executed.
  
  
  That aforementioned battle at the Thandol Span

• The story was engrossing.

• The music was amazing. It was the second to last expansion with a fantastic soundtrack (the last one being WoD).

• The art direction of WoW still looked good. It didn't start looking like a bland, League of Legends cartoon yet.

[RobertMugabe]

I played MoP to the limit. Considering I was still in school at this point, my IRL friends and school mates where playing and I was actually watching WoW streamers at this time (mainly Sodapoppin), it was a fkn glorious time. This was definitely the last time where the game actually felt like it had an alive community with something going on all the time, PVE and PVP wise.

[Necomis]

For me it was Wraith and Legion. I just enjoyed both of those the most.

[Revamp Man]

MoP
I literally just messed around for hours doing nothing
I also leveled alts and started boss farming
By the end of the expansion I was farming elegon and Horridon solo

[hulkgor]

TBC and WOTLK.

My younger, more hardcore and ambitious days, running a realm-first guild. Played unhealthy amounts of WoW, but it really was an amazing experience, surrounded by so many like-minded individuals, with many becoming close friends to this day.

[arkanon]

I think with Wrath classic launching in just hours, the results are probably a BIT off, but wrath was always gonna be a strong contender for a lot of people. Probably a close second for me, purely because mop is when i got far more serious about raiding and tanking.

[Coldkil]

Wrath, with Cata and MoP being close seconds. Basically the period in my life when i had lots of free time, moved to love alone due to new job in another part of the country and basically no actual commitment other than keeping the house clean and making dinner for one.

MoPis the expansion that while was superb for me i actually started feeling the burnout, and started taking consistent breaks between patches.

[Celista]

Wrath for me for sure. I technically started in BC but really started playing in Wrath.

I actually loved BfA, that one is second for me. I also enjoyed MoP. Zones were unique and beautiful.

I took my first step back from the game in Cata. I burned out of Shadowlands shortly after hitting level cap.

WoD was the biggest disappointment for me. Everything felt half-assed.

[Pakheth]

Wrath, MoP, Legion.

I did a lot of group content in Wrath. Was guild leader and managed to get on the top 10 list of 10man raid guilds at the time.
Northrend was lots of fun with nice music, interesting quest lines, great zones and some really great instances. I wasn't a big fan of the tournament raid but the dailies were fun and offered nice rewards like the many mounts. Ulduar was a high point but it sadly didn't last very long.
I played a lot since I had a lot of free time and I think I was subbed for the majority of it. Many of my best WoW memories is from playing Wrath.

MoP is probably the one I enjoyed the most even if I didn't stay subbed for the entirety of it due to a few months of working evenings that didn't allow me to raid.
MoP was a breath of fresh air for me after Cata which I was very disappointed with. The zones were beautiful, the music was amazing, the mounts really cool and colourful, the NPCs fun, the quests were engaging and there was so much to do: Farm, dailies, world bosses, pet battles, Brawler's Guild, challenge dungeons, dino isle, Thunder Isle treasure trove, hidden items around the continent, Timeless Isle, Lorewalker scrolls, Legendary Cloak questline and the cloaks themselves, etc etc.
The class gameplay was also extremely solid and I played every class but rogue, and tried out every spec. Mobility was also at a new high(probably to mimic Wildstar) and I enjoyed it immensely. It was easy to pick up how a class worked and most rotations felt natural. BM hunter had never been more fun to play.
MoP also got me through some tough years of depression and no steady job. Best expansion imo.

Legion was also a solid experience with a huge variety of things for me to do. But yes, it also fucked up my favourite class and spec; BM hunter, and it has never really recovered. But I still enjoyed it playing my shaman. RIP Gust of Wind.
Suramar is probably one of the best features in the game with a solid questing experience through a proper city that felt alive.
The music was a bit bombastic at times but still had some really great tracks. The zone design was impeccable with some very well designed borders between the zones I am really impressed with.
The class order halls were a great addition to the game which gave me another reason to level up all my alts and see the class questlines and later get the cool class mounts. The priest, hunter, monk and druid being my favourite of the mounts. The artifact weapons also brought some really cool concepts to the table and while the AP system sucked balls in the beginning if you happened to play a spec you didn't like, it got better towards the end and allowed you to quickly get all your alts up to speed. The artifact weapon skins is a concept I still love and I am still collecting to this day.
Mage Tower was also a great addition and I spent a lot of time on it getting most of the skins I wanted. Lots of fun but very very rewarding.
I also enjoyed the chests that were hidden in each zone. The WoD secrets had been a bit too difficult to find but Legion created a nice balance and you got AP from them which made them quite nice for catching up later in the expansion.
I also liked the story with Illidan and in general it felt like a very solid expansion filled with varied content to do and I enjoyed it a lot even if I took a few breaks now and then due to burnout.

All in all these 3 were my most favourite times in WoW and I feel I was most invested in them due to the content they offered and how it was offered.