When did Modern WoW start?

[Omedon]

I kinda consider WoD the false start and Legion the true start.

[CaptainV]

Modern wow started after WOTLK.

WOTLK introduced some very minor elements of modern wow in the form of LFD which was only available for dungeons until late Cataclysm where the final raid, had an LFR mode.

WOTLK was casual friendly in a good way, while Cata was initally too hardcore, pandering to the TBC fanbase, then went the exact opposite direction and went TOO casual friendly in a bad way, adding LFR.

Cata was the expansion talent tree's started getting reduced into no value, we were even given warforged RNG in Cata, so if you want the earliest point modern wow existed, it was Cataclysm 4.3

[McNeil]

Vanilla, TBC and WotLK are in an era of their own and the game felt way more different. It was a lot closer to a RPG where you had more of a sense of progression and was filled with a lot of content that weren't just systems and stacking up more difficulty settings (although it was slowly growing as it went on). Cata, MoP and WoD are the inbetween expansions where the game started to chance drastically and entirely revamped classes. Some changes they did well and others not so. Legion, BFA and Shadowlands are mostly the same game where they went more with throwing a lot of systems around and turning the game more into an e-sport. Basically the game slowly transcended from a RPG to more of a lobby and arcade game.

[Couchpotato2013]

Modern wow started after WOTLK.

WOTLK introduced some very minor elements of modern wow in the form of LFD which was only available for dungeons until late Cataclysm where the final raid, had an LFR mode.

WOTLK was casual friendly in a good way, while Cata was initally too hardcore, pandering to the TBC fanbase, then went the exact opposite direction and went TOO casual friendly in a bad way, adding LFR.

Cata was the expansion talent tree's started getting reduced into no value, we were even given warforged RNG in Cata, so if you want the earliest point modern wow existed, it was Cataclysm 4.3

First rng on gear quality was 5.2 with throne of thunder.

[Adamas102]

I'd say WoD was the turning point with the advent of mission tables and other solo-play designed content. MoP kinda started the transition with things like the farm, but it wasn't solidified till WoD and has become a core part of subsequent expansions.

I'm not saying that was a bad change. I mean, it's pretty much the only reason players like myself still play. The core of the game still remains, these systems were just an added layer for players who wanted something else to do other than raid/PvP.

[FelPlague]

When did modern wow start?
Well in vanilal it started in vanilla
in TBC it started in tbc
in wotlk it started in wotlk
so on so on

modern wow is literally just "modern wow" it has always been modern. while all past expansions are not modern, cause they are old.

if you mean in systems and symptoms and this and that literally vanilla.

No one expansion "drastically changed the game into something entirely different"
Each expansion changed a few things, and over a decade and a half if you replace each board on a boat, how long till you have replaced the entire boat?

Vanilal added catch up gear
tbc made it even bigger with badges, aswell as removing faction specialityies with removing shaman for horde and pally for alliance, also adding flying, and more microtransactions, removed large scale raid groups, and introduced group finder
wotlk added acheives, the store, cross server stuff, and lfg, aswell as heroic modes
cata introduced lfr, "removed" the hybrid spec, and focused on giving specs flavor instead of entire classes
mop made the talent tree baseline, etc etc i could go on for so long you get the point. no one expansion was the "tipping point" each expansion changed a couple things, and eventually you replace the entire thing, no one part did it, just over time replacing little parts you have replaced the entir thing.




if you want a better description from someone who is not sleep deprived, look up

THE SHIP OF THESEUS

[Argorwal]

Wrath was the massive transition point.

Very easy dungeons and launch raid.

Tank threat and aoe threat massively buffed. The era of big pulls and aoe becoming widespread.

Classes gained more aoe.

Raids split 10/25 of the same raid.

Multiple difficulties.

Dual spec added, so being the perfect spec is 100% required because it’s so easy to do and swap.

Gear score and item level became popular.

Dungeon Finder for Queue

Heirloom gear for fast alt leveling

And arena was already there from TBC.

[Dilbon]

TBC obviously. That's when adventuring ended and everything became straightforward running on rails.

[Nyel]

The system WoW we are playing now dates back to WoD. Many systems were then developed in Legion and are used since then. Right now we’re playing Legion 3.0 aka Systemlands. All of the expansions before WoD didn’t have systems that were just one expansion gimmicks, everything before WoD was somehow... more fun? Less complex to an extent, but more fun overall.

[Echeyakee]

Mechanically-wise it was cata. That expansion laid the foundation to most core mechanics the game has now, and helped settle on the final form for the pve/pvp systems.

Game philosophy wise it's legion. I would not call it as big of a moment as cata was, and I think we are close to another shift anyway, but it's still worth the mention.

[Echo of Soul]

The first age of WoW was vanilla-wotlk

The second age was Cata-WOD.

The modern and third age of WoW is legion to now

I'd say that the second age was only Cata and MOP. I think it was the perfect balance, it hadn't tipped too far in the wrong direction. The content may have been shit but the design philosophies were sound.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

WotLK is what started the ball rolling with the LFD tool being upgraded to automatically match-make parties and port them to the dungeons (it was an enormous improvement to the game).

When it really went into "Modern WoW" I would agree with it being Legion, between WQs, AP, Legiondaries, and M+, Legion brought to bear most of the cumbersome systems that Blizzard refuses to abandon.

[Adam Jensen]

No Social Interaction any more at all in WoW

Get in a decent guild. There's plenty of social interaction.

[thunterman]

People will say Cata, but it's WotLK, but because that's "The best expansion" they can't admit that's where it went wrong for them also. I on the other hand think nothing went wrong, Cata wasn't even bad, I had a blast. WoD was shit, Legion was shit, BFA was shit, SL was good for a couple weeks, but it seems it's also shit.

P.S I despise borrowed power, which is why I don't rate Legion -> Shadowlands.

The argument of "Killing social interaction" is complete and utter bullshit, if you don't socialise with the thousands of people on your screen at any given time, that's on you. You have changed, the game hasn't, a queue system didn't turn you into a social outcast - you already were. The key difference back in the day was that being a social outcast made your goals unattainable.

[Gourbaak]

there is no era, there is current and old extensions and that is it.

[Soon-TM]

Blizzard was catering to the casuals day 1. Just compare Vanilla WoW to its predecessor and rivals of the time.

Exactly. Blizzard catered to the casual audience from the very beginning, and that was (imo) key to its massive success. Although the dev team seems to spasmodically revert to the good ol' "git gud, raid or die" approach every now and then.

And the results are always the same /shrug

[Grimbold21]

So what all the people painting as 3 cycles are saying is after SL we're gonna go into a new cycle.

[Gaidax]

WoTLK - multiple raid difficulties, first hard modes, first phasing, group finder improvements, gearscore, specs inclusion and actual rotations that were not just 1-2 abilities across the board.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

WotLK was the beginning and a lot of people probably won't like that answer. 10 man raids, 25 man raids, the start of normal and heroic difficulty levels, LFG automated group finding, most DPS just being zerg AOE it down and most healing was just zerg AOE heal it/smart healing, threat started not to matter, stats started to mean less, and duel spec all come to mind. Now I am not saying all these things are or were bad. But it certainly is when the game went from a to b in my opinion. Even if it didn't get into full swing until Cata-ish.

[Sylv_]

With Cataclysm.

That's exactly what I was gonna say.
That's when all the gimmick shit and tailored questing narrative became a thing.
When the game kinda died and evolved into whatever garbage shitpile it is now.