Best Era/Expansion of WoW?

[Constraint]

Everyone who says BC will immediately be ripped to pieces by everyone else, saying 'yeah of COURSE you'd say that, nostalgia much?' etc. Please stop to think that it might actually be true, for them at least. I too voted BC. Everything seemed like a challenge, and that's why I play games. Arenas were new, and more like chess than dodgeball. Heroics were heroic. Raids had defined "progression" - Kara - Gruul - Mag - SSC/TK - HJ/BT-SW. Sure, it wasn't exactly easy to catch up to the curve (until they brought in BT-level badge gear after BT, at least). Raids were HARD, in general. Reps took a while. Realms had amazing communities that disappeared almost overnight when LFD came into play (at least the ones I played on - Thaurissan horde, Frostmourne alliance, Dath'Remar alliance, Proudmoore horde).

Vanilla was chaotically imbalanced, and didn't even pretend to be balanced. Every class was completely and utterly different - that's something I'll miss. I won't miss how pointless some specs were, or how utterly essential others were, how some were brought solely for buffs etc. But I enjoyed the hell out of it. Premade BGs in vanilla were my favourite times in WoW so far. Raids were great, although being stuck in Twin Emps for months in two different guilds kinda got to me. Dungeons were long but rewarding, and you really bonded with the people who you sat with for hours through BRD etc.

I loved and hated WotLK. It was a shock going from hard raids/dungeons to ones which took no thought or effort whatsoever. Sarth 3d being the only remotely challenging encounter of an entire tier was stupid. Ulduar was amazing, as nearly everyone agrees - I think it'll LONG be remembered as Blizzard's best raid, besides Naxx 40 for those lucky enough to see much of it in Classic. ToC was utterly pathetic as far as I'm concerned, though at least Anub hardmode was a challenge. ICC was beautiful, good mechanics, good balance of bosses. I wasn't a fan of the over-time nerfs, but there would have been an absurd amount of rage if everyone didn't get to see something that everyone's been looking forward to since release. Thought reps were pretty pointless in WotLK - dunno how putting a tabard on and spamming dungeons is supposed to make people on the other side of the world like you more. Dead men tell no tales, and all that sort of thing. I hated arena in WotLK. I'm not the kinda person who finds instagibbing people inside a shadowfury to be enjoyable or compelling gameplay. Too many cheese comps, one after another. Beast cleave, wizard cleave, lumberjack cleave, african turtle cleave etc.

Cata most people on here would be well aware of. I'm hoping to forget it existed as soon as possible. I liked BWD and BoT quite a lot, they were challenging and engaging. I hated all but Ragnaros of Firelands. Dragon Soul........ Dear lord that was a disaster. Clearing the entire instance on the first day in a PuG, on normal albeit, shouldn't happen. I'm glad they made a brick wall out of Spine heroic, although progression should never be made impossible without insane class stacking. That's just woeful design. Having the instance out for nearly a YEAR is almost inexcusable. PvP was at its lowest point in Cata, for mine. Dropped out of being an esport with things like MLG, which used to be real highlights of the year for me.

MoP's a mixed bag for me so far. Raiding's fine, but I'll never be a fan of LFR, especially while it remains for current tiers. For me, raiding's a journey - you WANT to kill a boss so you can see what the next has in store, so you can see its loot table, its mechanics, its RP, everything. I want to feel like I've earned the right to seeing it by killing its predecessor. LFR ruins that in one swift stroke. A bunch of randoms who you'll never see again, just plinking away aimlessly, and seeing all the content in one go? Ahhh it's sad. I know so many people love it, but not I. I like how reps are useful, but I don't like having to do them on every alt, since I switch mains about once every 2 months nowadays. PvP is UTTERLY HORRIBLE at present. Every spec has disables, stuns, fears, ccs, silences etc. On top of that, specs with amazing control can also instagib you at any point in time, even with amazing gear. It's so utterly and completely awful doing BGs in WoW's present state. 3s is ok, but still, being instagibbed by taste of blood, frost mages, bm hunters etc isn't exactly going to get more people into arena. Turn it more into decision making instead of popping your CDs and killing someone before you're killed, and more might enjoy it.

[Miothan]

There should be a requirement to vote tho.

If you have played the expansions then you can vote, if you havent, then you sholdent vote. i mean...if you started to play during Cataclysm, how are you going to vote? so seems like a pretty dumb idea to put up a poll that everyone can vote on when not everyone has been playing from BC-MoP.

I played ever since beta, been playing all expansions, and my favourite is defenitly The Burning Crusade.

[THoyt]

For me it was Wrath, great story line with all the content. As a huge lore nerd, I couldn't wait to see Arthas and how the story ended, it's still my favorite story line in the Warcraft universe. Lore aside, the content was just plain fun, everything from the quest chains to 5 mans to ICC. Blizzard did an amazing job with the entire expansion.

[Ringthane]

My Hand of A'dal title beg to differ.

I'll bet it begs as well.

After all, if you're going to harp on someone because he misspells a word...

[shise]

TBC > Vanila > WotLK > MoP > Cata. Imo. Cata could have been easily ahead of MoP (so far) just if they'd keep the first days level in dungeons, no rep tabards etc..

[Sills]

for me, wrath was the best (although Mists is making a serious challenge after 3 months to take the lead) because we were fighting a war against one of the most evil characters in Warcraft. I had a personal investment in seeing him destroyed and had no problem doing whatever needed to be done in order to see it done. Add Ulduar and the story and influence of Yogg Saron and the Old Gods and you have some of the most engrossing storylines we have seen yet. We havent seen any Mists raid patches so it's too soon for a direct comparison between the expansions but still, wrath was #1 for what matters most to me: epic and engaging storyline.

[Shink]

tbc was the best, it was an actual "expansion", it just added new things and did not change much from the original, the rest of the expansions that came afterwards redid/undid everything that the last expac did, it leaves a horrible taste even with the new "shinies"

[Flaks]

tBC was perfect.

It was...slower. PvP was slower, progression was slower. As an average (below average?) player I aspired to get into good raids. And when I finally got into a TK group I was ecstatic. I didn't feel entitled to get into that Sunwell pug just because I grinded heroics for a weekend and had all tier relevant gear (see: Wrath onwards). I was willing to go out of my way to find a guild with which I could grind heroics or to sit in chat for groups. I was willing to sit through a 2 hour long dungeon. Why? Because Blizzard hadn't set a precedence for laziness.

On the pvp side of things, counterclasses truly existed. Classes that made up for other classes' weaknesses existed. There was NO master of all trades. Every class had it's niche. Just because sl/sl was potent or warriors with mace stun were "op" didn't mean you would never see a single ret pally or feral druid. 3's balance was a TON better than it has been since the end of wotlk. BGs were a lot more fun because, once again, people didn't feel entitled to gear and so there were fewer botters and a lot more players actually playing for fun. Even undergeared players who knew how to play could beat better players or take advantage of the counterclass system.

Oh and group quests oh how I miss thee. They'd be fine to bring back with CRZ but no one would join those groups because...Blizzard set a precedence for lack of community.

Going back to any of that now though would piss me and most players off to no end. Once again: why? Because Blizzard set a precedence for laziness and instant gratification.

[Yuuki Asuna]

For me, I voted Mists simply because of the content and feels like I'm constantly doing something.

But for the real MMO base, WotLK, since it's where it all started with me where I met the greatest of friends and the bads (meaning the ones that were a nuisance in the guild) and had sooo much fun! Cata was the same way with this. But recently I haven't been feeling that with MoP :/ YES I'm having fun in MoP on the RPG standpoint, better than Wrath and Cata together, but the MMO aspect is shot for me. Guild I had the greatest friends on transferred to a new server, the guild I'm in now isn't the same (I've tried many). And I have the money to transfer to my old guild now...but to find the main people I played with are now gone from WoW and the guild is abandoned :'(

[Peso]

There should be a requirement to vote though.

If you have played the expansions then you can vote, if you haven't, then you shouldn't vote. I mean...if you started to play during Cataclysm, how are you going to vote? So seems like a pretty dumb idea to put up a poll that everyone can vote on when not everyone has been playing from BC-MoP.

I played ever since beta, been playing all expansions, and my favorite is definitely The Burning Crusade.

This exactly. BC is my pick as well.

[Vladimeir]

LK was cool and all. But 2 out of 4 raid tiers were terrible, and ICC was gated.

Nothing against you, just the argument in general. Sunwell was gated. O wait, only 1% of the raiding population could even clear trash in there pre-nerf so no one remembers and this is a prime example of rose-tinted glasses. People see what they want to see.

[Ciddy]

As someone who has been playing since Vanilla and seen every expansion, I'm voting for BC. Mostly because of Outland. I loved the whole "alien planet" feel it had going on. All the zones in Outland looked beautiful. BC also introduced a lot of cool things that have stuck around since then like flying mounts and heroic dungeons. I thoroughly enjoyed raiding then too. My favorite raids in the game were BC raids.

I enjoyed every expansion since, but I'd still call BC my favorite one by far.

[Peso]

Nothing against you, just the argument in general. Sunwell was gated. O wait, only 1% of the raiding population could even clear trash in there pre-nerf so no one remembers and this is a prime example of rose-tinted glasses. People see what they want to see.

There's no such thing as rose-tinted-glasses (goggles, binoculars or contact lenses). Neither is there any proof that mentality exists.

[Daelos]

I'm not wearing nostalgia glasses or anything, but there really ain't no way it is anything else than vanilla or TBC for me. One good and one decent raid doesn't make WotLK even nearly the best. I don't own MoP and only played the first tier of Cata so I can't really say much about them, but atleast Cata would not be in the discussion based on the few months I played it. I guess I just got to be boring and say TBC, I think it was a perfect mix of old WoW and new WoW. Mostly this because of still a great and rich community, excellent raids, arenas, and still that unique feeling when you got an epic item that I lost in WotLK.

[steveyboy]

Either Wrath or Mop.

TBC was awful. Most of the zones were just bland. Raiding was meh. Dungeons were terrible too.

Classic was just one big grind, people complaining about a few dailies now should have played classic /slitwrists.

Cataclysm was just meh, felt disjointed. Tier 12 and 13 were a huge letdown after what was tier 11.

Wrath had ulduar, ICC, tons of dungeons, awesome music.

Mops first tier is good. Dailies aren't that bad. Maybe having to do 10 or so a day. Dungeons feel totally unique and are fun. Even if easy there is still challenge modes to do. Still not gotten around to leveling my archeology, pet battling, challenge modes, most the scenarios, pvping. Hopefully if 5.2 is good it will be the best expansion for me.

[breadisfunny]

i really liked wrath. it had an awesome storyline. mostly cool raids/dungeons.

[Justignoreme]

Wrath. I loved the story, I loved both factions then, I loved the story of facing down the Lich King and the plot twist that he was waiting for the best to challenge him so he could strike them down when they had victory in their grasp and raise them as his own elite of elites. I liked the Titan Lore and Storm Peaks. So much was done right in Wrath, storywise.

[corebit]

With all the complaining about MoP (no big baddie this time to defeat, Pandas, Pokemon, dailies, CRZ, etc) it's funny to see it so much higher rated than Cataclysm.

And Vanilla not rating high is proof that the "rose-colored glasses" theory is pretty much disproved.

[Ikkarus]

Honestly what I miss in WoW is the RPG aspects, the attunements, the keys for the dungeons, the difference between the classes, the challenge, thats why I voted to The Burning Crusade, the game was excited back in that time because if you wanted to see the end game you had to put some effort on it. But don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed WotLK as well, I love the lore involving the Fall of Lordaeron and the Scourge, but at least for me in terms of gameplay TBC was way more fun because of the RPG aspects. I not gonna count Cataclysm because, besides being a terrible expansion with poor story, saddly it introduced the LFR, the tool that for me took all the epicness of the game, I just feel that right now the ultimate goal of WoW isn't defeat the End Boss of the patch anymore, the ultimate goal is find better gear.

I can't denied that MoP is good, the war between the factions was a very interesting idea but I don't like the whole Pandaren stuff, I allways gonna feel that they don't fit in the universe of the game. Another negative point is the massive amount of daily quests, providing it as a unique way to rise the reputation with factions wasn't the best choice, even back in TBC we had more freedom, we could deliver itens, farm in especific dungeons, kill mobs in the world map, so, I believe that now it could be improved, but it wasn't. And of course, the LFR, I don't have motivation to raid anymore because the Normal and the Heroic mode is the exactly same content as the Raid Finder, and repet the same content over and over again (Is madness) is far from fun...

[Maelstrom51]

With all the complaining about MoP (no big baddie this time to defeat, Pandas, Pokemon, dailies, CRZ, etc) it's funny to see it so much higher rated than Cataclysm.

Cataclysm kind of sucked. MoP didn't have to do many things right to beat Cata.