Which expansion was the most rewarding in terms of open world exploration?

[Maarius]

When do you think did WoW have it's most rewarding open world content? I'm talking about hidden secrets, fun achievements in the open world, engaging enemies,...

I'm specifically NOT talking about quests or World Quests, but things to do / areas to explore when you don't want to quest.

What's your opinion? Feel free to tell me why you think that way.

[Boricha]

I would say MoP. I loved exploring Pandaria and finding little side things.

[Sastank]

Engaging enemies in open world? So Vanilla dragons count yeah? If so then those lol.
Seems pointless to list BFA as it's not over and we don't know if there will be, or what the content patch will be, if it has another zone etc. like a Timeless Isle

[ArenaDk]

Engaging enemies in open world? So Vanilla dragons count yeah? If so then those lol.
Seems pointless to list BFA as it's not over and we don't know if there will be, or what the content patch will be, if it has another zone etc. like a Timeless Isle

arent the dragons just world bosses? or dont you mean the dream ones?

[Whistl3r]

I really loved MOP. I do remember all the fury over "OMFGZ PANDAS I QUIt this peICE OF SHIT" which makes me chuckle when I see the retrospective love for it now.

[Sastank]

arent the dragons just world bosses? or dont you mean the dream ones?

Hey it said engaging enemies idk lol. No restrictions!

[Velerios]

Definitively Pandaria. I accidently was on the beach in Krasarang to fish when i found out that there was an event there with these boats with a candle on them. It was nice to chill out there and simply look at the scene for half an hour. Never had any expansion that was such rewarding in open world exploration. Nowadays it's all about world quests and fill in every inch with quests without simply a little zone for a little RP.

World quests ruined a lot of the world with them (and having a dedicated hub for player-gathering)

[Aphrel]

Vanilla. BY FAR!

Vanilla had some many gems when it comes to exploration. Hard to reach areas and so on. The world itself was so large.
Exploration died out after it. It did a small comeback with MoP-treasures and rares.

[Deleted]

Timeless Isle hands down

You can close the thread now

[Pakheth]

MoP. It had tons of small hidden secrets and things to find or stumble upon. The whole continent is littered with small easter eggs and flavor items like small shrines or NPCs just walking around. The land felt alive and was very immersive.
It also had a plethora of different rares that could be killed several times for a chance of gear or special toys, not to mention the world bosses that were ever popular and are still farmed to this day.

[ArenaDk]

Gonna say cata. The whole being made from scratch made alot of people just fly around and look at the changes. Blizzard created thousands of new easter eggs and interactions with the world. Having such a big world to explore + the new zones cant be competed by any expansion.

[Sanguinerd]

Pandaria is in a league of its own when it comes to the world they crafted.

[Zyrinx]

I didn't play it, but it HAS TO be Vanilla. You simply can never replicate the feeling of everything being new.

[Pakheth]

Definitively Pandaria. I accidently was on the beach in Krasarang to fish when i found out that there was an event there with these boats with a candle on them. It was nice to chill out there and simply look at the scene for half an hour. Never had any expansion that was such rewarding in open world exploration. Nowadays it's all about world quests and fill in every inch with quests without simply a little zone for a little RP.

World quests ruined a lot of the world with them (and having a dedicated hub for player-gathering)

I so agree with you. WQs feels like they are making us drift apart more and more from other players. I rarely saw anyone when I did them in BfA.

[Teri]

Vanilla by far, travel was a lot slower, especially during leveling, so the world that was already bigger then any expansion continent, was even bigger in terms of exploration.

You didn't need a reward for it, it was just a different time of the internet.

The most amazing thing was seeing how locations from Warcraft 3 ended up in WoW, even while they changed over time. Recently reading Chronicle 3, made me relive the main plot of Warcraft 3 in my head all over again.

Even with Thottbot and other sites mid to late Vanilla, exploration in beta and early vanilla launch was amazing.

Now each zone/creature/item is datamined or screenshotted before it's even left the test realm, or is shown on presentations.

In this age of Media, it's hard to avoid, and if you do avoid news or guides, you are considered noob or uninformed.

Just look at the Micro Holidays, people demand rewards to participate now.

MoP , WoD, Legion did have exploration in form of treasure chests and achievements or killing rares, but I don't deem that the same pure "Vanilla Brand New World Exploration" and more like hunting for rewards or items on the map, or be lucky to find a Rare before someone else.

Even if you don't spoil yourself with guides, it's not the same type of feeling of newness as the game back in 2004.

Classic will not be new in terms of exploration either unless people are completely new to the game and never seen any WoW related info.

Now with cross realm, Rare-spawns don't feel the same either as they used to be.

[Kyphael]

Without looking through rose-tinted glasses, BfA. And BfA is by FAR my least expansion. I like it, but it's not my favorite.

Zandalar and Kul'tiras are incredible, and have very diverse and beautifully designed, easy to navigate on the ground zones.

Pandaria became very fatiguing with the overbearing Asian theme everywhere.
Outland just isn't pleasant to navigate or explore, it's fun in its own dangerous way but you get more of a sense that everything is out to kill you (which it is) than a sense of wonder and adventure.
Same sentiment for Northrend as Outland here, very cool place to fight a war in, but no sense of wonder or exploration.
Draenor is just Outland not blown up, Nagrand is like IDENTICAL, my least favorite place to explore. Oooh, Shadowmoon Valley not covered in fel, big deal.
Cataclysm World is just Classic but cracked, not much new and Vashj'ir was... terrible.
Broken Isles were not very interesting to me like Cataclysm's 90 zones, seemed disjointed. Suramar was the best but that's like one place.

[Powerogue]

I liked Legion, because of all the hidden artifact appearances and the small details they were able to fit in.

Pandaria had the lorewalkers, which was awesome. My best expansion would have both of those.

[Deleted]

I don't really see the purpose of this poll with cutting out the questing and aesthetics of the zones and the mention exploration since "hidden things" aside from easter eggs started to get put in, in MoP. Probably vanilla is the one where people genuinely wanted to see what's in a zone and what happens there without an interest like a mount, title, gold or whatever or for questing.

That aside most of BC, Wrath, WoD and BFA zones are interesting. I simply hate MoP a lot in this regard except for Isle of Thunder, Cata was a lot of meh outside of Deepholm and Vashj'ir and so was Legion.

[Azelas]

it's impossible to not pick the time where the WHOLE GAME was new. So Vanilla it is.

Seeking to replicate vanilla is just simply impossible, so don't even expect it.

[Pakheth]

I liked Legion, because of all the hidden artifact appearances and the small details they were able to fit in.

Pandaria had the lorewalkers, which was awesome. My best expansion would have both of those.

Legion also had those mount puzzle quests. Those were really cool and created quite a community.
Personally I'll put Legion in a close second to Pandaria.