despite what people here want to think, the author's list is spot on, and shared by the majority of gamer's that actually pay blizzard's bills. The harder core players hate lich king etc, but they are the obnoxious minority.
Vanilla wow was my favorite, and cataclysm my second favorite (liked the redo of the 1-60 game).
I never got a chance to play Vanilla, but I'd say BC, then Wrath, then Cata as a distant third... for the players' sake, I hope MoP is at least better than Cata was. I personally logged the most hours in Wotlk, but my short time in BC felt much more balanced and the world felt more dangerous outside of raids. Pretty much everything but ICC in Wotlk was a cake walk.
My best times in WoW really were: running Vanilla Blackrock Spire (upper and lower) and then the wonderful new zones and dungeons in TBC before they made access to raids too easy, so I take it my favorite expansions will be late Vanilla / early TBC, the rest really was childish crap on easy mode
if you were into raids, you would not put BC last in wow expansions.
lady vashj was one incredible fightand when my guild beat her the first time was the proudest i've experienced in wow and one of my top 3 overall in gaming.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
I only liked the original WoW....After that the gear started to get way out of hand and it just wasn't as much fun anymore.....Once people started using things like gear score then I had zero interest in the game.....WoW will hit a point soon (if it hasn't already) like EQ did when they started releasing expansions where the lore just gets ridiculous and it no longer makes any sense whatsoever.
I may be one of the few posters brave enough to admit that I didn't play classic. I started a few weeks into BC. So my list would be-
1. Wotlk - ok, this expansion was so great in terms of story, theme, immersion etc. It fell on its face after trial of the crusader, raid came out... That is when lfg came out, and turned the game into the lobby it is till today.
2. BC - Really no complaints about it much, other than lore contradictions.... It's just that wrath was litterally perfection, until patches later messed it up.
3. cata (really wish this exp never happened, totally terrible.)
I wish i played in classic, but i didn't because at the time I was like 12, and couldn't pay monthly, because I had no job.... obviously. I played a bunch of f2p, korean MMO's in those dark days, even during BC i still played a few.
If the OP didn't play TBC, how can he rate it? Because he got bored of the hunting quests in Nagrand?
TBC brought accessible raids, arena, awesome ganking spots (Skettis, Elemental plateau). It also brought world pvp objectives (not as popular as Wintergrasp, though), fully flyable zones - some of which were AMAZING to look at, still nothing comes close to Terokkar forest, Hellfire peninsula (in my mind).
The heroics were properly hard throughout, with much CC needed (even when you somewhat overgeared for them), not the yawnfests of later expansions, when the next tier of gear released comletely nerfed the experience.
I could go on, but saying BC was the worst is very, very ignorant.
Wow. Just wow. Let me give you your opinion for you.
4 Cataclysm
3 WotLK
2 Original WoW (I hate the term vanilla)
1 Burning Crusade
BC was by far the best expansion. Beautiful zones Challenging dungeons, TEN levels and a ton of stuff to do besides grind dailies. No lfd/lfr and no CRZ. And a real talent system. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs their head examined. It's not opinion. It's fact. WoW has been declining ever since. And MoP looks to continue in that direction. It's sad, really.
Though I largely agree with your list, you might want to rethink what you consider a fact.
He, he, ... actually maybe should follow his own advice. :-)
But I actually kind'a agree with list. But places are not very distinct. Myself would have hard times to select which exactly to put in which place.
Fact is I started wow with BC. First leveled my warrior to 40. Then I have realized I will never have enough money to buy mount. With warrior I was learning so this was kind'a expected. I never read at that time from any book, just jumped in, listening to friend for few advices.
Then decided to try Warlock, you know, free mount.
Then druid, then, .... then realised I did mistake listening to dumb advices "is best level only 1 char, max 2, impossible otherwise". Pure BS.
Before WOTLK was out I had 10 maxed out alts. And they are all ready now for MOP.
At the end my concluision is ALL expansion pack were enough fun to keep so long that I had leveled all my 10 alts to max before taking a detour. Btw, have also 10 alts horde, but below 78. Started them when there was only Wow. Now I have Swtor, Rift, Gw2, ... a lot more of choices.
About MOP still not sure. For sure hate changes to shaman at least as much as I hated loosing my perma tree form as druid healer and nerfing in general to druids. Also I think never in gaming industry there was such massive strategic mistake as they did with new talent system. But only time will show.
Wrath of the Lich King, it had it all, an intuitive talent system without windowlicker level easiness, the reason why people committed to WoW, well some people after W3 lore set the scene: take down Arthas. Anything afterwards has been a pale imitator and is barely acknowledged as the same game except for sharing geography and lore. Time to move on unless they roll back or run classic WOTLK servers, which is pretty doubtful and private servers are annhiliated so that's that.
In terms of the amount of enjoyment I got out of them, from most to least:
1. WotLK
2. BC
3. Original WoW
4. Cataclysm
I agree with many above; WotLK was the end of the suspense that had hung in the air since the end of WC3. I'd been fighting the Scourge throughout the whole of Azeroth, took a trip to space to clear my head, and now I was back in the game. Arriving at the Howling Fjord, taking on the forces of Icecrown, helping out the Oracles and the Wrathgate.
Oh, the WRATHGATE! The story of the expac blew me away, and really changed my beliefs about how the game could entertain me. I still shed a single tear when I think of Drakuru.
-----------------------------
BC was easily my second favourite. Sunwell Terrace made the whole thing worth it for me; I fell in love with the blood elves and their architecture straight up. Found certain zones of Outland a bit tedious, and Illidan was a joke by the time I figured out what he was about, but overall the whole alien worldiness of it really separated the experience from "old WoW". And thats good, because...
---------------------------
Old WoW was terrible. My opinion, don't pay any mind to it if you think otherwise. The only reason I put up with it for so long in the first place was because I needed a level 55 to create a death knight. While mages were fun, I found the grind to be unbearable in certain areas of the world (HOLY S**T, Barrens...how do I avoid them?)
-----------------------------------------------
Cata....Oh, Cata....you could have been so much more....
And now we've arrived in Pandaland. I quit at level 83, four weeks into Cataclysm. Didn't care about Deathwing by that point, and the aquarium zone took me a bout two days to whizz through. I'm done thanks. For those of you continuing, I hope you enjoy
I'm really sick of the whole "There's a massive fanbase for X", or "Y would be a WoW-killer if it just had a chance".
There is no massive conspiracy waiting in the MMO playerbase.
There are no "sleeper-agent fans" waiting to convert once the X or Y is unleashed on the world.
1) Vanilla - Pretty much solidified my entry to MMOs leading to long stints in EVE and LoTRO. Played WoW constant fro several years.
2) WotLK - I love this xpac. Really. I enjoyed the cohesiveness of the zone, the accessibility (I've never been a hardcore raider) and the undead. Loved the Death Knight class. Wintergrasp was awesome.
3) BC - Not a big fan, too wild of a color palette and too disjointed in presentation. Asthetically horrible, at least to my tastes. YMMV.
4) Cata - Honestly was just burned out by this point. Linear quest chains, simplified mechanics and fracking annoying goblin vendors. After Arthas, just felt like an epilogue imstead of epic tbh.
The game was truly polished and great fun and it would normally get the top spot, if not for…
Yeah... that was posted in the Vanilla section. No offense, but I almost don't think the article writer played Vanilla wow or any iteration of wow at that point. Its all opinion sure, but calling vanilla polished is a long stretch. Even at the very end vanilla had issues still lingering despite the gap between the first expansion and wow launch.
For me it just progressively went downhill from the start. I will NOT be returning for MoP, at least not so far as I can see at this point. Pokemon is just not my thing and neither are the pandas. Pandas are adorable, but not as characters, to me.
Comments
despite what people here want to think, the author's list is spot on, and shared by the majority of gamer's that actually pay blizzard's bills. The harder core players hate lich king etc, but they are the obnoxious minority.
Vanilla wow was my favorite, and cataclysm my second favorite (liked the redo of the 1-60 game).
This really shows how much MMORPG.com knows about WoW. Seems your mods don't even work at the WoW section.
If you ask a proper player the answer will be:
1. Vanilla or TBC
2. TBC or Vanilla
3. WOTLK
4. Cata
I'm even confident enough to add, that is the ultimate order decided by WoW players. Your list is pure crap.
(in before proper player, I actually raided for 6 years.)
Very Strange ranking by OP
My best times in WoW really were: running Vanilla Blackrock Spire (upper and lower) and then the wonderful new zones and dungeons in TBC before they made access to raids too easy, so I take it my favorite expansions will be late Vanilla / early TBC, the rest really was childish crap on easy mode
Like most others I'd rank them:
1. BC- Best raid experience I had in WoW
2. Original - Who WOULDN'T like spirit on their Warrior gear!! Money wasn't as easy then (at least for me)
3. WotLK - AOE...everything. :-(
4. Cata - Questing was much improvd, but too linear...
Regardless of the rankings, I enjoyed them ALL. Even Cata.
if you were into raids, you would not put BC last in wow expansions.
lady vashj was one incredible fightand when my guild beat her the first time was the proudest i've experienced in wow and one of my top 3 overall in gaming.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
BC was great ! epic--- flying was awesome!
OP DK's killed the the BG's in wolk and went
downhill from there- THo I did enjoy the DK's
starting area.. fun quests ! lol
I may be one of the few posters brave enough to admit that I didn't play classic. I started a few weeks into BC. So my list would be-
1. Wotlk - ok, this expansion was so great in terms of story, theme, immersion etc. It fell on its face after trial of the crusader, raid came out... That is when lfg came out, and turned the game into the lobby it is till today.
2. BC - Really no complaints about it much, other than lore contradictions.... It's just that wrath was litterally perfection, until patches later messed it up.
3. cata (really wish this exp never happened, totally terrible.)
I wish i played in classic, but i didn't because at the time I was like 12, and couldn't pay monthly, because I had no job.... obviously.
I played a bunch of f2p, korean MMO's in those dark days, even during BC i still played a few.
If the OP didn't play TBC, how can he rate it? Because he got bored of the hunting quests in Nagrand?
TBC brought accessible raids, arena, awesome ganking spots (Skettis, Elemental plateau). It also brought world pvp objectives (not as popular as Wintergrasp, though), fully flyable zones - some of which were AMAZING to look at, still nothing comes close to Terokkar forest, Hellfire peninsula (in my mind).
The heroics were properly hard throughout, with much CC needed (even when you somewhat overgeared for them), not the yawnfests of later expansions, when the next tier of gear released comletely nerfed the experience.
I could go on, but saying BC was the worst is very, very ignorant.
He, he, ... actually maybe should follow his own advice. :-)
But I actually kind'a agree with list. But places are not very distinct. Myself would have hard times to select which exactly to put in which place.
Fact is I started wow with BC. First leveled my warrior to 40. Then I have realized I will never have enough money to buy mount. With warrior I was learning so this was kind'a expected. I never read at that time from any book, just jumped in, listening to friend for few advices.
Then decided to try Warlock, you know, free mount.
Then druid, then, .... then realised I did mistake listening to dumb advices "is best level only 1 char, max 2, impossible otherwise". Pure BS.
Before WOTLK was out I had 10 maxed out alts. And they are all ready now for MOP.
At the end my concluision is ALL expansion pack were enough fun to keep so long that I had leveled all my 10 alts to max before taking a detour. Btw, have also 10 alts horde, but below 78. Started them when there was only Wow. Now I have Swtor, Rift, Gw2, ... a lot more of choices.
About MOP still not sure. For sure hate changes to shaman at least as much as I hated loosing my perma tree form as druid healer and nerfing in general to druids. Also I think never in gaming industry there was such massive strategic mistake as they did with new talent system. But only time will show.
In terms of the amount of enjoyment I got out of them, from most to least:
1. WotLK
2. BC
3. Original WoW
4. Cataclysm
I agree with many above; WotLK was the end of the suspense that had hung in the air since the end of WC3. I'd been fighting the Scourge throughout the whole of Azeroth, took a trip to space to clear my head, and now I was back in the game. Arriving at the Howling Fjord, taking on the forces of Icecrown, helping out the Oracles and the Wrathgate.
Oh, the WRATHGATE! The story of the expac blew me away, and really changed my beliefs about how the game could entertain me. I still shed a single tear when I think of Drakuru.
-----------------------------
BC was easily my second favourite. Sunwell Terrace made the whole thing worth it for me; I fell in love with the blood elves and their architecture straight up. Found certain zones of Outland a bit tedious, and Illidan was a joke by the time I figured out what he was about, but overall the whole alien worldiness of it really separated the experience from "old WoW". And thats good, because...
---------------------------
Old WoW was terrible. My opinion, don't pay any mind to it if you think otherwise. The only reason I put up with it for so long in the first place was because I needed a level 55 to create a death knight. While mages were fun, I found the grind to be unbearable in certain areas of the world (HOLY S**T, Barrens...how do I avoid them?)
-----------------------------------------------
Cata....Oh, Cata....you could have been so much more....
And now we've arrived in Pandaland. I quit at level 83, four weeks into Cataclysm. Didn't care about Deathwing by that point, and the aquarium zone took me a bout two days to whizz through. I'm done thanks. For those of you continuing, I hope you enjoy
I'm really sick of the whole "There's a massive fanbase for X", or "Y would be a WoW-killer if it just had a chance".
There is no massive conspiracy waiting in the MMO playerbase.
There are no "sleeper-agent fans" waiting to convert once the X or Y is unleashed on the world.
1) Vanilla - Pretty much solidified my entry to MMOs leading to long stints in EVE and LoTRO. Played WoW constant fro several years.
2) WotLK - I love this xpac. Really. I enjoyed the cohesiveness of the zone, the accessibility (I've never been a hardcore raider) and the undead. Loved the Death Knight class. Wintergrasp was awesome.
3) BC - Not a big fan, too wild of a color palette and too disjointed in presentation. Asthetically horrible, at least to my tastes. YMMV.
4) Cata - Honestly was just burned out by this point. Linear quest chains, simplified mechanics and fracking annoying goblin vendors. After Arthas, just felt like an epilogue imstead of epic tbh.
best to worst
1 - WotLk
2 - Cat
3 - Original
4 - BC
1. Vanilla
2. TBC
3. Wotlk
4. sorry what?
If I were you, I wouldn't have even included Burning Crusade in your list.
[mod edit]
Cunfushus says "Only through wasting time do we realize that time should not be wasted."
The game was truly polished and great fun and it would normally get the top spot, if not for…
Yeah... that was posted in the Vanilla section. No offense, but I almost don't think the article writer played Vanilla wow or any iteration of wow at that point. Its all opinion sure, but calling vanilla polished is a long stretch. Even at the very end vanilla had issues still lingering despite the gap between the first expansion and wow launch.
For me it's 1-4 in order of favorite "versions":
1. Original WoW
2. Burning Crusade
3. Wrath of the Lich King
4. Cataclysm
For me it just progressively went downhill from the start. I will NOT be returning for MoP, at least not so far as I can see at this point. Pokemon is just not my thing and neither are the pandas. Pandas are adorable, but not as characters, to me.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club