Oh it was.
The first half of Legion was absolutely horrible.
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Legion will forever have the title of “best recent expansion” unless Blizzard decides to go back and do more class-flavor stuff for us.
The fact that every class had their own lore-rich story campaign with cosmetic rewards (mounts, weapons, armor), was just… chefs kiss
Mage Tower, on top of all that.
It was really “bespoke” content.
Imo, no expansion since has felt as good as Legion did. At least, towards the end.
Hell, even my friends came back to play it lol, and were gone as soon as it was over.
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They did this in Shadowlands with 4 Covenants. A large issue is that this lore goes unseen by a majority of your players. An example of this is Smolderon. He was a supporting character in the Shaman lore (we made him Firelord). A huge population of players say “Firelord Smolderon” and either didn’t care or thought “wait, isn’t Ragnaros the Firelord? When did this change?”
Fragmented stories worked okay-ish in Legion because it wasn’t that deep. Shadowlands went face-first into the door they opened, and it was a disaster because the lore was very deep.
Just goes to show that Legion somehow lucked out in this regard.
Some class halls got better questlines than others.
Yeah, Shaman 100% got shafted in that regard, they basically forgot everything that happened in regards to the Elemental Lords after that expansion. Smoulderon was beat with the villain-bat come DF.
The issue with SL covenants, is that you were forced to pick one based on your player power, not because you actually wanted to be there.
On my Hunter, I was supposed to go Ardenweald or Bastion, but I hated both of those, and went Maldraxxus instead.
Maldraxxus story was just bad (tbh I felt all of them were) and the class ability, while okay, just wasn’t as good as the other ones.
The Legion class order hall thing wasn’t a choice, it was just based on your class. I think that was better.
I think, giving players choice in that regard kinda backfired, especially when there’s a meta built around it, which there was.
Fragmented stories are fine if done well, and if multiple parties see different parts of the same story, and can piece together what happened.
Problem is, for SL’s stories, and some of Legion’s, most players just didn’t know what the hell happened altogether, like Kel’Thuzad’s return, he just appeared for me, and there were no quests to explain how that happened, because it was another covenant’s story.
Same deal with non-Shamans wondering about the Elemental Lords, you only saw what was your class/covenant story, for good or for ill.
Every time I run that raid, he calls me out. 
You shall fall to the very weapon you placed in my hands. An honor indeed, shaman.
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Yep! And this is why fragmented stories just don’t work (for this game type).
And by “fragmented” I mean the player/reader has to “metagame” to understand the story. (Sorta how D&D campaigns dissuade players from knowing EVERYTHING, you need to play like you’re the character, not the real you. You need to explore to get the full picture). But like you said, the player was locked into their Covenant – to me, this means they’re not able to see the full story. And because there wasn’t a crossover, nor intersecting plot lines, we as players just sorta get the experience, “Hey, the bad guy is here!” :: “Who?” :: “The bad guy! Wow!”
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You race Andies are insufferable.
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It also did so much to revisit old lore. Monks revisited Skywall as well as Pandaria. Druids revisited Northrend at one point. Many legacy characters had their stories pushed forward. Legion’s class and artifact campaigns basically breathed life into Azeroth.
The only thing close would be the Blue Dragon quest in DF… except the story telling is so awkward because the PC is an empty void rather than being able to rely on them inhabiting a role in an RPG (roleplaying game).
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hmmmm
It’s probably why I always chooe to level through Legion TBH
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It depends? I hated Legion’s warrior “class fantasy” of working with Odynn in a tacky zone that was very clearly influenced by Marvel Thor’s Space Asgard motif.
Classes like Death Knight? Mage? Rogue? Demon Hunter? Yeah. Solid identity in Legion. 10/10.
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Huh? Maldraxxus, Revendreth, and Kyrian plots intersected at various points. Only the Night Fae arc lived on its own, likely a result of cut/rewritten plot lines.
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Legion did so much irreparable damage to class fantasy. What are you talking about? Homogenizing all the paladin orders into the Silver Hand. Making all shadow priests bat guano insane tentacle worshipers. Whatever garbage was happening with warriors.
Legion was just all aboard the homogenization train and it destroyed a lot of class fantasies to enforce 1 singular class fantasy.
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idk warlocks seemed to come out ok.
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In a sense a bit of column A and a little bit of column B by the end. Felt like a staff measuring contest with DHs on who’s Troma Theater inspired Movie Prop and Set looked Cooler painted Baby Diaper filled with Green Beans and Sweet Peas after a binger and Tacobell fight after with no rest inbetween.
That might explain it.
Most of my toons were Night Fae. Such is tuning.
Not every class got crushed by it, but I haven’t been able to enjoy shadow priest since the Legion changes. The fantasy they forced on it isn’t something I’m interested in.
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Blizzard still struggling to find Warriors place.
In SoD, many classes have new story lines that progress through each phase. Then you have classes like Mage who have zero narrative and just collect books like giant nerds, as well as Warriors whose “story arc” is basically the PC getting in fights with random other Warriors, because the only story trait they seem to know about the Warrior PC is that they know how to handle themselves in a fight.
i agree shadow priest was really stupid. shaman seemed really boring and generic. warrior was just there. I really liked rogue though. I dont think i ever even started the dk class hall.