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Itâs not that Wrath specifically was so good, itâs that WoW was so good. Wrath was literally the height of WoW. Back then, we were all there to wrap up the WC3 story arcs. Vanilla WoW was an absolute trailblazer. TBC expounded upon vanilla in far more important ways than wrath did, but Wrath just seemed back then to have the perfect amount of polish. Dalaran was super cool. Blizzard embraced flying and designed zones for it and incorporated it into the leveling process. Death Knights were ridiculously cool. Northrend was exceptional for itâs varied and unique biomes.
Itâs raids were pretty mediocre compared to what came before it, however. A re-released Naxx and Onyxia were a huge yawnfest. Ulduar has been considered peak WoW raid design for more than a decade. Trial was pretty boring, and ICC was a good, if forgettable raid.
It was an excellent product of itâs time. The Classic experience wonât be even 1/100th as good as it was when it was current, and thatâs a shame.
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It wasnât. I mean, it was good for its time, and itâs still good, but itâs also just easy and when most people started playing endgame, so youâll have people remembering fondly blowing through the content back before their guild died going into Cataclysm when stuff started getting mechanics.
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Iâve played since launch and quit after MoP.
I absolutely loved WoTLK at the time, I think a lot of the reason was it tied directly to WC3. Northrend was breath taking as well, plus the music.
I just came back yesterday and played WoLTK classic for the frostbrood mount and for me the nostalgia wore off quickly. For itâs time WoTLK was my favorite expansion but, now I feel itâs age. I really think it was a had to be there and it just worked at the time so well.
Plus it came after the crazy high of TBC.
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I loved the storylines. Loved the zones. The instances and raids were interesting, and doing daily heroics and weekly quests didnât seem like a chore. Some nice quality of life changes (including the dungeon group finder). I even liked the argent tournament and Wintergrasp. Community was still active on the realm I was on (started dying after MoP). While I liked the idea of attunements (something to work toward) they were overwhelming in BC, and it was nice to not have to grind as much to get into raids. It also fully integrated the 10 and 25 size raids, which made it easier for smaller guilds. Access to flying for alts was much easier.
I suspect that this is probably the biggest factor. Endgame was far more accessible in Wrath than itâs ever been since.
Personally, I think raiding is way too hard now. I donât think Iâd like to see a return to the ease of Wrath, but there is ground to be gained by Blizzard if they turn things back down to 6 instead of 20 IMO.
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it wasnt. Wrath babies never experienced anything better though.
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It was good for its time.
But really by todays standards?
Sub par writing, an expansion story that didnt quite make sense. Really making some characters seemâŚlike saturday morning cartoon villains. The worst raid tier in the history of WoW (along with some great ones). Some horrible raid tier releasing ideas.
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I liked Ulduar and Icecrown both storywise and the raids. The dragon stuff was ok but felt like it wasnât really fleshed out as well. I really loved Wintergrasp and it was one of the few times I got into PvP.
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The short answer is that it was Blizzardâs third shot at iterating an MMO, leading to a more refined product. By the release of Wrath, Blizzard seemed to have a better idea on what their vision was for the game and executing it. Production value had gone up a great deal by this point.
Gameplay-wise, it was awesome. TBC was a huge step up when it came down to tuning talents and specs. Wrath just had a lot of additional kinks ironed out.
On top of that, raiding was made a lot more accessible with a clearer path in regards to what players needed to do to gear up their characters. While the initial launch saw the major raids completed in a short amount of time, Blizzard later implemented a variety of difficulty levels as to have a spectrum of raid challenges that catered to both newbie and experienced raider alike.
By no means was it perfect. There were some bumps along the way and there was still a lot of âexperimentationâ on the devsâ end, but personally, itâs my favorite expansion. Tons of people came to the game to see the conclusion to Arthasâ story, so servers were bumping! The music was fantastic, the visuals had that good 'ol Warcraft flair, and the presentation with quests was a nice improvement from where the game started.
They came a very long way from where the game started.
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for me, wrath was the point where QoL changes hit but the community was still there. It was the point where server communities started to die off and we became more individual players, both story and gameplay wise. Guild were still accountable for the actions of the members, and you were still making friends while playing. Those things faded throughout cata and pandaria, Wrath was the peak of the game where QOL changes didnt subtract from the social aspects of the game.
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For me it was the end of the story arc they began in WC3:TFT.
The expansion as a whole had its good and bad parts. I was disappointed we got so little of the Nerubian empire â two short dungeons⌠especially after they put so much effort into the other half of the Aqir race (before they expanded it w/ Mantid in MoP) in vanilla.
Wrath was great, as it carried out the story from WC3. Unfortunately, this expansion is when the infamous shift started when devs began changing their focus from making an immersive adventure for players to just making content. The shift was subtle, but that is when it started.
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i remember taking the longest break during wrathâŚi thought it was boring, until the last tierâŚthat was so fun 
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WoW was at the peak of its popularity. I dont think I compared Vanilla and Burning Crusade to Wrath. All of them are WoW to me. And in that time, Wrath was the WoW.
Regarding the story, I love it becoz its the conclusion of what I experienced on WarCraft3: The Frozen Throne. I was a WarCraft 3 player when WoW came in. WarCraft 3 is RTS and Wrath gave us a game to re-enact the experience of The Frozen Throne. I love particularly the Culling of Stratholme. It is a timed run⌠WoW was tickling us with timed run (precursor of Mythic+) and at the end it rewards a Dragon mount. I fought Arthas on WarCraft 3 and then I faced him again on Wrath. The first encounter I like was Halls of Reflection. Itâs a different kind of dungeon where Arthas is chasing us as we run away with Jaina. Undeads were being summoned to slow us while Arthas slowly catching us up. Very unique game and I like it. Then I faced Arthas again on ICC-25, it was blast. There it shows the conclusion of the storyâŚso dramatic.
As a game, I think it was an improvement of Vanilla and Burning Crusade. Their dungeons as usual were basic and very accessible to most players. Naxxramas was brought back to give people a chance to see it becoz less than 5% of WoW population saw Naxxramas-40 in Vanilla. So the new Naxxramas-25 was reintroduced⌠it was equivalent to LFR to todayâs standards. Everyone could play it.
One of the things I hate in Vanilla/BC was in order for us to have a decent Raid experience, I have to join a decent guild. I have to commit to their raiding schedule for me to get a raid spot. I gave up playing with elite guilds during BC so I was like unguilded when Wrath came. Actually, I joined an inactive guild and I was into PuGâing when I found GDKP groups. I love GDKPâs. We would just raid on weekend⌠with decent players or else we wont have any loots for auction. First time I made my gold over 100k. Then I made an alt who also did GDKP. I was pretty well geared back then and my gear has no relation to my inactive guildâs activity. Then my inactive guild started getting active players who want to raid. I was already well geared on ICC-25 when they started raiding at ICC-10. I helped them on ICC-10 and Ruby Sanctum-10. Of course, like any guild, drama came. The raiding players left my guild and formed their own guild. I dont need them becoz I relied my progression from my GDKP group⌠not with them. I was a Solo-PuGâer from thereon. Of course, GDKP died after Wrath⌠Master Loot was banned. It so happened I have to quit my addiction to WoW. So I became a Casual who cant raid anymore until Legion started Dungeon Finder for Raids.
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Just to make sure someone plays the role of Devilâs Advocate, I want to stand up and voice the opinion that I DIDNâT LIKE Wrath.
After being in a hardcore raiding guild from MC-> Naxx 2.0, it was my opinion that the âformulaâ had devolved into just that: a raiding FORMULA. It was stale. Boring. PREDICTABLE. To the point I hated it. This was when Blizzard was still BLIZZARD!! We all still carried the banner for a company we placed ALL our faith in! They were still THE BEST!
And after Naxx 2.0, they gave us Ulduar. And while everyone fondly remembers it, I do not. I realize Iâm one of only about 9 people to have this opinion, but I HATED Ulduar. More than anything, it was just too big. Iâm tired of devoting so much of my time to raiding, and the first âskipsâ were still almost a decade away.
To say nothing of the Yogg fight. Youâre supposed to fight things without FACING THEM??? I HATED Ulduar.
And as we progressed past Ulduar, it was obvious that Blizzard⌠the WONDERFUL BLIZZARD that we all still loved⌠was fully intent on just sitting on their butts and using the formula. Raiding as the ONLY means of end-game was here to stay.
And then dungeonâing changed from thoughtful strategy, the best use of CC, being smart and clever ⌠to just âround it all up, AoE it all down.â
Wrath, to me, will always be the expansion I realized WoW was going in a direction I didnât like. There would be no more innovation. And once âdailiesâ were introduced, I really had to think about the future of this game.
And sure enough-- Wrath was the first expansion I actually unsubbed. I didnât come back until late Cata, when I merely came back to hang out with friends. The game, for me, was gone. I didnât start raiding/ âplaying the game for realâ again until SL.
Sorry everyone⌠I donât have rose-colored goggles for Wrath.
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Itâs overrated, playing it back for the bait-dk-dragon, Iâm so glad none of my friends are playing it or dragging me over to play Classic.
Canât wait for Dragonflight though.
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I think it was very flawed in hindsight but it had a lot going for it.
In general, class design very flavorful and a solid improvement on what came before it. Looking at feral druids and mourning what once was. The gearing path was continually smoothed out through badges and new 5 mans with higher ilevel gear added midway through the expac, PVP ended up being pretty good despite a ruff start, Because it was only the second expack the rest of the world was not nearly as forgotten. Dalaran was a great central hub.
Wrath was just a solid improvement in every way on the game that preceded it and no expansion after has been able to universally claim that.
Same. Iâm here for the future baby
Wrath was when I quit WoW. I had played off and on, mostly on, from Warcraft 2 up until Wrath, but Wrath was the last straw. PvP went to 
with laughable DK balance and then TOGC came out with their laziest raid theyâve ever done. Iâll take BRF and the selfie patch over TOGC any day.
That said, it did some good things, it just did some things so bad I quit. People forget wrath was the peak, but Wrath was also the plateau.
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