Hi there. Not super important but I saw a commenter that grouped the WoW expansions into different eras. I found it interesting that he grouped them into 3s. Anyways I thought I’d post how I’ve always thought about the different eras of WoW:
Era 1:
Vanilla
TBC
Era 2:
WotLK
Era 3:
Cataclysm
MoP
Era 4:
WoD
Legion
BfA
I’ve never played Shadowlands so I’m not sure if it belongs in era 4 or not. Anyways just thought I’d give my 2 cents.
I’d put WoD in 3, SL in 4.
But I’m making that decision based on the outdoor world, Cata had the Shattering 
CRZ came in MoP WoD had no world change, Legion brought scaling BFA had no world change, SL has no world change.
personally i would consider WoD part of a different era than MoP. it felt like a soft reboot to me. the class pruning and the new models are two things that stand out. honestly it even had a different art direction tbh
I personally think that the transition from classic to TBC was greater than TBC to WotLK. Though, not by much.
First Era: Vanilla, TBC, WOTLK
Dark Ages: Cata, MOP, WOD
Cosmic Multiverse of Madness: Legion, BFA, Shadowlands.
First era: Vanilla to Mists of Pandaria
Interlude: Warlords of Draenor
Second Era: Legion to present (and likely beyond)
uhm wod introduced scaling…
Why do you say that?
Every zone in Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outland, Northrend, Pandaria, and Draenor now use the level scaling system introduced in Legion.
uhm dude im 100% certain it was introduced in wod. legion was when it was made worldwide.
I mean 
official patch notes say otherwise.
the level scaling mobs in wod back in the day that scaled with you say otherwise.
But I can prove my point with official documentation, can you?
I’m fine with being wrong, but you gotta prove it.
anyone who played in wod will tell the same thing. i’m done with you because it’s clear your not going to be convinced by anything but what daddy blizzard says. i know what i experienced when i played in wod and don’t need your approval.
I’ve played every xpac, what mobs?
I’m convinced by evidence and evidence alone
You addressed me not the other way around, as I said this makes no difference to anyones experience so if you want to believe scaling came in WoD or if it was around since Vanilla that’s fine.
WoW 1: Classic, TBC, Wrath
WoW 2: Cata, MoP, Legion
Filler trash: WoD, BfA, Shadowlands
This is the way.
Should be:
Era 3:
Cataclysm
MoP
WoD
Era 4:
Legion
BFA
Shadowlands
Era 4 is the era of Mythic+, Dungeon Finder and WoW Token. This is an era where Casuals (less play time not noob) could enjoy hardcore content without doing the harshest grind of the old WoW. Gold is Raining. You dont need to commit to guilds to do hardcore stuffs.
I prefer Era 4 than Era 3 becoz Era 3 has no M+ and Dungeon Finder. You would need an elite guild to do hardcore content.
On Era 1 and 2, it doesnt matter to me becoz I was hardcore no life on those years. On Era 3 and Era 4, I became Casual. And as Casual, I love Era 4.
Why yes…yes…that was me! | post #4 in link below
A quick copy/paste of post #4 from above link:
I only considered it in the same class/era because Cata, MoP, and WoD had an intense focus on spammy reflexive twitch based combat (which was great!). WoD did introduce the pruning, but for the combat, I still consider it in the Cata, MoP, WoD Triune/Trinity of the combat based/centric era/arc.
Hmm never thought of it like that. I do not remember a lot of cata but I DO remember combat in mop being very fast paced. Playing classic made me realize just how sloooooow everything used to be. I remember wrath combat being “slow” as well.
Yep!! The “slow-ness”/Incremental-pace found in the first 3 iterations Vanilla, TBC, WotLK was dripping and oozing very heavily RPG-based mechanic/design hence the “D&D Tabletop core” era/arc, that I mentioned above!
They had a more defined encompassing, for example:
When you said you were leveling in those iterations; you weren’t just solely leveling your characters level. You were immediately refining resources hence the stop and go incremental “slow-ness” - picking flowers along the way/refining those flowers in to potions for immediate use | killing a mob and looting the cloth to immediately make a bandage for a quick heal caused by the health lost by the combat with that mob | so on and so forth!
It’s “D&D Tabletop core” was very go and stop esque reminiscent of D&D. From Game Master initiating dialogue and scenarios | Friends going and stopping via turns, selecting decisions, rolling dice | A lot of times things would come to a stop because everyone is laughing and then the game starts up again… Once again very stop and go esque 
!