Rank the Expacs

Wyrmrest Accord
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People are actually explaining their choices, so I guess I’m obligated to do as well instead of just giving a list.

  • Wrath of the Lich King
    Genuinely felt like an adventure. Story was great. Atmosphere and zones were great. Leveling was great. Music was great. Even new systems were great. Still waiting for them to patch in that Dance Studio they promised us on the box. Arthas is still the best villain the game’s had. 9.5/10

  • Mists of Pandaria
    I think if people say they liked Mists at the time, they’re probably lying (including me). It had some serious grinding issues and people didn’t like the Kung Fu Panda of it all. I think this was the first time people ‘disliked’ an xpac. But this has very much aged with time and people have come to appreciate that pretty much everything this xpac did was pretty peak WoW. Even Isle of Thunder and Timeless Isle presented some unique and different ways of doing content. Siege was a great raid, even if we had to do it eleventy billion times. 8/10

  • Burning Crusade
    Nostalgia. I don’t care if it smells bad now. My brain will not let me not like it. 8/10

  • Dragonflight
    I think this one is just fun and neat? Feels like a side adventure? Bit of a breath of fresh air to not have to save the universe from the villain of the day. I like dragonriding. Some of the new systems were good. Zones were beautiful. Story was kind of meh, but after Shadowlands I’ll admit I was looking for something smaller and this was that. The xpac ending with it being about building a new Darnassus is still one of the dumber and sillier things Blizzard has done. 7/10

  • Battle for Azeroth
    I usually consider this a tie with Legion, but people like this one less than Legion so I always put BfA ahead of it slightly. This is an xpac where its individual parts were greater than its whole. Zandalar? Awesome. Kul’tiras and Boralus? Awesome. Islands? Awesome. Mechagon? Awesome. Warfront? Awesome the first dozen times you did them. (I still want my Southern Barrens war front). Even Nazjatar was a cool zone even if they kind of wiffed on using Azshara. The issue is that very little of any of that was cohesively the same thing. The Sylvanas stuff was bad. Saying this conflict was the “Fourth War” when we very clearly fought a Fourth War in Cata-MoP is dumb. 6.5/10

  • Legion
    This expansion feels like when you were a kid and you would get literally all of your action figures out and make them have a big fight. Or the end scene in Endgame, or whatever. I think it very much benefitted from a fine-tuning of systems brought forth in WoD (world quests, followers, etc.). I don’t care about Illidan and flying on a giant space ship was dumb. Kind of also burnt out like 3 expansion ideas. Also this expansion ruined shaman so I dislike it on a core gameplay basis. 6.5/10

  • Warlords of Draenor
    Best leveling experience for an xpac. First xpac that had like voice acting and stories in zones. Did a lot to lay the groundwork for later systems (WoD crawled so Legion could run). I like orcs and draenei, so sue me. Still want my Fields of Farahlon. This xpac was mostly bad because people just lurked in their garrisons and there was no end game. 6/10

  • Cataclysm
    I often forget this one existed, and am more just reminded when I see dumb Cataclysm stuff still in the game (looking at you lack of a bridge in the Barrens). Has not aged well at all. Had its perks and fun things for being an old world revamp, but we need another one. 5/10

  • Shadowlands
    Every FFXIV player’s favourite xpac. There are no redeeming qualities about Shadowlands and I hate everything to do with it. Ruined a lot of WoW’s lore, and doesn’t even make its own internal sense. Bad zones. Bad story. Just bad.
    1/10 (the 1 is for the banger of a Lion King soundtrack song called “Shadowland”, not this pile of poop wow expansion)

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I don’t usually take the time to quote forum replies but I have to ask if there is a G.O.A.T. WrA quote thread that is a permanent topic here on this forum? If there isn’t then does anyone else think there should be one?

This is classic WoW right here!

Thank you Thokk! :rofl:

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It’s true that Legion’s experience probably varies a bit based on which class hall you were a part of, huh.

The Rogue class campaign was actually not too bad–it was full of stealth missions, had a fun plot about hunting a Dreadlord, lots of subterfuge. It killed off a cool character unceremoniously, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

The Warrior class campaign actually felt super disconnected from the class fantasy. Warriors are cool because it’s just rage and willpower guiding them, so it felt strange to be hanging out in Actual Heaven.

And then the Hunter class campaign was just kind of whatever.

I don’t think I played any others? I heard the Paladin one was good.

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The warrior class hall was probably the worst one I did (unfortunate, since I main a warrior). It was fun jumping from the sky at least. But I played my monk and demon hunter almost as much as this character at the time. Those were two pretty cool classes in how their halls kinda resurrected previous expansions–monk was an island of MoP, Demon Hunter revisited the lore of BC. So I did get a very good impression of the class halls in the end.

There’s always a problem with neat areas never being updated in the story, so class hall stuff like revisiting Black Temple and getting some in-game confirmation that it is being restored by the Ashtongue was really cool for me. The MoP-themed monk hall didn’t have the same punch (ha-ha monks punch) because as I recall it just involved fighting an Eredar in Pandaria rather than expanding on MoP lore much, but it was still cool to see some of the setting’s flavor return. Like I said before I’m not the biggest fan of Pandaren as something to play (my monks are draenei and night elf…) but there’s no denying the zones are some of the most atmospheric in the game.

I played all or most of the DK one too at the time which also helped expand on forgotten plots with re-introducing Bolvar as a dude who exists. Actually iirc non-DKs touch on Bolvar too by breaking into his house and stealing stuff, fire mages and probably others.

I love when the story does this sort of thing where it provides continuity with past elements of the setting rather than introducing totally disconnected throwaway settings and stories.

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This is really why I still play this game. I like the setting and seeing it evolve - from the ground level, not faction leader telenovela dramas.

It’s why I love the Westfall Brigade in Wrath. Admiral Taylor and his squad in Wrath->Cata->MoP. All the Class Hall followers who were drawn from prior content. Tommy Joe Stonefield and Maybell Maclure showing up happily married in our Garrison after the plyer helped them all the way back in Elwynn. Let me see NPCs grow and evolve alongside our characters, or at least let us check in with them every now and then.

I was hoping the Exile’s Reach NPCs in the Wingrest Embassy in Waking Shores meant they’d become recurring player companion NPCs, but they seem to have just disappeared since then. Alas.

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I started playing WoW on day one and have pretty much played a reasonable amount of every expansion (the least of which being Cata and MoP since I was knee-deep in SWTOR for a few years).

Some of these pros and cons are personal takes, but my overall rankings are what I personally consider to be “How good/bad was this expansion for the overall health and future of WoW?”

Here we go!

Vanilla: A+

Pros

  • The world felt big. As someone who had been playing the Warcraft RTS games since… '98 or '99, this felt like Azeroth. The Blackrock Clan in the Burning Steppes, the Scourge in the Plaguelands… they felt like proper, actual threats that I remembered from the strategy games.
  • Smaller numbers (stats, damage, gold, everywhere). I prefer small numbers in my RPGs because it makes every number feel more impactful.
  • Does anything feel quite as pure as an MMO’s original iteration? Replaying vanilla in 2019 when Classic launched made me realize that I just really enjoy the way this version of game handles better than anything that came afterward. I leveled multiple characters to 60, did the raids that I never got to do in '04-'06 (since I was still barely on the cusp of teenagerhood), and really enjoyed myself.

Cons

  • Terrible class balance, especially in PvE. Shadow Priests, Balance Druids, Ret Paladins… iconic specs of later expansions had crippling faults.
  • The old honor/ranking system.
  • Numerous unfinished quests and zones. The worst part about vanilla was that it just wasn’t truly finished.

The Burning Crusade: A

Pros

  • Vanilla, but more of it. Much better class balance but with the same overall feeling of combat and raids that were much harder but still retained the feel of original WoW.
  • Much better PvP system overall with arena and honor points as spendable currency.
  • Overall better quest design. As much as I enjoy the questing in vanilla from an immersive aspect, it was a PITA to have to run the length of a continent to deliver an item to someone. TBC’s “quest hubs” were a great leap forward.

Cons

  • WEIRD ZONES. I have never truly loved the appearance of any of them. They always felt like a strange collection of acid rock posters.
  • Terrible, terrible looking gear. If you weren’t raiding or PvPing for the good looking stuff, you looked like an absolute clown.
  • The story was kind of a big nothing. I know WoW hasn’t ever really been known for it’s storytelling, but the delivery felt slipshod and I hated what they did with Kael’Thas because I really liked him in WC3.

Wrath of the Lich King: B+

Pros

  • Some of the most beautiful zones in the game. Howling Fjord still consistently ranks among my favorites.
  • Much, much better delivery of story overall. You felt the Lich King’s presence every step of the way up until the final raid.
  • Death Knights.

Cons

  • The “beginning of the end” in terms of the original WoW feeling. LFD, multiple raid difficulties, more and more gold entering the economy thanks to dailies and the like. Some would argue these are good changes, and there’s a case to be made there, but I stopped playing Classic at TBC for a reason. This is actually the main reason why, in hindsight—even though I enjoyed Wrath more than TBC back when the content was live—I’ve since reevaluated my stance and ranked TBC higher.
  • Ultimately, the Lich King felt like a bit of a letdown as a villain. I always thought it was silly that the Argent Crusade were able to set up a tournament and have a bunch of merry jousting in the Lich King’s backyard. I know, “Arthas was just testing us…” but, yeah. I still think it’s kind of lame.
  • The introduction of vehicle quests. I hated them then, I hate them now.

Legion: B+

Pros

  • Very strong emphasis on class fantasy. Some of the order halls and artifact weapons were stronger than others, but overall, this incentivized me to play more alts than I ever had.
  • The Mage Tower and Mythic+ were incredibly accessible and enjoyable challenges for people who didn’t want to raid. I know it’s become a bit of a mixed bag, but at the time, M+ felt like the best thing WoW had done in years (and I still think it is, despite no longer really caring much about the gear treadmill).
  • The story felt satisfying. The Suramar Rebellion was well-executed and included an interesting cast of characters, and the final raid cinematic at the end of Antorus is (in my opinion) still one of the best raid endings WoW has ever had (right up there with Icecrown Citadel).

Cons

  • Ridiculous numbers. Item levels up to 1000, crits into the millions, it was all just so overblown.
  • At times it felt way too “sci-fi” for me. Traveling to another planet on a spaceship? The Burning Legion has… ships now? And the ships look like Star Destroyers?
  • Legendary acquisition meant that if you were serious about content, RNG basically dictated what spec you’d be maining, not to mention this was the beginning of the “AP grind” era.

Mists of Pandaria: B+

Pros

  • More beautiful zones. The Jade Forest made an incredibly positive impression on me the first time I played through it.
  • Overall, a pretty well-told story involving one of WoW’s best original characters (Garrosh).
  • The Timeless Isle. Coming back to MoP after not playing as much throughout the expansion, the Timeless Isle was an incredibly fun open world zone to just roll about in.

Cons

  • The incredibly long Siege of Orgrimmar raid tier. A patch should never last as long as 5.4 did.
  • Dailies, dailies, my gods so many dailies.
  • Introduction of the “talent row” talent system (no more talent points, just choose one of three talents at level 15, 30, etc.). I hated this so much, and I’m glad it’s gone.

Dragonflight: B

Pros

  • DRAGONRIDING.
  • A much more manageable endgame. While I think the “crest” system is still a bit much, overall it’s pretty casual and alt-friendly when you dig into it, which is refreshing.
  • The return of old school talent trees with far more choices to make. I like individual customization, and I cannot overstate how glad I am that the MoP-era “talent rows” are gone.

Cons

  • The story is very mid and boring. At best, it’s a mixed bag—you’ve got good moments like the blue dragonflight stuff, and the absolute yawnfest of Zaralek Cavern and the Niffen. I think its greatest virtue is that it isn’t rocking the boat too much, allowing me (as a roleplayer) to basically ignore it while I do my own thing back in the old world.
  • Underwhelming raid ending cinematics. Vault was okay, but Aberrus and Amirdrassil were really, really lame.
  • Annoyingly same-y NPCs. Everyone is more or less somewhat kind and somewhat helpful and no one really has much bite or uniqueness in their personality. I’m offended by how inoffensive everyone is.

Cataclysm: B-

Pros

  • Challenging 5 man content. While M+ would later perfect this, I still appreciate that the devs tried to make dungeons a challenge rather than a faceroll.
  • TRANSMOG. Although its pre-Legion iteration was terrible for inventory space, this was still one of those moments when a game-defining feature was added.
  • Some really great new zone storylines in the old world, of which Silverpine Forest and the Gilnean starting zone are my favorites. The story told between both of those zones just really feels well-executed (I’m still mad Godfrey ended up betraying Sylvanas, he would’ve been such a cool Forsaken NPC to have around for years).

Cons

  • Very unenjoyable leveling experience that can be summed up in one word: Vash’jir. UGH.
  • The ending of Dragon Soul was a letdown (actually, the raid in general was). While I don’t think it’s terrible, I still think Thrall’s “Green Jesus” title was well-earned by this expansion’s storytelling (and I say that as someone who still likes Thrall as a character).
  • It felt like “the dudebro” expansion. I can just imagine the devs, high on success from the unprecedented size of their playerbase, confidently churning out quests steeped in goofy mid-2000s pop culture references and thinking that everyone would love it. Warcraft has always had a degree of silliness, but this felt like someone grabbed that “silliness” dial and cranked it to 11. Most of these have aged pretty badly.

Battle for Azeroth: C+

Pros

  • Some of the best roleplay I’ve ever had. The community was abuzz with hype about the story in the leadup to the expansion (and after the kickoff). I really miss that level of hype and accessible engagement with a story that had some teeth. Faction war may be played out for some, but I will always maintain that RP (like any good story) needs conflict to be interesting, and BFA had it in spades. If we made a list of “your favorite expansions for RP”, BFA would be my number 1.
  • I know I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but… beautiful zones. Tiragarde Sound and Drustvar are right up there with Howling Fjord in terms of my personal favorites. I leveled many alts because I just really enjoyed playing in the open world.
  • The different factions having their own storylines via the war campaign encouraged people to play both sides, and I think there’s something to be said for that. While the story left a lot to be desired, I at least enjoyed that they really did lean into faction identity. Also, the Horde war campaign allowed me to spend time with my bestie Nathanos Blightcaller. I still miss his snark. :sob:

Cons

  • The story. Yes, I know I just said it led to some great RP, but it also led to some genuine frustration and began the era when WoW’s writing turned into a cliffhanger factory. Speaking from a Forsaken main POV, patch 8.2.5 (the Saurfang/Sylvanas duel) was one of the most frustrating story moments I’ve ever witnessed in WoW. Then you’ve got Azshara and N’Zoth, both villains who could’ve had an entire expansion, dealt with in a single patch. The zone storylines were fine, but the war campaign and overarching expansion story left much to be desired.
  • The abandoned game modes. Island expeditions could’ve been great, warfronts could’ve been great, but in the end they just felt very one-note and pointless, more limited time one-dimensional fluff piled on temporarily and ready to be set ablaze with the next expansion.
  • I just remember it feeling very grindy. Azerite power, getting the right azerite traits on your azerite armor, collecting all the essences (which were fun to play with, but which were not initially account wide), getting the right Corruptions in 8.3… I think of that MadSeasonShow video where all the blue check marks are popping up around him. Dailies, weeklies, etc. None of the acquisition of these things felt interesting, it was just grind grind grind.

Warlords of Draenor: D-

Pros

  • Solid leveling experience. The zones were decent, the cinematics were pretty cool, and overall it was fun to build up your garrison… on the first playthrough, anyway.
  • Great trailer.
  • Some interesting characters—especially Yrel, who I wish we could’ve seen more of. I can at least appreciate that they were trying to get a classic Warcraft I and II feeling, and bringing back characters like Khadgar lent itself to that.

Cons

  • The story felt like it was very obviously missing pieces. Aforementioned interesting characters were a lot less interesting than they could’ve been if the story hadn’t been obviously cut short. Grom’s “Draenor is free!” at the end of Hellfire Citadel will always live rent free in my head as one of WoW’s cringiest moments.
  • It was dead. Just… dead. This expansion felt empty, and at the time, that felt really, really bad. This was the expansion where one of the major content updates (6.1) had, as its main feature, the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera. And that was pretty much it. If you didn’t raid or PvP in WoD, you had nothing.
  • Garrisons. They isolated the playerbase in an expansion that already felt empty and lonely.

Shadowlands: F

Pros

  • Some really good mounts and transmog. If you like death-themed stuff (and I do), the aesthetics in some of the zones and raids were very cool.
  • New customizations were nice. I’m glad I can finally have white hair as a Forsaken now… still waiting on those straight backs and beards though… :bearded_person:
  • Raids have always been an easy win for WoW, but Castle Nathria was (admittedly) a really fun raid, and the furthest I’ve ever cleared with a mythic progression team.

Cons

  • The lore and story. Everything about the lore and story did not feel like Warcraft at all. The Jailer was a boring villain, Sylvanas’s story was butchered beyond belief, Arthas and Uther and so many other characters turned into these barely recognizable facades of themselves or were given the most out of place cameos. I do not care about Zereth whatever, I do not care about “rewriting the rules of reality”, I do not care about Pocopoc or “a cosmos divided will not survive what… is… to… cooooome…”, I do not care, I do not care, I do. Not. Care.
  • Covenants and Torghast. Torghast could’ve been so much fun, Covenants could’ve been a great high concept choice based on aesthetic preference, but instead both were tied to mandatory player power and felt like boring grinds or pre-determined choices based on your BiS covenant ability. And then in 9.1 they added affixes to Torghast as well, because screw you, I guess? Awful.
  • Nearly killed the game. I’ve taken breaks from WoW, I’ve “quit” WoW to play other MMOs, but I have never felt as bad about playing WoW or being a WoW player as I did in Shadowlands. I actively disowned the game for awhile. The sheer amount of negativity surrounding Shadowlands at the time it was current was staggering—truly the stuff of legends, but I think nightmares is a more accurate descriptor. I never thought anything could feel as bad as the bleak emptiness of WoD, but here we are.
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hahah this is great

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Since I started in the interim between Wrath and Cata, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King will be omitted:

  • Mists of Pandaria

  • Legion

  • Warlords of Draenor

  • Cataclysm

  • Battle for Azeroth/Dragonflight

  • Shadowlands

Aside from it introducing one of my favorite races and classes, I was quite fond of how MoP handled quests, putting a greater emphasis on cohesive narrative structure. It was far from perfect, especially after doing the same questlines the first few times, but it was at time still refreshing. MoP as holds a special place for me for being pretty much the last expansion to have traditional Dailies which, while less convenient than World Quests were also far less intrusive. I miss being able to traverse an area at end game without a talking head disturbing my peace. Dailies also felt a little more like actual quests to me, seeing as you still had to approach someone to obtain them, but I digress.

While I have many misgivings about Legion, I’ve come to appreciate what seems to be the last hoorah of an old foe. The general idea of Class Orders is great; and most Order Hall campaigns had some pretty great set pieces here and there. The small quirks various Artifact Weapons had at the time were pretty nice and helped to cement their place as the special, legendary items they were collectively portrayed as. Most folks also seemed fond of the progression of those weapons as well, so there’s that.

Like Legion, WoD had a fair bit of things to turn one’s nose up at, but I’ve grown rather fond of elements of its storytelling in retrospect. The expansion of Orc and Draenei lore was pretty nice and especially gave folks to both like and dislike the former. WoD also stands out as one of the few instances where the antagonist is relatively grounded; a relatively foreign regime rather than another unambiguously evil force. Once more something somewhat refreshing. Garrisons also had their charm if you actually bothered to invest in them. I also found WoD’s iteration of alchemy to be the best for its variety and relative simplicity of their effects. Questing was also pretty nice, introducing those instances where you could complete world objectives for extra rewards, which I quite like; especially for not being as disruptive as World Quests.

I find Cata to be a bit meh in retrospect, but at the time I was quite fond of the introduction of the Worgen and found the world revamp pretty fascinating. While I wasn’t around quite long enough prior to fully appreciate just how much had changed, it was pretty exciting all the same. The new zones had their charms, Vashj’ir has an interesting, if frequently frustrating, quirk, one which I sometimes feel is a bit hyperbolically derided. Honestly, I feel Nazjatar should’ve been the same; more on that later. I also appreciate the elemental focus as I find the elements mildly interesting, though admittedly perhaps they aren’t quite strong enough to be the main theme of an expansion if this and Dragonflight are any indication.

Bfa and Dragonflight are tied for having enjoyable leveling experiences surrounded by notably less enjoyable experiences. For BfA, AKA Mists of Pandaria from Wish, the apparent focus on faction conflict left quite a lot to be desired. Like Mists it’s front and center for the introduction, but promptly takes a back seat for the main body of questing content in favor of the local perils of the relatively new land and its people. Compared to Mists however, there are fewer places where the war ties into the local issues, few characters representing the factions to remind you of the conflict or give you much more of a reason to even care. In the end, the War Campaign hardly felt any less extraneous from the main plot than any other expansion not focused on it, largely overshadowed first by Azerite and later the Old Gods, not too unlike how it was overshadowed by Lei Shen in Mists; though at least the war plot in mists got an arguably more satisfying conclusion. The zone stories were generally alright, however. I especially liked the Akunda story. The Island expeditions were also generally enjoyable.

Dragonflight, while not as offensive to me as Battle for Azeroth, commits a different sin instead; mediocrity. While I acknowledge something like it was kind of needed, that doesn’t change my disposition much. Where BfA was like a modern reboot of a show that didn’t seem to understand or care what made the original good, Dragonflight is binge watching meme compilations and reaction videos on the heels of leaving a toxic situation. Dragonriding is nice, the environments are pretty and many of the quest are rather sweet or otherwise unoffensive. The new talent system is also nice. It’s alright, fine, sufficient.

My favorite part of Shadowlands was Maldraxxus; it’s warrior culture and the aesthetic of a Metal/Doom Metal album cover. I often liked going to mob heavy places on melee characters to kill everything while listening to metal; great times. Ardenweald was also very pretty.

Shadowlands was also the one expansion I stopped playing during. To be fair I was also going through some stuff at the time which left my financial situation uncertain, but I still only returned by chance once that was settled; and originally only planned to stick around for a few months. With everything that happened in that era, Shadowlands was the first expansion where I felt like there was nothing left for me, nothing to keep me logging in, no reason to care. It probably could’ve been worse, but it was enough for me.

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I think Burning Crusade exists in that area between the good and the mediocre. Because while it was pretty cool, a lot of it was still really inaccessible for me since I didn’t really raid. I appreciated that there were more difficult dungeons, though. And the story was kind of incomprehensible, but still okay.

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Legion’s my favorite for really obvious reasons: demon hunters, Suramar, Illidan, class artifacts, death knight and rogue hall, my first time getting AOTC, the Kil’jaeden fight.

Legion’s also my least favorite for really obvious reasons: Legiondaries, Toxic raiding environments, burnout on systems to stay competitive, introduced the borrowed power mechanic that would kill WoW for me for the next two expansions, they didn’t keep the mage tower appearances, the fact that the death knight and rogue stories are not acknowledged at all ever again, void elves, Alleria and Turalyon, how demon hunters felt like a footnote even in Legion and then are never mentioned again…

Shadowlands I guess gets a callout for being Terrible In All Aspects but I usually find I have stronger feelings about Legion because I actually played Legion. I played Shadowlands for two days and got all the worst parts of Legion with none of the high notes, so I left. Besides, BFA already burned me out super hard on the story so by Shadowlands, I couldn’t be angry anymore. Having Sylvanas be a super cool evil epic mysterious villain that was so sneaky she could double-cross Azshara was my final straw.

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The most factually correct statement I have ever read.

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Oh, if we’re ranking expacs based on fashion, I have to change my answers.

I think Legion was really good for capturing identity and purpose in their higher-scale armors. And the inclusion of Demon Hunters allowed for some really nice-looking skin-showing pieces, I thought.

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Oh yeah, if we’re talking ranking in terms of fashion…

1.) Dragonflight - a lot of really nice pieces, and a whole bunch of cosmetic outfits that really pop. Glasses included. Not sure if glasses were a shadowlands thing or not. If they were, I’ll edit this post.

2.) Legion - It was nice to have multiple colors of multiple sets. The skin-showing aesthetics of demon hunter are appreciated as Enekie pointed out.

3.) BfA - Really started selling me on faction-specific armor and its stylings. Honestly I remember having a hard time figuring out what to play because of the armor I wanted.

4.) Shadowlands - For such a skidmark of an expansion, there are a LOT of nice transmog items that hit the major flavors of roleplayer. You got your holy light stuff from Bastion, your gross dead stuff from Maldraxxus, your edgy goth stuff from Revendreth, your arcane-flavored druidy stuff from Ardenweald, and all the “You’re not my real dad, this isn’t a phase mom” death metal stuff from The Maw.

5.) Cataclysm - My favorite “low fantasy, decent looking” expansion of armor. I think most sets I have mogged actually have a cata piece in them somewhere.

6.) WoD - Sure, it was either #Savage or had floating crystals and moving parts, but there are a few quality items that get overlooked.

7.) Wrath - Look, I hear you, the tier sets weren’t all bad. But everything was shades of what you find in a wad of kleenex a week after you recover from a snot-ridden cold.

7.) MoP - This would be higher because I absolutely love the coloring and style of ancient oriental armor, but it looks so gosh darn goofy on a majority of WoW’s races that I just can’t like it.
Like what the hell were Siege of Orgrimmar sets supposed to coincide with? How did this Titan looking, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones type of armor get involved?

8.) Vanilla - Even with as many low-resolution, wacky contrasting pieces as there are, there’s some iconic bangers out of this that I honestly don’t think Blizzard have been able to touch or surpass since then. The only reason it’s not the bottom of this list is for very obvious reasons.

9.) Burning Crusade: Absolute dogsh*t

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I have worn this same crusty armor set composed of legion and wotlk items since like 2017 or something so I guess those are my fashion expansions of choice

I just think the floating runes on this ulduar paladin recolor look neat on a draenei and I like the ridiculous chunky juggernaut items, no I don’t care that the color palettes don’t quite match.

And yes BC was clown clothes in most respects but I do like its weapons like this big ol greatsword I use and the various draenic crystalline items. It also had the bulwark of azzinoth which remains a mainstay for any prot warrior or paladin. Make more giant shields blizz nobody wants bucklers

I really like the technical changes Shadowlands and Dragonflight have undergone with tier sets where most of them have extensive 3D elements now. But I would like to see this sort of thing become standard for all armor not just tier sets.

Now that non-spraypaint armor is becoming more of the norm I’d love to see some basic types of clothes covered in the future. Like a skirt that doesn’t cut off your legs. The new mahou shojo outfit is the first skirt like this and its a bit too goofy to be used in a non-gag capacity, some skirts and kilts like this which actually fit with normal armor would be awesome.

I dont want the 3d clothes restricted to tier sets oozing with demigod power and particles effects and trading post gag items like the jester and sailor moon, just some grounded armor that is fully modeled would be fun

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I won’t include Vanilla since I didn’t play it.

1. Wrath of the Lich King

I have a lot of fond memories of WotLK. I had a really tight group of friends I played and raided with, started trying out multiple different classes because they seemed like fun, etc etc. Plus, there was the overarching story to Northrend with the Lich King looming over everything. I’ve never played the original Warcraft RTS games, but by the time this expansion dropped, I had a general idea of who the Lich King was and why he was a big deal.

They nailed the aesthetics in Northrend–the Grizzly Hills and Storm Peaks are iconic zones. It didn’t hurt that we got two great raids (Ulduar, ICC) and a pretty good one (Naxx). Dungeon finder came towards the end of this expansion; while it was definitely controversial at the time, it’s been in WoW’s DNA for about 15 years now and I think on the whole, it was an improvement.

2. Mists of Pandaria

I really enjoyed the questing and leveling experience in Pandaria. After killing Deathwing and saving the world, it was nice to just help some Pandaren keep their gardens clear of pests and brew beer. Grummles were charming, Hozen were hilarious, and…yaks! I didn’t care for the grindy reputation gating at launch, though. If memory serves, several factions’ dailies were locked behind getting Golden Lotus rep to Revered(?), and there was only so much of that reputation available per day, plus a little bit from leveling. I think they changed that fairly soon after launch because there was a lot of justified griping.

I didn’t really care much for the one talent per row system we got, but I don’t recall feeling super bent out of shape about it either. Throne of Thunder was a fantastic raid, and the Isle of Thunder and Timeless Isle were good zones. I stopped raiding shortly after Siege of Orgrimmar dropped and didn’t touch anything above LFR for a while.

3. Dragonflight

Dragonflight has given me Pandaria-like vibes–explore, meet new denizens of Azeroth and their enemies, engage in shenanigans. Dragonriding is great! We got old school style talent trees back! The overall story has been kinda meh, but so many of the side quests have been really good. We’ve gotten steady improvement on existing systems and features over the course of the expansion. The profession system overhaul was good, but also confusing.

I won’t lie though, I’m not looking forward to a season of fated Dragonflight raids and having to relearn heroic Dathea, Zskarn, and to a lesser extent, Broodkeeper.

4. Burning Crusade

Lots of nostalgia for me in BC–I started playing towards the end of the expansion. I still remember getting to Outland for the first time and being blown away by the NPCs fighting at the Dark Portal, and the many perils of Hellfire Peninsula. Yes, I got Fel Reaver’d once or twice. Yes, I aggro’d felboars from two miles away a few times. I also had a blast in Karazhan and Zul’Aman.

Outland Nagrand is still better than Draenor Nagrand.

5. Cataclysm

Cataclysm gets a lot of unjustified flak for the Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms revamp and for heroic dungeons at launch not being faceroll, as they were for most of Wrath. A lot of dungeon mechanics were easy to deal with properly, but very punishing if you goofed them up (see: Blackrock Caverns, Stonecore). Cataclysm is rightfully dunked on for Dragon Soul being a disappointment of a raid AND being current content for a year (Blizz please make Spine of Deathwing not suck, I have mogs to farm).

Firelands was a great raid at content, though. I honestly don’t remember much of the Molten Front zone or dailies, which says all I need to know about it, I guess. And then…we have the introduction of LFR, which was an absolute mess at launch. I distinctly recall people being able to need on loot that was definitely not for their spec, or even their class, for a while.

6. Battle for Azeroth

I missed a large part of BFA because I quit during Legion. I only resubbed because of the pandemic, so my experience with BFA was all 8.3, after they’d made a lot of improvements and the storyline had gone from, “faction war on steroids,” to, “Sylvanas has vanished, here’s an Old God!” Yep, I missed the island grinding meta. Yep, I got lucky and farmed Mechagon and Nazjatar reps during that pandemic-special double reputation buff and got my pathfinder achievement relatively painlessly. Still didn’t like the Azerite armor and Heart of Azeroth essences nonsense.

I leveled an Alliance alt through Kul Tiras within the last year or so, and I gotta say, that story is way better than the Horde story. Horde got alpacas and Bwonsamdi though, so that’s something. Ny’alotha was my first bit of raiding above LFR difficulty since Throne of Thunder.

7. Warlords of Draenor

Man, talk about a waste of potential. I was really looking forward to an end-of-expansion Grommash fight. And then…we got very little content, and a very clear about-face on the story. The questing was pretty good, and I hear Blackrock Foundry was a great raid. For me, this was the expansion of Leveling Many Alts to farm old content–I got Mimiron’s Head, Invincible, and Awake the Drakes all during WoD.

At least I got a few glimpses of Vol’jin being Warchief before…

8. Legion

…they unceremoniously killed him off at the start of Legion. I still distinctly remember thinking a giant WTF watching him name Sylvanas warchief in his death cinematic. It should have been Lor’themar or Baine! The overall story was fine. I don’t think I really got into the class halls as much as other people did–to me, they felt like reskinned Garrisons that happened to have other players around. The Suramar story was well done, though.

I very quickly became very jaded about Legion–they butchered and sacrificed what could have been a great expansion in WoD, and we got…Diablo 3 features copy/pasted into WoW. At least, that’s how it felt to me at the time–M+ seemed like Greater Rifts by any other name, the terrible RNG-fest of Legion-daries was a worse version of gambling with Kadala, and the AP grinds felt a lot like farming Paragon points. Sure, there were catch-up mechanisms for AP, but it felt really bad to start from scratch every time I decided to dust off another alt, or try another spec. And it felt super bad getting Prydaz and Sephuz as my first two legendaries.

I eventually decided to walk away from WoW not too long after the Argus patch. To me, that’s the ultimate indictment of Legion: it made me lose interest in this game after having played without interruption since mid-2008. I only regret not sticking around to do the OG mage tower for the werebear skin.

9. Shadowlands

Duh. Being a great guild with great people was a good part of what kept me going through Shadowlands. That, and farming for a lot of neat cosmetics. Castle Nathria was a pretty good raid, and Sanctum was OK until Sylvanas. I do not miss Prideful, or three straight M+ seasons of farming DoS for the Hakkar tank trinket, or Korthia. At least we got more Bwonsamdi, and Zereth Mortis was a nice change of pace for the first month or two.

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Oh that’s a whole different show.

If Norman were to rate the expacs by hats:

Dragonflight - 10 gallon hats. Mongolian fur hats. Ball caps. More fedoras. Bandanas. Goggles. Furry ear flap things. Sunglasses. More pirate hats. More hoods. Roses. Beanies. Viking helms. Red pith helmet. Welding masks. The Wastewander thing. The Cavalier hat with the feather. It’s really no wonder this is so high on my favorite expac list. The hat game is epic.

Legion - Bear heads! Cavalier hats. Cool black helm that removes your face. Neat red (or brown) head-wrap hood/scarf. Cage helm. Cool goggles.

BfA - Pirate hats. Tricornes. Bicornes. Cowls. Decent goggles. Blizz stepped up the hat game.

Shadowlands - I hated this expansion, but I got a party hat, night vision goggles and coke bottle glasses.

Cataclysm - Just like the expansion, the hat factor left me empty. Top Hat though.

WoD - Nothing. Truly horrible hat expac.

Wrath - Midgard Serpent Helm was cool, but very specific. Does not hold up as an often-used hat. Wrath was best expac, but sucked for hats.

MoP - Straw farmer hat was a nice touch. Shado Pan Helm. This expac was really weak on the hat game.

Vanilla - Introduced one of my favorite hats, the Archer’s Cap. This hat was later ruined by Blizz in a patch during Shadowlands and the flaps now cover my ears, removing all style points. I may have opened several trouble tickets griping about this and subsequently been told by CS to stop opening tickets about it. The Expert Goldminer’s Helmet was introduced in Vanilla. I can usually be seen in this helm. The Fervent Helm is a chain helm, but leather. One of a kind. Ghostshroud gets a mention.

Burning Crusade: Introduced the Toshley’s Station Hero Hat, one of my absolute favorite hats in the game. Gnomes are boss in Bucket Hats… BC introduced the Stylin Hat Collection. The purple one in particular, makes me look like I stepped out of Superfly if I pair it with the Lunar Claw Pauldrons.

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