Hi all
I am returning to WoW; my last serious game time was back in 2006. Since then, the whole game has changed so much it is really confusing for an old guy like me.
Do I need to buy all the expansions (e.g. Mists of Panderia, Shadowlands, etc.) to play that content (I currently only have the base game)? What if I join a party and I don’t have those expansions and my party wants to go to those areas?
A base account (which just requires a subscription) gets you access to everything through BfA. Right now, you’ll still have to buy Shadowlands to get access to that content. Shadowlands will very likely be rolled into the base game when Dragonflight goes live, and there’s a lot of other content to explore, so the only reason I can think of to buy it right now is if you really want the Dragonflight pre-order reward. (You can’t buy Dragonflight without first buying Shadowlands.)
As Shadowlands is 50-60 content (you’ll be capped at 50 without it) you won’t find people of your level doing that content, so it’s not really a concern.