Or is it nostalgia?
Hello, I wanted to have a discussion with the fellow community on such thoughts. In hindsight, BFA seemed like a really good expansion, even better than when it was current. But is that just nostalgia? Shadowlands is also a fantastic expansion, so I feel like nostalgia is indeed a factor since it’s been a solid 9 months since prepatch was released, but what are your thoughts?
No, neither expansion is or was ever good, let alone fantastic.
Also, all trolling has an expiration date and yours ran out weeks ago.
BFA ended on a better note then it started… but it was still an abysmal expansion.
Shadowlands started better then BFA… but got worse (so far).
BFA was ok until the systems got out of control. I couldn’t keep track of all the hoops I had to jump through, and hated the visual effects of corruption.
Shadowlands is much more fun.
Objectively based on how few problems BFA had compared to SL, yes.
Overall compared to all other expansions? No, they both suck.
Yes and no. Some aspects Id argue yes for: asthetics, story, dungeons.
I felt like spending time in BfA. Not at all in Shadowlands. Everything from the main cities to the various zones were immersive. I also hate having to travel anywhere in Shadowlands.
BFA had tons of problems from the get go. far more then shadowlands.
Arguably though 9.1 was a major letdown.
BfA was okay, but Shadowlands kept me playing longer with the original release. I’ve felt SL has really picked up with 9.1 as BfA did with 8.2.
One thing that engaged me on BfA was getting Pathfinding and flying. It gave me a real goal to go after.
I did prefer the Horde side in BfA.
Pretty much this for me.
I really, really enjoyed BFA. It had its hiccups, and frankly the systems got too out of control, to the point that I actively stopped caring about them. So it wasn’t perfect. But at the end of the day the leveling zones were amazing. Faction identity felt really fleshed out in the leveling experience. The zones were beautiful and entertaining (man mechagon was fun), and to finish it all off by revisiting Uldum and the Vale really brought the old world into the spotlight, which I enjoyed. The raids were also quite neat - I really enjoyed Dazar’alor!
Shadowlands… it’s pretty enough I guess but it doesn’t feel like Azeroth. It feels like a totally different universes. And none of the zones or stories feel special, it feels kind of generic.
Editing to say that things like removing the flight master’s whistle and the single-target world quests don’t make for better exploration… it just makes daily chores more tedious lol
Some things better in bfa, somethings better in SL. both are ok.
Alts suck in both. We just don’t have to grind infinitely for something. That was their alt friendly idea. Add the weekly release of quests to that as well.
Which expac would I take over the other? Hmmmmmmmmmm. SL killed my will you play the game so I’d probably take bfa over SL. mainly because drop rates were higher.
I could go more into detail but I’m tired.
SL had some very good ground work early on, potential if you will that was squandered by stubborn justifications and strict timelines that caused the eventual launch to be un polished and full of ridged systems that add more layers of tedium that prevented many players from playing the game they way they were accustomed to. This all for the sake of “a more dynamic experience” and “more player identity”. As a result Shadowlands launched with the players a developers are completely different pages. While the systems and content was present nothing was really fleshed out. Instead of having a similar but basic loop we had in BFA we had sections of the game like The Maw which were straight up incomplete and void of meaningful content.
BFA had a different set of issue. After using a hacksaw to split all 36 specializations apart from there artifact weapon and taking away, Tier sets, Legendaries, and the controversial Netherlight crucible the team needed to fill said void with a new consolidated system of character progression which became Azerite armor. 3 systems of character progression packed in to one which made more work for blizzard then they could have anticipated. In addition you had Ion and Lore professing “Trust us to balance them” This created a conflicted concept. Why have different Azerite traits if you want them all to contribute the same amount of damage? That makes no sense what so ever. The miss placed ideal by the WoW teams managment that the system would be fine lead them to not test it nearly at all prior to release. Infact Blizzard was actively ignoring all formed of feedback from alpha and beta tester while simultaneously making it harder for them to test. When BFA launched the game was in pieces and the team didn’t communicate with the player at all. Instead they used monthly videos to trash talk the players for playing the game the only way we knew how with the borked progression system. After 2 major patches things started to come together in 8.2 but the damage was done. The lack of communication damaged the relationship the team had with players.
At this point the team has started to communicate better but still lacks any form of flexibility when it comes to feedback and execution of new systems. Feedback feels meaningless when the team just pushed forward with stuff like Covenents when everyone is telling them to stop.
BFA by the end improved on its failing at the start but not enough to save it form being a half baked and ultimately slow and un eventful expansion. SL is making similar mistakes but it feels worst because there is more communication telling us “we are doing what you don’t want us to anyway because it is to late”
Every expansion will be the same going forward until they stop digging themselves in so deep that they can’t take action on community feedback. They need to take more time and resources to get there content drops right rather then undercooking them and having the players stuffer for it.
BFA gave me a very runnable Argus to catch up on rep to get my VE’s weeks in open world gear. SL to BFA…I can kill LFR boss 1 faster with a raid crew that lost 50% of the crew to the floor boss than I can drop 1 elite in Gnome land.
Winner…BFA better, SL killed off desire to work the prior expac to kill time and get reps.
BFA let me smash 2 expac back content. WoD catchup to include mythic raid. Not even being KSM or raided up. SL…threw out the rule about 2 expac smash. Winner…BFA.
Story…the eternals make Jaina’s mom look like a super genius. In bfa I dinged her hard on how she could not see Ashvane was a very bad person. Good news jaina’s mom…you can give up the dunce cap. I will put that on the…winter queen. and make more for the rest of the morons in the afterlife.
imho i think legion and BFA had more content than shadowlands currently does when they launched lol says alot dont ya think…
I enjoyed BFA much more then SL. I was never bored in BFA there was always some too do. With SL I don’t even login anymore the content is just boring and the systems just don’t do a thing for me.
In BFA leveling alts was easy, In SL I can’t be bothered. This is the first expect that I’ve stopped playing, and that saying a lot since I’ve been a day one player of this game.
HA! No. Simply no. BFA had a horrible class design, a horrible power system, horrible island expeditions, and a horrible story.
SL at least has a much much better class design compared to that of BFA. I wouldn’t say the power system is “better” than that of BFA, though. It’s just different, and I prefer SL’s.
This aged well…
YES, for one reason. We had more high quality Jaina cutscenes. If there’s a perfect female face in existence, then she looks like Jaina.
BFA was so bad it’s the first expansion I’ve not had nostalgia over.
Legion hit, I was sad about my class changes and missed loving the raids.
BFA hit, I missed Legion dungeons and having stuff to do every day.
SL hits, and I’m thinking back to Legion, WoD and MoP.
SL was Blizz going "Hold our 
" After we all said they couldn’t make an expansion worse then BfA