dragonflight.
1 Like
WoTLK, MoP, and Legion, for me personally.
Vanilla, oddly enough, I liked because of how unfleshed out it was, like the mystery of the world was the biggest then, because we knew the least about it.
Titans? What the hell are those?
And Earthen were just enemies we saw in Uldaman.
It’s simply crazy, how far the lore has advanced.
3 Likes
I prefer MoP’s AvH plot over BFA’s for a few reasons.
-
MoP’s AvH plot was built up over several expansions. Through the proxy battles in vanilla and TBC. The escalation of the conflicts in Wrath (Wrathgate fall out, invasion of Undercity, Broken Front massacre etc) ultimately lead into Cata where the AvH conflict is the secondary plot. Although mostly regulated to the revamped vanilla zones. In contrast BFA only really had Ashran from WoD and Stormhiem from Legion. Only one of which was really referenced in the actual story of their respective expansion.
-
MoP’s AvH conflict was present throughout the expansion, being at least involved in some of the leveling zones (mainly Jade Forest and Kun-Lai Summit) and in every major patch (even 5.2 had the pvp dailies). It is also the cause of many of the neutral enemies we fight in MoP. The Sha, Mogu & Zandalari, Mantid swarm etc all root back to the AvH conflict in Jade Forest. The Sha are unleashed, this causes a chain reaction throughout the land. Shek’zeer gets corrupted by Fear and unleashes the swarm 10 years in advance. This causes the Yaungol to seek refuge in Kun-Lai Summit. Between us, the sha and the mantid, the Yaungol were too much for the Shado-Pan. With the Shado-pan streached too thin, the Mogu and their Zandalari allies see the perfect opportunity to resurrect Lei Shen. Which they succeed in doing. And one wonders why Taran Zhu fell to Hatred. Even Chi-Ji falls to Despair because of all of this. Yu-lon’s reincarnation cycle is interrupted because of the conflict (it is implied that the High Priestess of Yu’lon gave up her own life to bring back her goddess via phase 3 of her encounter). BFA’s felt like an after thought during the leveling campaigns, being regulated to side quests (some of which want to pretend that they are part of the MSQ’s). It’s big focus was patch 8.1 but after that it is an afterthought again. Hell the final major patch does not have it at all. The story ends in 8.2.5 with a very disappointing ‘siege of orgrimmar 2, banshee boogaloo’. BFA’s AvH doesn’t really interact with the Old God stuff at all. The only time it kind of does is offscreen when Sylvanas and Azshara form their little bargain via Ashvane. Until N’zoth points it out in his encounter. Sylvanas via Nathanos leads Sylvanas’ enemies to Nazjatar where he would give the Naga Queen the empty blade formally known as Xal’atath in exchange, Azshara will kill Sylvanas’ enemies.
Say what you will about Garrosh but one aspect I like is how his encounter brings his negative character arc full circle. Having him draw on power from an Old God that gains strength from negative emotions was great. The Sha realms we enter in the phase 2 intermissions are the same emotions that controlled Garrosh in his youth. Fear, Despair and Doubt. Fear that if given a position of leadership he would repeat the same mistakes as his father (which he does). As a result he doubts himself and those around him. He has no idea why he was chosen as the future leader of the Mag’har for when Geyrah dies. Ultimately this causes him to fall into despair until Thrall restores his sense of pride in himself, his father and his family name. He even points this out as possible dialogue when you enter one of the sha realms. “See the visions of Fear, Despair and Doubt as I have”. Garrosh also followed a similar path to Arthas. Both of them were promising young men born to rule but ultimately threw away their family legacy (symbolized by their weapons) into picking up a weapon that promises to deliver salvation onto their people.
Garroshs’ encounter is honestly the best end of expansion boss Blizzard has ever done in terms of blending together the mechanics of the encounter and the story of the character involved. Garrosh beings the fight with only his own strength and his loyalists. Backed into a corner he begins to drain Y’shaarj’ heart. Something the Old God actually encourages, as seen in the intermissions. Ultimately Garrosh grows desperate and fully takes in the Old Ones power, believing that it is his destiny to rule over all of Azeroth. Which is realized in the mythic only phase. A future that awaits Stormwind if Garrosh wins. Hell the first thing you see when you enter the boss room is not Garrosh but Y’shaarj’ heart. That monster is the true threat if we fail to stop Garrosh.
It is also funny how the Defias, missing diplomat and the whole Onyxia conspiracy is the best conspiracy plot Blizzard has done in Warcraft. Really the first major one and they hit gold with it.
7 Likes
I agree. Wrath was amazing.
1 Like
Shadowlands baby here.
Going back to the post-game of several of the Warcraft expansions and honestly I think WoTLK is the best in my opinion.
MoP had some amazing moments but I think even by the end it to me doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the ‘I’ll leave you alive just for now cause you’re a main character tedium’ the game had already been experiencing for 6.
I know I know it’s an MMO so they can’t exactly kill a whole bunch of important people off but it never made much sense when we’re killing so many of each others soldiers.
For that reason I commend DF (and SL unfortunately) for being a bit more real with the faction interaction so we don’t have to be fake enemies.
Tbh I’d say legion.
At least the first half. Loremastering and doing all 12 class hall lines. Then getting all the broken shore class mounts.
Like I still remember doing the line to get my dk class mount. Or the first time traveling to skyreach on my war. Retaking the peak of serenity as a monk.
Defending the exodar, seeing what the light crystal was and velen’s prophecy.
There was a lot going on.
1 Like
Toss up between Wrath and MOP for me. Lots of iconic characters, the individual zones had good stories, and some really good villains (except the whole Garrosh going Orc supremacist).
1 Like
While WoW’s writing has always been
I’d say Wrath, for wrapping up WCIII (Arthas never showed up in shadowlands, never happened, his story ends on Icecrown.)
Alternatively, I like the leveling stories in Legion.
The combination of Warcraft III and Wrath. The Arthas story was by far their best. It was like King Lear in a video game, the mentally tormented tragic hero with an impossible choice who loses his soul by picking one of two bad alternatives.
I can agree on MoP. In the first quests, opening day, I saw these sha things, oily and repulsive, leap into a man. I wanted to throw up. We have to fix that!
In my opinion, MoP. Sadly, a lot of the mature themes went over a lot of peoples’ heads at the time and still do.
3 Likes
Vanilla through AQ
Vanilla because it didn’t have some large scale over-arching story campaign to be terrible. We were just adventurers doing adventurer things.
The side stories of recent wow have been knocking it out of the park. The old Dragonmaw orc in Dragonflight, the Alzheimer’s analogy quest in Khaz Algar. I can’t point to any one expansion but I can point to quest chains that have moved me in the past.
1 Like
MoP and Legion by far.
Yeah, I think a LOT of people get hyper-focused on the Kung-fu Panda memes and completely ignored the actual writing and context of the zones. The entire lore surrounding the Sha and how negative emotions can take over your mind and body was a very interesting part of the MOP story.
I agree with Mists. I think it was the best expansion, and that it had the best writing. The thing people don’t consider about Mists is that it was the first brand-new setting in WoW. Everything before had existed in WC3 and been built from there, but Mists was brand new, and they really did a fantastic job with it. The lore, the ambiance, everything about it was top notch. And there were so many other stories aside from the grand narrative going on. It had more depth than any expansion before or since and really should stand as the idealized expansion, aside from the fact that the end of it drug out for soooo long.
2 Likes
wrath of the lich king and it isn’t close
Writing?
MoP (top tier by far, but people can’t get past “pandas”) > Legion (Illidan retcons notwithstanding) > Wrath
WoD had potential, the leveling part was great too, but they dropped the ball midway.
Classic self-contained plotlines are very good as well.
MoP is simply amazing when it comes to new Lore.
Absolutely great on themes, character actions, motivation etc.
There is nothing that compares in WoW, and it’s even better than many standalone games.
This was in the Thunder Isle right? I barely remember doing this again in Remix.
I miss MoP Remix… QQ
Is one of the worst written expansions, tied with SL, yes, we know.
WoD had really good leveling storylines, but I think MoP peaked for me with the Klaxxi.