WoD was the absolute lowest point of the game. There was a severe lack of stuff to do outside of raiding, tonnes of cut content and abandoned storylines, an entire patch missing. And of course, most infamously, the announcement that there would be no flying in draenor, and the subsequent fallout from that, and blizzard’s quick pivot to implement pathfinder for the first time.
Don’t let the hindsight and nostalgia fool you. That expansion was a disaster.
Because they didn’t play it at the time, and the levelling experience was excellent. The end game was non-existent and it was actually a really traumatic time for anyone playing.
The content was very good, what little of it was there.
It just got cut short, and a lot of content was scrapped early on in development, that’s why it was panned so hard.
WoD basically ended too early, while we were playing it. And we knew of the content that got scrapped too, like Shattrath and Farahlon.
It was kinda insulting.
We as consumers had no idea until the trainwreck happened in front of us, I have no idea what happened internally.
I know a lot of people have written of WoW for good after that expansion alone, it was the first really ‘bad’ expansion we had, where we got burned hard. Ideas like the garrison kinda failed and left people with bad expectations.
WoD Naval quests sucked.
What content? WoD is famous for a distinct lack of content. Seems like people aren’t remembering it correctly lol
I never got how more mud, straw, maybe some animal parts cost say 5000gold.
Horde got screwed here. If it had to be that crap, lets make it cheap.
Alliance you see what 5K gold you. Stones, masonry work, yeah that costs money.
Mudhuts is…go find some nice dirt. Make it wet, dig it up, slap them into a wall.
when it had content… it was pretty good… it just didnt have content for a long time.
HFC lasted a year i think… not good.
mission table and ship yard where pretty meh but a good way of making money. the chores of doing the mines and herb garden where often left to rot instead of harvested but for a time it was pretty good.
the fishing area in the frostwolf garrison was pretty awesome ngl. spent hours there.
brf was nice with really cool boss mechanics and nice loot.
highmaul was… meh in some ways but not bad.
WoD could have been so much more. dude in highmaul there was a cutscene where chogal saved kargath but legit it got cut shortly after. clearly it was supposed to be something more but turned into nothing.
if wod lived up to its full potential it would have been the best but it isnt…
I have seen a lot of polls. WOD does badly in most of them.
The setting. Draenor before it was the shattered husk known as Outland. A world of unparalleled beauty, with a thriving population of Draenei before they were wiped out and their works left in ruins.
Music was great, though that can be said for many expansions. Did you see how many doodads were added in WoD? Tons! The graphical update didn’t do my male Night Elves any favors, but it worked wonders on my other characters. The Garrison, when not viewed as a replacement for Capital Cities or player housing, are still to this day a wonderfully aesthetic and utilitarian feature for player use.
The greatest failures of WoD are not just the content drought, but also the aborted main campaign storylines. The loss of Shattrath as a useable city, and that terrible rewrite that had Grommash saying that infamous line. Also the multiple garrison locations that were scrapped. Admiral Taylor getting ghosted off screen, etc. I still remember the leaked dialogue from the Steam Tank event. Yrel’s development was horribly rushed about halfway through, and so much more.
Take a character, whether an unleveled alt, or even your main if you want. And go play the expansion for the couple days before the next expansion releases. Go see what you’ve missed out on, and only heard about it being bad. Even if you played it when WoD was live, it can be worth it to relive the experience. I did, and even though I quit around the Selfie Camera patch, coming back was one of the best experiences I’ve had in WoW in recent years. Take your time, explore the world of Draenor, find the hidden areas and secret locations.
If you pay close attention, you’ll notice when things went off the rails in regards to development. When they cut the expansion short, rewrote the story, and sent the teams to go focus on Legion instead. It’s a shame, as WoD had SO much potential. If that’s not your jam, consider talking a slow walk through Boralus in the BFA zone of Tiragarde Sound. Under the leafy canopies of Zandalar’s jungle, or whatever else would suit you.
The latest and greatest(supposedly) isn’t always where WoW shines.
There can be some debate about what expansion belongs at the top, WoD undeniably belongs at the bottom
well from what this one was, mos def
WoD is hated because thats the first time they tried to wage war on flying so they could deliver less and pretend it was more. If they never ever ever implemented pathfinder WoD would have gone down as one of the better expansions. Story-wise when questing it’s a banger, the raids are all bangers from a technical and thematic point of view, Ashran was fun (subjective, I’ll give you that).
It also had an insanely long lul at the end with nothing really going on that affected it really negatively, but the majority of the visceral hatred was rooted in pathfinder.
I hate to admit this, but I am still using gold from WoD. Still have about 1 year’s worth subscriptions left. Bought TWW Epic edition with gold. I have nightmares about resuming payment with real money. 
I do really doubt it. People was bashing agaisnt it all days long. I remember it as the most hated xpack compwting with cata ( wich for aome reason people now loves).
I playes WoD cuz gold making was so cazy. I capped tokens and horded ton of real $ in my blizard wallet.
The xpac felt half-baked. Huge content droughts and the content we did get was meh at best and awful at worst (hello, shipyard!) This was also the first xpac they introduced the infamous pathfinder achievement.
For me personally it was the garrisons. They were a great concept that was completely wiped upon somebody’s 
in development and then handed to us as it was. Non-customizable, timegated, grindy, and boring. The main allure of them were non-unique conveniences you can get in any main city, like an AH and ports. They made the main cities feel barren and deserted because everyone was in their garrison. WoD devs failing garrisons are probably why Blizzard is never going to revisit the idea of player housing again, and why the people who wanted player housing loathed them so badly. It’s like someone telling you “I got the ice cream you’ve been craving!” and you open the container and it’s frozen broccoli.
While Legion will always remain my favorite expansion of all time (WotLK a close 2nd), WoD would be my 3rd favorite.
After upgrading my garrison once and hitting max level, I took a year off from the game (I typically do this when life gets crazy or WoW burns me out). Upon returning, upgraded garrison, obtained upgraded legendary ring, completed a challenge mode dungeon, achieved AOTC on all raids, started streaming my dungeon, and more. The pace of the expansion was certainly on par with my personal life.
I definitely played it at the time. Loved it then, still love it, now.