Rate the Wow expansions from best to worst in your opinion.
1 Like
Wrath of the Lich King
Burning Crusade
Legion
Mist of Pandaria
Cataclysm
Dragonflight
Battle for Azeroth
Shadowlands
Warlords of Draenor
The War Within (TBD)
2 Likes
Probably…
MoP >= WotLK (1-80 Leveling) > Cata > Legion == WoD > (Tentatively) TWW >= Dragonflight > BfA == Shadowlands
TWW and DF would probably both be bumped up slightly if I were looking at things in hindsight and trying to not count my experiences due to friends and such, but that gets messy, so this is solely just how I felt during each. That pretty much means anything post-Legion and into the future is unlikely to ever move higher than anything before that on my list though, regardless of what Blizzard does.
I included WotLK on here because it’s when I REALLY started, but I specified leveling because I didn’t touch much Northrend stuff while it was current and frankly I don’t really enjoy it, mostly just because of the overall theme. I didn’t mention TBC or Vanilla because I didn’t play them enough to comment on. I had an older account during late TBC but it was for like 3 months and I got to level 31 or something. Never touched Vanilla.
1 Like
tbc
classic era
cata
tww
wrath
df
sl
that’s all i played anyway
-Leg (Best, imho. Class Fantasy Peak)
-Crusade Burning, The (Strongest Nostalgia, Original Flying, Blood Elves)
-Pandaria of Mists (Vastly Underrated, Amazing Artwork and Story)
-King of Lich Wrath (Best Villain, Arthas)
-Vanilly (Baseline, Biggest World)
-Flightdragon (Weak Story, Good Flying)
-Clysmcata (Removal of Old Content)
-Draenor of Warlords (Cut Too Short)
-Azeroth for Battle, The (Sylvanas)
-Landshadows (Worst)
Right now I’d throw “Within War, The” somewhere near Mists, maybe even below it as #4.
4 Likes
WOTLK 
MOP
Legion
DF
Cata
TBC
WOD
BFA
SL
It’s tough when you get to the middle, but for me the top few and bottom few are pretty easy choices.
3 Likes
I like the burning crusade, everybody was leveling in Silvermoon, made a lot of copper chain armor for my friends. Good times.
3 Likes
Leaving out vanilla and the current one:
- Wrath. Biggest jump forward in storytelling, narrative, content, zones, music, systems, everything. Just a massive improvement over TBC and still holds up well today.
- Legion. A badly-needed return to form after the content-poor idiocy of WoD. An ambitious, rich expansion with a good if over-the-top story and systems that sometimes failed but at least weren’t boring.
- Mists. Strong expac across the board, good zones, decent story. Held back by a less than compelling endgame.
- Dragonflight. Lovely zones and an impressive new flight system that complemented them, a welcome return to a somewhat lower-stakes story… but that story frankly wasn’t very good.
- BfA. Terrible overarching story. Terrible systems. Itemization that made me want to quit the game. But some of the best zones they’ve ever done, and the LOCAL stories were wonderfully executed. A flawed expansion that could have been so much more.
- Burning Crusade. I enjoyed it at the time because it was the first expac. It hasn’t aged well and you can tell they didn’t really know what they were doing. They were transitioning to having a narrative, but didn’t know how to do it yet. THey did Kael’thas dirty. The zones could have been better. Some good dungeons and Kara will always be memorable, although so will the way that their raid size changes destroyed vanilla guilds left and right. The best thing I can say about TBC is that this era’s Blizzard mostly learned from their mistakes and didn’t replicate them in Wrath.
- Cata. Deathwing wasn’t much of a villain to follow Arthas. Then again, how are you gonna follow Arthas? A disjoined mess of an expac that gave us Garrosh, nearly ruined Thrall, and did nothing with Gilneas City. Also Piano Lock.
- WoD. Everyone initially thought the plot summary of WoD was a joke because of how weird and strange it was. WoD is one of those bizarre Blizzard things where they did a time-travel story and then did almost nothing with the time-travel aspect of it. But beyond that, garrisons were a failure and there was a massive content drought. WoD may not be the worst expac, but it’s definitely the one the least effort went into on Blizzard’s part.
- Shadowlands. Shadowlands is why you don’t get a novel author to plot your MMO expac, because MMOs are not novels. Narratively Shadowlands is probably the worst thing Blizzard’s ever done. Lorewise, too. Most of its zones were unexceptional at best, dull at worst. The Jailer may well be the least successful villain in the franchise’s history. Mechanically? Also a failure. COVENANTS. gibber
Of course, all of this is from my perspective and based on what I find important… so YMMV.
5 Likes
Legion = MoP >> WotLK = BC > BFA = WoD > Cata >> SL >>>> TWW > DF
I didn’t play BC or DF, so I will exclude them.
- Legion: As a casual player that enjoys playing around on multiple classes as well as having story to engage with, Legion was just jam packed full of content. It certainly had its issues like AP power early on, but I wasn’t pushing M+ or raiding and so that didn’t impact me too much. What did impact me was each class having its own questlines (from order hall to class mounts) and each spec having its own weapon with a number of appearances and colour variations that could be unlocked for them. Throw in stuff like the Mage Tower and you have an expansion with tons for players like me to sink our teeth into. It’s story was solid overall too, largely thanks to it being centered around a longterm foe of ours, the Burning Legion.
- WotLK: Content wise, I don’t have particularly fond memories of Wrath. It certainly wasn’t the smorgasbord of content Legion was. That said, Arthas is probably the single greatest villain WoW has ever had and there was weight to the story that I don’t think we’ve seen since. Wrath finds itself here on my list almost entirely because of Arthas and its story - oh, and the introduction of DKs, which I am a big fan of thematically.
- MoP: The whole panda thing never bothered me. The story was good, the whole Garrosh thing was fine back then as we didn’t have the Vol’jin/Sylvanas situation compounding on it. It didn’t have as much as Legion, but between things like scenarios and the Isle of Thunder/Timeless Isle there was a good amount of content outside of traditional dungeons and raids.
- TWW (Currently): This could go up, but I can’t see myself rating it lower than the expansions below it. I already enjoy its storyline more than Cata, WoD, BfA & Shadowlands, and the fact that Blizzard has started to plan storylines across multiple expansions gives me hope that we may see the sort of story we haven’t seen since Wrath (which I think was as good as it was because it had more time to build up, via the initial Warcraft series). Besides that, the introduction of a number of evergreen systems like Warbands, Delves, Follower Dungeons and Storymode Raids is enough for me to put it above the expansions below it already. I think those alone give the game more that interests me than any of the expansions below did across their entire lifespan.
- WoD: Not a huge fan of the story, I wasn’t really a fan of us going to an alternate timeline, though it was interesting to see some areas and characters “as they were”. Levelling in WoD was solid, but I found Garrison’s to be poorly implemented and to top it all off the expansion seemed to lose steam quickly. Especially for someone like me who isn’t in to dungeons or raids.
- Cata: I actually enjoyed Deathwing as a villain. I loved the trailer for Cata where he has the plates hammered onto his body and bursts from the ground. I also just generally enjoy his design. Even being randomly killed by him out in the world was flavourful in its own way. That said, I don’t recall Cataclysm having much content that really gripped me, and unlike Wrath it didn’t have an A+ story to carry it.
- BfA: I had high hopes heading into this expansion. It had a fantastic trailer, and returning to a more grounded war between the Horde and Alliance after an expansion of fighting against the interdimensional threat that is the Legion (which itself came on the heels of the above alternate timeline fiasco) seemed like it would be a good change of pace. As a Forsaken main, there was also Sylvanas being thrust into the spotlight, with her actions at the Broken Shore and speech after Vol’jin’s death (as well as Blizz outright stating that she would not be Garrosh 2.0) giving me hope that she might see meaningful character progression and the Forsaken might see meaningful progression alongside her. The pre-patch event pretty much killed that as Sylvanas was immediately made into Garrosh 2.0, and the story really didn’t get much better from there. Add to that the disappointing execution of Islands/Battlefronts, which weren’t anywhere close to what was advertised, and things like Azerite armour and you end up with an expansion that overall just wasn’t all that compelling. This is also the expansion where WoW really started to feel like a drag to play, where I started to feel like I had laundry lists of chores to do every time I logged in that detracted from me doing things I enjoy.
- SL: Covenants were a cool idea and I think they have a lot to like (plenty of cool things to unlock). Levelling was also solid with some zones that were great thematically. I didn’t really like going to the afterlife (much like the alternate timeline stuff of WoD) and the storyline took everything wrong with the story of BfA and cranked it up to 11. As a Forsaken main I had to watch as our faction leader became a caricature of herself, and found that not only did Sylvanas and the Forsaken not receive meaningful growth as I had hoped they would heading into BfA - but instead Sylvanas would end up actively harmed and the Forsaken largely forgotten and left to wallow in a state where they arguably have even less of an identity than before. Add to that the whole Jailer fiasco, where you not only had a main villain that was utterly uninteresting, but one that was shoehorned into previously beloved lore. Then to top it all off, you have poorly designed systems and the worsening of the feeling of having to do chores and grind things in order to play the game. I would be shocked if Blizzard ever made another expansion I dislike more than Shadowlands. I was soo displeased by what I experienced through BfA and SL that, as I said, I didn’t even return for DF. If it wasn’t for things like Delves and follower dungeons, I probably wouldn’t have even returned for TWW either. SL left that much of a sour taste in my mouth.
3 Likes
- Legion - Most actual content in an expansion ever. The GOAT!
- Wrath of the Lich King - Story and theme were unmatched.
- Burning Crusade - The hype was unreal and warranted.
- Mists of Pandaria - A surprisingly welcome reprieve.
- Cataclysm - They tried something dramatic and new.
- Dragonflight - Back to formula! The recipe was solid and simple.
- BFA - Too all over the place, both narratively and gameplay wise.
- Shadowlands - A strong start, but sheer torture afterwards.
- Warlords - Something is better than nothing, and this was 99% nothing.
The War Within - TBD, but already enjoying it more than my 7-9.
2 Likes
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Original wow
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Legion
-
Wrath of Lich King / burning crusade (tie)
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Shadowlands (did great on dungeons and raids)
-
war with in (like story, disliking scaling of content and artificial currency roadblocks and artificial seasons)
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dragonflight (because dragon flying, was hoping for dragon fighting dragons….got nothing)
This is the only proper list.
TBC
WOTLK
CATA
MOP
WOD
LEGION
BFA
SL
DF
TWW
Every expansion has been worse than the last.
1 Like
I dont get the love for legion.
Legendary weapons were a dumb idea. PVP stat templates ruined PVP. Allied races were a dumb idea. And the story was just desperate nostalgia bait.
2 Likes
Other than class halls, I wasn’t a big fan of Legion either.
My list is: MoP, Cata, Wotlk, BFA, BC, WoD, Legion, SL. Not sure where Tww falls yet, still early. And I didn’t play Vanilla.
Hmm, for me. Having played from vanilla to today… (original vanilla always the top of the list, just because it was my first introduction to the game I’ve been playing for 20+ years now). The War Within… To early to tell. So not placing it on this list.
Legion, hands down my favorite. Hunter was the most fun to play. I even had the bubblehead puppy dog pet for a few days before it was patched out. Class halls should have carried over, in mini outposts every expansion afterwards to be honest. First time I had ever cried at a cinematic. The feels! (you know which one)
Dragonflight - People are going to hate the reason why, but they finally made crafting interesting, and useful to do with this expansion. I also love dracthyr.
Wrath of the Lich King / Burning Crusade. These 2 expansions were when I was really hardcore raiding. Had a ton of fun. Back when guilds were more like family.
Warlords of Draenor - A lot will hate this, but the only reason it sucked was the huge content gap, otherwise this was a fun expansion and if you had alts, you were making insane money off the garrison stuff.
Mists of Pandaria. Kinda forgetful, it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t memorable for me. Missed out on the wolf mount by a few days. Didn’t even know about the scenario armor sets… Regrets!
Cataclysm. Didn’t care for it, felt boring, I didn’t even bother raiding in this one. First time I hadn’t in any expansion… until…
Battle For Azeroth. Hated it. Only good thing is the allied races that came from it. Otherwise, no thanks, never again. Didn’t even bother raiding at all either. None of it looked interesting.
Shadowlands. I didn’t like the setting. I didn’t like the music. I didn’t like the raids. I didn’t like the mounts. I didn’t like the pets. I didn’t like anything about it. Feels more like a boring filler expansion if anything. Torghast PTSD is REAL!
- BFA - Horrific Visions was the best Solo game where Group could become harder especially when your Groupmate is incompetent who just want to be carried; Nzoth - most fun Raid Boss, where LFR keeps on failing; Vision - the best mechanics I have ever seen where something is trying to kill you and nobody can see them except you, Just imagine you are engaging a tough boss to do its mechanics and you see Visions trying to kill you on top of that - thats the best Superfun I’ve seen in WoW. Also Crucible of Storms Raid- only Raid when you apply all your basic knowledge of Raiding, you would WIPE. LFR is wipefest from start to finish. Blizz was trolling and it was hilarious and funny. ROFL.
- Shadowlands - it has the best M+ dungeons for me; Torghast and the Maw has the best depiction of Hell… players suffering, you think Hell is fair? Hand Mount = best mount; Mawsworn Tmog = most badazz T-mog; Rae’shalare Deathwhisper = awesome Bow from Sylvanas; Easiest Progression when you stick to one Covenant
- Dragonflight - is like Shadowlands 2
- Vanilla and TBC - Game that first destroyed MMO competition; Massive Maps; introduced how MMO could be awesome
- Legion - Introduced Raid Finder - not LFR for noobs - Can now Raid without a guild; M+ was BORN
- Wrath - Era when Masterloot is abused. Gold DKP was superfun. I know it’s unfair to noobs but they like to share all their gold just by giving them easy to get Epics. Where Flying Mount is experienced fully but very expensive. (End of TBC was where flying introduced but it’s too expensive to most players)
- the rest… no M+ yet, no Raidfinder for Raids, requires guild to raid, Vanilla players all became Casual, Raid Finder or Dungeon Finder is a MUST.
- WoD - becoz of boring Garrison; it turned WoW like a Barbie game; Where are the players in the main city? Ghost town cities becoz everyone sat on their own garrison. And when you are expecting new massive content from a patch, they gave you just a Selfie Camera and nothing more?
Whenever I see one of these threads I have to remind everyone that WoD was, is, and forever shall be the absolute worst expansion. SL was better and I quit for 5 months. Hello Kitty: Adventure Island was a better WoW expansion.
- TBC/Wrath - TBC was when I first started, and had a lot of fun, and wrath was also very fun.
- MoP - One expansion that I thought was going to be bad turned out to be one expansion was quite good.
- Cata - Some people would hate me for this, but Cata still had a lot more good to it
- Legion - It was fun during the second half of the expansion, but the RNG, the insane grinding etc…
- BfA - It was the last expansion where I did have fun. That is all.
- DF/WoD - It wasn’t up to the expectations. As for WoD, the expansion was fun, it just lacked content.
- SL - Worse expansion outright. That is no competition.
I didn’t put Vanilla in, because Vanilla was the base game, and not an expansion, plus, never played it.
And I didn’t put TWW in because it is too early to say, but with how somethings have been, it could be placed below Legion. But too early to say.
best: TBC and Legion hands down
worst: vanilla wow