Community Blog Topic Results: Most and least favorite expansions

A great expansion is one that is aesthetically pleasing, bright, with a story that makes us feel involved and in some sort of control. An expansion where gear is obtained with ease, yet you have to invest a bit of effort. Where reputation is gained with the faction by actually representing the faction. And where the villain is a known and established figure. I enjoy a good story of a fallen hero. I like the tragedy. Tragedy is cure for soul. As long as my Blood Knight is not a protagonist.

The thing is – I like a bit of greenery. I'm Welsh after all – we like our hills, valleys and bays. Vanilla WoW was home from home. Sort of. Elwynn Forest – we have one just like it 20 minutes down the road (less Defias – though there is the odd wino).Menethil Harbour – Cardiff Bay with crocolisks. The monsters of Duskwood - Swansea on a Friday night (I've had way too many drunken Stitches lumbering towards me). I have to admit I didn't like Stranglethorn- too tropical for me – you can have too much sun (and gorillas). But it wasn't long before I was off to Arathi - cue Sould of Music opening scene – my toon singing her little heart out at the top of the hill, the raptors joining in with impressive harmonies.

Wrath was my introduction to the rest of what WoW had to offer me. I was still young so I didn't grasp some concepts about the game and I was probably the worst player ever, but I enjoyed myself and even to this day Icecrown Citadel is still my favourite instance because of those first time experiences I had in there.

On the flipside, Mists of Pandaria, while introducing one of my favorite features–Pet Battles, is my least favorite expansion. Even though there have been so many quality features added, from account bound pets and mounts to Flex raids and the farm. I still have the bad taste in my mouth from not being able to fly until 90 on every toon, being forced to hit exalted with many of the same factions for recipes, and much of crafted gear to being next to worthless. Crafting in Mists is so bad, it really deserves it's own vitriolic post.

Grizzly Hills is hands down my favorite zone in this game. The landscape was so different from the other zones and the music is absolutely perfect. It was the first zone I intentionally sought out to do all the quests for the achievement even though I was 2 levels past that zone by the time I did so.

Given that, I never got to experience The Burning Crusade while it was "content," which was probably a good thing considering the 58-68 range is the part I dread most about levelling. Well, maybe right after the 50-58 range. It's hard to decide. I can't say I've hated any of the expansions I've actually played, so I'm going to give the Most Hated Expansion title to The Burning Crusade, because the parts of it I have experienced, I've hated.

While in principle, the "everyone, all-access, all-the-time" approach sounds good, in practice I find it quite ugly. BC wasn't simply hitting max level, equipping a set of PvP gear, the pressing a button to queue for a heroic. You had to work a little to get to the content. Prove yourself, even. And there was some sense of accomplishment in that, I'd argue. Also, when you grouped with others for a heroic Hellfire Ramparts it was safe to assume they, like you, had been around the block.

Worst is TBC - MASSIVELY overhyped by people drowning in nostalgia. BG's were completely brushed aside and arenas dominated everything, the vast majority of PvE development was aimed at a minute portion of the playerbase (hardcore raiders that got to Sunwell) and they didn't even *try* to balance half the specs. If your class had one viable spec you were lucky. And have fun playing on a dead realm with no cross-realm functionality outside PvP.

Mists of Pandaria, without a doubt... I love everything about this expansion as it came out -- beautiful scenery, great dungeons, great quest lines, LOVED the farm, etc. I also very much enjoyed certain parts of the patches (especially the 5.1 quest line). I do wish, though, that there had been more ways to level my alts, i.e. I'm sick of running Dread Wastes from 89-90. :)

My least favorite was Wrath. There were so many issues involving warlocks and the new vehicle stuff they introduced; often times you had to press the buttons dozens of times for it to work once! It tainted my opinion of what was otherwise a fun expansion. They did eventually get that bug worked out, but... First impressions and all that.

Oversimplification of the talent system. Story became overly scripted too (event scripting, not writing) and happened around you making you feel like a Mary Sue rather than a competent hero. Hyjal was a cluster-F of plot points and environments and served pretty much to recon and raise a bunch of dead or unkown characters for the sake of dramatics, cannibalizing some of the best lore moments. Vash just went on forever. The first few raids were interesting, but then Dragon Soul dropped and reminded us that we were troubled to care about Deathwing; a character once very interesting who just became a hydrocephalic beacon of evil with all the presence of Jack Sparrow being forcibly re-tooled into the pirates of the carribean ride. And then they gave him tentacles because old god. and then thrall fell in love. after they blew him up. and hour of twilight or something. and Deathwings head kept getting bigger and bigger...