In an effort to satisfy both groups, Blizzard ushered in the creation of World of Warcraft Classic to please the former group and has continued full-steam ahead for retail players, but each expansion’s merit has to be measured with the entirety of the World of Warcraft player base in mind. As the pre-expansion events for Dragonflight get underway, it’s a perfect time to look back and compare each expansion over the years.
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The Burning Crusade: The first, and to many, the very best, The Burning Crusade may not be considered as innovative as subsequent expansions, but nearly every single change it brought was a welcome one. It streamlined the experience of the original game and further defined the roles of each class. From The Arcatraz to Sunwell Plateau, the raids and dungeons of The Burning Crusade are still fondly remembered among the best that the game has ever produced, but the first expansion is revered primarily for its quality-of-life improvements and balancing. The Burning Crusade took Vanilla and polished it up in nearly every aspect. Wrath of the Lich King: Wrath of the Lich King opened with one of World of Warcraft’s most memorable pre-patch events and never let up. While The Burning Crusade was more about scrubbing up the issues with Vanilla, Wrath was more about ushering in new content and leaning heavily into Warcraft’s rich lore. Wrath brought a more hardcore raid-heavy focus to the game that didn’t sit well with many players, but experiences like Ulduar and Ice Crown Citadel still shine as the perfect example of blending a captivating story with engrossing gameplay.
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Mist of Pandaria: By the time Mists of Pandaria rolled around, Blizzard has learned a few important lessons from previous expansions. The painstaking wait between raid releases during Wrath of the Lich King was a serious problem, and Cataclysm’s massive changes suggested that Blizzard had stepped too far away from its original focus. Mists of Pandaria was borne by these hard-learned lessons, re-centering the game and simultaneously taking a bold step forward. In terms of end-game content, Mists of Pandaria is still considered by many to be the pinnacle. Legion: There’s a great deal of similarity between the way Mists of Pandaria and Legion were perceived. Like Pandaria, Legion’s end-game raids are held in high regard, but it was both expansions’ content-first focus that made them so popular with fans. Legion was a lengthy experience in the best way possible. It gave hardcore, dedicated players an endless amount of ways to work on their characters and explore max-level content like never before. The major knock against Legion was that it was slow out of the gate, presenting a fairly uninspiring patch to begin, and slowly building towards being one of the better-received expansions.
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Cataclysm: When it first dropped, Cataclysm had enormous promise. It introduced beloved dungeons and early raids that were well-received, but as it trended towards a lackluster final raid and unsatisfying conclusion, Cataclysm slowly slipped down from great to a mediocre or slightly better-than-average expansion. In defense of Cataclysm, the expansion maintained a solid balance between the classes and was one of the better expansions for a PvP experience. Despite Blizzard gauging interest in Cataclysm for World of Warcraft Classic, most players agree that the train should stop at Wrath of the Lich King. Warlords of Draenor: Blizzard took a massive risk with Warlords of Draenor by introducing the garrison system. Ultimately, it’s probably fair to say that the idea did not pan out as intended, but Warlords of Draenor offset the maligned garrisons with an amazing leveling experience—arguably the best World of Warcraft has ever been—that saw the introduction of cinematics during quests as well as beautifully laid-out and aesthetically pleasing areas. Like any of the polarizing expansions, Warlords of Draenor offered some enjoyable changes to the game but underdelivered in terms of end-game content and storyline.
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Battle for Azeroth: For many, Battle for Azeroth was arguably the overall worst state that World of Warcraft had even been in. An exploration of the lore of Azeroth’s Fourth War held enormous promise, but both the leveling and end-game experience left something to be desired. The Warfront system felt unimportant, there was a total dearth of end-game content, and the grind to max level was as tedious as ever. In hindsight, Battle for Azeroth was likely intended as an attempt to bring casual players back into the game after Legion, but the net result was an expansion that simply alienated long-term inveterate players.
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Shadowlands: The leveling experience in World of Warcraft was considered at an all-time low in Battle for Azeroth, but Shadowlands presented an even worse alternative. While it was visually enticing, the Shadowlands expansion was a railroaded, grind-intensive mess. Not only did the expansion force players to grind through four different-yet-familiar Covenant zones, but the experience that followed in Torghast was mindless grinding in its most raw form. Aside from those core issues, Shadowlands also has struggled to maintain a steady flow of new content that has meant a huge portion of the player base fled after grinding to max level.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight launches on November 28 on PC.
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