TBC: everything - raids, zones, story, immersion
WOTLK: same as above, just 20 times better.
Cataclysm: Vashj’ir zone. Seems unpopular, but I liked it a lot.
MoP: PvP
WoD: PvP system, zones music
Legion: story, zones music and atmosphere (esp. Stormheim)
BFA: Drustvar questline, music and atmosphere
Vanilla: Introducing me to mmorpg’s
TBC: Karazhan and Belfs
WOTLK: Arthas and of course Me (Deathknights)
Cataclysm: Dragons lots of Dragons
MoP: Class identity
WoD: An amazing intro (first time round)
Legion: EVERYYYYYYTHINGGGGGGGG
BFA: Ummmmmmm giving me more free time irl
2 Likes
Vanilla - Economy
TBC - Outland
WoTLK - Achievements
Cata - Dungeons
MoP - Everything
WoD - Hellfire Citadel
Legion - Mythic+
BFA - Shadowlands (I hope)
vanilla - animations, they felt so fluid/natural, also every race had distinct animations for all abilities,movement and so on. i could name more things but the animations were,and still are, the thing that most impressed me about the game.
tbc - class balance/viability. sure the balance wasn’t perfect, neither in pve nor in pvp, but i think it was not too far off.
wotlk - death knights and the lore/zone design.
cata - transmog
mop - monks i guess
wod - questing
legion - lore + focus on classes with the class hall
bfa - i guess the nazjatar chest dailies ( the ones where u unwind the leylines and the one with the colors). for some reason i really like those. the turtle faction dailies aren’t bad, but i really despise having to protect the small turtles. at least we haven’t had those type of dailies. also the lore is interesting.
edit: oh and mechagnomes… i like the steampunk feeling with those 
Vanilla - the beginning of it all
TBC - Flying
WotLK - Achievements
Cata - Worgen/Goblins
MoP - Legendary Quest Line
WoD - Garrison
Legion - Order Hall
BFA - Allied Races
Vanilla: Not an expension pack but an entire new game where your travel a world full of stuff.
The world felt big, alive and full of jerks.
While wow did get better in some ways it forgot what made it fun in the first place.
Big open world with different zones and classes.
Most enjoyment i got from classic was being the guild alchemist.
You just cant get that anymore.
Everything is samy.
Moving on:
The burning crusade: Flying, and demons to enslave for warlocks.
Wrath of the lich king: Fun gameplay, decent lore(there must always be a lich king and arthas outsmarting ner’zul crap not withstanding the story and gameplay where quiet nice)
Cataclysm: Add flying to the old world.
And that is all the good it did.
Poor beloved ashenvale.
Mist of pandaria had good gameplay, decent story(a few nick picks here and there but that is every story) bautiful lands, neutral charaters that really shoud have been there own faction(i mean pandaria is just as big as the eastern kingdom/kalimdor and the pandarian militery is on par with both alliance and horde)
Warlords of dreanor (covers himself in fire protection and troll repelent) Garrisons.
A pity it got cut.
I like the idea of garrisons.
I would much rather have racial buildings and a focus on accauly multi base construction but even the water down version is still fun.
It feels great to lead your people armies across a world and conquer it for the glory of the kaldorei.
Legion: Class fantasy is back and everyone has there own class hall 
Really the only dowside i can think of is class halls not being costumizable like garrisons.
Battle for azaroth: Still waiting to find something blizzard did well.
Yes, my opinion above
Things I remember fondly (not necessarily good or innovative ones).
Vanilla: The whole game to be honest in a time where MMOs where still niche. Vanilla WoW sucked in many ways, but it had a certain feeling to it
Burning Crusade: Reduction of Raidsize to a managable 25 instead of an insane 40. KARAZHAN!
LichKing: The width of it. The continent was huuuge with very distinct Biomes. Ulduar, still the best Raid ever made. And the Argent Tournament (not the Raid, the Dailies).
Cataclsym: Honestly, there was nothing. Thats why I stopped playing this one after a year. Wait, was Vashjir Cataclysm? I guess I liked that one.
Pandaria: The surprise at myself at how much I liked that expansion. Like many I was expecting to hate it (because of Pandas and Comic-Asia). But soon after the Intro it just clicked. The expansion is fun, the landscape is stunningly beautiful (something Blizzard never managed after). And the Farmer-Faction and their garden. Oooh the Garden, how I loved it.
Warlords: Honestly, many People bash on that expansion, I loved it. I liked the zones, I liked the Semi-Open Warzone (the only time I ever did more than 5 minutes of PvP was in Ashran, because it reminded me a little bit of DaoC and Warhammer), and, bash me all you want, I absolute ADORED the Garisson and the Missiontable. Collecting Companions was the most fun I ever had in WoW.
Legion: Story and Mechanics-Wise the best expansion ever. Artifactweapons and Legendaries where a godsend. Those two alone made me play enthusiastically throughout the whole expansion. Aside from the Broken Shore I also liked the expansion-zones. Argus was really good. The only thing I didnt like was the Aesthetics. Too much Fel-Green, too many similar zones.
BfA: Oh boy, here comes the big one. What I like is Allied Races and Drustvar. What I hate is pretty much anything else. Worst of all is that you see in every corner how low an efford Blizzard made this expansion. No legendaries (besides a motherfrickin necklace!) no fun mechanic. No good Minigames (not even an Orderhall), no class identity, no Nothing. Island Expeditions serve no purpose (and really should be a solo challenge), WarZones are kinda good, but very repetitive and have no real Ashran`ey vibe to it.
I hope 8.3 is good, but I honestly doubt it at this point. Plus, Blizzard releasing those AFTER the holidays really is a kick in the groin. Thanks for that…
Shadowlands: Honestly, with the infos we have at the moment, I am pretty sure it will be even worse than BfA, plus time for me to finally quit.
1 Like
Vanilla: Forsaken
TBC: Blood Elves 
Wrath: Death Knights
Cata: destruction of older zones
Pandaria: Music
WoD: Garrison (could be better tho)
Legion: Class Halls and their quests
BFA: Vulpera 
Vanilla: not expansion,
TBC: blood elves
WOTLK: ICC
Cataclysm: Molten front and firelands
MoP: Tiller’s farm
WoD: the shadowmoon questline
Legion: class stories
BFA: Kul tiras lore and music
Vanilla: Didnt play.
TBC: Didnt play.
Wrath: Didnt play.
Cataclysm: Certain classes, zones, and Zul’Gurub/Zul’Aman.
MoP: Everything.
WoD: Music, leveling, some class designs.
Legion: Not sure, wasn’t a huge fan of the expac since Demons are boring.
BFA: Leveling, Vulpera.
Good dungeon difficulty? Transmog? PvP? Class design?
You can’t say Cataclysm had nothing going for it.
Vanilla: Creating a living, breathing world to get lost in.
The Burning Crusade: Raiding (and by extension the main storyline) made more accessible for the average player.
Wrath of the Lich King: Northrend designed to be more like a cohesive continent rather than just a collection of unrelated zones.
Cataclysm: Reforging tired, old content making it fun to play whilst still retaining it’s character. More successful in some zones than others.
Mists of Pandaria: The most mature and complex storytelling of any expansion.
Warlords of Draenor: Turning the founders of the Horde into goofy cartoon villains. Emphasis on player agency.
Legion: The war against the Legion spilling out into the game world making it feel like one long, hard battle against overwhelming odds rather than a few fights in a raid instance.
Battle for Azeroth: Making people hate Sylvanas.
I honestly dont remember any of these. As I said, the expansion was so fogettable, I quit after a year. Sure, Transmog is a good thing, I just didnt connect it to Cataclysm. Its more of a “bound to happen at some point”-thing like all convenience-enhancements.
The end. The rest don’t exist like Pandas.
TBC - viable specs & difficulty tuning (mobs were smarter than players, which forced players to think).
Wotlk - best PVE system (Ulduar)
Cata - world 's revamp
Mop - introduction of plot integrity in wow
Wod - Best OST in wow history.
Legion - fast paced content
BFA - at this moment this is an addon of Jaina song and a couple of races (see the difference?).
Vanilla: The game itself!
TBC: Blood elves
WRATH: PVE dungeon finder
Cataclysm: World Revamp (we need another)
MOP: Made the Alliance feel better about themselves by destroying Garrosh
WOD: nothing?
Legion: EVERYTHING!!!
BFA: Zandalar forevah
1 Like
TBC: flying
WOTLK: t7 for rogues
Cata: archeology ResidentSleeper
Pandaria: CM
WoD: BRF
Legion: m+
bfa: TBA
Tbc-adding arena
Wotlk - lore/theme/ulduar/achievements
Cata -rework of old zones
Wod - pvp gearing
Mop -class design pvp
Legion - adding m+ , withered scenario, temple of hotmogu
Bfa - Jaina and Azshara warbringers cinematics.
I’ve always found Zul’Drak arena very well done too.
WotLK is by far the best. The building up was just amazing.
I feared the LK since the beginning. And when I finally got the chance to step into Icecrown I WAS NERVOUS. Cataclysm was okay-ish, but not at the same level. From then until today, most of the bosses feel “meh” and not as important.
Today I still get nervous to fight LK or Deathwing. Can’t say the same about the bosses who came after.