Your expansion tier- list, and why

Community General Discussion
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Since it’s been a while since I saw one of these and because it’s always interesting to read: what is your expansion tier-list, and most importantly: why?

I wanna know the specific reason why your top 1, 2, or 3 expansions are ranked so high. Was it because you liked Artifact Weapons, Ulduar or because you started playing in that specific expansion?
(note: Vanilla included but not the ‘classic’ recreation)

Mine, from worst to best:
8: Shadowlands
7: Warlords of Draenor
6: Battle for Azeroth
5: Cataclysm
4: Mists of Pandaria
3: Legion
2: The Burning Crusade
1: Wrath of the Lich King
N/A: Vanilla

Why: I started out in TBC and I thought it was stellar, however it took me a long time to get to 70 (ret pala as my first class…) so I only got to experience a small part of the raiding end-game. In WotLK this changed and I cleared it all.
Legion gave me back the feeling I had in WotlK, and not because we went back to Dalaran but every raid tier was amazing and because of the ‘bad guy’. We were finally confronting the legion and knew it was going to end.

Why SL last? Because I didn’t have as much fun as I though I would have at the start of the expansion, so I quit a few months in to focus my playtime on Classic and TBC.
I do miss the leveling experience of retail, though.

Forgive my rambling, what is your expansion tier-list?

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If there’s one thing all expansion tier lists have had in commons since they started existing, is that most people put the current expansion at worst

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True enough, but in my case it’s the first time I quit after only a few months of playing. I just wasn’t feeling it. There’s enough threads about this so I won’t go into detail + I wanna keep this a positive thread.

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For me personally from best to worst:

  • (From Vanilla to to MoP)
  • WoD
  • Shadowlands
  • Legion
  • BFA

My rate mostly come from one things and it’s the “I don’t wanna log in today but feel like I need to” rating.

Which is something really important for me to not experiences and that later expansion likes to make you feel.

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  • 1: wotlk. loved everything about this expansion, the raids, the dungeons, the zones, the quests, just everything. after cataclysm was released i spent five years on a wotlk private server. wotlk was the best time i ve ever had in the game hands down.
  • 2: vanilla. wow was really magically when i played it for the first time, it comes close to the wotlk feeling but not quite. guess this is where my love for dungeons came from. i just loved running dungeons with friends and pugs, meeting new people along the way, making friends.
  • 3: tbc. pretty much the same reason as vanilla. loved the dungeons and raids.
  • 4: bfa. bfa was the first expansion i seriously tried to get ksm and actually did it. i didnt like m+ in legion very much but bfa has really gotten me hooked! i d even prefer it over raiding now.
  • 5: sl. its not good, its not bad. its lacking a lot of stuff but i overall enjoy it, especially the dungeons and raids.
  • 6: legion. the expansion was…okey for me i guess. i didnt like the dungeons much but i loved the raids. i dont know, i just really wasnt fond of any of it, nothing really left a great impression. i really, really hated argus and the legendary system/ap grind.
  • 7: wod. i joined wow again at the end of wod and the game was just so…different. what really turned me off was the pathfinder grind. it almost single handedly made me quit again. cant say much about raids but i didnt like the dungeons very much.

wont comment on cata/mop as i was busy playing on a private server that time. i played like a month into cata on retail and absolutely loathed it. i used to main resto druid and by “losing” my tree form it was as if they robbed me off my entire identity. probably sounds dramatic when i say that this was the reason that made me quit wow but it is what it is. :woman_shrugging:

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Wotlk until totc. Totc was a disaster and ICC was okish.
MoP as elemental shaman.
WoD as enhancement/resto shaman. I stopped playing shaman when maelstrom was introduced for enhancement in the legion pre-patch.
Shadowlands(Could have been highest if they removed maelstrom totally from shamans and didn’t bring back holy power for holy/prot paladins)
TBC(Only so low because I was playing a feral druid tank and the itemization from PVE sucked for them)
Legion(Destroyed dps shamans as I liked them)
Cataclysm(Mainly because my guild fell apart in firelands and didn’t really play for the rest of the tier)
BFA, neck grind, essences, corruptions and azerite gear totally ruined it for me. The worst expansion ever released due to these systems.

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S tier: Wotlk, MoP
A tier: WoD, Cata
B tier: BC, Classic
C tier: Shadowlands
D tier: Legion
E tier: BFA

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Mine, from best to worst:

  1. Shadowlands
  2. Battle for Azeroth
    10: WotLK, TBC, Vanilla
    N/A: Everything else

I started in Vanilla, didn’t raid, didn’t really PvP, it sucked for casual, non-raiding people who didn’t push for high PvP ranks, as there was little end-game content for them.

In TBC and WotLK I raided, it was good at the time, but in hindsight, nah, wouldn’t do it again. Like in classic, it had nearly no end-game content for non-raid/non-pvp people, gearing a new char was also a pain in the backside (I switched mains for Ulduar, it was a long, tedious process, even with help from the guild).

I haven’t played between the end of WotLK and halfway into 8.1. BfA I liked, because despite all its warts, it had M+, end-game content for the non-raider, non-pvper. Shadowlands improved upon that by making it easier to switch mains, with less chores to do in preparation. I’m a casual, I don’t care about min-maxing my character, “good enough” is good enough for me. Shadowlands lets me be casual, lets me switch mains with reasonable ease, and the required chores are pretty minimal and fast. The dungeons are also much better than in BfA. BfA had Junkyard and Freehold I liked, Tol Dagor, Siege of Boralus, Shrine of the Storm, and Kings Rest I absolutely hated with a passion. In comparison, Shadowlands has Mists, DoS, HoA and NW I love, and only Sanguine Depths I hate with a passion (though ToP on tyrannical is there too, but only on tyrannical). Massive improvement compared to BfA.

I’m a simple guy to please, really. I don’t care about min-maxing. I don’t care about transmogs and collectibles that much. I don’t care about achievements. I don’t care about the raid, nor pvp, nor class balance, nor the lore. I do keys, have fun, if I can do that, I’m happy.

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Best to worst in my opinion :

  1. MOP
  2. Cataclysm
  3. WOD
  4. Wotlk
  5. Legion
  6. BFA in 8.0 and 8.1
  7. Shadowlands
  8. BFA in 8.2
  9. BFA in 8.3

Its pretty much straight forward in my mind, I’m weighting more class design and raids over things like PVP or transmog, achievements or even lore and RP.

Despite having started during Cata on rogue servers, I then followed up by a wrath server, so it kinda biases my opinion here. I do think wrath is kinda overrated because class design was imho a downgrade coming from cata and raids outside of ICC and ulduar are really bad. Sorry wrath fans, ICC and ulduar can’t carry the expansion.

The reason I put MOP above all other expansion is simply due to the fact that I really enjoyed raiding, more esp TOT and SoO, with a the best class design ever made over all wow expansions, and again, sorry wrath fans, MOP class design is just plain superior.

Now a more controversial opinion which is why I put both cata and WOD that high, despite the common wisdom saying those are bad. Simply put, I enjoyed raiding in both expansions (Besides DS, but after nya, I don’t think DS is THAT bad) and I kinda enjoyed class design in both. Sorry for saying that, but WOD pruning was not pruning at all. If anything, they removed inquisition, which was a burden on ret paladin. To then add Draenor perks alongside a brand new talent row which added a variety of new builds. WOD was not bad from a raider perspective !

Wrath is in the middle because of class design and the fact that Arthas turned out to be a clown. I’m sorry, but I’ve played WarIII and I quite expected arthas to be more agressive, instead of just running away like a badly written comic vilain.

Legion is not that high despite having a good content flow and really good raids, because the true pruning happened in Legion, during which most of specs lost half of their spells, since Blizzard sought to turn some specs as “specialists”, like DPS warriors being the only dps specs having a true execute phase. That expansion also had both AP and legiondaries, which were frustrating systems at launch eventually fixed during the later patches. Despite at its pros, this expansion is the root of our issues for the following expansions.

Why did I broke down BFA into 3 ? Because I felt like 8.2 and 8.3 were different expansions on their own. I felt like 8.0 and 8.1 played the same and were just Legion downgrade. But to be honest, I was fine with that, since AP had been toned down to reasonable amount, ie running 3 to 4 islands each week, which took 1 hour or so. The warfront was not always up so it was just a chore but that was not as bad as farming WQ during Legion. Classes were clunky because of GCD changes and the fact that reworks were not done properly.
Raids are even, since Uldir was bad but BOD was good.

Now, Shadowlands : Too much systems, unpruning has been a joke so classes are not fixed yet. Too much chores to do and 9.1 patch came way too late. Could have been better if they didn’t put that much systems and less mandatory content.

8.2 is worse then SL because essences are imho worse than most of SL systems. Just for that reason, even though essences kinda fixed classes clunkyness.

8.3 is the worst patch since corruptions were another layer of unwanted system that sought to replace a bad system which was TF and WF. Nyalotah and more esp N’Zoth have been huge disapointments. I mean, if I were to compare nya to ICC, SoO, HFC or Antorus, it’s pretty clear that nya is a huge let down.

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I don’t know about the rest but my number 1 is Shadowlands, we got inclusivity, representation, equity and there was one more word let me check… hmmm… DIVERSITY!

uhmm… one more… equality.

So basically Shadowlands number 1.

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  1. Legion - most fun class designs I’ve played, PvP was awesome, good gearing system allowing you to jump straight into arenas. Introduction of M+ which to date is one of my favorite additions to WoW next to arenas.
  2. Wrath of the Lich King - Cool raids, best arena gameplay of all expansions I’ve played.
  3. Cataclysm - Not too big a fan of the PvE besides Firelands, but a close second best PvP expansion for me. Best version of fire mage (which was my main at the time), and also really liked priest.
  4. MoP probably. Not my favorite by any means because it felt very bloated and overdone when they decided to give every single class every tool they could ever dream of, but credit where credit is due, it was a balanced expansion and throne of thunder + SoO were really good raids.

After this I don’t really care too much about ranking because I think vanilla and TBC were incredibly bad and lacking expansions. Worst class designs by miles. WoD was lackluster in most regards but it had some good PvE content, and BfA was just shadowlands lite.

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“Man, I miss class from expansion when I personally invested the most time into the game”

Jokes aside, I feel like a tier list is better than ordering them, as orders either inflate or deflate the amount of fun I had with the different expansions.
S tier - Cata, Wrath
A tier - 8.3 BfA, pre 8.2 BfA doing low level content
B tier - Classic, TBC, Shadowlands
C tier - MoP
D tier - BfA pre 8.3 at endgame
F tier - Legion
DNS - WoD (never played)

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14

I’m just going to name the three expansions I loved the most, in order:

  1. Wrath of the Lich King; it was when I started raiding and I have fond memories
  2. Mists of Pandaria; for me, the atmosphere of Pandaria was a very welcome change of pace, a refreshing take compared to the grimness of prior expansions
  3. Legion; all those class questlines made it great for a now mostly-solo player, and being able to finally see some long-promised locales, like Argus, was awesome.
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Since I’m more gameplay than plot or content driven player it might be controversial for some people:

*MoP - a lot of depth in class design, no chores, simple yet effective gearing
*Cataclysm - some specs had really nice and best design they ever had
*Wrath - first time every spec was playable and felt finished
*Legion - for content, Demo Lock, Survival Hunter and Outlaw Rogue who were so fun in PvP and never felt the same later
*WoD - for gearing
*TBC - nostalgia and RPG aspect
*Shadowlands - hard to find positives
*BFA - I was forced to do content I don’t like

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From best to worst:

1: The Burning Crusade (great improvement of the original game, introduction of arenas)

2: Wrath of the Lich King (S tier zones)

3: Shadowlands (Best gearing system in S1 - PvE items usable in PvP and vice versa, weekly cache, good fast-paced PvP)

4: Battle for Azeroth (Introduced warmode, which i was immensely happy about. Corruptions and socket farming in last season was also great as it rewarded putting in a lot of effort and thereby allowed you to outgear others)

5: Legion (Great overall but the above expansions outshine it)

6: Cataclysm (Only reason this expansion is above MoP is that it introduced RBGs. Otherwise a very bad expansion that removed the great old timeless zones to introduce phasing into them. Also, there was barely any content in the new zones because all the resources got invested into reworking the old world)

7: Mists of Pandaria (Super boring theme…)

8: Warlords of Draenor (Just horrible. Garrisons phasing you away from everyone else, inflation mission table, terrible PvP gearing system – templates were the most boring and non-rpglike system ever. Horrible story - time travel wtfstuffs, no content. The only good thing about WoD was Ashran where you can have lots of fun with powerups but that alone does not redeem it above number 8.)

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My worst to best: please note one being worst doesn’t mean it is “Garbo” merely “not the best”.

WoD and MoP are excluded as I was on hiatus during them and I don’t think experience of them “after the fact” is the same.

Vanilla - wide eyed naivety largely serves as the adrenaline rush here. Game was certainly a step up from Everquest and exploring it all for the first time was amazing. However once that ended, that wasn’t a huge amount to do that wasn’t repetitive. Rotations were very repetitive and class balance was whack. The game was held up by “who I played with” almost entirely.

TBC - improved vanilla balance but the approach to content remained the same, although even whackier attunements sealed the deal on me not raiding. Most of my time was spent gearing until dungeons were no challenge and then just grinding. Once my grinds were done, the game was a bit one dimensional and alting wasn’t very friendly.

Wrath - wrath is much better than the other two prior but only largely because my social circumstances changed and I could raid properly. The mechanical balance was better overall though and dungeons were generally superior and the zones were ten times better than TBC.

BFA - BFA had a lot of stuff I enjoyed and the approach to dungeons was very good indeed however there was too much chores in this expo which got in the way of wanting to do anything “unless you are okay with falling behind” but overall a very solid expo. Great raids (beyond Uldir) and lots of good world content. M+ great too.

Cata - Cata was good. The levelling experience was good, the dungeons were good, the raids (sans dragon soul) were good. I don’t get the hate for Cata at all. The dungeons were tuned really nicely and it took far longer to start cakewalking them than in prior expos. Alting was decent so going for a new class wasn’t something that took you months to achieve.

Legion - Legion has amazing focus on classes and a cool (if a bit one dimensional) system in artefact weapons. Awesome levelling and great dungeons. The numbers were a big ridiculous however. I didn’t enjoy that at all. Most of my legion time I enjoyed though. Trade skills were a bit off to me however.

Shadowlands - yeah you read it right. Shadowlands is what I enjoy the most. Clearly I’m nuts.
Right okay so shadowlands:
I really enjoy the m+ experience, it combines pragmatic with intrigue without being overbearing in either (BFA too pragmatic Legion too intrigue)
I actually like the Covenant and bind system, yea it is restricted atm but that will change. But I like having this new class ability not all of my class have and finding several different ways to “build the same spec” due to it.
I don’t mind being in the afterlife at all. I think the zones are awesome and it’s nice to get a break from “elves history and orcs and crap” and just let the raw mystery of z as fantasy take be spun before me.
The PvP is the best version of it I’ve seen (if I had played during WoD I would not say this I imagine) but it is vastly superior to legion and BFA and the older expos.
The chores are not overbearing
Stuff feels smooth and less is “in the way” of me doing what I want.
The alt experience is fabulous.

So yeah, I think if I’m being honest with myself, I am enjoying SL the most on its own merits without looking at stuff like “who I was playing with at the time” to carry it. In BFA and legion I had blasts when I was active in a community or guild but in SL I’ve played it the community way and on this guy I’ve done my stuff solo, entirely pugging etc, and I’ve enjoyed it just as much (possibly more). That says a lot to me.

So yeah, people can say I’m wrong or whatever but it is what it is.

Also Tazavesh is the best dungeon Blizzard have ever designed in my opinion. The encounters are amazing fun, the aesthetic is beautiful. I cannot wait to run it in m+.

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I can instead of ranking them like that say which ones I recall most and had the most fun in.

Vanilla was lovely, I began playing on Khadgar and met a kind druid named Inneluki who showed me around and talked with me. The first person I ever met in Warcraft.

The Burning Crusade was fun as well, doing all the quests, the lovely raids there. And I was lucky enough to know a raider who sometimes took me along to see the current (at that time) content.

Wrather of the Lick King was a blast for me, I had a nice guild called Forged Through War and I played a hunter. Hours spent roaming Stormheim to look for herbs, the calmness and enjoyment was immense.

I did not lay much when Cataclysm was current content, so I do not have many thoughts on that.

Mists of Pandaria was another expansion where I did not play that much, but in hindsight I regret that, such lovely zones.

Warlords of Draenor I rather enjoyed, the garrison thing was something I found enjoyable, but I did not spend supermuch time in that expansion either.

Legion had some really lovely zones, and I personally enjoyed the Artifact process a lot.

Battle For Azeroth I have not played much at all, so I have no clue. Someday I will do all those quests.

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From best to worst not including vanilla cos it’s not an expansion.

  1. MoP
  2. Wotlk
  3. Legion
  4. TBC
  5. Cata
  6. WoD
  7. BFA
  8. SL

The reason i rank BFA higher than SL is that i still felt motivated to do stuff in that expansion where as in SL any motivation is completely gone from taking 2 stinkers in a row. At this point i’m just sick of broken launches, false promises and late fixes.

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Mine is more or less similar to OP.

1 - Wrath
2 - Legion
3 - TBC
4 - BfA
5 - Shadowlands
6 - Warlords
7 - Cata
8 - Mists

Wrath is what I started the game with, so a special love, hands down.

Legion was full of class fantasy, powerful weapons, leggoes, overall charming zones and soundtracks. The login screen is the best in the game.

I haven’t played the original TBC, but the classic is really good much like LK, in that it’s tough, but not as insane as Vanilla, with differences between classes being clear and the xpac being the king of meme specs - but I haven’t played it as much yet as the other 2, hence a lower spot.

I spent most of my time in BfA, and was decent more or less. I did miss the leggoes and weapons however, but the grind was a nasty lot by 8.3 for me… cries in 12 chars

SL’s grace comes from mainly customizations, and the original idea of Torg - I was really hyped for the roguelike and the anima powers giving class fantasy, like spending HP for the most powerful warlock spells.

WoD, Cata and Mists are at the bottom as I haven’t played them as current, and only saw them as legacy.
While WoD had the modern customizations and Cata the big bad dragon, I didn’t like the pandas’ theme at all, no idea why.

Can’t speak for Vanilla, all I did was get a warrior and a hunter to 20 and quit. It was too tough for me… :stuck_out_tongue:

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I think it would be very interesting for someone to compile a tier list thread that specifically excludes reasonings such as “was my first expo” or “my friends were around” because I’m these threads it’s really hard to get an idea of what exactly they disliked or loved about an expansion in terms of gameplay etc when reasonings such as “and my buddies left” or “I came into WoW here” are used which have absolutely nothing to do with the specific design of an expansion?

Not to say those here are doing wrong given OP specifically listed such as reasons, I’m just saying it would be interesting to see whether it changes anything at all.

What do others think? Or am I alone in wondering this?

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