Teenagers sure are a fickle bunch. Loaded with hormones and opinions, their greatest intent seems to be making their mark on a world they don’t yet fully understand. But one among them is wise, refined. This teenager has seen the trappings and misgivings of this world and emerged in 2018 a much better entity. This teenager, of course, is the World of Warcraft, and it recently celebrated its thirteenth birthday.
Ranking the expansions is surely going to be a practice in subjectivity, because different people found different things to like about each one, and admittedly, all of them were quite fantastic. But we’ll do our best, implementing a thorough system of raid quality, reaction to newly added mechanics, fan interaction and retention, and darts thrown at the wall. For the Alliance? For the Horde? It matters not because this article is for you, brave warrior of Azeroth.
6. Warlords of Draenor
This expansion cops a fair bit of flak for being the one that ‘lost the fans.’ Though its release showed an initial spike in subscribers, it quickly collapsed to a nine-year low, with many blaming its tepid patches and an overall lack of content. Indeed, if you point to the major inclusions introduced in each edition of WoW (many of which add new classes, races or sometimes both), Warlords of Draenor’s calling card was its alternative take on the Outlands, and garrisons that acted as a sort of hub for players. Its time-traveling tale did allow longtime fans to see some old favorites that had bitten the dust years ago, and as many of the lands had not yet been devastated by the orcs, particular zones looked familiar, yet refreshed.
Where this expansion is at its best, however, is in its raids, considered by some to be the most important aspect of the game. Blackrock Foundry’s multiple wings and epic final boss definitely made an impression on its players. Unfortunately, the fact that Blizzard chose to do a price hike on this expansion, despite its shortcomings, most definitely made a much stronger impression…
5. Mists of Pandaria
Do you like pandas? How much do you like pandas? A great deal of your enjoyment of this expansion will come down to how tolerable you find these cuddly critters; they are the first WoW race to double dip on factions, capable of joining either the Horde or the Alliance. Be warned, a great many of them will be monks, and almost all will be named after some kind of Kung Fu Panda pun.
The Pandaren starting zone, The Wandering Isle, is one of the most charming regions in WoW. Its gorgeous, colorful design and engrossing backstory make it truly memorable. Once you’ve gone off to join the war, however, you’ll never see it again, which is truly a shame. Beyond that, Pandaria didn’t really offer up much compelling new content. The raids were a little forgettable, and there seemed to be a heavy emphasis on grinding in this expansion. Not the kind of dirty grinding that gets you kicked out of the club, mind you, but perhaps just as unforgivable.
4. Cataclysm
The lead-up to Cataclysm was certainly compelling. Waves of nasties were sent into the normally tranquil atmosphere of the major cities, culminating in gigantic elementals lumbering around looking to do us harm. The emergence of the wicked dragon Deathwing laid waste to Azeroth, changing the landscape in ways we had never seen before. The iconic canyon of the Thousand Needles was now flooded, and the nearby Barrens had been split in two, putting an end to the realm’s iconic Chuck Norris-related chat. Ultimately, however, all of these adjustments were, of course, permanent fixtures in areas available to players without Cataclysm, and though this was not the only thing of note to occur, it does seem curious that they went to such effort to alter content that people could already access.
The two warring factions added new members to their ranks: the Alliance brought in the cursed Worgen folk of Gilneas, while the Horde finally had their parallel to the diminutive gnomes in the form of Kezan’s goblins. Though neither would approach the popularity of the human or blood elf races (most people like to play as the sexy toons, you know), they were welcome enough adjuncts. It’s noteworthy, however, that their utility wasn’t quite as apparent as those introduced in Burning Crusade, due to not providing access to previously unattainable classes.
A clear highlight of this edition was Deathwing’s tendency to pay lovely visits to random zones, reigning destruction on everything in his path. Running afoul of his flames would reward players with an achievement, as well as a swift death.
3. Legion
Right from the outset, Legion was determined to be everything that Warlords of Draenor was not. Swelling with content at an early stage, Legion has no shortage of things to do. Apart from intriguing new zones to explore, there’s an overarching sense of importance placed upon the Warcraft lore, something that had been, on a quest-by-quest basis, scaled back in previous expansions. The Class Halls in particular make for a fresh experience, even when played again on your alts (unless you rolled five straight hunters for some strange reason).
All of the staples of WoW have been retooled and improved, from crafting to PvP, and the implementation of world quests ensure that players will not be left twiddling their thumbs. Sure, there’s a lot of demons – and we want to emphasize, we really mean a lot of demons – but the content still feels lively and robust.
This doesn’t even go on to mention the newly introduced demon hunter class, a hybrid battler that excels at dishing out damage, sponging up hits and flitting about the battlefield like a chaotic flea on too much caffeine. Combined with their ability to shapeshift into hulking behemoths, they are one of the most fun and versatile playstyles on offer.
2. Wrath of the Lich King
Despite the fact that Wrath of the Lich King came out nine years ago, the story told and the loose ends tied up had such a grand, satisfying finality to them, it could have very justifiably been the last chapter for the World of Warcraft. Of course, there’s always money in the Tel’Abim Banana stand, so it was inevitable that business would continue as usual.
This expansion took us to the frigid climate of Northrend, where the threat of Arthas Menethil was coming to a head. Despite the frosty temperatures, the tension was really heating up by now, as Garrosh Hellscream’s violent ascension up the ranks was beginning to splinter the trust of the Horde, a matter that wasn’t helped by Grand Apothecary Putress betraying his allies and unloading a delicious batch of plague upon members of both factions.
In this expansion, we finally got to go toe-to-toe with the Lich King himself, a character whose fascinating tale long preceded the events of the World of Warcraft games, and we even took control of the powerful death knights. Seeing the towering frame of an intimidating Orc plague fighter was a sight to behold (a gnome death knight, not so much). Most importantly though, this is the expansion that gave us Ulduar, and let’s be honest: the Yogg-Saron boss fight may never be topped.
1. The Burning Crusade
Though updates to the original game had already begun to undo the wild west that was vanilla WoW (ahh, to see the majestic sight of the plainsrunning Tauren…), The Burning Crusade blew the doors off with a change that would remove the biggest difference between choosing the two factions – the introduction of the Draenei and Blood Elves. Besides allowing Horde fans to finally strut their stuff as a physically attractive character (See: Cataclysm notes. Type: /dance. Receive: gold), the former was the first Alliance race capable of accessing the shaman class, while the opposite was true for the blood elves and paladins. Now, there was less of a pronounced difference in the structure of the top raiding guilds, and the playing field was evener. Was this really a good thing? Or did it lead to the dilution of races to the point where we now have Dwarf Mages and Undead Hunters? The opinion is divisive, but the impact that the Burning Crusade had simply cannot be denied.
Taking players to the legendary Outlands, this expansion was also host to Karazhan, one of the most beloved raids in WoW history. Do you remember where you were the first time you felled Prince Malchezaar? He certainly does – and frankly, he’s getting sick of getting killed all for the sake of your damned loot drops.
Overall, it’s worth thanking Blizzard for giving us a game that has been able to keep us hooked for this long, as we look forward to the surprises and secrets that the upcoming Battle for Azeroth has in store. Fingers crossed, we finally uncover those elusive Tauren rogues of legend.
