Vanilla
Leveling/Quests
It was bloody, dirty, nasty. It required time. At several times, it was difficult. At times, it was random. It required loads of traveling. It could be very frustrating.
However, it was loads of fun. We were adventurers in Azeroth, exploring the world. We faced foes we knew and foes we never heard before.
Also, we experienced perhaps the most awesome event in the game: Gates of Ahn’Qiraji.
PvP
I can’t say much for high level battlegrounds but w-pvp was rampant. Possibly every one on every pvp server has memories of Hillsbrad and Stranglethorn.
Dungeons
Dungeons weren’t too easy. Roles weren’t as solid, especially at lower levels. I know I tanked as a rogue, I know we had a shaman tank:) Dungeons atmosphere was great. Some were rather complicated but felt very organic, if that’s the word. It didn’t just feel like a dungeon. It felt like that location.
Raiding
Raiding was very exclusive. I never did it at 60. But it required very specific gear (was collecting fire res myself) and I can guess how chaotic 40 man was. How hard to acquire a group. But in the end, how satisfying.
Crafting
Crafting was good. Since leveling was long, buying a good craft item might mean using it for some. At higher levels, some items were really good (I remember the devilsaur sets).
The Burning Crusade
Leveling/Quests
Much less random and organic compared to vanilla. Quests were hubbed and almost always put together. With some exceptions, the only difficulty was group quests.
Some lore was familiar but most of the design was quite wacky, which was cool sometimes, yet a turn-off on other times.
I think most of the different quests were added with dailies. Dailies were huuuge grinds but they were one of the only things to do.
With Isle of Quel’danas, we witnessed something awesome.
PvP
I personally had loads of fun. Throne of elements, the “ultimate” farming spot was one of the points of joy. But of course nothing beats Isle of Quel’danas.
The arena was also added, which brought much joy as well as much pain. It quickly became to be known as the high-tier pvp thing to do.
Dungeons
Hard. Man, those heroics were hard. CC was mandatory. Not only CC but specific ones. A warlock could turn one battle from HOLYSHITHARD to OHWELLTHATWENTGOOD. But in the other battle. you needed a priest. If you managed CC, things went good.
Dungeon lore and atmosphere was good, but some of the lore was alien, so it didn’t stick on our minds as vanilla ones did. Also they were all linear and clearly designed to be dungeons.
Raiding
I haven’t raided much but 10/25man raid difficulties allowed many more people to play. A significant change was the removal of prequests. While saving alts a great deal of annoyance, many people thought they added much to the epic feel of building up to raids.
Crafting
Crafts weren’t necessary but they all had something good that could be upgraded into higher tiers. BS weapons, engi goggles etc. Yet this made people go and farm. With the additional daily income, people were afford to buy crafts easily.
The Wrath of the Lich King
Leveling/Quests
I think it was a great experience. Great lore, great building up till Wrath Gate. Wrathgate was awesome and after that things went up in different ways. Many stories were told and with Blizz’s new toy too: Phasing. While causing some trouble occasionally, I think everyone who cares about story telling loved it. The other tool Blizz had was vehicles and they used it for creating many different quests.
Quest zones are now completely streamlined and bunched/hubbed. However, every zone had a few sub-stories so it was quite rich.
More so than tBC, the only difficulty was group quests. Even some of those were soloable.
DK zone was AWESOME.
Argent Tournament area started like a new IQD but offered very little development.
PvP
New battlegrounds weren’t enjoyed much by a great deal of community. World-pvp died more and more each day. Battlegrounds enjoyed the cross-server but arenas remained as the sole higher tier pvp activity, pushing people who don’t like arena away.
Dungeons
Dungeons were a cool sight at first but they could be summed in one word as long as you had sufficient gear: AoE.
They are still linear and without surprises, but there are very different fights.
Faction farming became easy in dungeons due to championing system.
Raiding
Most people swear by Ulduar. Most people try to forget the Colosseum. Lich King was a great sight in my eyes. I think the feel matched the expansion: Story telling was important. We didn’t have cutscenes or so, but the story surely progressed, built and finally ended.
Crafting
Dailies were good. Buying new recipes had different ways, which was rather fun yet sometimes grindy. However, with the upgrades gone, craft items were only good with a new tier of raiding.
The Cataclysm
Leveling/Quests
Very easy. No hardship at all. All zones had one big story. It was cool but lack of variety made leveling rather dull after seeing the zones first. Not to mention the overdoing of Indiana Jones in Ulduar.
Tol’Barad daily zone was used quite frequently by people. How much ganking it led is questionable.
Firelands daily zones were great in my opinion. Lore, phasing, alternatives and a few items to boost… Blizzard, give us more of this!
Of course need to mention the complete remake of the world. It was a bold move but the game now has very easy and very swift leveling with lots of new stories and good story telling. Also, the feeling of story progress all over the world was awesome.
Last but not least, a new Darkmoon Faerie was added. It’s good fun, added new stuff to do. And since it’s just 1 week a month, it will go stale later than normal dailies.
PvP
New battlegrounds gave people the “enough with new ideas. give us same idea, new map” they wanted but didn’t raise that much joy.
An alternative higher tier activity, Rated BGs didn’t do as well as Arenas in terms of popularity. Seeing how we had very few news about them makes me think it was the same internally in Blizzard too.
World pvp? Died completely due to noone leaving for pvp, pve or crafting.
Dungeons
Not many new were added but we saw remakes of old ones. Some just labeled them “lol reusing resources” but honestly, they all had new fights and good atmosphere. I loved the “higher tier heroic” theme we saw in last patch of WotLK returning.
Still, dungeons are linear and feels like “dungeons.”
About old dungeons? Like the new ones: Too easy.
Raiding
I feel like I’m overusing the word but most people complain it was easy. Seeing the numbers, most people saying that are just on lower difficulties, so hard to say how justified that is.
Raids felt… more epic in some ways and less epic in others. Not sure if I can explain it. I haven’t played enough raids to conclude I guess. One thing for sure: Accessability increased greatly. Lately through LFR and earlier through 10/25man becoming alternatives.
Crafting
Safe to say crafting is just about enchantment now. Enchant your gear through enchantments, gems, leg upgrades, shoulder upgrades, belt buckles etc with the exception of inscription which upgrade your skills.
Dailies now grant so much gold that just some people farm and others buy not only crafts but also the raw materials.
Mists of Pandaria
And now, my expectations from MoP.
Questing
I think the winner was WotLK and Vanilla. I want a mix of that. I want phasing and vehicles and gimmicks to ease the “kill x” quests. I want story and means of story telling. I want “sub” story lines.
Also, I want some freedom and adventure feel. Not overdone though. We will be VERY mighty heroes. Going after small stuff too much will be against the real purpose.
Also, please no poo quests.
For dailies, I want more of Quel’danas and Firelands. Progress, random quests, alternatives… These both were great success in my eyes.
PvP
My expectation is what Blizzard promotes: More w-pvp. Arena players do their own thing. Battlegrounds are fun, but to an extent. Push us out of cities. Give us w-pvp. Give people reasons to fight outside.
And for the love of Grom, give people some battleground training. This is a BIG ONE. I recently leveled with my brother and I’ve no idea how he would learn all the mechanics if it wasn’t for me. Not everyone has enough english/time/will/patience to go through wikis and guides online. The game needs to teach people how to play itself because it’s not a simple one. All can figure AB and WSG but Alterac Valley? Tower/Flag mechanics of EotS?
Dungeons
Give us remake heroics. That was brilliant. Give us new dungeons too. And please, don’t design dungeons. Design places. Put some teleporters if moving around is a problem. The idea is to keep the place alive. Hard to say that for Halls of.. Stone, was it? or tides of something. They still felt like linear dungeons (halls of stone less so). And it’s not just about linearity. It’s about the feel of it.
Give us one big complex place that feels real. With wings. We all loved Scarlet Monastery. We loved different tBC wings even with the wacky and alien design/lore.
Finally and maybe most importantly, please make dungeons harder. Bring CC back. Cata was supposed to, but it never did. Make it a little less severe than tBC. This is very important for challenges. People can aoe dungeons they overgear but when they don’t, there should be some challenge to it.
Raids
Not much to say about this. I think the LFR/Normal/Heroic/Achievement steps provide enough difficulty for everyone. So what you need to focus after gameplay is the content inside. Pretty much the same stuff I said for dungeons hold true here.
Crafting
Bring upgrades back. Make it work like Justice Points, just 1 step higher. If new raids give i100 (heroics i125) rewards while jp give i50, make crafts i75 and make them require “chaos orb” type of items so you still need to pve. And give an alternative for dailies and pvp. This way people won’t have a “guaranteed spot” for everything, but their crafts won’t feel useless.
Also, give more recipes to use on a daily/weekly basis so people have a reason to go out and farm.
