World of Warcraft, Ranked
WoW means the absolute world to me. So, here's where I'd put every expansion!
This ranking could easily change. Each of these expansions takes 100+ hours to complete, and I haven't played some of them in many years. And until I'm done with each zone, dungeon, and raid found within an expansion, I haven't engaged with everything it has to offer.
As of June 2022, I have done this for Legion, Shadowlands, Battle for Azeroth and Warlords of Draenor. I have plans to do this with every other expansion EVENTUALLY, but once again, that's a long journey. Will add notes on each game to explain how far I am in them. Mists of Pandaria will be added to this list once I actually play it; it's the only expansion I haven't completed the questing zones of, so I don't think it even should be on here yet.
This ranking could easily change. Each of these expansions takes 100+ hours to complete, and I haven't played some of them in many years. And until I'm done with each zone, dungeon, and raid found within an expansion, I haven't engaged with everything it has to offer.
As of June 2022, I have done this for Legion, Shadowlands, Battle for Azeroth and Warlords of Draenor. I have plans to do this with every other expansion EVENTUALLY, but once again, that's a long journey. Will add notes on each game to explain how far I am in them. Mists of Pandaria will be added to this list once I actually play it; it's the only expansion I haven't completed the questing zones of, so I don't think it even should be on here yet.
9 Games
Played through each questing zone (more than once) and dungeon (also more than once). Sadly I didn't get to enjoy the raids of WOTLK. I remember Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader, but that’s about it. Not even sure if I did those two fully, either. It was hard to raid when I was 10 :(
I've played through a whole lot of vanilla WoW. I've probably missed a few questing zones, but it's a lot harder to measure due to the sheer size of this game and how many times I've run through it. I've definitely done every dungeon at least once, and I believe I've done every raid except for Naxxramas; can't say I have a solid memory of that one.
Memory is pretty hazy on this one. I believe I’ve done every questing zone, but I cannot confirm for sure. Dungeons and Raids, though? No way. I started playing WoW during TBC’s last six or so months, pretty much right before WotLK launched, so I didn’t get as much time with it as I would’ve liked. Plan to revisit this one for sure.
Oh baby, Legion, Legion, Legion. Although this is 4th on this list, Legion is immensely special to me. It’s the only expansion that isn’t intrinsically linked to my childhood. It made me realize that World of Warcraft could be pure fucking magic again. And it’s great! I completed every questing zone, dungeon, and raid for Legion and I loved all 160-ish hours of it.
Cataclysm was one of the first big signs that WoW was dropping off for me, but I still really like it. I’ve completed every questing zone here, but I have no clue if I did each dungeon. And I’m pretty certain I missed every raid. Will definitely revisit this!
My first impressions of WoD were part of the reason why I quit WoW. I ran through the intro at launch and didn't touch it for six or seven years.
But revisiting it all these years later, Warlords of Draenor kinda kicks ass. The biggest sin of this expansion is a lack of content. I was able to finish everything it had to offer in around 80-or-so hours, which is nothing compared to, for example, Legion and BfA (which both had me there for 150+ hours).
But quantity does not equate to quality, at least when I don't have to worry about the content drought that occurred during its live period.
Every dungeon and raid is awesome, each zone is super pretty, and the questlines are rather fun. Tanaan Jungle is unfortunately just a daily/weekly invested zone but even then it's pretty cool to look at. I just wish it had a dedicated questline. Hellfire Citadel and Blackrock Foundry are friggin' incredible!
Garrisons and their campaigns are awful, though. I did not even bother diving deep into these and the weekly timegating is legitimately embarrassing.
But revisiting it all these years later, Warlords of Draenor kinda kicks ass. The biggest sin of this expansion is a lack of content. I was able to finish everything it had to offer in around 80-or-so hours, which is nothing compared to, for example, Legion and BfA (which both had me there for 150+ hours).
But quantity does not equate to quality, at least when I don't have to worry about the content drought that occurred during its live period.
Every dungeon and raid is awesome, each zone is super pretty, and the questlines are rather fun. Tanaan Jungle is unfortunately just a daily/weekly invested zone but even then it's pretty cool to look at. I just wish it had a dedicated questline. Hellfire Citadel and Blackrock Foundry are friggin' incredible!
Garrisons and their campaigns are awful, though. I did not even bother diving deep into these and the weekly timegating is legitimately embarrassing.
I've completed every zone, raid and dungeon so far. Huge respect towards this expansion for fixing the unmanageable level cap and letting players select which expansion they want to play through with a single character. This feature is LEGIT what made me come back to WoW, and if it wasn’t for that, I would’ve never experienced Legion.
Beyond that, the base zones are good and the aesthetic is awesome. Individual storylines throughout those base zones are dope too. First two raids are solid and the final raid is OK. Big issue here is the endgame grind is awful and the main story is pretty bad. Feels really messy and inappropriately put together considering the nature of these events should be super grand and crazy, but it's like... so minimalistically played out. Very little character dialogue and none of the big events felt super impactful. Generally thought the post-patch content was meh, although Zereth Mortis is a decent zone. Also hate that they locked Chains of Domination questline behind Renown. Overall, solid expansion weighed down by poor post-patch content and a shite grind.
Beyond that, the base zones are good and the aesthetic is awesome. Individual storylines throughout those base zones are dope too. First two raids are solid and the final raid is OK. Big issue here is the endgame grind is awful and the main story is pretty bad. Feels really messy and inappropriately put together considering the nature of these events should be super grand and crazy, but it's like... so minimalistically played out. Very little character dialogue and none of the big events felt super impactful. Generally thought the post-patch content was meh, although Zereth Mortis is a decent zone. Also hate that they locked Chains of Domination questline behind Renown. Overall, solid expansion weighed down by poor post-patch content and a shite grind.
Finally finished this 150 hours or so later. Horde side ranges between meh to ok, Alliance side is pretty good. Dungeons are anywhere between OK to Good, and the raids are quite fun. Story here is absolute ass but overall an OK expansion. Hate the endgame grind stuff, although I find the borrowed power stuff fun to mess with her ngl. Did every dungeon, main questline, raid, and all of the war campaign. Definitely the worst expansion so far but honestly it's just OK.