World of Warcraft players might have received Cataclysm poorly compared to its predecessors, but that was nothing compared to the backlash that came with the remarkably ill-received expansion entitled Warlords of Draenor (WoD). It looked poised to provide some interesting and creative features. Unfortunately, cut content and a seemingly troubled development cycle created an expansion that didn't quite live up to what it could have been.
That doesn't mean it didn't have some good parts though. Despite truncated post-launch support, WoD also saw some features that instilled a bit of life back into its decaying corpse. Here are five reasons why WoD is the best expansion and five reasons why it's regarded as the game's worst.
10 GOOD: The Collections Tab Expanded
It was finally here. After years of having to juggle endless toys and heirlooms across bags, bank space and alts, the collections tab was here to save the day. It provided a place where those kinds of items would be listed with the ability to sort and search. For heirlooms, players were able to create copies of them from the tab while toys could be activated from it.
It didn't stop there. Appearances went on to be added in Legion. Freeing up all that bag space was one of the true blessings of WoD.
9 BAD: Patch 6.1
Okay, let's just throw the entirety of Patch 6.1 in here. Patch 6.1 is quite possibly the most poorly received patch in WoW history. Its premier features included a garrison update, new character models (which weren't finished in time with the rest from the expansion's launch) and, wait for it, Twitter integration. Groundbreaking.
No dungeons, no raids, nothing new to play. Patch 2.2 may have had fewer features than 6.2, but it came hot off the success of The Burning Crusade's launch and Black Temple in 2.1. 6.1 should have been the patch to try to save WoD. It turned out to only do more damage. At least it had the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera.
8 GOOD: The Raids
Even when Blizzard struggles, they still manage to succeed in some categories again and again. Music and art design are almost always guaranteed to be a step up in quality, even if it's not for your exact taste. Raids are usually a thing Blizzard lands too (except for Trial of the Crusader).
So much of WoD failed but the raids managed to shine through. In particular, Blackrock Foundry was met with appreciation. Fights like Operator Thogar and Blackhand himself were creative, exciting and challenging. There wasn't much to keep players entertained in WoD but the raids did so the best.
7 BAD: The Plot
Oh boy. The plot for WoD is something special. Somehow, Blizzard managed to hit several of the most difficult to handle narrative tropes. Time travel, alternate realities, copies of both dead and alive characters from the main universe . Basically, if it made it complicated, it was in there.
It seems lazy and contrived. The Warcraft universe is rich. Blizzard had no shortage of stories they could have used, plenty of plot threads sowed in previous expansions and games. WoW didn't need another Gul'dan. One was plenty.
6 GOOD: The Benefits Of Garrison Gold Income
Players were able to combine a series of factors of the follower and mission table systems in the garrisons to multiply gold gains from missions. These missions were timed and required no effort from the player aside from selecting the followers, and add-ons did that for you anyway. Other than that they only had to wait and the money would roll in.
People made out like absolute bandits on this. For the people who set this system up across multiple characters, hundreds of thousands of gold became the norm. In a way, this was awesome. Being broke in an MMO sucks and having easy access to money meant they were able to buy the mounts and other goodies they couldn't afford before.
5 BAD: The Downside Of Garrison Gold Income
There's a bad side too, several of them in fact. First, not every player benefited from this. If you didn't set up the system (by not knowing how, or being lazy) or you weren't playing at the time, you got left behind.
It also inflated gold costs everywhere. Not only did everyone have too much money, now Blizzard had to find a way to try and bring the economy back under control. They've attempted this in a few ways, but one of the most obvious is gold dump mounts like the spider added in Legion. The one that cost two million gold. Totally reasonable.
4 GOOD: Character Models
Thank heavens, the character model update was finally here. Except for blood elves, who had to wait until patch 6.1. Player character models were looking pretty rough a decade after the game's launch. It was time for an update.
The model update found mixed success, mainly due to several of the updates not even landing close to the original models. In response, Blizzard let players change their faces at the barbershop instead of having to pay real money for a character makeover. Overall though, the updated models and animations look more modern over the simple charm of the 2004 graphics.
3 BAD: Ability Pruning
WoD was the beginning of ability pruning terror. Every class began to see more spaces on their action bars fill up. This sounded great until players began to realize Blizzard was removing iconic abilities. Even the ones that survived weren't safe, as many class-wide abilities began to be locked behind certain specs.
Players felt like they lost more in the expansion they gained. That means they began to feel less powerful. After all, their characters forgot how to do things they used to know how to do. That's almost never a feeling you want players to have.
2 GOOD: Pepe
Pepe has to be the cutest thing in WoD. Found in the garrisons, clicking on this adorable little bird made him sit on the player's head, ready to ride with them into battle or whatever errands they needed to do. He quickly became beloved by the playerbase and continued to appear in subsequent expansions.
He's tiny. He's pudgy. He has a cute name. What's not to love? He even has different costumes. Best feature by far.
1 BAD: Garrisons
Garrisons are the worst feature of WoD. They're antithetical to MMOs, trapping players in their own instanced environment instead of forcing them out into the world to interact with other players. With the mission table, resource gathering, profession huts and more, there was no reason to leave your garrison. Even worse, Blizzard doubled down on the garrisons, adding more features to make them more important across WoD's measly two patches.
They were clearly a heavy undertaking, even if their live implementation was scaled back from what was announced at earlier BlizzCons. Who knows what WoD could have been if less time was spent on garrisons in exchange for more time spent on other aspects of the expansion. Maybe it would have escaped the hole it eventually dug for itself.