[0:00] World of Warcraft has been around for
[0:02] over two decades, everybody. And in that
[0:05] time, it has given us some incredible
[0:07] highs and some very catastrophic lows.
[0:10] Each expansion shaping this MMO that we
[0:12] know and love. Sometimes for the better,
[0:13] sometimes for the what the hell was
[0:15] Blizzard thinking? So, today we are
[0:17] ranking every WoW expansion from worst
[0:19] to best. And if your favorite is near
[0:21] the bottom, you're going to have to take
[0:22] it up with your therapist, my friend.
[0:24] Not me. Let's dive in with number uh
[0:28] last, Shadowlands. Without a doubt, the
[0:31] worst expansion in WoW's history. I
[0:34] think 99% of us can agree, except for
[0:36] that one guy that gets really angry in
[0:39] my comment section whenever me or
[0:41] anybody else says that this expansion
[0:43] was not very good. Shadowlands just took
[0:46] everything that people loved about World
[0:47] of Warcraft lore and shoved it into a
[0:49] blender set to oblivion. Terrible
[0:51] villain with no charisma, Heisoval.
[0:54] Sylvanas dragged through the mud until
[0:56] nobody could defend her and zones that
[0:59] felt more like a strange World of
[1:02] Warcraft fanfiction than places that
[1:04] would actually exist in the universe.
[1:06] Revendrath was pretty cool though, I
[1:08] admit. Also, Togghast. Remember Toggast?
[1:10] Blizzard wishes that you
[1:12] didn't. Shadowlands like it wasn't an
[1:16] adventure. It was more of like a
[1:17] cautionary tale. You didn't beat
[1:19] Shadowlands if you played through it
[1:21] during its time. You just survived it.
[1:23] And perhaps to this day, you still wake
[1:25] up at night sometimes after having a
[1:27] nightmare about collecting some soul
[1:29] ash. Battle for Azeroth. We all saw the
[1:32] cinematic, man. That intro cinematic. We
[1:35] got hyped. I certainly got hyped. Horde
[1:38] versus Alliance, war on a global scale,
[1:41] capital cities falling, and then we
[1:43] spent the majority of the expansion
[1:45] watching Jana cry in cinematics. We
[1:48] helped some fat humans rediscover their
[1:50] love for water and cardio. And we
[1:53] convinced a bunch of jungle trolls to
[1:55] stop listening to blood gods who told
[1:56] their followers to practice cannibalism.
[1:59] BFA felt like two expansions just sort
[2:02] of duct taped together. Warfronts were
[2:04] boring. Azerite armor was a mess. We
[2:07] still have PTSD from Island Expeditions.
[2:10] Missed Potential doesn't even begin to
[2:12] cover it. Honestly, I would love it if
[2:14] Blizzard did another Battle for Azeroth
[2:16] expansion down the road, like a Battle
[2:18] for Azeroth remastered, and made it very
[2:21] PvP focused, allowed us to burn down
[2:23] enemy faction villages and stuff,
[2:25] because who doesn't want a torch goldsh
[2:27] on Argentu, am I
[2:30] right? Warlords of Drraanor. Listen, if
[2:33] you judged expansions based solely on
[2:36] vibes and ambience, Warlords would be
[2:39] top three. Honestly, I wanted to put
[2:41] this expansion higher on the list
[2:43] because I really love Drraanor a lot,
[2:45] but I just can't. Drraanor looked
[2:47] incredible. The music was perfect. The
[2:49] atmosphere was a chef's kiss. But then
[2:51] you realized after hitting max level
[2:54] that there was just nothing to do. You
[2:56] AFK in your garrison. There's no
[2:58] meaningful patches aside from one,
[3:00] unless you count the selfie camera
[3:02] patch. There was no actual endgame
[3:04] besides doing garrison chores. It was
[3:07] like Blizzard built a beautiful house
[3:08] and just forgot to furnish it. And the
[3:10] story, it was good, but it just wasn't
[3:13] enough because we didn't get enough
[3:14] patches. I also hated that we killed off
[3:17] Gash so quickly. Personally, Warlords,
[3:20] it's the classic case of a project that
[3:22] sprinted across the starting line and
[3:24] just immediately face planted into a
[3:26] rake. Cataclysm. This expansion was the
[3:30] one that broke the world and a lot of
[3:32] hearts along the way. While the revamped
[3:34] 1 to 60 leveling zones were fun, some
[3:37] zones better than others, of course,
[3:39] Cataclysm did come at the cost of
[3:41] destroying the nostalgic iconic world
[3:43] that everybody loved. The endgame
[3:46] content was hit or miss depending on who
[3:48] you were. Firelands was great, though,
[3:50] but who seriously enjoyed doing Dragon
[3:52] Soul over and over and over for as long
[3:55] as we did. Also, let's be real, nobody
[3:57] asked for underwater questing in Bashir.
[4:00] Nobody. Especially not me because I have
[4:02] some serious phobia about deep dark
[4:04] ocean water with things down there. I I
[4:06] don't even want to think about it.
[4:07] Anyway, Deathwing flying overhead and
[4:09] torching zones was pretty badass. But in
[4:11] the end, Cataclysm tried to embody the
[4:13] idea of new is better. But I think in
[4:15] the long run, it proved that statement
[4:17] very much untrue. The War Within. The
[4:21] War Within feels like Blizzard finally
[4:24] remembered that World of Warcraft is at
[4:26] its best when it just focuses on
[4:28] Azeroth. No big cosmic gods and weird
[4:32] timelines and extradimensional jailers,
[4:35] just a gritty downto- earthth conflict
[4:38] this time under the surface of the
[4:40] world. The new underground zones look
[4:42] incredible. The delve system has a lot
[4:44] of fun, repeatable small groupoup
[4:46] content without feeling like another
[4:48] toast disaster. And the tone is
[4:50] refreshingly grounded, but you do get a
[4:52] little bit of that like void and cosmic
[4:54] stuff thrown in, but it's not too bad.
[4:56] It's certainly not a perfect expansion,
[4:58] though. But I would say that War Within
[5:00] overall is very solid, but it's not
[5:03] great. It's just okay. Otherwise, I
[5:05] would rank it up higher on this list.
[5:07] Also, let's be honest, nobody was
[5:09] begging to learn even more dwarf related
[5:12] lore. Still, after the chaos of all the
[5:14] recent years, The War Within does look
[5:16] like a promising course correction for
[5:18] Blizzard, assuming that they don't trip
[5:20] over their own feet on the way to
[5:22] wherever the heck they're taking this
[5:23] game. Dragon Flight. Dragon riding is
[5:26] probably the most fun traversal mechanic
[5:28] that WoW has ever added. The story, it's
[5:31] simple, dude. There's a couple of big
[5:32] angry dragons, especially this one
[5:34] that's literally on fire, and we got to
[5:36] go punch them in the face. That's it.
[5:38] There's no cosmic mumbo jumbo and no
[5:40] rewiring the laws of death. It's just
[5:42] good old-fashioned dragon slaying. Dude,
[5:44] Beaowolf would be proud. The expansion
[5:47] was also absolutely gorgeous. The zones,
[5:50] they were fun to explore and fly over.
[5:52] They were freaking tuscar in this
[5:53] expansion, dude. the greatest race in
[5:55] WoW, which I just talked about in my
[5:57] five races that should be added to World
[5:59] of Warcraft video. And the tone of
[6:00] Dragon Flight just felt like World of
[6:02] Warcraft was just chilling out for a
[6:04] little while, returning to some
[6:05] semi-traditional fantasy. It was cool.
[6:08] Dragon Flight didn't try to reinvent the
[6:10] wheel. It just gave us a really, really
[6:11] pretty one. And I think that's why it
[6:13] was so enjoyable for those of us that
[6:15] gave it a chance during its time. And
[6:17] also, I will say as a fan of druid lore
[6:20] and stuff and Malfurion, the Emerald
[6:21] Dream was really beautiful. Myths of
[6:24] Pandaria. At launch, people mocked
[6:26] Pandaria for being the Kung Fu Panda
[6:29] expansion. But when the memes died down,
[6:31] everybody realized, "Holy crap, this
[6:34] expansion is awesome." Huge detailed
[6:38] zones, tons of factions and dailies,
[6:41] legendary quest lines, scenarios, the
[6:44] monk class, Thunder King raid, which is
[6:46] still top tier, raising your own cloud
[6:49] serpent. Dude, even if the Chinese
[6:52] inspired vibe wasn't your thing, and it
[6:54] personally wasn't mine either, you
[6:56] couldn't deny just the sheer amount of
[6:59] content that M of delivered. And this
[7:02] expansion aged like fine wine. That's
[7:05] why Blizzard brought it back for the
[7:06] freaking remaster event. And they're
[7:09] about to launch Miss of Classic. People
[7:11] love Mist of Pandaria. And honestly, I
[7:14] mean, like this is just my opinion, but
[7:16] I think that M of a much better battle
[7:20] for Azeroth kind of vibe than Battle for
[7:23] Azeroth did. I mean, at least it really
[7:25] captured the faction warfare. Plus, the
[7:28] world PvP on the Timeless Aisle, dude,
[7:29] it was absolute chaos and it was so much
[7:31] fun if you were there. Mr. Pendari was
[7:33] great. Legion artifact weapons were a
[7:36] master stroke. All Blizzard did is they
[7:39] were like, "Hey, what if we just took a
[7:41] vanilla WoW talent tree and just put it
[7:44] on a weapon." It was a genius idea and
[7:46] it worked amazing. Class halls mostly
[7:49] felt like a love letter to each class
[7:51] fantasy. And finally taking the fight to
[7:53] the Burning Legion after all these years
[7:55] felt so damn good. But here's the one
[7:57] thing that I have to say. Why were we
[7:59] fighting the Legion on this one tiny
[8:01] island? The whole world could have been
[8:03] involved through this entire expansion.
[8:05] But then again, maybe focusing on a
[8:07] world spanning expansion isn't the best
[8:09] idea. Huh? Cataclysm. Still, Legion
[8:12] brought World of Warcraft back from the
[8:14] brink after Warlords of Drraanor's
[8:16] disaster, and it gave us Illan back, and
[8:19] that alone is worth major points. I
[8:21] don't even care that it was obvious fan
[8:23] service. Illan was just really cool to
[8:25] see. And the demon hunter class. Maybe
[8:27] not as cool as death knights, but they
[8:29] still ranked pretty good in my ranking
[8:31] WoW classes from worst to best video,
[8:33] which you should definitely check out
[8:34] after this one. The Burning Crusade. It
[8:38] was classic WoW, but with spaceships.
[8:40] TBC took everything that people loved
[8:42] about vanilla, brutal leveling,
[8:44] tight-knit groups, horrifying PvP, and
[8:47] just polished it up. And flying mounts,
[8:49] dude, because flying mounts are so
[8:50] freaking cool. Seriously though, TBC
[8:52] zones are still so iconic. The dungeons
[8:55] felt meaningful and introducing Drraani
[8:57] and Blood Elves reshaped the Horde and
[8:59] the Alliance in very huge ways. Plus,
[9:01] the vibes, the vibes of this expansion,
[9:04] perfect, man. Hellfire Peninsula, PTSD
[9:07] aside, TBC gave us some of the best
[9:10] music, aesthetics, and storytelling that
[9:13] the franchise has ever seen. Shout out
[9:15] to the Azure Isle soundtrack, by the
[9:17] way. Dude, it hits like an emotional
[9:18] truck. I've even been listening to it
[9:20] this entire time while I've been writing
[9:22] this script. Also, first time stepping
[9:24] through the Dark Portal. Pure magic.
[9:26] Anyone that has done it, like it's it's
[9:28] a memory. It's a it's a it's a cherished
[9:30] gaming memory. Walking through the Dark
[9:32] Portal for the first time at level 58.
[9:34] BC was great. And now everyone, before
[9:37] we reveal that obvious number one, I
[9:40] would like to thank you all for making
[9:41] it this far into the video and watching
[9:43] it. And if you can, and if you want, hit
[9:45] that like button down below to help the
[9:46] channel. And if you want to see more
[9:48] ranking videos in the future, just let
[9:50] me know some of your ideas down in the
[9:51] comment section below. Here we go.
[9:54] Number one, the best WoW expansion is
[9:57] Wrath of the Lich King. It's the peak.
[10:00] It's the summit. It's the Magnum Opus.
[10:02] Northrren was perfection, dude. Snow
[10:05] Fields, Gothic Castles, Viking zombies.
[10:09] Arthus was the best villain Blizzard
[10:12] ever wrote, hands down. But I will say
[10:14] though, his I'll get you next time,
[10:16] kids. vibe in Wrath was a little bit
[10:18] poor writing-wise, but he was still
[10:21] awesome in Warcraft 3 and leading up
[10:23] into Wrath of a Lich King, so we sort of
[10:25] forgive it in our hearts. Death Knights
[10:27] were introduced in this expansion. They
[10:29] were overpowered as hell, and that made
[10:30] them absolutely fun to play. Every
[10:33] dungeon, every raid, every battleground
[10:35] had that right feeling captured by that
[10:38] OG World of Warcraft team. And sure, the
[10:41] Wrath of the Lich King classic
[10:42] experience was filled with bots. But
[10:44] that original Wrath of the Lich King
[10:47] experience back in the day, it's
[10:49] untouchable. It was the end of an era
[10:52] for World of Warcraft. And after Wrath,
[10:54] WoW just never was quite the same. And
[10:56] neither were we. And finally, if you
[10:58] didn't cry at the end of the Ice Crown
[10:59] Citadel raid, you might just be a
[11:02] hellbent evil raid boss yourself in real
[11:04] life. And there it is, everybody. Every
[11:06] WoW expansion ranked from worst to best.
[11:08] Where did your favorite land? Let me
[11:10] know down in the comments. And if you
[11:12] think that uh Shadowlands deserved a
[11:14] higher place on the list, please provide
[11:16] your reasoning, which I'm going to
[11:17] completely ignore, by the way, because
[11:19] you need some really serious help, my
[11:21] friend. Like the video if you guys want.
[11:22] Subscribe for more MMO RPG content. And
[11:25] if you want another video to watch,
[11:27] check out this one on your screen right
[11:29] now. It is ranking WoW classes from
[11:31] worst to best. I know you guys will
[11:33] enjoy it. And uh yeah, thanks for
[11:35] watching everybody and I'll see you with
[11:36] my next