Which WoW Expansion Had The BEST LORE?

I've previously covered which expansion had the worst lore, but now let's look on the positive side. What expansion so far had the best stories, the best background and felt the most fulfilling from a lore perspective? I think most of us can agree that warcraft lore has gone way too far.

The release of classic really brought this contrast that it almost feels like an entirely different game. You went from a regular adventurer helping out your faction and at most fighting a dragon or an elemental lord, to travelling to a different dimension, imprisoning titans that controlled an entire universe and now challenging death itself.

I'm honestly not a massive fan of either and my belief is that the answer is the balance between the two and that the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. So it's not ideal to be a space warrior god, but also just being a simple grunt isn't that fun.

If we count classic as an expansion, I can't really say that it had great lore. It had a lot of legacy from Warcraft 3 and a few of the books that were written prior to the release but I think the main reason why the game became so popular was that WoW itself really moulded the MMORPG genre and it was really revolutionary at the time.

This aspect really brought the most excitement, but now in 2020 when you play it you can see that not much is happening at least from the lore perspective. There are a ton of fetch quests, there is some set up for the future like Naxxrammas and the black Dragonflight but overall it kind of lacks an overarching story.

Blizzard realized this and instead of boosting it like 20-30%, they decided to do it more like 2000%. Luckily they didn't do that immediately and the first few expansions, in my opinion, were excellent. I can't say much about Burning Crusade as they definitely messed up the lore.

It was super exciting to see a new world and to explore the new story at the time but looking at it now it was a massive mistake as like half of that lore is retconned and they really ruined some characters like Kael'Thas for example. However, in my opinion, Wrath of the Lich King was like the sweet spot as in the ideal where we should be balance-wise.

Wrath of the Lich King had really everything you want from a lore perspective. An amazing background story from Warcraft 3 which entirely shaped the expansion, a real sense of threat, an entire continent to explore and so many new background stories that felt so rewarding as you uncovered each mystery after mystery.

Most importantly the power balance was there. When you look at it from this point now Arthas was like an ant compared to Sargeras but damn did he feel more dangerous. He obliterated Lordaeron, he took over Northrend and enslaved almost all inhabitants, he attacked our capitals, he created the evil death knight order, we got destroyed at the wrath gate.

It really felt like we're a part of this worldwide war effort and that we needed every advantage that we could get. We weren't some crazy powerhouses that were the titan champions of Azeroth infused by ancient spirits but instead soldiers, we helped organize assaults, we went on undercover missions to weaken Arthas and to recruit any help we could get.

Aside from that, the other storylines were amazing as well. From the failing troll kingdom to the forsaken by god vrykul. Most importantly there was Ulduar - the place that felt like a mystery in itself. You walked into the chambers of the titans, these gigantic beings that we couldn't even imagine and we realized that the place was haunted by an old god.

That combined with the epic chanting music really made it one of the highlights of Warcraft. It really was this distance from the titans that made it epic at the time and now when we are working with them and can see them, they don't seem like that big of a deal.

It is a similar story with the Old gods as well, as yogg-Saron really felt invincible, but as we now defeated a released N'Zoth it kind of ruined that view. Aside from wrath of the lich king there were 2 expansions that in my opinion had good lore. First was Cataclysm, which had its errors but still provided a lot of good storylines.

The threat of Deathwing really was there and seeing that he literally shattered our planet we could feel the imminent danger and much like with the Lich King it felt like a constant effort to stop him from accomplishing his goals. The goblin and the Worgen storylines were great, Vash'jir was a really unique zone unlike anything we had ever seen and there were some excellent stories with the visions of the end of Azeroth, Egypt like Uldum, the Old God threat and all of their minions.

Next we had Pandaria. From this perspective it really wasn't a bad expansion, especially lore-wise although I do remember when the trailer was announced and everyone complained that wow was now a children's game, it was kung fu panda and that the lore is dead.

Pandaria provided a lot of unique content, a new continent, the same mysterious old god influence, Lei-Shen as the old evil returning, the Zandalari expeditions and ultimately the siege of Orgrimmar, Garrosh turning evil and the rebellion which definitely felt unique at the time.

As this was the first-ever civil war it really felt like something which can't really be said about the most recent Sylvanas one as that definitely felt rehashed. After that in terms of anything decent, there was Legion. I really didn't like Legion as an expansion overall but I can't deny that it had some really good lore going around.

There was some great stuff with uncovering the entire universe, what the Burning Legion was really doing and all the various side stories. The forgotten elves of Suramar that were now struggling, the highmountain tauren and some of those artifact storylines.

However overall Legion really could have easily been spread across like 2 expansions and it felt incredibly rushed. It committed the worst offences to the balance of power and it was really when things started going out of wack. So overall I would say that Wrath of the Lich King was the best and in my opinion that was when wow really peaked.

Cataclysm and Pandaria were the smaller peaks, it really dropped down to nowhere with Warlords of Draenor and with Legion it was lifted a bit. A lot of this is also reflected by the sub numbers at least when we had access to them. The biggest issue with world of warcraft right now is the balance of power and I'm not sure we can really go back after we defeated the Old Gods and imprisoned Sargeras.

Still, I do have high hopes for Shadowlands and I am looking forward to what Blizzard can do next. Thank you for watching. Check out what expansion had the worst lore by clicking on the screen and also check out my second channel for videos on real-world history and science.