i can sum it up in one sentence: "the day you were born the very forests of Lorderon whispered the name, 'Arthas'"

Why was it so popular? GRIZZLY HILLS MUSIC 🙌

1) The story was cool 2) you didn't need a good PC to play WoW at that time 3) you had plenty of people to play with 4) The story was cool 5) It felt beginner friendly 6) the story was cool 7) the trailer 8) the story was cool 9) the music was amazing 10) the story was cool

Ya’ll remember that suuuper short period of time blood was a DPS spec? Pepperidge farm remembers.

Why was WotLK popular? Because lore of the final boss follwed you from the first step into Northrend untill the final step. Because classes had their class identity and fantasy was strong and relatively unique. Because gear was fun and something you could work towards, in contrast to recent expansions where gear isn't fun and completely down to RNG.

"My son... The day you were born, the very forests of Lordaeron whispered the name, Arthas." That first couple lines in the cinematic is the reason why its the best expansion.

The main reason I returned to WoW to play Classic is the prospect that one day I will be able to play Wrath again.

1. It had TBC as it's predecessor. A strong expansion with a lot of hopes. 2. Very strong storyline, called "Arthas". And many nice sidelines. 3. While zone phasing in a long run proved to have plenty of drawbacks, when you experience for a first time, it's quite fun. 4. Many people had a chance to experience Naxxramas. A raid, many of players could only dream about in Vanilla. 5. Ulduar is still one of the best raids we have ever seen. As always, artistic departament was on top, both with music and zone art.

Let’s not forget, wrath was the peak of wow marketing as well. The “What’s your game?” Ads with famous actors people idolize.

I would instantly resub for a WOTLK classic server!

1. A perfect Antagonist/Protagonist "story" 2. Leveling/landscape 3. Every class in pve/pvp perspective was perfect 4. Every good movie or game, needs perfect music

Wrath, till this day will and always be my favorite expansion. Because the story line was so freaking cool and the whole vibe of the world was just perfect.

I can tell you why it’s one of my favorite places: Grizzly Hills ambient music. I would sit for hours in that zone, just to hear that music. Once, I camped the spirit beast, Arcturis, for about 10 hours straight in Grizzly Hills. He must have spawned at 5am on a Weekday because I can remember taming him and waking up a couple hours later for class. That’s why WotLK was my favorite xpac even to this day when I still play retail.

Really surprised that not many people are mentioning the importance of the achievement system that was implemented. Added a ton of depth and breadth to the end game without forcing players into anything.

Wrath was for me the peak of WoW PvP. The lore was amazing, the classes felt good and the talent trees were at their absolute best.

For me, Ulduar was the best patch ever released while I was playing. It was a perfect response to a release where there was a fair bit of criticism about Naxx etc. The hard modes on bosses were so interesting and actually felt like you were taking an action that made sense in game that made a boss harder, as opposed to just clicking on a button that says "Heroic Mode". It also provided a really organic way for bosses to be progressively harder. Not to mention PVP just felt great throughout that xpac

Best part of wrath for me was Wintergrasp. Wintergrasp when each side had the max amount of players was a absolute blast

To me, it was the pinnacle of raiding. Great community, powerful storyline and best content ever. Thanks to wotlk, I’ve met many fantastic people, that I still stay in touch with.

Wrath is my home and always will be. I remember going to my friends house after school and borrowing ALL of the disks and installing the game so I could go to the game shop later that week and buy it myself and not worry about the install. Darn good times.

Arthas was just a compelling villain. You cared to find out what was happening. And the atmosphere added to this feeling that we were in his turf and the citadel just looming over the zones daring you to try and come challenge him in his seat of power.

All WoW classic did was make me miss my true home: Wrath. I leveled my guy to 60, dicked around a bit then started on a private Wrath serrver and I've been loving every second of it.

Well Storyline: it was the Ultimate endline of the story that started Warcraft 1 to 3, We just Discover Old gods and Titan but we where "done with it", Done with illidan, and we where answering all norfrend questions, the zone where large, we discover dragon flight but they werent plot central, finaly going on the quest of the High elf, sylvanas, Dwarfs, human about everything arthas as done to them at Lordaeron, we where "Ending" the Quest we started before vanilla ever came GameplayWise : Last time we saw Talents, last time gold was REALY that important, Elitism was at his peak, the game everyone know and love to be "not for casual" (Even if in reality wow was created to be for ... ) was reaching full potential, with Gems, talents, enchants, Glyphs, Dual specs, Reputations, Forging, Mithic and Heroic raids, gold was hardneeded and the game let every player dream to progress like everything was "So hard, only a real dude can do it" Every progress feeled like something important Community : Community was at its peak, Gaming industry was in good shape, blizzard image was nice and shiny, toxicity as allways been here but moderation was fighting hard, people respected some kind of progress PvP : Was imensse, with whole zones to it, and huge fights, Flying mount where rare, not cheap, and will not work in certain area + You would have to stay close to the ground if you wanted to find Ressource or mobs Everything in this expantion feeled like a real adventure, with a storyline making people question themself and what the world around them is to be, in the same time Quest where hard but not obligatory, and progress was tidious but feeled satisfying

WOTLK's landscape, and music alone drew you into the game.

1: Fun gameplay. 2: Naxx was fun. 3: Ulduar. 4: Class design was good. 6: Illuminati is behind covid, read the 25 Illuminati goals.

Dual spec was the best thing they have ever implemented

This is an easy question to answer, It was casual friendly while still being complex enough for hardcore players. You could also actually play the spec you wanted to play in this xpac. When a game is good for casuals it's also good for the hardcore players, I don't want to endlessly grind garbage, being able to log in and only have to do like 5 dailies and a dungeon is awesome. Knowing that whatever I do in the game is earning me something gear via badges, gold, sholder enchant, pvp gear, etc. Now in BFA I could play the entire patch and never get a geti at 475, gold doesn't matter, there is hardly any fun memorable gear, no snapshoting, and mythic raiding is too much work for the menial reward and satisfaction it gives. To top it all off I now have to PvE to be competitive in PvP.

LK : The perfect villain with an amazing story, numerous cameos in the dungeons so he felt relevant all the way through and a cool world event with the tournament before ICC

Don't forget all the unique things professions had back in wrath. Way more things than now in shadowlands. Back in wrath you had adding gem slots to wrists, some unique enchants to legs shoulders and more. Even JC got their own personal gem to add to their gear which made it feel more meaningful to role a JCer.

the lore sent chills down my spine when i was 15 and it does now, this was the pinnacle of wow

William Shatner told me to play WoW, so I did.

Probably just the golden age we never knew we were living in tbh. I remember playing the 10 day trial for WoW during wotlk, and eventually finally got my own copy. Nothing quite beat that experience to play wow in that era with my friend Mike.

Short answer : Arthas Long answer: F..king Arthas

I loved that in WotLK multiple specs became viable and even if many of those were not top dps, they always brought nice utility. If you were a paladin in Classic and TBC, you definitely love this expansion. The only thing I dislike about Wrath is FoS, PoS and HoR dungeons and Vaults of Archavon, they were practically free loot that would let you skip most of the previous patches to get into ICC quickly. Dual spec was amazing too and this is the last expansion where hunters use ammunition. Leveling in my opinion was way better in WotLK, the best balance between fun and casual, some would argue that it got "too easy" but tell me, how many times are you willing to go through the leveling process in classic before getting tired? WotLK and TBC provided new questing hubs in certain zones to ensure no one would need to grind mobs to level up. A lot of classes got so much love.

the adverts with mr T lol

Honestly, I think Wrath was the "perfect" mix of different types of Game design. Have played since Vanilla and now again in classic. Classic has in many ways made me enjoy modern wow more and more clearly understand the pros and cons of both games. I had the most fun in Wrath and it is imo the best xpac.

BC was my favorite expansion, but from a mechanics and lifestyle improvement perspective WotLK was the best expansion. it made every class and spec viable, especially with the replenishment mechanic which made Ret palis and Hunters far less intellect dependent. it also normalized gear so plate DPS no linger needed to rely on agility for crit; they could actually just use plate the way they were intended to do. Respeccing and duel-speccing (maybe duel spec didnt come until cata?) was made FAR simplier; and I could go on and on about the quality of life stuff. removing the jank and frustration didnt diminish the expirence, it improved it.

The good old days when i first played wow.. wanting to know more about arthas made me brought war3 and the expansion just to experience the story of that poor prince who wanted to do everything to save his people :c

To be fair everyone hated Occulus and nobody ever wanted to do it. If you got it in a random dungeon people would just leave.

Wrath was my favorite by far, I think it was the accessibility. I was able to enjoy all aspects of the game from PvP to raid content without having to devote every waking moment to the game. It was the expansion for casuals, which in reality was most of the player base.

I f*cking loved northerend.. I was 17 when WotLK came out I remember I instantly maimed a death knight..’loved the starting zone for them and I have some amazing memories from this time.

Wrath was always my favorite expansion, most notably because I think it struck the right balance between satisfying hardcore raiders with heroic raids and allowing casual and new players to get into the meat of the content. Unfortunately, the disastrous gear score addon was available during this period as well which lead to the 'your'e only as valuable as your gear score' mentality that sadly we still see today. The story in wrath, combined with the strong class identity I think is what made it so great. Also, the wrath pre-patch with the scourge invasion was and still is my favorite of all time.

I was a Wrath Baby and a Casual. I totally enjoyed my experience in the game - something that I can't say about most of the other expansions.

I managed to get a couple friends of mine to try a private server called Warmane with me when I first dared to try it in 2019. Immediately, the cinematic started after we launched for the first time and I was immediately taken back to 2009. The sheer magnitude of how many undead flooded that canyon in Icecrown, seeing that dragon fly over, and knowing this guy is out for US... goddamn. Taking them to Northrend the first time, starting in the fjord in Valgarde Port, because a decade ago I first stepped onto that continent from Valiance Keep and wanting to have a fresh adventure through from this side, hearing the music in the grizzly hills and the fjord, hearing the choir in Dalaran, fishing near the Sunken Ring waterfall while the beautiful horns in Wintergrasp, and so many varied and interesting areas and problems and building up our power all the while being very clearly observed by a threat if left uncheck would destroy all these sights and sounds that enchanted us and all the while it goes at your pace..... Truly incredible. I don't think I'll ever be able to become so enamored with a world like I was able to during Arthas' reign.

Howling Fjord, best zone ever created. I still remember my first time landing there, the grandeur of the place, the atmosphere...

It had the best lore! The Lich King was the ultimate villain. It really felt like we were going to lose. And when we finally beat him it was so satisfying!

WoW was still gaining players due to the internet being highly available at this time around the world. People also started getting good enough computers to play the game. It is the reason it had the most subscribers. Also making the classic servers big was never an issue for the private servers. * Almost no lag during huge pvp battles * Almost no lag in the major cities * Whenever insane farm that inflated the economy was discovered it was removed * No boosting of low level characters

Wrapping up the story from the previous games, tons of content for everyone, always something to do, incredible zone design, music, new class, and lots of quality of life improvements. It was just fantastic.

I think Wrath was the best the game ever looked. The zones and the Feel of everything matched what was in the zone. although the zones were incredibly annoying and most people will just dungeon level like all other

+++ Positives +++ - The Lore of Warcraft had it's very peak with its most interesting villain. - The whole nordic setting was awesome, each zone was unique and great, telling the Lichking lore including flashbacks to WC3 (+ expansion pack) Story - The quests got a lot of love, huge improvement there. - The old world was still the same, a bit nerfed but overall Classic and TBC lived on with Wotlk - Class identity was strong, yet every spec became very viable - More choices with gear, gems and glyphs - Imo all dungeons ad raids were well designed (ok that crusader thing was just a filler, but there were 3 others tiers already) - Casuals AND Hardcore players had a good time, the fights in raids really were a lot harder the Classic's - Dual Spec - - - Negatives - - - - Gearscore - Dungeonfinder

Wrath of the Lich King was the best because its the end of Arthas' story. Anyone who liked the lore even a little bit got some enjoyment from closing the book.

Classic Wrath cannot come soon enough. I could play that expansion literally forever, it has everything. Imo it had the perfect balance between vanilla and modern WoW.

I remember (as a BC baby) thinking they really smoothed out the rough edges with WotLK. I liked the changes (mostly) although I wasn't thrilled with the total death of world PvP. But the story was great, the environments of Northrend were *stellar.* And then they made GIANT changes with Cata, yet none of them were really earth shattering at the same time. It started to feel stale, like a hamster wheel, and within a few months post-launch, everyone quit logging in. And that's where it died for me and all of my friends. None of us could really put a finger on it. I think it's partly WotLK's fault, as if they'd perfected the game and the overall experience naturally plateaued. They just couldn't beat WotLK, and the harder they tried, the more they mucked it up.

the only thing that made an expansion the "best" are the ones where titan/thunder forging doesn't exist. You never felt like you completed gearing up your character. There was always something to grind for to improve yourself which made playing alts feel like a waste of time.

You're only focused on the gameplay of the expansion. I think the content was the coolest of any other expansion. The Lich King and the Scourge are the coolest enemies we've ever had, which I think is a major reason of it being so popular.

Great video WillE. I was a BC baby, and I loved WotLK. The feel of the Vanilla old world was an important part of the game that was still around. Felt more like you lived in the world vs. the world revolved around you and your quests. Lore was also fantastic, funny enough, I played WC3 about a month before I started WoW in late BC. Moving from that into a continuation of the Arthas story was phenomenal. Dungeons may have been on the easy side, but they were interesting places to be. Zones were beautiful and had interesting quest lore tied either to LK or the Ulduar/Titans story thread. Dailies existed but were manageable. Being a BC baby, making gold in classic without any dailies has been challenging given the time that I have to play. Catch up gear and the dungeon queue system sought out to rectify a couple of issues, but maybe went a little overboard. We're seeing difficulty getting dungeon groups in classic now for anything that isn't Lv58+ or containing NR gear. For catch-up gear, I'd probably choose to address it by increasing the number of pieces dropped by "non-current" bosses so that the need to run the content remains, but it goes a lot quicker than during progression. I'm not sure what the alternative to the dungeon finder is. Clicking a button and getting teleported to a dungeon with strangers takes some of the feeling of "epicness" out of the game. Spamming the LFG channel for hours looking for a tank in classic (or anyone at all for a low level dungeon) is not exactly awesome either.

If they do WotLK Classic, I will probably jump back into WoW seriously for the first time since I stopped playing at the end of Cataclysm.

it's the finale of the universe's meaningful lore... arthas, the final bad guy, all the lore wrapped up. you know, before they ran out of WC3 villians to use as raid bosses and they had to start spitballing new ideas into content with a bunch of 19 yr old intern writers who never played wc3

Wotlk was the only time I actually cared about the lore of wow, it was just so rich. PvP was also amazing, there were some broken stuff and shadowmourne was op at the end but it was relatively balanced. challenging pve actually felt rewarding unlike anything else, think of TOGC and the prestige of the mounts, there is nothing like that on retail besides world first progression.

Damn this video made me download it again and oh boy I'm loving it! Been years! I been playing for 1 hour almost level 20 idk if that's fast for that level or slow but I'm having a blast!

Wrath has the best zones and the best raids imo (at least Ulduar and ICC). LFG is maybe the only thing that I could do without for wrath, but everything else is an improvement. Both heirlooms and dual spec are great features to aid in leveling additional characters and reduce tedium. Also, don't forget that heirlooms were kind of expensive when they first came out. It wasn't easy to get all of them unless you were just grinding for that stuff constantly. Raids were genuinely difficult in wrath too (not that they weren't in TBC also), but heroic ICC has some really tough mechanics/dps checks. Killing Algalon in Ulduar required a pretty good raid group.

10-man raiding was huge for more casual guilds. Definitely opened up the endgame for a lot of people.

My favorite expansion by a long shot. I think it strikes the perfect balance between QoL and difficulty, but I wasn't a hardcore raider at the time. This also meant that I didn't see all of the raids until a later expansion and I could solo them. But I didn't care back then. It added something to the mystique of WoW, like in vanilla and TBC. From Cataclysm on this all changed. I did like MoP a lot as well, but only because of the story and art style. When it came to endgame, I was done quickly because it was just a tank, spank, grind through raids with people you don't know. WotLK had none of that stuff. Looking for a party is something different, if I find a party through a tool, or in chat, it doesn't really matter, you get to know each other a bit during the dungeon. But in in a raid? You're one of the 25, you're insignificant, while if you're playing with your guild, or friends, it means they know you, and you and them know your role, because they've been playing with you for much longer than that single raid. LFR had to be made so simple that 25 random players could actually make it till the end without too much effort, let alone leadership. In WotLK this was all still needed, and it was the last expansion to do so if you wanted to see everything it had to offer.

Talent tree removed, legendary item implementation, LFG, LFR. You took the community aspect out of the game and made it so new players could come in and rapidly ascend to the same rank and gear that others had worked years on. An important overlooked aspect of the game was learning to play your character. What works better where and actually having to work at your toon and not get an easy to build cookie cutter style. I personally loved WOTLK, but when LFR and LFG came into play the whole guildy helping guildy, community part left the game. Bosses got easier and raids and dungeons were just clicking and waiting. I hear people talk about how hard it is to level in classic and you have to run over to the instance and that's only if you can find a group. That's how it all started and I think that's what makes classic so great. Make us work for the advancements, for the xp, and build this awesome game back to a community player based model instead of individual accomplishment.

Because I like Games with Winter Snow areas and Death Knights too. That is why it was and is so popular.

I'm only hoping for TBC because it increases the chance of getting WotLK, lol. I just love this expansion

The gaming industry wasn't so saturated of games back then, nowadays free to plays rule the market, which damages mmorpgs a lot. Also wow was ahead of its time on 2010, but now it's the opposite, it has the same motor of a game from 2004.

WOTLK was by far the best moment of WoW history. I say it as someone who started playing since vanilla

As someone who joined in late Wrath, I can say my reason to join was the Lore, this and the fact the expansion theme looked amazing.

Loved Northrend and Dalaran it was so good and deathknights ofc new fav class

This expansion was great for the less anally stat obsessed elitists among us, who wanted to have a good time and play a social mmorpg that is fun and not a job. And yeah, the lore was great.

I loved the dungeon group finder, the dungeons, dual spec, flying while leveling, leveling while gathering. I loved all the dungeons and all the raids. My fav xpac, can’t wait for another.

I think you nailed your point when you said each tier bough in a reset and the badge system (hate it or love it) actually made it accessible for more people to jump into the raiding scene from any point in the progression ladder. This accessibility allowed newbies and casuals to join the race not at the very bottom but somewhere in the middle and progress to ICC. Wrath was full of issues but what I love about the first 3 games were they were constantly trying to improve and balanced the formula to meet players needs. Maybe it went too far in Wrath but the fact that so many people could play meant for a better social experience, meeting people from different levels of experience, people willing to learn and the feeling of being taught something new, it kept that magic of "I know something and I will share it will you" alive since majority of WoW can seem confusing and convoluted at times, especially when it comes to acquiring the best gear (pre-"I can just Google everything" era). Oh also WoWhead was like the no.1 source for your database community around this time, this and along side min-maxers such as ElitistJerks crunching all the numbers in spreadsheets (fun times) it made the investment in your character so much more fun. Also just a random shoutout: Ulduar. Genuinely one of the best raiding experiences since TBC, the raid was so well designed and I loved how you could activate hardmode by incorporating tactics instead of a hard switch in the UI. Also fighting Yogg Saron and Algalon, adding to the whole Old Gods vs Titans lore, that in itself felt like its own game, it was like a mini "to be continued" half way through the expansion but we knew we still had a job to do...Mr. Lich King needed to go down. It also incorporated the traditional dragon bosses but with a twist (Malygos and the vehicle combat). It had everything covered lore wise from Dragons, Old Gods, Titans, Arthas/Lich King, Nerubians, mech battle with Mimiron (with an actual frikkin hard mode switch in game!). It introduced the Vrykul and proto Drake mounts, Brann came back to give you some bite sized lore as you played, it felt more steamlined. I felt apart of the story not just spectating.

I think we underestimate how good of a story "The story of the Lich King" actually is. Why aint the community pushing for a movie? I would love to watch it, and know others that would as well.

LFG tool wasn't added until the final patch of Wrath, that's when the game started to change to a more casual style MMO imo, although you can make an argument that the game started to change with the BC pre-patch where everyone could obtain high warlord gear. Either way you can clearly see just from looking at that subscription chart when Blizzard started taking away peoples choice and funneling everyone into the same direction subs dropped and continued to drop until classic released.

I’ve enjoyed both TBC and wotlk back on retail and now later on private servers. Both have engaging content and interesting features, class/spec mechanics, boss mechanics etc. Even tho a lot of the features changed between the two expansions, it didn’t necessarily go for better or worse, for example, things like party-wide buffs vs raid-wide buffs (and btw some party-wide buffs, like certain shaman totems, still existed in wotlk). To me they’re just two different versions of the same game that both feel fun to play. However, the biggest reason why TBC still stands out as the best era in my mind is the mentality of working together. I’ve seen this very clearly now having replayed both expansions. In wotlk you can pug a lot of the content and gear up more easily on your own, which diminished the role of guild raiding and made a big portion of the population less commited to raiding in a guild and more self-centered, solo players, which shows especially in smaller/less hardcore guilds. In TBC it feels like players raid together, not only for personal gain, but for the sake of progressing and accomplishing things together, enjoying playing with people you only got to know in the game, thru failures and successes, learning and improving together. To me (as a PVE player at least) this feels like the biggest and most significant difference. It’s not just wotlk being more casual than tbc, but the fact that it changed an important aspect and the nature of the game majorly, and I think that is one of the reasons for this plateau in subs. (For reference, I quit retail wow in Cataclysm, havent ever returned to it, and what I know is that this trend wotlk started has just gone further and further.)

For me northrend was my absolute favorite place to quest ever. Like every zone had something interesting to look forward to and pretty ambient atmospheres. I also loved the raiding in this expansion with naxx, ulduar, and icc being at the top

Ulduar was awesome! Definitly one of my favs dungeons.

I fully agree with the points raised in this video. For me however, I absolutely hated WotLK. Being a hardcore raider in Vanilla and Tbc I've always felt a deep sense of accomplishment one way or another. Be it due to the obstacles of putting a 40man raid force together, preparation beforehand with consumables and special gear or the general difficulty of the encounter (or a combination of the three) it always felt like I had distinguished myself when me and my guild overcame a challenge. Which was visible in the form of rare loot after the fact to remind others but mostly myself. And not just in the cosmetic sense but also in power increase and more importantly the power gap between me and other players. All of this went down the drain in WotLK. No longer were raid challenges difficult and in the beginning difficulty was mostly found through achievements. Even after that when heroic modes were unlocked I sometimes struggled to see the difference between that and normal modes. And the couple encounters that were truly hard only gave you a slightly off-colored souvenir in terms of heroic gear. Heroic gear that was only marginally better in terms of stats than normal gear, just enough to warrant the attempt but not enough to set you apart. And honestly that was what WotLK felt like to me. Yes the gameplay was better than ever and content had never been as engaging but I struggled to justify the time commitment to myself. Why was I putting in all these hours of my life wiping on a boss that was made difficult by some added mechanics and would give me a purple colored armor set instead of a bronze one. Before all this I could justify my WoW addiction because I was obsessed with the death animation of the newly added boss encounter, knowing only the worthy would be seeing it. I would look at the new gear sets and imagine my avatar walking around in them, then slowly watching my dream be realized through sheer force of will during raiding. Knowing I was setting myself apart in the process and growing in power as a result. The world of Azeroth and its inhabitants and players that at one point required careful navigation in order to prevent death or ganking were now my playground. And my connection to the world only grew by my mastery of it and the familiarity of all the locations the game made me revisit. Now all of that didn't matter anymore and my freshly leveled 70 Death Knight was about was comfortable walking around in the world as my main because the power gap had been entirely removed and npc mobs never posed a threat to begin with. After weeks in a dungeon raiding the 'hardest content' there was I pretty much looked the same as someone who had breezed through normal mode, be it a slight color variation. I distinctly remember putting in hellish hours going through ICC in the hardest difficulty. Wiping for weeks to get up to Arthas, only to be wiping for months until the we managed to kill him. I remember starting ICC during the holidays and right before summer vacation started I was finally done. In the past with raids like Naxx and SWP I would look back fondly with a sense of accomplishment. My fully decked out avatar being the proof of that, stronger than before. But this time I just felt a deep feeling of waste and I started to questions why I was even raiding at all. I stopped doing so shortly after and once I took that step I wondered why I was paying my subscription at all. Then I quit. I miss those days and part of me wished I didn't have to quit and I could have made many more memories in that online world. But in the end it was Blizzard's shift in WotLK that pushed me over the edge. In the end it was probably the best thing that could have happened in my life as a late teenager. WotLK was a great expansion in so many ways but in the one way that mattered most it failed, it failed to give meaning to the people who had invested the most in the game.

My answer? 1. Lore. It finished the WC3 story while expanding the lore of the Scourge and Northrend 2. Northrend. Despite it being an arctic continent with an overall ice motif, the zones still managed to feel unique, and i fell some of the most memorable and atmospheric zones were there 3. Classes. I feel like Wrath is when the largest number of specs were both viable and fun to play. Yes, DKs and ret paladins were pretty OP, but even so, DKs were ironically less mandatory for the meta than they are in current WoW. 4. It maintained enough of what was good about Vanilla and TBC, but also felt like it respected your time with its gearing and progression revamp and really encouraged you to try more builds/classes

As one of the few people that hated TBC, Wrath was the pinnacle of WoW for me especially for all the points you made. One thing you touched on is especially true for us that have been with Warcraft since Orcs and Humans. Wrath for many of us was the conclusion to a story that had been told since the late 90's. After WC3: TFT we all asked ourselves, "When do we fight the Lich King and when do we see Northrend?". When I first saw the Howling Fjord and heard those orchestrated Bag Pipes and Viking related themes. I thought to myself, "Man Blizzard absolutely nailed it". Even bringing back Naxx for the Vanilla players that never got to experience it. Sure it's Baby Naxx, but Lore-wise Wrath was the pinnacle for people that were invested in the story from the beginning. Every Expansion afterwards has became "Oh no we wrote ourselves into a hole: I know TIME TRAVEL, or Asian Stereotypes, or let's bring "insert name here" back to be the Big Bad again." I am finally coming back to Live for Shadowlands, but it looks like the Diablo Live Team took over the WoW Live Team. Everything from stats, smart loot, and Torghast all comes from D3:RoS.

"Wrath sucked because the game got more casual, if it doesn't take 8 hours a day 6 days a week for you to be able to get to level cap, gear up, and do raids, then it's not fun for me!!!" "W-w-....what do you mean heroic mode and hard mode bosses don't just stand still and do nothing like in classic? Wha....wait w-why is this content not clearable in 30 minutes?? Omg this is so dumb... n-no...!!" To be totally honest I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of Classic's "most elite" players don't have the ability to kill half the hardmodes in Ulduar months after Ulduar's release when Wrath Classic is a thing. Also, Grizzly Hills best WoW zone ever made, don't @ me.

One thing people never want to admit - you got older

for me it was the story that kept me wanting the next patch in WOTLK also i feel pvp was less of a burst affair and required you to know your class and Ulduar being probably the best raid blizzard has ever released

For me it's because WOTLK was the moment Enhancement Shaman finally come together. The addition of Lava Lash and Maelstrom Weapon filled a lot of gaps in Enh's kit that TBC didnt quite manage. Combine that withtthe ability to dual spec, so I can swap to heals if needed. And that's just the gameplay side. The music, the ambience, the scope of the lore was all amazing. The Argent Touranment leading up the creation of the Argent Crusade and Ashen Verdict was so fucking cool. Witnessing the memory of Arthas obtaining Frostmourne. Questing in Storm Peaks and slowly realizing that the amnesiac dwarf in that one town is, in fact, Muradin Bronzebeard. Delving into the depths of Icecrowne and finding the heart of arthas and the Faceless Ones. What an amazing expansion it was.

*Marty from back to the future looks at the title of this video* "Wait I've seen this one this is a classic" We know why Wotlk was popular. Everyone knows. People who don't play wow know.

imo with wotlk blizz found the best compromises between balance and fun/accessibility. both in pve and pvp. they never nailed it as good before and never did again. not saying it was perfect but from all the expansions i enjoyed this one the most for it. i also really liked the effort they put in the DK / Lichking storyline from DK starting area, cut scenes up to ICC . the lichking was the most charismatic and iconic villain in the wow franchise to me and the DK became my main for a very long time. i sure hope they revive the expansions up to wotlk.

Flying up to Naxx the first time was so scary and daunting. Can’t recapture that feeling anymore.

Personally the best thing for me in wotlk was aiming towards Shadowmourne which I ended up getting realm first. The journey to get it was really great. Not just a random drops to get but actual questlines and challenges to do. Then finally getting it and just destroying everything in raids. Retribution alone was great in ICC but combining it with Shadowmourne was just insane. And also being able to tank heroic dungeons in dps spec (retri + righteous fury) with our guilds main healers. It was a blast.

“Death Knight’s and Acherus Deathchargers with freezy hooves.”

Ahh still playing it!!! Activision can't hurt me here.

In my opinion, it is because raiding became something even casual players could do well. The raids weren't too difficult, if you wanted the extra challenge there were hard modes that gave better loot. This expansion is the only one that I raided from beginning to end in the same guild because there were no guild-breaking bosses or any stupid requirements such as world buffs and flasks that were stupidly expensive. Vanilla was more casual friendly than WoW Classic, now every guild I have tried for won't bring you if you're not BiS with all of the world buffs and at least 2 flasks with absorb potions and food buffs. Screw that crap, I'm not farming for 10 hours to raid for 4 hours and then repeat it again because now I am broke. WotLK was casual friendly and was before the time of everyone becoming elitists or pretending to be one. It is what I enjoy in a game, the ability to log in and play rather than having to do chores I don't want to do in order to get myself ready to play content I do want to do, also PvP was fun too with PvP vendors that had resilience so you were rewarded for PvP rather than having to do 25-man hard mode bosses to get the best loot to PvP with.

There is a simple reason: There was just enough familiarity from the old days and enough new exciting things to keep us entertained. Cut-scenes were well crafted, chain quests had an amazing storyline, soundscape was beyond epic, the zones were enough familiar to real world for us to make a connection to our characters yet enough fantasy to make it feel like it. All in all WotLK had just the right amount of balance of familiarity and new things. It was the best money I've ever spent.

Because TBC built the popularity of WoW - Also, that chart is not right, WotLK is infamous for huge subscription decline in the last 4 months.

You were actually a individual and had a character that no one else had

Story, music, immersion, color pallete, art style, itroduction of normal and HC raids made raiding available for everyone, lfg tool made it alt friendly.

Aside from the story, the main reason why I love WOTLK is how the process of gearing up works. Progress is guaranteed if you invest time. I've never been the type of a person to find guilds and make in-game friends (I played WoW 'cause I simply loved the world around me - the locations, the characters, the music) so getting items in classic and TBC is a nightmare for me. In later expansions you don't have to be so communicative but only in WOTLK it still had some challenge to it. You could do stuff at your own pace but grind was still there.

I'd prefer staying in tbc, with dual spec.. But I can't have it all I guess..

Great theme, remade naxx was great, ulduar is still one of the best raid ever

I think what carried WOTLK in terms of subscribers was the immense storyline and hype regarding Arthas becoming the Lich King and that insane epic cinematic. The previous expansion TBC was also very succesfull which probably had a helping hand in making WOTLK popular.

I'll watch the video later (I don't have enough time right now), but I can already tell you: 1). It had a wide range of content for everybody, casuals and more hardcores alike. 2). It had things to do outside of instanced dungeons (dailies, and an IoQD-like area with the Tournament). 3). The music and visuals of the places, at the time, were top-notch with very memorable tunes and visuals. 4). It had a villain that was actually believable and one we could actually understand and resonate with (unlike MarySue Windrunner). 5). Heroics actually meant something. 6). You could unlock flying the moment you reached Level 80, rather than having to do weeks worth of grinding and a 9 month time-gate. Just a few of the reasons.