Blizzards Great Struggle Begins: Wrath’s Epic Launch & Mixed Reaction: The Original Lich King

[@3Katapa]

God I miss Vendors. Nothing felt better than saving up for a piece and getting no loot in the mean time, then getting a good loot drop that gives you god gear and enough tokens to get another item. That felt like RNG fun times on top of grinding for a goal. Plus, if you need ONE SLOT you can just buy it.

[@iambedlam]

this was one of the biggest blows to the game. literally nothing feels rewarding anymore.

[@Manicca]

And still people who do not seem to think further hate on Grinding - they do not realise that what we have now IS grinding... but without reward, only Luck. You can kill something 100 times and not get it. With Badges-grinding, you knew you'd get something at X moment. Now it's all just "May or May not be a carrot here"... it's... bad. Really bad.

[@FuuuckOffff]

Know what I don't miss? Random leggo drops I can't use

[@salesmcsaleson9285]

Blizzard is purposely pissing everyone off. They simply make more money on Overwatch, a game full of weebs, and charging almost $3 per pack on Hearthstone.. think about that... $3 per PACK of garbage cards on Hearthstone that become obsolete after awhile. They legit have went from making money to just simply caring only about making money. Goodbye Warcraft.

[@DracosKasurani]

Well on a technical level it push you to do something for a reward which is good since you have goal. WQ is actually quite the opposite, it is free gear and make rep grinding way too fast. Main issue of these day: - Overgeared for most of the content which result to zero challenge overall result to old raid of the expansion to became useless except for that X trinket(each new content gear you way too much) - Profession is mostly useless, created gear have mostly no use because you generally gain better in dongeon while enchanting / alchemist is alway welcome because you can't get those anywhere else - LFR result to high reward no effort - PvP, still miss the epic battle from ateract/wintergrasp - Dongeon, let not talk about those the only challenge there is when you got those high key level

[@RemnentsPasts]

Every time I hear the crash of his footstep, with the crunch of the snow followed by "An Karanir Thanagor" I still get chills down my spine.

[@nightxblaze8384]

i have that theme on my music playlist... lol love it

[@Loiss]

@@nightxblaze8384 what is it called?

[@MrSchmitz13]

@@Loiss "arthas, my son"

[@gavinbarker1295]

I got chills thinking about it lol. My main fix is the soundtrack to Grizzly Hills

[@nightxblaze8384]

@@Loiss Arthas, My Son. or you can always put wrath of the Lich King theme

[@gingy9788]

Listing to the Wotlk soundtrack makes you wanna cry cause wow isn’t the same game anymore

[@bgslam8173]

So true! Ugh monetization is now trumping the creativity that we once loved!

[@zapspiders92]

No expansion rules forever. ='(

[@has855]

I have the soundtrack in my playlist sometimes you just sit down chilling while listening to it and the nostalgia hits you .. ah man .. blizzard please !

[@Adam-vp4oe]

I have legit cried about this. I know, ridiculous.

[@JennyDarukat]

For real, it's a wild ride man..

[@Tsuna_SoulSilver]

The expansion where I started raiding with my friends... How I miss those days where your only worry is to make it to the raid on time.

[@SOLIDGOLDTEETH]

100% same

[@Tsuna_SoulSilver]

@ sorry don't have time for MMO anymore.

[@ryanestrasz2477]

Seems like another lifetime at this point.

[@Purriah]

Same. In BC I just did pvp, but in wrath I got to 2200 really fast because DKs were op so I decided to raid, and I’m so glad I did. Doing ulduar when it was current was so fun.

[@mvhlie]

Indeed, i miss those days.. :(

[@malohn2068]

I say it then and I say it now. "TELL THEM ONLY THAT THE LICH KING IS DEAD. AND THAT WORLD OF WARCRAFT, DIED WITH HIM"

[@Adam-vp4oe]

DID YOU REUPLOAD TO FIX AUDIO?! MY MAN I WISH BLIZZARD WOULD REUPLOAD BFA TO FIX EVERYTHINGGGGG

[@zirnoisematei]

This.

[@Nightstalker314]

Yeah man, it's just 2 clicks n stuff, doesn't take that long to fix the game!!!!

[@Bl0odyH3art]

Adam why play if you don’t want to?

[@Adam-vp4oe]

carolina I don’t play BFA. I play WotLK on a private server and I try BFA every patch. I didn’t like Cata or BFA. I think MoP was pretty good and played a lot, I liked Legion and played a lot. WoD was decent at best (mostly because it was fun to go do Draenor stuff and the art was amazing). I think Cata and BFA were the worst two video games I had ever played due to game mechanics that simply are not fun.

[@Nightstalker314]

@@Adam-vp4oe Care to give examples for what isn't fun right now?

[@LihoShammy]

Wrath of the Lich King was definitely the high point of WoW. It's been over a decade and I still sometimes hop on the latest private servers. Imagine how great WoW could've been today if only they had stuck to the same story and design philosophies.

[@Christian_Bagger]

LihoShammy yea ... there is a reason why they lost half of their subscribers ... and the market is still there.. but it is so evidently that they have lost touch

[@trollbru5377]

YOU CAN STILL PLAY IN NORTHREND!!! THEY DID NOT REMOVE THE CONTENT!!!!!

[@LihoShammy]

@@trollbru5377 The content is still there, but the gameplay has changed so radically that it doesn't resemble Wrath anymore. Modern WoW gameplay boils down to mindlessly mashing buttons without having any real rotations. Power creep is so bad that the content doesn't provide a sliver of challenge anymore. Gold inflation is so bad that the Traveller's Tundra Mammoth can be bought at level 40. And good luck trying to find enough people to raid or even do Wintergrasp with!

[@vanyadolly]

You can clearly see on the graph how subs stagnated during wrath. I'm not disagreeing, but it clearly had its issues.

[@LihoShammy]

@@vanyadolly Subs stagnated, but they never dropped. And while Wrath may have its issues, it definitely allows for the most variety in terms of gameplay, rather than restricting its playerbase to only a handful of viable specs or even classes like Vanilla and TBC do, and it by far outshines both in regards to storytelling and questing.

[@Dubbaehni]

Oh my .. that arthas + music at the start almost brought tears to my eyes... Because its so sad. That was the best time i had in wow, no doubt. Now wow is but a shadow from that era

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

Dubbaehni This score gets everyone right in the feelings. It's incredible well made.

[@mickydeez124]

I just don't think blizzard realizes what made wow so good, was the buildup of warcraft 3. They'll never hit that same depth with a game that is played as an mmo versus a game where you could experience the stories of many different characters that eventually show up in an mmo. Arthas was really just the end of WC3 lore and the game got a lot worse after that fact.

[@Christian_Bagger]

Dubbaehni yea ... I stopped in Cata because I felt it was utterly garbage. With today’s standard many of the remaining players say Cata is the best expansion. That just shows how much they have fallen from grace...

[@buttsmcgee50]

Legions story is much better than WOTLK

[@Trainwheel_Time]

@@Christian_Bagger sure you did.

[@JermaineMorgan]

Good times. When people used to just complain about DKs

[@Nightstalker314]

And welfare epics. And One-shot PvP. And Lag Wintergrasp. And Gearscore.

[@JermaineMorgan]

@@Nightstalker314 I dont remember the wintergrasp lag But Gearscore...god that was terrible.

[@ZrodyApo]

Heroweaks Freeloot Casuals

[@lordtaku]

And twinks on PVP

[@2ndNidaime]

But the story tho.

[@Mugetsu1212]

Wrath was the last expansion from the real Blizzard. We can't expect anything near that from activision blizzard. Ever again.

[@LeeTamayobnn3s]

@Hasanuddin Abu Bakar activision, EA, square enix/square soft, treyarch, are giants that corrupt evry publisher they get there hands on.

[@thecreator9636]

Lee Tamayo Don’t you mean every developer?

[@LeeTamayobnn3s]

@@thecreator9636 your right lol. thanks for the update. ^_^

[@NOKIA-vq2dx]

@@LeeTamayobnn3s square enix killed legacy of kain series and made ffs Ea we know them and so activision and yeah dont forget ubisoft..and r* are on their way

[@borek92]

To me MoP was the last "real blizzard" expansion. Dear god, the heart, soul, sheer love and effort in that expansion were greater than in any other.

[@dalorasinum386]

The DK starter zone to this day is still my favourite quest chain in wow. It was just so great especially the end with the dragon ride and the battle for lights hope.

[@wadewilson5712]

i like the whole wrath gate quest chain myself but the dk one was great too

[@soulses4549]

Man was lich king my favorite, I started in bc as a kid and once we reached max my brother's guild member bought us the lich king expansion. I have so many memories playing that expansion with my terrible computer at the time.

[@caffeinefuelled9186]

Ah wrath when you could make friends, guilds were communities like a huge family and your server was like an extension of it.. I could of played all day and half way through the night and still wanted to play more if not for damn school. Such an addictive game back then such a huge contrast to the shit show of BFA. Literally makes me sad, wow has lost its spark and blizzard has been devoured by Activation.

[@UXSpecialist]

@@xRedNationx World of Warcrafts numbers are so far down from the height of Wrath of the Lich King, it's overly obvious that they have done something horribly, horribly wrong from where they started from. The game no longer holds that magic that the people crave......

[@UXSpecialist]

@@xRedNationx IF they had kept to their original formula, the numbers would be Even larger today than they were before, not dramatically, pitifully, dismally small like they are now........

[@christianwolf68]

Blizzards mistake was letting Activision get the horrible game destroying hands anywhere near thing would Blizzard created

[@rickeyryan303]

omg it has nothing to do with activison..

[@christophermiller5433]

Rickey Ryan absolutely right. Sure, Activision has destroyed certain titles, just like EA has. However, Activision and Blizzard have always been top notch AAA game producers, and even with the ‘merger’ Blizzard has undoubtably dominated production, writing, and editing with WoW. What really hurt WoW now is the lack of buildup of villains. Arthas, Illidan, the Old Gods, all had constant buildup. So far, Blizz has to develop newer antagonists, and it’s hard to do when you don’t have 10 years prior to build it up. If WoW continued with its villianry with Sylvanis, introducing newer villains and continuously build them up, when the next xpac is around them it will be fulfilling. Activision has nothing to do with this, all faults go to Blizz. However, it’s worth mentioning that games have to develop with the times to stay relevant, and Blizz has been able to take a game if released today would have atrocious graphic and mechanic reviews, yet still has 3m+ subscribers, if not more. In my opinion, I’m more receptive and respect a bit more of a company doesn’t rest on their laurels and still adapts, which Blizz does kind of do as they update throughout an xpac. By the end, it’s usually a solid/good/great xpac.

[@kubi0461]

Unfortunately, Blizzard never had much of a choice. Blizzard was part of Vivendi Games, owned by Vivendi. It's Vivendi Games and Activision that merged to form ActivisionBlizzard. That was in 2008 and Vivendi was still the parent company until 2013, when ActivisionBlizzard bought enough shares from Vivendi to become independent as now the majority of shares were owned by the public.

[@christianwolf68]

@Andrei V one of the better example of this is taking the tabards that were sought after buy many to assist with rep grinding and made them nothing more that an in game transmogrify item that means nothing and has absolutely no value

[@christianwolf68]

@@rickeyryan303 right cause at this point in the current expansion releasing a buy on store "just give us your money" mount instead of actually having more in depth quest lines and story like there was in WotLK and previous . better story ,more quest depth and rewards that actually have a purpose . how hard is that for activision to understand . simple they cant . Blizzard has long forgotten that it is the player base that makes this game . ask your self why is it such a great thing that the game has become is subscription numbers drop every quarter and year since WotLK

[@BussGG]

Fantastic video! I really enjoy these in-depth look back videos discussing previous expansions. Look forward to the next in the series!

[@afishynado6812]

Saying that iLVL wasn't as important in Wrath as it is today... uh... Wrath was the start of the gearscore nazis. ilvl = skill amirite?

[@RageShroud]

No because back in Wrath it was about gear score which gear score wasn't based on ilvl. You couldn't take two pieces of gear of the same class with different stats and have the same gear score. The gear score add-on also calculated the stats based on your spec to get your gear score.

[@liberator48]

My ePeen lvl is higher than urs, nub.

[@afishynado6812]

You can spin that BS however you like, but it's the same thing/mindset.

[@wilhelmschmidt3715]

@@RageShroud urm... gearscore was exactly that. It accumulated the ilvl and the end score was your gear score. (277 gear and 500 weapons). You could say it was more "precise" than pure ilvl. ilvl now is the "average" itemlevel you are wearing.

[@RageShroud]

@@wilhelmschmidt3715 gear score used sims like Mr.Robot so it could messure quality based on class and spec.

[@markmajoros9814]

I am beyond satisfied by your point of view and ability to cover the story from every aspect. Please continue doing so splendid work!

[@32987]

I've been playing wrath on warmane. Oh the nostalgia! I miss the scourge plague event that was the besttt

[@kreiyu]

Infecting people was great. Running into a crowded ah and exploding disease on other players.

[@quchi7232]

what I hate about Warmane is some stupid bug quest.

[@stephenk.978]

I was considering playing on that server until I heard a few people say its fun until you get wrecked in pvp by someone who bought their legendaries. How true is this?

[@richcotherman4820]

@@stephenk.978 legendary's are not cheap at all. I don't think many people are actually buying them. I enjoy it personally.

[@stephenk.978]

@@richcotherman4820 Good to know! thank you!

[@jwinsatt]

"The accomplishment of specific goals was really paramount." Glad you're emphasizing that. It's one of wow's biggest problems now lol. I think Asmongold says the same thing. I miss my cross referenced spreadsheets of all the available gear in the Wrath beta era. Going after and achieving those goals in that xpac was second to none in my long and varied Wow time. Then getting some of the only-dreamed-of lucky drops from Naxx that were also on the sheets soon after brought out a true state of MMO Nirvana lol. Gear really has to have personality and be specific to matter. Right now they've gotten lazy and completely forgotten that. In an RPG we're meant to know, seek, and treasure our gear, not require supercomputer cycles to sort the nameless stat rows. I'll always remember the turning tide, betrayer of humanity, the red sword of courage, and countless others with their own special uses, stories, and personalities. There's some of that in following xpacs, but it gets less and less over time with 3 or 4 different versions of each, and more recently warforged and titanforged versions... it's like taking an important character in a game with one name, and making 20 different versions of that character with the same quests and slightly different rewards, with the same story, but you can do all their quests. It's just lazy and boring and really kinda RPG sacrilege. I miss the hand-crafted feel vs the procedural feel for gear. Idk about procedural, but I hate that there's a drop for every slot in every dungeon for every class virtually lol. Too many bits of nameless gear, not enough meaningful gear.

[@Christian_Bagger]

Sinderion so what you’re saying is, that having epic welfare is not fun ... damn ...

[@crazzluz1702]

100% agree. Personal Loot especially is killing this game for top end raiders. I wish I could still curate a BiS list and actually target those pieces instead of just getting random shit with stats I don't want. I loved using askmrrobot or other various sites as well as a spreadsheet of drop locations to go seek out the pieces I actually wanted instead of relying on Blizzard's dice roll to see if I got my BiS Crit/Haste pants TFed to 395 or 385 Mastery/Versatility pants instead. I liked having to make sure that I kept my Hit and Expertise caps while also getting as much of my most important stats as possible. I liked regemming from Strength/Crit gems to Strength/Hit gems because I got a new piece that was so much better than what I had.

[@iLiekUndead]

You can't talk about phasing in a solely positive light. That feature alone was the beginning of the end of the MMO part of WoW and brought it closer to the theme park that it is today. It started breaking the playerbase into... shards of players at a different point in time. It started making the quest content more necessary and unnecessarily streamlined the entire experience. When you could once stop with a quest chain at any point in time, you were now essentially closing yourself off from other players if you decided to not finish and on the other hand, you were closing yourself off from players who haven't completed the quest if you finished it. It broke the community and because of phasing and some other "quality of life" changes like dungeon finder, etc. the MMO aspect of wow became so trivial they later went ahead and introduced sharding. Which, as we're well aware, fully turned wow into a theme park where the multiplayer experience more resembles that of a modern lobby-based shooter than an MMO. It killed the community aspect of the server and the game. A side of the game that was a lot more prevalent in the older versions and for a lot of people one of the main reasons they played the game. People like to remember Wrath as an amazing expansion because of Arthas and some great zones and raids but really, it was the beginning of the end.

[@cobaltmalt]

I loved dual wielding frost tanking and trying to cap expertise so I didn't cause the boss to parry and insta kill me.

[@nateshrager512]

Acclimation! Loved that talent

[@kaidrian]

when they changed the frost tank build early on (i think we were only a few weeks into the xpac) that was the last time i ever played a dk

[@Wyrmvonsturm]

The memories! God I was so pissed when they took away frost tanking.

[@nickfarace9339]

The best part of early DK was the fight of Dual Wield vs 2H during beta. All the theorycrafters thought it was ridiculous to think a DW spec could ever beat out 2h in the game. People said the Unholy / Frost hybrid spec could never work. Then release came and DW DKs could walk into Naxx in greens and be top 3 on the charts. I remember just doing absurd dps in leveling dungeons. Like double anyone else. It was so broken, and mostly it was because no one believed it was strong in beta. Also likely was THE build that lead to needing to remove talent trees as we knew them. The shit that started popping up with multi tree specs after just broke so much of the classes.

[@James_Johnson79]

They removed parry haste on auto attacks with WotLK.

[@fbauzo024fb]

I left the Shyvanas mission of the siege on undercity intentionally to leave my Undercity under attack for almost 6 months. It was awesome that my undercity was different from everyone elses.

[@LeedsPro]

This was brilliant. The memories you brought back to me! Great video!

[@michelero4297]

Sound much better!!! There's the quality we have come to know and somewhat expect! Thank you.

[@ctg4818]

Must link achievement to like this video!

[@alternate3787]

I liek how you said "we knew from Warcraft 3". Truth be told, most people got into World of Warcraft because the played Warcraft 3. Having a hero, choosing a class, having the races with their specific zones and capitals was a BLAST to explore after you had it all just hinted in a RTS. People who got into WoW after WotlK and/or without having played Warcraft 3 might have fun playing the game. But understanding the hype of the late 2000's is something completly different

[@LostChildOfTime]

This video really brought me back more than I expected it to. ty, Bellular.

[@evers_mhvn4264]

I just want to say I feel so privileged to of been about for tbc / wotlk. Arriving at howling fjord still gives me chills to this day. Especially as a big reign of chaos player. Great vid dude 👍🏻

[@faisalmian8567]

You have earned a subscribe from me. This is one of the most well made/enjoyable videos to watch in a very long time. Very nicely done, and I will definitely be back next week. Thank you for this!

[@UghieYucky]

My favorite expansion ever. The Scourge antagonist, Arthas, the mystery of the Old Gods and the Titans, all the Zones, Death Knights, quests, music, ambience... everything was just perfect.

[@skylark159]

Amazing video series. Thank you so much for your dedication! :)

[@AndersonCRReis]

I can't express the emotion i felt playing that expansion after finishing Warcraft III so many times. It was amazing to see the Ascension of The Lich King step by step. For me, one of the Greatest Villains Of All Time. The PvP was incredible too. The fear to face someone wielding a Shadowmourne was real xD!

[@trollbru5377]

You know what is WEIRD? Donald Trump in his 20's had Arthas's hair.....not kidding. Not surprisingly Trump is well on his way to being considered the WORST President of all time, passing even George W Bush and Obama!

[@shanemergy7935]

amazing video dude i love it, i really wish some things were learned from wraith and came over to bfa

[@Nightstalker314]

And that would be besides batch vendors?

[@Tiferod]

Nightstalker314 Slow pace, fewer and more meningful rewards.

[@Nightstalker314]

@@Tiferod Wrath was the epitome of welfare epics and rushing 5mans as well as many raids like Naxx and ToC while disregarding the rest until it was outgeared.

[@Tiferod]

@@Nightstalker314 Compared to today ? I don't think you played BfA ;)

[@Nightstalker314]

@@Tiferod I've been active since Vanilla day one and when it comes to being showered in gear Wrath was and still is the prime example.

[@alejandroibarra40]

The best and most engaging video I’ve ever seen in 10 years of wotlk....awesome pal!!

[@illegalprogram]

You hit the nail on the head, teared up some to the way you described things. Played since the end of vanilla and wrath was one of the greatest times I ever had.

[@thelurkerbel0w]

Called borean tundra "boring tundra" even back in the day

[@jadayaindigo7696]

I havent done a daily heroic in BFA since Uldir came out. If there was a daily reward of something as little as 5 titan residuum i would be back in there. And if there was a constitutive reward of just 1 each after people would be spamming them. I did Wrath random heroics throughout the entire expansion.

[@heroman1322]

IMPORTANT OPINION: One thing that made Wrath feel so much more immersive in comparison to current and recent versions of WoW was the scale of Northrend. The buildings, trees, hills, mountains, and enemies were much larger on average compared to the average npc and player size. We have lost that scale (literally) and given players too much importance in the story, thus losing our feeling of individuality because now most cutscenes directly apply to special snowflake #2,003,241. We have not gotten as great thematic music scores from Blizzard for WoW as of late from expansions like Warlords, Legion, and Battle for Azeroth. Yes this is a complaint, but also a statement that I hope gets recognized so that more people may be aware of the type of faults that keep players from coming back to the game. I love World of Warcraft, but it is fading in my heart which makes it harder to want to come back. Battle for Azeroth made me quit after the second week and I have never done that before..

[@misanthropiclusion]

wrong opinion more like

[@gentor9549]

While the WotLk music will always be one of my favourites, most other expansion did came with wonderful music. Listen to "Way of the Monk" from MoP and "Warsong" (BRF flashback) or "Kadghar's plan" from WoD. I myself can't think of anything from Legion right now but I'm certain there are incredible music pieces aswell. Even when everything is wrong in the game, the art team (including sound design) is doing an amazing job. A pity that this alone cannot justify the monthly fee...

[@ismaol1]

I think the soundrack for legion was amazing

[@heroman1322]

@@misanthropiclusion An incorrect reply more like.

[@heroman1322]

@@gentor9549 I actually like "Way of the Monk". I am not saying that ALL music from mentioned expansions are bad, just saying that they share too much similarity and that there are less good tracks that really stand out.

[@Mal3ficarum]

As soon as that music starts at the beginning....fucking goosebumps....

[@thedarkside7508]

Very enjoyable video, I'm looking forward to next week!

[@desrt33]

WoW players fav xpac = Wrath WoW devs most hated xpac = Wrath Nuff said.

[@gakkoniikimasuka]

Judging by the number of additional players the fav xpac is tbc..

[@Enlyss]

I didn't quite like Wrath as much as TBC. The second part of Wrath past Ulduar was a downhill stride to satisfy casual players and make sure everyone can enjoy every single piece of tiny content, down to titles and mounts (Sarth 3D Mount and Hand of A'dal titles were pretty much the last things Blizzard let hardcore gamers to keep as a token of their effort). And the stride continues to this day.

[@eleson2568]

They hate vanilla the most, current Devs loathe and despise vanilla.

[@ryzael75]

@@eleson2568 Most who were on the vanilla dev team have since moved on from blizzard. Current dev team's opinion doesn't really count since most of them had no part in making vanilla.

[@TheJerkinsmurf]

@@gakkoniikimasuka i thiiink wrath had the highest sub count of any expansion, after cata came out it started to tank

[@gabrielbailey8019]

There was no feeling like having all three gems socketed in your chest and pants. Picking what gems you wanted to stack was so much fun (like tanks stacking straight Stam gems). Wrath will always be the best expansion

[@mrjoehimself]

WoW used to be “work” and players craved that whether they knew it or not. Only the hardest workers got the best stuff to be the most proud of. They have replaced “work” with “greed” and its going to be difficult to overcome that. Also I think during Wrath was the biggest push in advertising I’ve ever seen for any Blizz game. Who can forget Mr. T playing his character! But TV has changed, people aren’t watching cable anymore.

[@cameronstewart6636]

Expansions I've played in: Vanilla(to lvl 26-ish), WotLK, MoP, WoD, BFA. I think I was there for Cata's end, right before MoP. I've covered all the expansions to some extent. In my opinion, Litch King was the best expansion overall but I do think dungeon finder was the beginning of the end of loving the game for me. No longer could you get or receive help with your group, if you didn't know the dungeon, you were kicked, made a mistake? Kicked. Went afk? Kicked. It was all about the time it took and it better be short. It's possible to find a nice group still, but before Insta-dungeon, it was the rule, not the exception. It set the stage for liking the WoD garrison where I use it as a vehicle to avoid other players as much as possible to this day.

[@smokeythagamer8521]

WOTLK and Legion are the best xpacs ever imo, they had the best gameplay and story, so innovative and executed perfectly, and most the zones were unique and beautiful with good questing/story.

[@edelleaa]

Agree 100%, wotlk and legion are my favourite expansions and i had so much hope for bfa after what Legion gave us....i look at legion with so much nostalgia as if i played it years ago.

[@veselinj]

I was top melee dps in Naxx and Ulduar as 2h frost DK, I loved the feel and gameplay of 2h frost, something I never had since wrath. Blowing things up with KM Howling Blast was insanely fun and satisfying, frost strikes would hit like a truck(unlike today) and consuming killing machine procs was a momentous thing and it hurt like hell, thats wat made frost for me.

[@conanmcclanahan1069]

Great job with this. Paying a true homage to the original dev teams and all of the immense effort and work they put into their culminating effort The Wrath of the Lich King (over 10 years in the making). It's too bad something has found it's way into the water over at Blizzard, and they have completely forgotten the roots from which their dream grew.

[@darthelmet1]

Oh man, this brings back all the nostalgias. For me, I started playing sometime a bit before 3.3. While the legacy of LFD was kind of questionable, I don't think I would have even ended up playing without it. I kept trying to level and got bored and would restart to try a new character over and over. At some point, around the same time I tried out paladin, LFD came out. I ended up using it to level almost entirely through dungeons up until Northrend. It was really fun and introduced me to what the game was really about long before I would have otherwise gotten bored. I don't remember why, but I'm glad I took the chance to go level in Northrend when I got to that level. I started in the Howling Fjord and just wow what a beautiful zone. The music and scenery really did work perfectly together.

[@ropete33]

Really liked what they did with Wintergrasp even as a primarily PVE player. I would do the battleground just to do the raid if your faction won everyone would be forming the groups for the 10 and 25 man and it was an easy shot at some raid gear every week. As far as zones, Icecrown was my favorite you really felt like you were on the Lich King's doorstep and shit was getting real. And I remember how OP DKs were doing 5 DK Hellfire Ramparts runs no healer needed lol.

[@lucantini]

This series if fucking amazing! You should really do these documentaries for the other expansions!

[@BeastlyJay22]

didnt Heroic Dungeons drop all 200 but the last boss had the chance for an epic that generally had better stats? could be wrong I was 12 then xD

[@ksytsma4realyo]

WotLK wasn't scaled and had no Azerite. Of course it was awesome compared to BfA.

[@DracosKasurani]

The whole idea from Artifact / Azerite is just bad, sure I alway get something in the end BUT it was a still a freaking lame reward.

[@naejimba]

@Urazz, agreed. Imagine if it didn't change that much and a version of the mythic systems were added on top... you have entry level content that is accessible to everyone yet challenging for the players who need it, without having a no challenge queue (LFR), an intermediate level, and then you would have a very difficult level of dungeons and raids at the top which would challenge those who the lower difficulties would not. Considering the creative ways in which additional difficulty can be added at each level (3 Drakes, Ulduar) for additional amount of reward I think this would be the best possible system. At that point, the only glaring issue is that epics (purple gear) would still be so common place. This could be addressed by adding more colors; qualities of gear (ex. gray, white, yellow, green, light blue, blue, purple, red... with oranges still being legendaries). Red is the new purple for the highest difficulty content. Hell, you could add in RBGs to PvP and have the color of gear awarded be effected by season high ranks for PvP gear. This way, the quality of the gear would have remained a status symbol (no more welfare epics). This would also provide incentive for players to try more difficult content, and differences in item levels could even be lower than wrath and still do so. To comment on Elvissangry's thoughts, I don't think having more casual content is bad, so long as more difficult content is available which has appropriate rewards which are distinct (aka. not everyone gets those same rewards). It is a decent system since it does not require separate content to be developed, but only that each difficulty level is balanced properly. Hell, you could even go a step further so things like legendaries, titles, or certain mount drops like invincible (Shadowmourne could only be done in 25 mode) are only able to be done in the most difficult levels (making them extremely rare). The power difference of an item doesn't even have to be huge in such an instance, since much of the value is not as much about power as it is status.

[@tylersmall634]

@@naejimba does gear colour really matter? Just put more emphasis on ilvl. LFR isnt bad entirely. It does let players engage in key parts of the story which is great. Cata(deathwing raid) and mop were great iterations of lfr as it was your entry level version of the raid. Mechanics were nerfed sure but you still had to play the content as intended like a raid. The overly casual crowd ruined it by afk gear farming them or just would ignore mechanics resulting in abnormally high failure rates in the tail end of MoP which in turn caused blizzard to further casualize LFR making it even more undesirable. Id be ok if the reverted it to its original days. No free rides on the backs of others, some effort must be put forth

[@naejimba]

@@tylersmall634, apparently gear color did matter a great deal to the community; there were a ton of complaints during Wrath about this (welfare epics). The funny thing is... it's just a color. The reason it matters is it is a status symbol that shows what bosses you've killed and what type of content you have done. If the color of gear does not matter to you then there should be no harm in changing it, right? It would have made a difference to all of the people who complained about it then, and more recently, with the way legendaries were handled in Legion. Epic and legendary items are neither epic or legendary if they are common place. As far as more of a focus on item level, wasn't this another huge complaint from the community with gear score? Sure, not everything about LFR is bad but all of the complaints you mention (mechanics nerfed and people ignoring them and not knowing the fights, afk farming for loot, it becoming increasingly more casual) ALL come from the fact that it is a random queue (the only real defining difference between that and accessible raids of Wotlk). Everyone around you is random and you'll never see them again, you don't have to pull your own weight, you don't have to communicate or learn the mechanics of the fight. The one good thing about it is approachable raiding content... which the 10 man raiding in Wrath accomplished. If it's seeing the story that is the concern; put in a "story mode" that you can queue up for solo with npcs, WITHOUT gear, or titles, or mounts. I have a feeling that would piss a ton of people off though, right? ... and if my suspicion is true then it isn't really just about seeing the story then, yes? Most of the casual people just do LFR for gear and don't move any further... so that would eliminate item level as the incentive. So if it's not just about story, and not about item level, isn't the only thing left getting decked out in purple gear? Like it or not, even the most casual people feel that they are "done" when they have seen all the content and have all purple gear... the color has a profound psychological influence over player behavior.

[@tylersmall634]

​@@naejimba well there are 2 sets of players that use LFR those that just want easy gear(both the ones who will pull own waeight and the afk/lazy) and those who dont want to miss out on major story. It was great as a stepping stone to real raiding and its disapointing to it turn into the most joke content in the game. Im not sure if its still a thing but flex raiding in MoP worked out very well for small groups and those that casually raided. Random queue or not those problems would still be around, even pre LFG heroics and normal pugging had people wanting carries or they would just slack off mid dungeon. These problems are just inherent in people not the game and systems. LFR/LFG or not the only real way to eliminate that is stricly guild runs or core group of friends. Flex raids helped in MoP for those too skilled for LFR but not full on raiding/couldnt get full groups or right comp. I do think it got a bit better in WoD to BFA with mythic raiding being introduced as it did solidify more that LFR was story and low tier gear they even removed sets from it in WoD at the end but both side of community complained. I think colour was a big thing because it was pre ilvl it was the only measurement of power/status as the stats on purple and blue gear would vary wildly from location. Gearscore was a problem with the mod itself it quantified the gear in such horrible ways that wasnt consistent with the location and tiers they dropped from, so you would get heroic groups asking for raid lvl gear to even get groups despite how stupidly easy wrath heroics were at almost every stage of the expansion. Although a bit of that problem still arises with doing mythics now keystones excluded, I see tons of mythic 0 groups asking for minumim Uldir normal gear But this is a game and an mmo you and cant please everyone its a pretty impossible task, people will complain about every single thing that gets added or changed regardless if it effect them or not.

[@gsc8383]

Wrath launch day is by far my favorite day in wow and by far the best memory for me in the game time this day.. everyone waiting in SW for that boat. I wish I had those screenshots of that boat with everyone on it.

[@gbxmusicchannel3836]

I remember everything! The sounds in borean thundra omg :D 1-2 zoones took as long as a whole expansions lvling is today.

[@karrde593]

I havent played wow in... over 5 years now.. but damn you just brought back all the good memories of how completely AMAZING wrath was.. not talking in terms of endgame im a filthy casual.. but in terms of the atmosphere and just general fun of the world content.. thankyou. i loved it. EDIT: you forgot to mention dalaran.

[@kreiyu]

Wotlk was the golden age of pugging. I could finish several raids on a good day.

[@Evasionx]

@bellulargaming Sholazar Basin is by far my fave zone of all time! It's so relaxing with its soundtrack imo! Was always super happy to level through that zone! :D

[@JayWilFo]

Loving this series mate. Thanks heaps 👍

[@Miller1107]

Pretty much hit the nail on the head with everything. Wrath gave me my introduction to raiding after reaching cap in BC but not having experienced anything but getting carried in Kara. Naxx was a solid introduction, and by mid expansion I was onto hard modes in Ulduar and then Heroic ICC. Special place in my heart for WotLK!

[@Jamie-ux8sk]

That music at the start gives me shivers, so nostalgic.

[@skrappost482]

Going on the boat to Howling Fjord, approaching the coast, entering the narrow passage and seeing it open up, revealing Valgarde and Utgard Keep, with the fiddle music playing.. The coolest moment in my WoW life. I always pitied the poor suckers who chose to start in Borean Tundra.

[@bradmills713]

I've always said stories all come down to the villain. Better the villain better the feel. Something DC movies need to learn.

[@sejannus877]

This may be the best video I’ve ever watched on youtube

[@Than211]

TBC really just took Vanilla hardcore players to a whole new level. Heroic Shattered Halls completely destroyed any competent group and it traumatized most of us and I still remember it to this day. WotLK took it down several notches to let casual players in on the fun and I think that's fair; there were times I'd rather jump around in Shattrath than to do a Heroic 5-man in TBC because it was such an ordeal and you just knew it was a waste of time without the right group composition. WotLK did have some points where I felt like that I didn't want to do anything though, more so because there were no rewards to be had for doing 5-mans and they ended up just being reserved for alts; it's not that that was particularly new for a no-lifer hardcore raider but I felt no incentive to do anything most times. All that being said, I felt like that WotLK had enough differences from TBC for it to be enjoyable yet still retained familiarities where I didn't feel like I was playing something completely different. Ever since Cataclysm though, the game just felt so flat and one-dimensional and you had to play the game they wanted you to play and I hate that; I guess it's one of the many reasons why I quit and never liked the game again since.

[@TheNewton]

@BellularGaming 19:50 So what was the problem and what was the solution?

[@Gappopo]

Remember when everyone bitched and whined about how bad Wrath was? Because I sure do....

[@ethanvern4600]

everybody bitches about the current expansion then when its over they realized how good it was

[@WolfA4]

I remember a vocal minority but the majority loved WoTLK.

[@raidwipe]

@@ethanvern4600 No one will suddenly "realize" how good BFA is. It has somehow beaten WoD as worst expansion already.

[@Pallyforeva]

dip.C There was no endgame in WoD... BFA has more content in 8.1 then I’m all of WoD, so I’m not sure what you’re talking about

[@WolfA4]

BFA has a population under 2 million world wide, there won't be anyone left to remember it.

[@truthseeker3084]

Great video Bellular. If only i could double vote the like button as this video deserves.

I really like this serie about history of WOW, since I didn't experienced it on retail, it's nice to see it summarized with all the details I might've missed :)

[@nunoalmeida9059]

I literally started crying when i heard the theme song at the start... Feeling soo sad to miss those times...

[@KNByam]

I remember doing Sarth 3D when it was really hard and I won the roll on the mount, I had to link my epic flying to get it from the loot master and I was so excited and nervous that I could not find it. Eventually someone told me where to look for the achievement and I finally linked it and received the mount. My friend and guildies were so happy for me and jealous at the same time because I had one of the hardest mounts to get at that time.

[@emgee2]

Man, watching these reminds me just how great Wrath was. They didn't try to change the playerbase and the characters to meet the world, they made the world based on what our characters were capable of.

[@Davivd2]

Item levels.....nobody even talked about it during Wrath. It didn't even matter. What mattered to my guild when we evaluated applicants, was if they enchanted and gemmed all of their gear. If they were defense or hit capped. If a player put the effort into their character and it showed, they would get a raid spot.

[@TheKitneys]

I started playing WoW at the launch of the Lich King. No other expansion never quite met the same awe.

[@cllamasful]

I came in when Wrath had just started. and it was the most glorious gameplay for me

[@Coldespada]

Amazing!!!Can't wait next video :)

[@elmeric7086]

Awesome part2. Can't wait for part3 :)

[@dirtriderjon]

Still my favorite raid in the game till this day is ulduar. The hard mode mechanics made it so much more immersive to fight a harder boss compared to just selecting normal < heroic < mythic.

[@SeducingJackel]

wow, i have to say i totally agree with you, this was by far THE best Expansion ever

[@debiw8599]

"All Death Knight dungeon groups." Yep! Honestly, that was the most fun I ever had in dungeons. Right after Wrath launched, I made my dwarf DK, took him to Outland, got into a group, and ended up in Hellfire Ramparts with 4 other DK's. I'm pretty sure I was the only Unholy DK and the other 4 were Blood. We smashed our way through that dungeon without a hitch and kept going from dungeon to dungeon for HOURS. It was great.

[@RazanaArcclaw]

"ilvl did not matter as much" hmm... what about gear score..?

[@Auroche]

Gearscore was player made and only worshipped and followed by people who wanted either to be carried or didn't know how to check gear properly.

[@inachu]

Zul Drak really got me with that friggin giant walking up and down the path. Wish that Giant had a story line for himself.

[@joshhall5172]

As someone who never had much of a chance to get into raids in TBC but loved heroic dungeons early wrath was when I checked out

[@orbitman88]

i remember being a DW frost DK during wrath and having to use AGI weapons. was such a fun spec to play back then.

[@CrazyScubaCouple]

Jooki The Twilight Vanquisher... people would invitime by accident when what they wanted was inspect me, nowdays that title means nothing because Bluzzfart didn't remove it after ulduar went up.

[@PremonitionGamingVid]

Can we all take a moment of silence for the last, truly great, World of Warcraft expansion?

[@Fantic1980]

We went from fighting the Burning Legion over several expansions, Gul'dan, Archimond, kil'jaeden, Varimathras, Aggrammar ... Sargares!!! The return of Illidan ... there was a MAJOR build-up ... then ... Now we kill pirates....

[@childrenofthesun471]

More like facing you enemy faction and we gona fight nagas and old god

[@childrenofthesun471]

@Battlebeast not my problem if you have lag lmao

[@childrenofthesun471]

@Johto well thats when BFA comes in

[@childrenofthesun471]

@Battlebeast its not that i dont Feel like i dont lag, it's just that I don't lag:)

[@joelswatten9611]

Legion didnt make sense, the burning legion has returned to destroy azeroth, except we only fight them on the broken isles 😩

[@fcscg09white2]

Do you feel that after this point in wow's lifespan blizzard started catering to what they felt was a certain audience. And as there systems went downtown the path of everyone should be able to experience everything no matter how much they play we wind up where we are today. How much does blizzard wish they could trade the current sub base for sub base from back then

[@buckyyy5500]

Bro, this is absolutely nostalgia feels man... Those days where my friends IRL and Meeting friends online and finally meeting up IRL after we downed The Lich King as a bet.... feelsgoodman

[@valentintourtois2618]

Just wanna mention something about the death knight : it did start off being capable of tanking in any spec, but that was largely reduced through patch changes. Cataclysm did lock blood as the one and only tanking spec, but it had been that way for a couple of patches already (yes, you could still technically tank in other specs, like warriors and palys could activate their threat generating mechanisms, but blood was the only viable spec in end game content.)

[@treemover7259]

i know a number of people who played frost tank till the prepatch, only one person i know who played dk tanked in blood and the main reason he said he played blood tank over frost was it was more interesting and challenging (frost tank boiled down to aoe spam apparently) i personally would love to play a wrath version of wow

[@grafspe807]

I always kind of thought that Sholazar Basin was a zone designed for farming crafting mats with some odd landscape quests thrown in. Lots of herbs and lore in there plus tons of animals that can be skinned

[@Cipher8721]

oooooo i can't wait till next week! love this series.

[@GeniusUnleashed]

To this day when leveling an alt I go to Borean, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. Howling Fjord was great, but the different levels within the zone (height wise) made it a beast to quickly get through. Even with flying, it take me longer to level there.

[@xDOLPHINTV]

Being a Paladin main in Wrath I felt like such a fucking hero throughout this whole expansion, like it was my duty as a warrior of light to storm the Icecrown citadel and stop the scourge from spreading. I had class pride, faction pride, and blizzard pride. I wish I could go back to that time in my life, and I hope one day Classic will go through an expansion cycle again and we can relive this game’s greatest expansion

[@Rez0lventa]

For me Old Stratholm is memorable for young Arthas quote "What kind of magic is this?" Russian localization actor made it so slick.

[@hikaru48]

This made me realize, vannila is like 70s music, tbc is like 80s music, wotlk is like 90s music, and cata is like a 2000s music. Lol idk

[@solon2251]

Imo 60s is the best

[@MrBrownsugar85]

Subbed to classic with the hope that wrath would be added one day

[@Daisho74]

Amazing work, as always....C'mon another week for the next part.....!!!! :-D

[@natev580]

For anyone who might not actually know how easy Naxx 25 was back in Wrath, let me add a little context to Bellular's explanation of it. The guild I was in at the time cleared Naxx both 10 and 25 man while still wearing tier 6 from TBC. The hardest part of this iteration of Naxx was latency and pc hardware issues for some people lol.

[@sindolorum]

I played very little endgame in bc. Wotlk was my introduction to raiding. I learned the value of dungeons, rep grinding and crafting. I really miss that level of engagement and difficulty

[@jazeroth322]

I remember lining up in Tesco for the midnight launch. We grabbed the copies jumped into the car drove to pats house and had a LAN party 🎉 awesome game.