![]() If you can shake off the bad memories of its initial release, Warlords of Draenor is a lot of fun the second time around. It's classic Warcraft at its best, and I love the extra little touches Blizzard added like bespoke introductions for each of the chief villains and a short but exhilarating intro questline that sees you running for the hills after your big invasion falls apart. What you find is a primal land teeming with mystery and a shit-ton of very angry orcs. The story won't make much sense, but the gist is that you travel back in time through the Dark Portal to the orc homeworld of Draenor before it was sundered. Playing it today, you can ignore all of that stuff and focus on what Warlords of Draenor does best: Orcs. It was the virtually abandoned endgame that left players with nothing to do. ![]() What made Warlords suck wasn't the leveling experience and story, though. "But Steven," you say, "Didn't you just say Warlords of Draenor was a disaster?" Yes. It doesn't overstay its welcome and you get to experience all of the classic Warcraft elements in new and fun ways: Dragons, lush forests, and even a cool detour to the underworld. The other nice thing is that Legion will only take you around 14 hours to beat, making it the second-shortest expansion. The upside is that you can choose the order in which you complete zones. I just wish Blizzard had chosen to make the story linear, because it is a little jarring how each zone is so self-contained. Quests are colorful and varied, so you're never stuck killing too many boars for their livers, and the way it weaves in cutscenes and plot twists is great. When you first arrive, it's to liberate the Broken Isles and stop the evil orc warlock Gul'Dan from freeing Sargeras, but the adventure quickly frays into romps through Warcraft's version of Valhalla, druidic alternate dimensions, and forlorn ruins of long-dead elven empires. Sure, most of what it fixed was issues with the endgame, but the Broken Isles and the stories contained within these five zones are classic Warcraft fun and even feature some dramatic twists and turns-especially if you're a fan of the elf races. Legion is World of Warcraft's epic comeback after the disaster that was Warlords of Draenor. It's one of the coolest WoW expansions and even if you're a veteran player, chances are it's been a long time since you last experienced its story anyway. ![]() It'll take slightly longer to beat than some of the other expansions on this list, but Pandaria is worth it. It's hard to focus on just one-Valley of the Four Winds' sweeping vistas are just as majestic as Kun-Lai Summit's frosted peaks-but wherever you go it's easy to get swept up in the splendor of Pandaria's jungles and rice farms. But you should, anyway, because Pandaria's lore is cool. Pandaria came out after Blizzard had made some big improvements to quest design, which means varied objectives and storytelling that don't require you to read reams of quest text. Going back today isn't a nasty shock, either. But, in hindsight, Pandaria is one of Warcraft's best continents: It's vibrant, teeming with fascinating bits of lore and story, and entirely unique. Mists of Pandaria didn't get a fair shake when it came out because so many people were mad at all the chubby pandas and the ancient Chinese aesthetic, which was so different from everything else in WoW to that point.
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