Dylan Bartels

The 5 originals: World of Warcraft (commonly called "Vanilla"), The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria was the golden age. Players were helpful and friendly. It actually took teamwork, coordination, and planning to tackle tough NPCs, dungeons, and raids, as well as battlegrounds, rated battlegrounds, and arenas. Then, enter what's commonly called "Retail WoW:" Warlords of Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands, and Dragonflight with the next three expansion packs already named: The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan. "Retail Wow" has just been filler content - traveling back in time...sort of...to cover things that were totally skipped or skimmed over in the original 5. There has been no new lore since Mists of Pandaria (2012-2014), and that's been the biggest issue for me. That, and... the Retribution Paladin spell "Exorcism" (which, in my opinion, was the the best spell/ability in the game) was removed from the game on the Legion pre-patch in 2016 - and that was the final straw for me since my main characters were/are Retribution Paladins.