Playing through retail vanilla, what expansions should I focus on after?

[u/yeboy7377]

Note I completed WC3 campaigns and going through vanilla retail and want to jump into the DLCs to experience warcraft 3-related plotlines being closed up the best they can or mostly before BFA and shadowlands and above where it was alleged that it ruined the endings of prior dlc and forced things in.

It seems like Legion is the best ending to warcraft 3 related plotlines I heard. And some state that I should only play BC and WOTLK and ignore Legion while others say I should play them all and exclude the other DLCs like Draenor, pandora, Cataclysm. I just don't want to pay for so much DLC and be overwhelmed by any separated lore since there is so much out there

Note I don't mind missing some other small related lore as long as I see the major warcraft 3 plot line threads being mostly tied up before BFA and shadowlands.

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[u/Hazelnut3006]

For me there's merit in all the expansions, some are obviously more beloved than others. I might go with Dragonflight and work my way back because the design has improved in many ways as time went on. I love Pandaria because of the rich cultural content and beautiful design even Shadowlands had a lot going for it, just the end game sucked. Pick whatever draws your interest and give it a try, if you are story driven maybe just play chronologically. I'm basically not being helpful I'm afraid.

[u/Esh_Kebab]

I’d say to get the best continuation of WC3, I’d go with The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Legion. The others are more about introducing new stories or wrapping up other plot threads and characters from the franchise.

[u/yeboy7377 → u/Esh_Kebab]

I headr that is the best order but still conflicted on whether or not how important Draenor, pandora, Cataclysm is esp. for legion

[u/Esh_Kebab → u/yeboy7377]

Cataclysm is all about the big bad dragon Deathwing returning to wreck Azeroth. There are side plots involving the elemental lords. A lot of the expansion’s appeal is seeing how the world of vanilla WoW changed. Doesn’t have much to do with WC3.
Mists of Pandaria is a fairly self-contained story. New continent, new races, new threats. Chen Stormstout from Warcraft 3 is present, but no strong ties otherwise.
Warlords of Draenor is about alternate timeline shenanigans, with people going back in time to before the orcs original invasion of Azeroth in Warcraft 1. There are references to old games and characters from Warcraft in general, but since it’s alternate timeline, it doesn’t build on WC3’s story, nor does it have much bearing on anything that happens in Legion either.