I graduated from college in 2008. That summer, I drove out with one of my best friends to Los Angeles, where I still live today. I'd been playing WoW about two years - I started in September of 2006, my junior year of college, after seeing my roommate take his Orc Warlock around Durotar. While I played in the very tail end of Vanilla and then through Burning Crusade, it was Wrath of the Lich King where I became really fully engaged in WoW as a game and community.
I found my guild tanking a PUG Oculus, and after two abortive runs at Karazhan later in BC, I really learned the raid-tanking ropes in Naxxramas.
To me, Wrath will always be something special. The Scourge are my favorite WoW villains - indeed, they instilled in me an affinity for undead adversaries when I run D&D and write fantasy fiction - and this expansion was a huge part of why.
2008 was also a fairly tough time to go out into the adult world - the financial crisis struck right about as I was starting a job hunt. Wrath of the Lich King was an opportunity for me to feel a sense of control and, honestly, self-esteem in the midst of a really dehumanizing and demoralizing experience.
As a piece of art and entertainment, Wrath expanded the idea of what an MMO could be. In Vanilla and BC, it was rare for them to let NPCs really move around much - Thrall's appearance in Nagrand was exceptional (too bad the ultimate effect of his encouragement of Garrosh turned the guy into a fascist nightmare). After Illidan had been broadly advertised as the exciting antagonist of Burning Crusade only to basically never be seen by most players, Wrath made sure that every player had a personal stake in taking down Arthas - and even, thanks to the Halls of Reflection dungeon, allowed players to confront him, even if they didn't get to defeat him.
Wrath saw WoW's first cutscenes - which was actually a little against the grain, given that a lot of games at the time were playing with the idea of removing cutscenes in favor of having everything happen within uninterrupted gameplay (2004's Half-Life 2 being a prime example). The subsequent Battle of Undercity was also a remarkable use of new phasing technology (one that sadly disappeared with Catalcysm, given the massive re-work of the entire Old World).
It was also notable for a real shift in design philosophy. While Burning Crusade started to chip away at this, there was still something of an assumption going into Wrath that, for example, each tank was really only good for a particular niche. Warriors were the main tank, Paladins tanked adds, and Druids were off-tanks who would switch to cat form to DPS. With the addition of a new tank class (the first of three, eventually!) the developers pitched the Death Knight as the anti-magic tank, though when the expansion itself came out, the exciting truth emerged that every tank could perform these different roles.
While some specs lagged, a lot of options that were previously seen as "traps" suddenly became viable. The introduction of dual-spec then allowed players who mained as tanks or healers to have a much easier time playing solo (I leveled up to 80 entirely as Protection on my Paladin).
Now, I haven't really been into Classic. And honestly, I don't think I'm going to play much of Wrath Classic. I love Wrath, but I was there. I could imagine younger or newer players, who may not have even been alive when Wrath came out (and holy shit does that make me feel old) wanting to experience it. I think that the ever-changing nature of MMOs is a double-edged sword, and Classic as an ongoing project to restore the chance to experience these things is a noble one.
But I was there. And I don't think I can feel like I'm 22 again just because they come out with this expansion again.
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