The Complete WoW Expansion List With Brief Overview Or Each World Of Warcraft Expansions In Order. Check Them Out Now!
Since its launch in 2004, World of Warcraft has taken the gaming industry by storm.
Even though it wasn't the first MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) it became the most popular and its domination over the gaming genre has not slowed.
Due to its incredible design levels, quests, and stimulating gameplay, it is quite easy for anyone to become completely absorbed by this amazing community of like-minded gamers.
Moreover, the vast content available on this platform is enough for gamers to spend countless hours investigating the in-game environment and still discover new things.
Because of its huge success, it quickly became apparent that there should always be room for expanding the virtual world to generate an even more engaging experience for WoW players.
The World of Warcraft game has received up to 7 expansions thus far and is not likely to stop anytime soon.
In this post, you'll find an overview of the World of Warcraft expansions list in order of their appearance. Enjoy reading!
Here Are The List Of World Of Warcraft Expansions In Order:
- The Burning Crusade
- The Wrath Of Lich King
- Cataclysm
- Mists Of Pandaria
- Warlords Of Draenor
- Legion
- Battle For Azeroth
Wow Expansion List - World Of Warcraft Expansions In Order
1. The Burning Crusade
This was the first expansion for world of warcraft and it appeared on the 16th of January 2007, along with several new in-game changes and lore mechanics.
It established 2 new clans - the Blood Elves and the Dranei - and their race-specific territories on the world map of Azeroth.
This heralded the addition of customization options for creating new characters, plus a wide variety of additional lore, quest-lines, and regions to explore.
The character level limit was increased to 70 and those players that reached the cap could venture into the Dark Portal immediately and begin to travel around the Outland realm.
The Burning Crusade WoW expansion brought about the introduction of Flying Mounts which were then exclusive to the new areas.
New abilities along with a revision of the talent structure were a significant aspect of this initial patch that introduced World of Warcraft expansion packs to the game.
Moreover, the Shaman and Paladin classes were not exclusive factions any longer.
The introduction of the Blood Elf Paladins and Dranei Shaman made these 2 classes available for both factions. Also, new professions like jewel crafting were introduced to enable players to customize their tools.
Announced: October 2005
Release Date: January 2007
2. The Wrath Of Lich King
Following the general recognition of the first of the WoW expansions, The Wrath of the Lich King was made to include additional content rooted in the world & lore that players experienced during the gameplay of Warcraft III.
This second expansion for World Of Warcraft was mostly about Arthas - the popular anti-hero.
By the end of Warcraft III, his character was enthroned as the new Lich King, and The Blizzard Corporation used this particular WoW expansion to carry on with his adventure.
This meant that players were granted access to yet another new world map in the shape of Northrend - even though this is one of the versions on Blizzard's WoW expansion list that had much more variation and attention to detail than the world map used for Warcraft III.
While there weren't any new clans introduced in this WoW expansion, there was quite a host of innovative features for gamers to explore.
The game was also given its first hero-class with the Death Knight's introduction. This new warrior class started at level 55 along with its own profession and starting region.
Death Knights were able to enhance their weapons by Runeforging. This WoW expansion was released on November 13th, 2008.
Announced: August 2007
Release Date: November 2008
3. CatacLysm
Cataclysm made it to our WoW expansion list by rocking the realm of Azeroth and changing the entire landscape of several regions within the game.
This WoW expansion was released on the 7th of December 2010 and it witnessed Deathwing serving as the ultimate bad character after players had defeated Arthas and Illidan in the preceding two expansions.
Two region-specific races were also introduced in the form of Goblins (Horde) and Worgen (Alliance) each having their unique starting regions on the Azeroth world map.
The virtual landscape was itself massively altered, and almost every Azeroth region was affected in some way.
Quite a few brand new zones emerged on the southern area of Kalimdor, counting Tol Barad - another PVP zone. Furthermore, the level cap had now become 85 (increased by 5, from 80).
The social class system was redesigned & rebalanced, with more race and class mixtures included.
Also, the talent system was overhauled with special abilities that changed based on the principal talent tree.
Announced: August 2009
Release Date: December 2010
4. Mists Of Pandaria
After Cataclysm, the next item on our WoW expansion list was widely regarded by fans as a joke, especially because it was based on a tribe that was initially introduced into the game as a prank intended for April fool's day.
This next version of the WoW expansion order was later revealed as an actual game development on September the 25th of 2012.
Exploring the vast Pandarian continent, the story is focused on the discovery of the magical island, along with the never-ending conflict between the Horde and the Alliance.
This expansion's character level cap was once again raised by 5, which made 90 the new maximum.
The Mists of Pandaria expansion was most notably known for introducing the Pandaren which was the first neutral tribe that could choose to join either the Horde or the Alliance.
This was based exclusively on the personal choice of the player.
Announced: October 2011
Release Date: September 2012
5. Warlords Of Draenor
This next pack on our WoW expansion list was released on the13th of November 2014.
Warlords of Draenor is one of those World Of Warcraft expansion packs that takes players back to a crucial historic moment and then offers them the opportunity to experience a different timeline regarding the destiny of the Orcs from Draenor.
You will go back to a period when the Draenor race was still thriving and see what could have happened if the Orcs had not made an alliance with the Mannoroth.
On this WoW expansion, players experienced some much-needed graphic improvements along with enhanced character models and overall development in the quality of gaming graphics used for the entire game.
Furthermore, a lot of attention went into streamlining and improving the gameplay especially by introducing the PvE and PvP Group Finder, and a revamp of both the quest log and inventory.
Announced: November 2013
Release Date: November 2014
6. Legion
We will now turn our attention to Legion the next version on our WoW expansion list.
The Legion expansion debuted on August 30th, 2016 and it lets players explore how the Gul'dan from an alternate reality unlocks Sargeras' Tomb.
The Broken Isles were also introduced into the game via the Legion expansion. Dalaran was shifted to float on top of the Isles serving as a hub for players.
Once more the maximum level cap was increased to 110 from 100 and yet another hero class was introduced - the Demon Hunter.
The Legion extension also witnessed the introduction of Class Orders which provided campaigns and rewards that were class-specific.
Players could even customize Artifact weapons to meet their specific requirements and these would serve as their primary weapons.
Announced: August 2015
Release Date: August 2016
7. Battle For Azeroth
Here is the latest expansion in the list of best WoW expansions and unlike the previous 2 versions on our WoW expansion list that focus heavily on PvP mechanics, the Battle for Azeroth has the story as its fundamental spotlight.
The storyline here revolves around the Battle for Azeroth with a keen focus on the on-going war between the Horde and the Alliance in a multiple chapter War Campaign plot.
The Battle for Azeroth made its debut on the 14th of August in 2018. This WoW expansion brought in 8 new races - 4 for each faction- although some of them were re-skins of existing races.
Announced: November 2017
Release Date: August 2018
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Now that you have an overview of the WoW expansions released so far, you can expect that there are more of them in development.
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