I rarely post on these types of forums for the basic understanding that I will be flamed in some way by the trolls.  I have to say, this topic has quickly devolved to the same forum scenario.  The article stated a personal opinion about the authors favorites and asked you for yours.  Who are you to say that someone else's opinion on THEIR favorite is stupid or wrong.  I appreciate those who stated their favorites without blasting someone else's.

State your favorites and why, and leave the other posters alone.  Shame on you for thinking your personal favorite is better than someone else's opinion.  Different?  Sure.  I'm good with that... but better?  or theirs is stupid or wrong?  NOT!!!

I will keep my favorites to myself and enjoy MOP for my own reasons.  I'll just leave with the fact that I've played since beta with a few breaks from time to time, which means I've enjoyed different aspects of each expansion for different reasons.

Moon

For me it is

4 cata

3 wolk

2 vanilla

1 burning crusade

No question about it. Hopefully mop will be better then cata.

I guess that one thing that impacts your ordering of the versions is which class and spec you played.

My prefered spec was fun in vanilla. It was also not overpowered. But Raid design trends for raids that started late in TBC and got worse in WotLK and Cataclysm simply made it no longer fun to play the class and spec that I wanted to play.

From what I have experienced in the MoP beta and so far with 5.0.x I may once again have fun with my prefered class and spec.

Wow Wraith number 1 huh.  Can't say I agree with that. 

4.Cata

3.WOTLK

2.Original

1.Burning

Others have posted this same list and I think it would be the most common one you would see if you talked to people that have played all of them from the beginning.  Perhaps with 1 and 2 switched.

4.CATA (came back for two months)

3.WOTLK (made me quit)

2.Vanilla

1.BC

The raids and dungeons were really good in both Vanilla and BC. It became too easy in WOTLK and classes and stats started to changed a lot and i could not enjoy the game anymore after that.

1. Original WoW

2. Burning Crusade

rest are poop (I quit when the money grab started with digital items being sold)

I'll add mine (a day late a dollar short).

Worst to best

4) Lich King

3) Cataclysm

2) Vanilla WoW

1) Burning Crusade.

I agre with Garret's list although I do see why you'd put yours differently.  

I found Burning Crusade to be boring, that's just me... I couldn't get into it, I even made my alt darenei Shaman during it, after my Shaman being a Troll on another server... 

Still, I found it incredibly boring, something about the lack of achievements didn't interest me... Now, I have a lot of fun doing challenging achievements that were brought with Wrath of the Lich King, making me agree that it is the best expansion... 

Vanilla gets points for the old design and talent tre that I miss, Mists gets negative downvote for over simplification of the talent tree but imo is voted back up above Burning Crusade because well, it has Pokemon and Pandas!!! <3.  

Best to Worst:

1) Wrath of the Lich King (I Loved the Ice Theme, and it was the first that held my interest over other MMO's - I had quit 2 times back in Vanilla and in Burning Crusade, it just seemed shallow back then) Only issue is: What happened to a more complex robust "Path of the Titans"?? It sounded way better before launch when they were advertising it. 

2) Vanilla (Miss Shaman 2 Hander Talent Ability?? WRU Challenge and Talent Point Customization?)

3) Mists of Pandaria (Love Pokemon and Pandas!! WHOOOOOHOOO!!)

4) Cataclysm (Hate the oversimplification of Talent Trees, Love Azerothian Flight!)

5) Burning Crusade (Hellfire Peninsula the very beginning zone breathes a sense of boredom, and even today players will avoid Outlands like the plague, preferring to jump into Northrent ASAP at lvl 68... after power leveling themselves through a few dungeons with Heirloom Gear...)

Lol, its just the way he feels, it wasn't supposed to be a copy of someone else's list after all... I started at Vanilla, I got to lvl 54, made a bunch of alts... Just got bored of it and found it shallow until Wrath... 

Burning Crusade Tabards are not usable as more than cosmetics, you have to be Exalted before you can buy them, they don't up reputation when worn to Exalted like in Wrath, that was a major improvement to the game right there.  What is the point of having a cosmetic tabard that doesn't increase your reputation when it is worn? All of the reputation grinding in Burning Crusade was a time consumer, meant to keep you busy grinding until Blizzard slowly decided to release content 9-10 months later?

Or was that just now in Cataclysm that they've made us wait 9-10 months after Darkmoon Faire's upgrade for Mists? No pre-expansion quests, no bone thrown our way... Just Theramore's Fall released week before Mists so we can do the one scenario all week long over and over?) Ah well, at least it is a fun scenario however... 

As an ol'timer in WoW (started during beta 2004) I can honestly say nothing beats the original WoW (which you call vanilla). The major PVP raids we had going on all the time in Hillsbrad (South Shore and Tarren Mill) still stand out as the best fun I've had any any game and expansion.

The fact that you had to actually work your way through areas and not rush three quests and then head on to the next area as you do today. PVP was awesome too because a lvl 50 actually stood a chance against a lvl 58 or even a 60 from time to time. Nowadays you meet someone with 100k more health than you..

That's why I only vote for the original WoW and won't return until they launch a server with that version, and that version only.

WoW classic and TBC were just...superior. They are on another level compared to WotLK and Cataclysm.

With that said, WotLK was a worthy expansion. It dumbed the game down a lot and I consider it the start of WoW's downfall, but was still big in scope.

Cataclysm and MoP, however, are not worthy expansions in my book, just cash grabs re-skinning of the same stuff.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

I did not like Cataclysm so that has to be my worst.   The ocean zone was dumb, it had no real point to doing it.  Changes made to the skill system were a big negative in my book.

I skipped Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.  Neither peaked my interest.  

IMO, Mist will head to the bottom of the list.  The destruction of the skill system by Blizzzard is my sole reason.  There is no more character differentiation anymore.   Why I will not purchase the expansion.

 

Actually ... ocean area was one of the best ever made in some game, most original. Did it I think with 7 or 8 of my 10 alts, only rest in Hyal. Trademark of wow were always many great underwater quests. In other games you are happy if you can swim on surface.

But that area excells. Only truth is can be confusing to many orientation in space as one must be carefull what is above and below player.

Wow...

Cataclysm >>> Burning Crusade?  That's... just... so wrong.

Burning Crusade is #1.  Vanilla is #2.  WotLK is #3.  Mists of Pandaria is #4. (Potential to be #3 is there though.)  Cataclysm is #5.

Burning Crusade had great zones, expansive quest hubs, challenging dungeons, and interesting lore.  The game was still new and fresh, and I think the number of characters I have at level 70 compared to how many are sitting at 80 and 85 is testament all of its own how strong Burning Crusade was during its heyday.