History YMMV / WorldOfWarcraft

*** First, it pushes TierInducedScrappy, with classes and different Covenant choices that are ideal. For example, if you play X spec of one class, it's entirely possible that, going from spec to spec, to have a '''entirely different''' Covenant choice as the best one. This leads to a lot of scorn because you are unable to play each of your specs at their maximum potential because what's the best choice for one spec is a bad or only average one for the other. Meanwhile, people who dislike a specific Covenant (or want to pick a different one) may be forced to select it because it's the best performer (woe to any druid who decides to roll any other Covenant than Night Fae, whose active ability (Convoke the Spirits) [[GameBreaker is deemed a must-have]]), with entire specs doing '''upwards of 30% more damage''' in one Covenant compared to others who picked a different Covenant but have the same gear. It has been held as a prime example of ''Shadowlands''' obsession with loads of systems in place backfiring spectacularly.

** Reaching level 60 unlocks various things such as World Quests, being able to skip story segments if they've been done on a previous character, and is a prerequisite to continuing other story segments. It also renders other elements as PermanentlyLostContent; Chromie Time, the EXP Eliminator, and being able to queue up for certain non-current dungeons via the group finderas a result of Chromie Time cannot be used on level 60/61 characters, despite story segments from ''Battle for Azeroth'' and ''Shadowlands'' requiring this prerequisite. As a result, it is impossible to use the group finder to get some help on the Spire of Ascension in ''Shadowlands'' despite the Kyrian storyline necessitating a run of the dungeon in its Covenant campaign.

** [[FireAndBrimstoneHell The Maw]] is widely disliked. The approximate consensus is that Blizzard made the [=WoW=] universe's version of Hell [[GoneHorriblyRight a little too authentic]]. Forcing characters to run around on foot in a large zone unless they get rare drop mounts native to the Maw (with the flimsy HandWave that your other mounts are too afraid to go there... [[FridgeLogic even ones like purely mechanical motorbikes and helicopters]]); being unpleasant to look at and not in a cool "You're definitely in Hell" way; forcing players to leave, group up, and come back if they want to tackle the group content; the Eye of the Jailer putting a hard limit on how much you can do in a day; and having little content to do (a few dailies and a few weeklies to grind rep with Ve'nari makes up the bulk of it) anyway all contribute to a lot of players wondering what Blizzard was thinking. 9.1 sought to address some of this by adding a new quest hub in the form of Korthia, the opening questline to which removes the mount limit (though sadly this doesn't apply account-wide, necessitating completing this questline for ''each character'') and Eye of the Jailer and can be skipped after the first time you've done it.

** [[FireAndBrimstoneHell The Maw]] is widely disliked. The approximate consensus is that Blizzard made the [=WoW=] universe's version of Hell [[GoneHorriblyRight a little too authentic]]. Forcing characters to run around on foot in a large zone unless they get rare drop mounts native to the Maw (with the flimsy HandWave that your other mounts are too afraid to go there... [[FridgeLogic even ones like purely mechanical motorbikes and helicopters]]); being unpleasant to look at and not in a cool "You're definitely in Hell" way; forcing players to leave, group up, and come back if they want to tackle the group content; the Eye of the Jailer putting a hard limit on how much you can do in a day; and having little content to do (a few dailies and a few weeklies to grind rep with Ve'nari makes up the bulk of it) anyway all contribute to a lot of players wondering what Blizzard was thinking. 9.1 sought to address some of this by adding a new quest hub in the form of Korthia, the opening questline to which removes the mount limit and Eye of the Jailer and can be skipped after the first time you've done it.

* ItsHardSoItSucks: The Gnomeregan dungeon gained this reputation from ''Wrath of the Lich King'' onward due to a botched {{Nerf}}. Basically, the developers nerfed the FinalBoss from level 34 down to level 28, but they forgot to implement the 6 level drop to the rest of the dungeon. Thus, you'd have mid-level 20 players queueing into Gnomeregan through the Random Dungeon Finder only to realize that they're going up against enemies that are 6 levels higher than they're supposed to be.

* ItsHardSoItSucks: The Gnomeregan dungeon gained this reputation from ''Wrath of the Lich King'' onward due to a botched {{Nerf}}. Basically, the developers nerfed FinalBoss from level 34 down to level 28, but they forgot to implement the 6 level drop to the rest of the dungeon. Thus, you'd have mid-level 20 players queueing into Gnomeregan through the Random Dungeon Finder only to realize that they're going up against enemies that are 6 levels higher than they're supposed to be.

* AcceptableTargets:
** There's the widely practiced and highly enjoyable sport of gnome punting, popular in ''both'' factions, but most especially among the tauren. Blood elves are also frequently mocked as being too Alliance-y (or [[{{Elfeminate}} feminine]]) for the Horde.
** Daily quest givers. [[spoiler:Two sets of them become bosses in Siege of Orgrimmar, though the latter set becoming the penultimate boss encounter was probably inevitable given their ties to Y'Shaarj]]. World quest givers, too, particularly the Tortollan Seekers and Magni Bronzebeard.

** Likewise many Alliance fans try to excuse Daelin Proudmoore's actions, especially after Garrosh and Sylvanis, claiming that he was right about the Horde being evil and that Jaina should have just killed them all. Even though he launched an unprovoked assault against a non-hostile power, took no prisoners, destroyed the countryside (including the Darkspear Trolls' home the Echo Isles, even though the Trolls had nothing to do with the First and Second Wars, for no real reason other than "they're Horde so they're evil" mindset), violated a parley and attempted to assassinate Rexxar, forcibly seized the city of his daughter when she attempted to protest based on Theramore and the orcs' shared history, refused all attempts at diplomacy and finally was killed in a direct frontal assault after multiple chances to surrender by all parties involved. Indeed, it was Daelin's actions that played a massive role in making Orcs and Trolls hate the Alliance, with people treating events after his death as if somehow they were destined to happen.

** Likewise many Alliance fans try to excuse Daelin Proudmoore's actions, especially after Garrosh and Sylvanis, claiming that he was right about the Horde being evil and that Jaina should have just killed them all. Even though he launched an unprovoked assault against a non-hostile power, took no prisoners, destroyed the countryside (including the Darkspear Trolls' home the Echo Isles, even though the Trolls had nothing to do with the First and Second Wars, for no real reason other than "they're Horde so they're evil" mindset), violated a parley and attempted to assassinate Rexxar, forcibly seized the city of his daughter when she attempted to protest based on Theramore and the orcs' shared history, refused all attempts at diplomacy and finally was killed in a direct frontal assault after multiple chances to surrender by all parties involved. Indeed, it was Daelin's actions that played a massive role in making Orcs and Trolls hate the Alliance.

*** ''Dragonflight'' will give players a new form of flight, Dragonriding, at launch as part of the initial quest line in the Dragon Isles, which differs from regular flight in that actively controlling the mount's heading and altitude is necessary in order to stay airborne, and glyphs can be collected in order to improve flying abilities. Additionally there is nothing stopping a player from simply flying around the Dragon Isles and hunting down all the glyphs as soon as they learn Dragonriding - and as an added bonus, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures glyphs only need to be found once]].

*** ''Dragonflight'' will give players a new form of flight, Dragonriding, at launch as part of the initial quest line in the Dragon Isles, which differs from regular flight in that actively controlling the mount's heading and altitude is necessary in order to stay airborne, and glyphs can be collected in order to improve flying abilities. Additionally there is nothing stopping a player from simply flying around the Dragon Isles and hunting down all the glyphs as soon as they learn Dragonriding.

** Dracthyr are androgynous (their gendered tells are only in their mortal disguises) anthropomorphic dragon people with a much lither and athletic build than most of the game's other races. Being what they are, it's perhaps inevitable that a great deal of scalies had [=WoW=] put on the map (or retired furries intending to return to the game taking notice) because of the option to play as dragon people that aren't LittleBitBeastly (history repeating, the only other race that gets close is ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'''s Au Ra). While there's a bit of a divison over just how lithe Dracthyr are when compared to Drakonids - the other anthropomorphic dragon people - there's no question it drew eyes from dragon fans towards the game, especially when the full breadth of their customization showed they have more customization options than a majority of the game's other races ''combined'', ensuring it's extremely unlikely any Dracthyr looks identical to another.

** [[https://wowpedia.fandom.com/Insane_in_the_Membrane Insane in the Membrane]]. It requires that the player get certain reputation levels with multiple factions. And while Steamwheedle Cartel towns are easy, Darkmoon Faire is time-consuming but also relatively easy, it's the remaining two factions that cause problems. First we have Bloodsail Buccaneers, a faction that exists solely to be an antagonistic force in Cape of Stranglethorn story, and for one other achievement, and the only way to get their reputation is to routinely slaughter your way through Booty Bay -- ruining reputation with Steamwheedle Cartel in the process, though as a silver lining, you only need Honored with Buccaneers. Finally, there's Ravenholdt, who give you ''nothing'' for raising their reputation, and only gain reputation from killing Syndicate mobs, or turning in Heavy Junkboxes. It gets worse when you reach Revered with them, and realise that mobs no longer give reputation -- which means now it's Heavy Junkbox farm time, except the ''only'' way to ge them is by [[VideoGameStealing stealing]]. Which only rogues can do. As such, the only ways to raise reputation further are: 1)being a rogue, 2)having a rogue alt, 3)have a friend with a rogue character, or 4)spending ''tons'' of money and time, trying to get junkboxes at an auction house. And you need ''1400'' of them fo get to Exalted.

*** Arthas raised her entirely out of spite for putting up a fight against him, and [[AndIMustScream kept her self-awareness in tact]] so that she could witness his destruction of her people and to torment her further. The narrative even frames it as if his decision to wipe out the elves is a supposed punishment for her defiance. Her body is even kept in an iron coffin for the specific purpose of preserving it so it can be used to further torture her. Arthas even went as far as to keep a vial of her blood among all of his supposedly "sentimental" trinkets.

** The dragons got an appreciated throw: there was originally a feat of strength achievement for Death Knights during the 7.2 quest chain for their mount where they [[spoiler:drive the Red Dragonflight to extinction]] purely out of spite and bloodlust. A week after the mount chains came out, Blizzard hotfixed out the achievement and stated that outcome was non-canon, citing that it was unfair to fans of the dragons (especially with all the [[WoobieSpecies misfortune they've recently suffered]]), a moment like that would be too important to only be covered in a single class if it ''were'' canon, and was unfair to give only Death Knights an achievement (that could be lost as the quest only happens once) related to getting their class mount, and also that they never intended the feat of strength to actually go live. WordOfGod also said that the Deaths of Chromie is leading into the dragons being put back into the forefront most likely in the next expansion, when players are 112 for real after being OutOfFocus with only heartbreak (the above mentioned, the Azsuna blues, and [[spoiler:Ysera's death]]) when they are brought into the plot.

** The dragons got an appreciated throw: there was originally a feat of strength achievement for Death Knights during the 7.2 quest chain for their mount where they [[spoiler:drive the Red Dragonflight to extinction]] purely out of spite and bloodlust. A week after the mount chains came out, Blizzard hotfixed out the achievement and stated the KillEmAll outcome was non-canon, citing that it was unfair to fans of the dragons (especially with all the [[WoobieSpecies misfortune they've recently suffered]]), a moment like that would be too important to only be covered in a single class if it ''were'' canon, and was unfair to give only Death Knights an achievement (that could be lost as the quest only happens once) related to getting their class mount, and also that they never intended the feat of strength to actually go live. WordOfGod also said that the Deaths of Chromie is leading into the dragons being put back into the forefront most likely in the next expansion, when players are 112 for real after being OutOfFocus with only heartbreak (the above mentioned, the Azsuna blues, and [[spoiler:Ysera's death]]) when they are brought into the plot.

** Likewise many Alliance fanboys try to excuse Daelin Proudmoore's actions, especially after Garrosh and Sylvanis, claiming that he was right about the Horde being evil and that Jaina should have just killed them all. Even though he launched an unprovoked assault against a non-hostile power, took no prisoners, destroyed the countryside (including the Darkspear Trolls' home the Echo Isles, even though the Trolls had nothing to do with the First and Second Wars, for no real reason other than "they're trolls, ergo they're evil mindset), violated a parley and attempted to assassinate Rexxar, forcibly seized the city of his daughter when she attempted to protest based on Theramore and the orcs' shared history, refused all attempts at diplomacy and finally was killed in a direct frontal assault after multiple chances to surrender by all parties involved. Indeed, it was Daelin's actions that played a massive role in making Orcs and Trolls hate the Alliance.

** Higher level undead, such as Sylvanas, Arthas, as well as Dark Rangers and Death Knights in general sure maintain an... uhm... well-honed bodies.

** The idea that Xe'ra was trying to brainwash Illidan into being her champion is popular among part of the fanbase, despite the fact she was only trying to replace his fel magic with the Light (admittedly by force), and even being Xe'ra's champion he would've still carried out his plan; their already shared goal of ending the Burning Legion.

** Many fans didn't like how the alternate Grom was EasilyForgiven at the end of ''Warlords of Draenor'' once the Burning Legion was driven out of Draenor. The Mag'har Allied Race quest reveals that after the high of victory wore off, no one was as forgiving to Grom for leading the Iron Horde's genocidal conquest. He spent the next thirty years of his life as TheAtoner to earn that forgiveness.

* InformedWrongness: The Prime Naaru Xe'ra is said to be controlling and prejudiced against those who use powers besides the Light. The writers even intended to make her a case of exploring that not every Naaru is good from the player's perspective. Given that Illidan is coming close to HeWhoFightsMonsters and both Fel and Void often induce TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget, she has a point about an aversion to non-Light powers; while it was wrong of her to omit that Naaru can turn into Void Gods, if she wanted to avoid that fate herself it makes her aversion to anyone using the Void understandable. Yet this purported prejudice didn't stop Xe'ra from recruiting people like the non-Light-using player characters, NCP Archmage Y'mera and Alleria (prior to Alleria's using the power of the Void, and even then Turalyon and Lothraxion talked her into being merciful. The fact that Turalyon and Lothraxion were both able to talk Xe'ra out of a more merciless approach proves that she's not controlling anyone, even the Lightforged Draenei). She's also a [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Naaru]] who's rallying people to help people fight the [[OmnicidalManiac Burning]] [[TheLegionsOfHell Legion]]. Not only does it turn her into a BaseBreakingCharacter, the story treats her as if she's some HolierThanThou fundamentalist and nearly everyone involved ends up disagreeing with her (except Turalyon). Despite Velen needing her help and being devoted to her cause (as recently as the ''Battle for the Exodar'' scenario, he [[spoiler:suddenly switches face and doesn't object to Illidan killing her, only criticizing her decision to try to force the Light on Illidan. No one else called him out on this either except Turalyon]]). It's also egregious as the story is obviously CharacterShilling for Illidan, but Xe'ra doing it is treated negatively.

* StarTrekMovieCurse: The first game (re-released as Classic), ''The Burning Crusade'', ''Wrath of the Lich King'', ''Mists of Pandaria'' and ''Legion'' tended to be viewed in a kinder light than ''Cataclysm'', ''Warlords of Draenor'', ''Battle for Azeroth'' and ''Shadowlands'', for various reasons.

* StarTrekMovieCurse: The game's previous odd-numbered iterations (Classic, ''Wrath of the Lich King'', ''Mists of Pandaria'', ''Legion'') tended to be viewed in a kinder light than the even-numbered (''The Burning Crusade'', ''Cataclysm'', ''Warlords of Draenor'', ''Battle for Azeroth''), for various reasons.

*** ''Dragonflight'' will give players a new form of flight at launch,

** The 9.2 Sanctum of Domination raid introduced Domination Sockets and Gems, mostly intended as a substitute for the widely-requested tier set bonuses. It quickly became apparent that it had the exact same problems as Corruption: gear with Domination Sockets was substantially more valuable than those without it (requiring some specs to ''reforge their Legendary item'' to a different slot to avoid a conflict), the impact of Domination Gems was great enough that players who were lucky to have one drop were immediately more useful than those without, and the Gems could only be upgraded through a grindy process. The subsequent major content patch disabled all Domination Sockets and reintroduced proper tier sets and bonuses.