This is a series of posts that were originally planned as one, but became too long for a single entry.
Shortly after the launch of The Burning Crusade, I managed to arouse my wife’s interest in the game as well. So it happened that eventually the two of us would share those online adventures together. We created a matching pair of characters – she played a Protection Paladin and launched herself right into the fray, while I kept my sweetheart alive by healing her wounds on my Holy Priest. This team managed to clear all dungeons (normal and heroic) along their way and met many pleasant – and even a few unpleasant – people during their journeys.
The Druid’s quest chain for the Swift Flight Form was amazing and I consider it one of my most memorable moments. I only wished that the [Reigns of the Raven Lord] would have been a guaranteed Druid-only reward for completing the quest. I am still harbouring a grudge because I never saw it drop. I ran Heroic Sethakk Halls almost daily during The Burning Crusade and started soloing it as soon as I could – right until the very end. I even gave it a try on my last day in Azeroth– but Anzu would not yield up the elusive item.
I never enjoyed gaming more than when I played level 70 content during World of Warcraft’s first expansion set, The Burning Crusade. -- Zellviren
I consider The Burning Crusade as the best WoW expansion, the height of my gaming when I felt WoW was doing everything right. I consider WotLK the beginning of the end for me, especially when it came to the difficulty of 5-man content. -- Kadomi
I wholeheartedly agree, even though I would say that the beginning of the end was already noticeable after patch 2.4. I think that The Burning Crusade was the best expansion because it offered meaningful content for everyone. Heroic dungeons provided a great experience and (additionally) my group did spend quite some time in that beautiful place called Karazhan. The best part about heroic dungeons for me was that they all required strategy and tactics. Careful planning and pulling was essential and crowd control necessary. This meant that heroic dungeons took some time and that they could be seen as an alternative to the raiding endgame.
At one point, however, I started yearning for the ultimate challenge only 25-player raids could offer. So I applied to a hardcore raiding guild and was accepted for trial. We had four to six raids per week. Monday to Thursday were regular progression raids and on Fridays and Saturdays (or Sundays) we did the occasional “off-raid” – old content to get gear and/or attunements for new members. Once Zul’Amanwas released, we did our “bear runs” on the weekends as well. We were able to complete the entire level 70 content before the “big boss nerf”. And for a time it was good.