To me, league of explorers is S tier. It introduced the discover mechanic and the highlander mechanic, the single player content included the Rafaam fight which was hilarious (I like your deck, i think i will TAKE IT!), Brann allowed for a bunch of shenanigans that just wasn't possible before... It was such a good expansion!
4 of the 5 Legendaries in LeO introduced a whole new type of a deck. That's fantastic card design. But let's be honest, the only reason why LeO was so great is because it was an adventure and it couldn't have been bloated with useless cards. Whispers, that came right after LeO, was similarly as impactful and fun as LeO, but since they had to come up with 135 cards, there was a lot of useless pack filler and dud cards.
Totally agree. The amount of reno and bronsebeard decks out there is still high. It was the start of an era of highlander decks and nice combos. Also, naxramas was pretty good especially loatheb.
League of Explorers is absolutely an S tier. Nothing less. That set was so good and introduced so much to the game that helped shaped its identity moving forward.
Witchwood gave me my favorite card ever, which gave me my favorite deck ever, Tess Greymane Burgle Rogue. While I despised Genn and Baku, never have I had more fun playing HS than with that deck.
@@c4rlt0x But sadly without nearly enough support to make it viable, not yet at least. But that kinda seems to be Rogue's stick currently, 4 different archetypes (Pirates, Burgle, SI:7, Deathrattle) but not enough support for any of them to truly shine...except maybe Pirates, but most of the time it feels like Pirate Warrior Light.
The first week after Whispers of the Old Gods released was the most fun I’ve ever had in HS. The fact that some of the more fun Legendaries were neutral meant that it didn’t feel like that huge of a commitment to craft them.
Curse of Naxxramas was great, and something awesome to look back to, despite the "one oppressive deck" - at least for many people, myself included. You're forgetting the context of the game was played back then, and why people have fond memories of the time. Basically back in the day when you played normal games at low ranks you wouldn't really encounter netdecks - people would make cool decks with their collections, experiment, and just have fun. When Naxx came out it brought a ton of awesome single-player adventures (which were a blast to play) and new awesome cards and interactions to play with - which was amazing. Now, if you were the "Spike" type of a player, you'd netdeck and eventually hit a level high enough to meet those oppressive decks and have a terrible time playing. But most players never got there, we just had fun playing the game. That's why people have so many fond memories of the expansion, it added a lot without taking anything away. Over time even the lowest rankes became filled with netdecks so the Timmy/Johnny space disappeared and I think it's the case to this day (I no longer play the game). But that should explain why you often hear how good Naxx was.
@@i_am_ergo I played at the time and this is simply not true. Netdecks were rare until rank 15-17 where most people ran a version of a metadeck, but with their own personal touch. The only time you ran into the sweaty hunters were on rank reset. But even then it never bothered me because i played a midrange warrior with healing and control elements to counter the hefty zoo/hunter fiesta.
Frozen throne and ungoro are the greatest set for casual to mid players who don’t necessarily care to hit legend because they significantly disrupted deckbuilding for every class and gave everyone something unique to play with other sets just felt like they were buffing previous archetypes by slowly powercreeping rather than reinventing the playstyle
My favorites: -Ungoro: the quests aside from rogue were awesome and it was really fun to play against most decks -kobolds: the cards had synergy and it made the meta more interesting and most importantly it introduced my favorite arcetype of all time spell hunter -rise of shadows: As a attrition control player I enjoyed the heck out of the odd warrior control meta. I legit played hours upon hours while it lasted and it's probably my favorite meta of all time -rastakhan: the flavor was just awesome and play off meta stuff with friends was some of the best times I can remember, all in all a fun experience My least favorites: -stormwind: the rise of questline warlock in wild has killed the fun I had in the game, it was the first time I felt left out and I stopped playing for 3 months just after the first week, it was just horrible -outlands: demon hunter was busted af and many decks didn't feel great to play against
It’s funny because on my own personal list, Knights of the Frozen Throne ranks super high. Priest had been a not so great class for a long time but it’s been my favorite since beta, so getting to rule the meta game for a while and even through Mean Streets was a breath of fresh air for someone like me. I can understand that it wasn’t fun for a lot of other people, but I remember it fondly and I pushed for Legend the most during that time period to experiment and learn as much as I could.
It helps that un'goro was pretty good for priest too. Purify priest became an unironically good deck. Radiant elementals, lyra, potion of madness and that card which discovered a spell from your deck were all so good. Doing Lyra shenanigans with 2 radiant elementals was one the most fun I had in hearthstone
LoE - WotOG was my favourite time period in the whole history of Hearthstone. Before WotOG was released, I feared that C'thun decks would completely overwhelm the META and the game becomes one-sided and boring, but it turned out that the C'thun-system was so adequately designed, that while C'thun decks were significant, they didn't radically determine the META. Also I'm on a high degree of agreement with your opinion, such as how Baku and Genn impacted the gameplay and how bad influence on the META United in Stormwind had in general (but the questlines first of all). I also agree that Rise of Shadows (how generic title is this?) and Rastakhan's Rumble were the most forgetable expansions, but I'd include the Boomsday Project here because that felt rather dull to me as well. Other than that, like others said, LoE is definitely S tier for me, and though Witchwood had Baku and Genn and Shudderwock, I liked everything else in that expansion, espeicially the PvE content, so I would rank it as D at least, and Cobolds and Catacombs had the best PvE content ever (difficult but very entertaining, and thus rewarding), so that definitely deserves a B instead of C for me. With the rest, as I said, I mostly agree with you.
Same, the deathknights were amazing, and to me it wasn’t just priest and warlock, I remember having a great hunter deck, a mage one… If I remember correctly only the warrior one was really underwhelming.
I havent touched hearthstone consistantly since Descent Of Dragons, but I will always be in love with Saviors Of Uldum, literally that whole little Heros VS Villians story was so fun n cute. Plus Reno best boy.
There are a few breaking points to how this game died 1- witchwood the beginning of the end: shudderwock and odd paladin decks were so outrageous that it put so many people off. 2- ashes of outland hearthstone loses its top spot in the genre: demon hunter did it for me personally, thats when i quit and never looked back. 3- darkmoon faire tavern pass hits the nail on the coffin: and this is the moment when the game officially died. It was already a ridiculously expensive game and adding more stuff to buy just to be able to keep up did it for the remaining casuals. People who invested resources into this game still plays it but it is just a steep decline from now on.
LOL that was awesome. that was already the most packs I ever opened with an expansion.... and then because of that bug I got 87 bonus packs. crazy thing is i opened close to 400 packs and I was STILL missing a few rares Rares God bless duplicate protection. i can get the whole set with 200 packs + dust now.
My personal list S: Descend of Dragons, Knights of the Frozen Throne, Boomsday, Kobolds and Catacombs A: Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum, United in Stormwind, Old Gods, Alterac Valley B: Scholomance Academy, Forged in the Barrens, Darkmoon Faire, League of Explorers. Gadgetzan, Journey to Un'Goro, Naxx C: Goblins vs Gnomes, Blackrock Mountain, Karazhan, Grand Tournament, Classic D: Ashes of Outland, Rastakhan's Rumble, Witchwood
I sunk so much time into dungeon runs once Kobolds & Catacombs came out, it probably made up most of my hours in the game when I was playing. Has to be S-Tier for me personally. As far as Rastakhan's Rumble goes the only reason I remember it is the hype ass music in the cinematic trailer. Still hype as hell years later
My tier list (from left to right being best to worst in each tier): S tier: Journey to Un’Goro, Whispers of the Old Gods, League of Explorers A tier: Kobolds & Catacombs, Knights of the Frozen Throne, Boomsday Project (I just love mechs sorry), Mean Streets of Gadetzan B: tier: Saviors of Uldum, Fractured in Alterac Valley, Goblins vs Gnomes, Classic Hearthstone, Descent of Dragons C tier: Forged in the Barrens, Rise of Shadows, Schoolmance Academy, Blackrock Mountain, Ashes of Outland, One Night in Karazhan, Naxxramas D tier (most of these didn’t feel like expansions, they didn’t really have their own identity in the meta): Rastakhan’s Rumble, The Witchwood (okay if you consider 2 cards an identity in the meta then it did lol), United in Stormwind (this one is just disgusting, the quests are terribly designed, take me back to Un’Goro quests 😭 although I like the traceable mechanic), Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, The Grand Tournament (cool concept too bad the cards were unplayable 🥲)
Hey Rarran. I really like your content and decided to start stream Hearthstone partly because of you. Tomorrow I'll stream for the first time ever and although I'm really nervous, I really wanna thank you again. Keep up your good work.
I might be wrong, but didn't Shadowreaper Anduin priest die down pretty quickly after Raza rotated shortly after Knights of the Frozen Throne? I remember Druid being a lot more dominant then priest, and other death knights being a lot more impactful then anduin in standard such as Guldan and as time went on Uther (with the otk) and Rexxar.
This whole video is just pinning down every expansion based on the worst of it, ashes of Outland did have insane demon hunter but it was nerfed really hard only days into the expansion
Ungoro was the greatest expansion ever. I loved doing the quests, and it felt like the cards had a lot of love put into them, compared to other expansions that felt soulless like the barrens.
Pausing the video at BRM, because yes, this was honestly such a good time I don’t think people realize. Was patron warrior meta defining, yeah, but it was also one of the most interesting and highest skill cap decks at the time. Plus, there was either a good or at least fun deck for every class. Hybrid Hunter, Handlock, druid, Oil Rogue( but cmon, mill rogue is where it’s at), Mech Shaman, Tempo Mage, Dragon Paladin, and Lightbomb/Dragon Priest. It was a really fun time, maybe not perfectly balanced, but still
League of Explorers was peak Hearthstone for me. I don't say it was the best expansion, but loved the state of the game after it arrived. Frozen Throne strong contender.
I liked dark moon faire. I agree it was a bit of a weak expansion but you can’t say it was bad in the art department. The cinematic was amazing, the card art, and the old gods. It was also the first expansion that came out while I was playing so it will always be in my top 3.
I played from release up to Mean Streets with a couple breaks in between. After I saved up all my free to play coins to get my raging worgen OTK deck off the ground only for them to nerf it out of existence, such that I didn't even get any dust back, I was just looking for a reason to quit, and once I did I was happier. I should've known from the start that my worgens were on thin ice since that was already the post-Patron era but it doesn't make me any less sad remembering it.
Me: *laying in bed in pajamas because my classes were canceled today. Haven’t shaved today and with terrible bed head. Being a bum watching RUclips* Rarran “you look fantastic” Me: :)
I think i'm one of the few where kobolds and catacombs is my favorite expansion of all time. cubelock is my favorite deck and wished there was more support for it. i also liked RoS because thats when i started getting into rogue even though ive been playing since release. If I had to make my top decks of all time it would be K&C Cubelock Wild Ungoro Silver Hand Recruit Paladin RoS Tempo Rogue
ahh the days of no duplicate protection.. I remember opening up like 400 packs of Mean Streets and still missing commons and rares LOL now you can get he whole expansion in 200 packs
It's extremely fun watching this video because my experience with the expansions are tied only to the murloc cards. Yes, i own every murloc card in the game and only the murloc cards. So my interactions with the expansions are tied to what they did for the murloc tribes. So hearing what a normal person has to say about the different expansions is very interesting since i only remember them for what they introduced to the murloc tribe. The best era for murlocs is hands down before they changed the wording on the core murlocs to only affect your cards, because the feeling of facing a rouge that stole a murloc from you and won the game with it because it gets all the buffs you give your own murlocs was a level of pain you never forget. But for example witchwood wasn't really that good of an expansion, but god damn if the Echo murloc wasn't a godsent. That card alone bumps the expansion up to a B tier because having a murloc that can repopulate the board after you get flamestriked to oblivion completely changed the face of murloc. And that's not to consider the fact that you can get more than 2 of them in your deck with discovers and inspire effects, i had some pretty crazy games even though only a single murloc was added that expansion. But by far my favorite expansion will always be ungoro because of the crazy options added to the murlocs. If you've read all this, here's a fun little thing about that expansion, Sated Threshadon is my favorite murloc card period, i even nicknamed it 'Nessie' because of how often that card ended up saving my games. To this day it's still an injoke with my friends who i regularly dueled with my murloc decks back then. I was probably the only person who actively played that card, if you're curious why i would play it, it's a super sticky and high value murloc card. It was easily the biggest card in the deck and capable of going toe to toe with all the other classes big cards, and removal didn't work well against it because three 1/1 murlocs are a lot more dangerous than you'd think in a murloc deck, a LOT more dangerous than you'd think, i have won more games with those 1/1 murlocs than i did with the murloc quest from ungoro. They were more dangerous than a 5/7 beast for sure, so using removal to get rid of that big dinosaur could actually be worse than just leaving it on the board for you, and if you left it, it's still a 5/7 card. Truly a legendary card for early murloc that was very weak to big removal, but then we got the echo murloc. EDIT: Costumed Entertainer is also a card that has given me way too many laughs. In a murloc drought, that card really reminded me how stupid murloc decks really are.
For me personally BEST: Old Gods, Explorers, Ungoro, FrozenThrone, Naxx VERY GOOD: Uldum, Dragons, Darkmoon, Catacombs WORST: Rastakhan, Stormwind, Grand Tournament I was actually not a fan of scholomance... that was the start of the spell-centric decks and i really did not like that at all. and you're spot on about Rise of Shadows... that expansion would have been so much better without those fucking lackies
My Favorites Old Gods because of how it felt like a recreation of the classic set (somewhat) but also tried new things GvG because many cards felt at home with classic Un'Goro Frozen Throne And Kobolds And Catacombs (God that was like Hearthstone's best year) For just how meta defining cards were, plus hero cards and legendary weapons Rise Of Shadows, Uldum, and Dragons was cool because of the story And my last fav was Outland simply bc I love BC in wow, I love Demon Hunters in wow, you give me both, you make me happy Going to be completely honest, never played standard with Scholomance onward so
I also made my rl friend quit playing hs forever w mechathun. I remember they msgd me when I got to the bottom of the deck "you're letting me win" blew their mind and they haven't played since. Rip.
I just want to go back to Whispers of the Old Gods again. It was the best time ever. Nobody knew anything it was a wild time it took weeks for a solid meta to form. I creeped all the way to legend with my own custom deck. Good times 😃
Big fan of boomsday with the magnetic mechs. Really surprised they didn't add a single one with sunken city and the 600 mechs in it. Clik Clak must have left a terrible impression
This is a really fun to this I'd love to hear a tier list specifically on the cinematic trailers made for each expansion. because just as much as the expansion cards were fun the anticipation and the hype for these were just as amazing.
I actually think kobolds had some of the more fun decks to play/play against, defenitely A-tier for me. Also boomsday was sooooo much fun to me with topsy turvy priest and mech decks, i thought it was so good. S-tier for me
I started playing when Blackrock Mountain had just come out. Had a lot of fun back then and I can see many of those sets that came out are top tier. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in late 2017 I stopped playing due to lack of internet for about 3 months. When I came back Kobolds had come out and I felt like it wasnt my style of set (too childish Idk) and that, with my delay in doing dailies and falling behind made me quit until March 2024. Guess it was a good thing since it was followed by Witchwood, Rastakhan and Shadows which many people consider some of the worst. God the game feels so different nowadays.
From an arena players perspective witchwood was one of my favourite expansions because it felt like it lowered the power level of hearthstone back to a reasonable level (but was preceded and followed by expansions that completely ruined that once again). I came back to arena over the past few weeks and it is so frustrating how insane every draft has to be nowadays (I feel like discover is literally on everything now), and how many simply broken cards exist. I remember when firelands portal was the most broken thing you could be doing but now it has been buffed to 6 damage summon a 6 cost like what??
rastakan's rumble killed the game for me. I left and went and played Pokemon and Eternal and it looks like I didn't miss much. I would say my peak experience playing hearthstone was Gadgetzan. I loved Jade druid and made legend that cycle. it was the ultimate midrange deck and I had a great time.
Lackey's were actually pretty fun i think, in Rogue and Priest you had to value them out in the right ways which actually brought more strategy then most of the people taught. Naxx was awful until GvG came out. In design League of Explorers or Journey to Ungoro are tied the best for me. With Blackrock coming in right behind Them. The most fun i had was with Khadgar mage. The Giant and that 4 mana twinspell, time your freezes right. I stopped playing since United in Stormwind tho, that expension sadly ruined the game for me :(.
I loved Naxx / GvG / BRM because the power creep was slow enough back then that I could get away with playing dumb decks way easier. I spent Naxx playing a Kel'thuzad priest / ramp druid deck and continued to tech stupid shit in like the Recombobulator in GvG to turn ancients of lore into rando 7 drops and shoved even more jank into it come BRM alongside playing a dumb RNG dragon mage deck. They weren't good decks, but I enjoyed playing them and they had a good enough winrate despite how stupid they were. As time went on it's felt like trying to play too far "off meta" is just futile against the strength of good decks as power creep snowballed.
It's always fun to see, how Priest Dominates the game or not exist entire Herthstone history. Rouge is somewhat similiar, but she is not exist or piss everyone.
For me Un'Goro is the best by far. Introduced us to the Quests (with the Paladin Quest being one of my favorite card), added the Elemental Tribe and just the theme of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric creatures and plant being so cool.
personal tier list S: Scholomance, Alterac Valley, Ungoro, WotOG A: League of Explorers, Barrens, Frozen Throne, Uldum B: Classic, Blackrock, Stormwind, Boomsday, Rise of Shadows, Descent of Dragons, GvG C: TGT, K&C, Ashes, Darkmoon D: Karazhan, Witchwood, Rastakhan's Rumble, Gadgetzan F- : Naxx I think if Naxx came out a year later and wasn't the first expansion it would've borderlined killed the game.
MSoG was so stupid back than. I remember going for a local tournament and everyone had the same 4 decks in top3 - aggro shaman, renolock, renomage and pirate warrior
I haven't played actively played Hearthstone after KotFT but I remember TGT as a very enjoyable and creative expansion. The meta decks were obnoxious, sure, but to me it felt like it was the first time they really changed up the game and the wacky legendary cards made for a very experimental experience, which I really liked. Also the thematic of the set is probably one of my favorites.
This is one of the best of these lists like this I've seen. Witchwood's hard to rate. Baku and Genn caused a LOT of problems for the game, but the set's flavor was so super solid. I also think it's easy to overlook how significant rush was on how the game plays. Granted, there's some new problems caused by rush being a little too commonplace nowadays, but that's more because of later sets than it was witchwood itself. My own personal list would look a bit different, since I love lower-power formats and I value flavor super highly . Sets like KoFT, DoD, and K&C are easy f-tier for me, but things like Un'goro, Tgt, Rastakhan, and Witchwood I tend to rank really highly. A lot of the overarching storyline sets like Stormwind, RoS, Uldum, or Alterac I generally dislike as much for being boring theme-wise as I might anything actual mechanical. (Stormwind's an exception here, because that set just makes the game worse through-and-through)
Strictly looking at the meta game this is a good list, disagree on some but that’s natural. I’d love to see a series or something where you select an expansion and elaborate on what it was like at the time, cause I’d love to learn what HS was like in the expacs I missed.
I like the expentions when they put some secret combos in with epics. Like the draw a card it transforms to a legendary i had sooo much fun with those 0 mana legendary on turn 2 or 3 🙂
I liked Rhastakhans, mainly cause it was my first expansion, but also im one of those hipster boys who plays whatever people arent playing just to prove it can be viable (mainly control hunter and shaman). Also that expansion trailer... it hits hard af
I haven't played the game in years and just wanted to remember when I stopped. Each time you said a new expansion, I was like oh yea I stopped here. Then you'd say another and I'd be oh yea I remember this. Finally got to witchwood and I realized that's when I stopped playing.
For me, the best expansion would be the one that I have played the most which is why I have more memory of it which leave a bigger impression. But most of the time, it is due to that 1 good legendary from the expansion that I lucky gotten.
Just wondering if anyone else quit/lost interest around boomsday? I never really considered why I stopped playing but looking back at Kobolds, Witchwood, Boomsday, Rastakhan, Rise of Shadows. It was definitely a low point in the games history. Been trying to get back into it f2p these days though!
I quit in witchwood, The Frozen Throne was for me the best. Priest wasnt that prevalent but still probably its highest numbers. I remember Druid being far more prelevant. The rogue class I liked died a few expansions later when they tried to kill off combo decks. I stopped playing because the three styles I liked to play all but died. Attrition and Combo were killed off and I never found tempo or super aggro all that fun.
That scrolling through the card collection on the playhearthstone website was so painful to watch because how laggy it was. :D Otherwise another cool video. :)
You put Mean Streets of Gadgetzan in F-tier right the fuck now! That expansion was the sole reason why I lost all hope in Hearthstone, and stop really playing it consistently, until I ultimately quit.
![KSI - Dirty [Official Visualiser]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VoDh1h1dPUE/mqdefault.jpg)
To me, league of explorers is S tier. It introduced the discover mechanic and the highlander mechanic, the single player content included the Rafaam fight which was hilarious (I like your deck, i think i will TAKE IT!), Brann allowed for a bunch of shenanigans that just wasn't possible before... It was such a good expansion!
Reno is my favorite card ever, agree with u, explorers 100% tier S
4 of the 5 Legendaries in LeO introduced a whole new type of a deck. That's fantastic card design.
But let's be honest, the only reason why LeO was so great is because it was an adventure and it couldn't have been bloated with useless cards. Whispers, that came right after LeO, was similarly as impactful and fun as LeO, but since they had to come up with 135 cards, there was a lot of useless pack filler and dud cards.
I honestly taught i was the only guy who played OSRS and HS...
@@marcd9696 I'm maxed in osrs and got all classic cards in hs!
Totally agree. The amount of reno and bronsebeard decks out there is still high. It was the start of an era of highlander decks and nice combos. Also, naxramas was pretty good especially loatheb.
League of Explorers is absolutely an S tier. Nothing less. That set was so good and introduced so much to the game that helped shaped its identity moving forward.
The frozen throne expansion always will have special place in my heart
Agree, the adventure also felt like a real challenge at the time.
and they introduce death knight hero cards for the first time !
I bet you mained mage
Jade druid tho....
@@samuraipapi Yes.
Kobolds was S tier for dungeon runs alone.
fr i still play dungeon runs
This expansion is the peak expansion fr the decks here were the most fun ever
@@elio4490 it really wasn't, a bunch of overpowered cards, remember warlock cube ?
Dalaran heist was also a really fun pve mode
@@Momo-xt2hu cubelock wasnt toxic it was just a good deck
Witchwood gave me my favorite card ever, which gave me my favorite deck ever, Tess Greymane Burgle Rogue. While I despised Genn and Baku, never have I had more fun playing HS than with that deck.
I crafted a golden version. Such a fun card when done the right way haha
Aaaaaaaand is back!
@@c4rlt0x But sadly without nearly enough support to make it viable, not yet at least. But that kinda seems to be Rogue's stick currently, 4 different archetypes (Pirates, Burgle, SI:7, Deathrattle) but not enough support for any of them to truly shine...except maybe Pirates, but most of the time it feels like Pirate Warrior Light.
Loved Genn and Baku and play Baku Pali in Wild up until this day. 1k games with it or smth.
The first week after Whispers of the Old Gods released was the most fun I’ve ever had in HS. The fact that some of the more fun Legendaries were neutral meant that it didn’t feel like that huge of a commitment to craft them.
Old gods and LOE Meta were my all time favorites aswell
Rastakhan's Rumble is tier S in the thumbnail, nice one!
Curse of Naxxramas was great, and something awesome to look back to, despite the "one oppressive deck" - at least for many people, myself included. You're forgetting the context of the game was played back then, and why people have fond memories of the time.
Basically back in the day when you played normal games at low ranks you wouldn't really encounter netdecks - people would make cool decks with their collections, experiment, and just have fun. When Naxx came out it brought a ton of awesome single-player adventures (which were a blast to play) and new awesome cards and interactions to play with - which was amazing.
Now, if you were the "Spike" type of a player, you'd netdeck and eventually hit a level high enough to meet those oppressive decks and have a terrible time playing. But most players never got there, we just had fun playing the game. That's why people have so many fond memories of the expansion, it added a lot without taking anything away.
Over time even the lowest rankes became filled with netdecks so the Timmy/Johnny space disappeared and I think it's the case to this day (I no longer play the game). But that should explain why you often hear how good Naxx was.
So true. The Undertaker fiasco was quite demoralizing, but I will always love Nax for giving us a timeless classic in the form of Loatheb.
You remember it wrong. It was undertaker hunters as far as the eye can see from rank 25 onward.
@@i_am_ergo I played at the time and this is simply not true. Netdecks were rare until rank 15-17 where most people ran a version of a metadeck, but with their own personal touch. The only time you ran into the sweaty hunters were on rank reset. But even then it never bothered me because i played a midrange warrior with healing and control elements to counter the hefty zoo/hunter fiesta.
Frozen throne and ungoro are the greatest set for casual to mid players who don’t necessarily care to hit legend because they significantly disrupted deckbuilding for every class and gave everyone something unique to play with other sets just felt like they were buffing previous archetypes by slowly powercreeping rather than reinventing the playstyle
My favorites:
-Ungoro: the quests aside from rogue were awesome and it was really fun to play against most decks
-kobolds: the cards had synergy and it made the meta more interesting and most importantly it introduced my favorite arcetype of all time spell hunter
-rise of shadows: As a attrition control player I enjoyed the heck out of the odd warrior control meta. I legit played hours upon hours while it lasted and it's probably my favorite meta of all time
-rastakhan: the flavor was just awesome and play off meta stuff with friends was some of the best times I can remember, all in all a fun experience
My least favorites:
-stormwind: the rise of questline warlock in wild has killed the fun I had in the game, it was the first time I felt left out and I stopped playing for 3 months just after the first week, it was just horrible
-outlands: demon hunter was busted af and many decks didn't feel great to play against
Whispers of old gods and Mean Streets of Gagdetzan was definitely S-tier for me in terms of flavor.
Blade of C´thun stil my fav card
It’s funny because on my own personal list, Knights of the Frozen Throne ranks super high. Priest had been a not so great class for a long time but it’s been my favorite since beta, so getting to rule the meta game for a while and even through Mean Streets was a breath of fresh air for someone like me. I can understand that it wasn’t fun for a lot of other people, but I remember it fondly and I pushed for Legend the most during that time period to experiment and learn as much as I could.
It helps that un'goro was pretty good for priest too. Purify priest became an unironically good deck. Radiant elementals, lyra, potion of madness and that card which discovered a spell from your deck were all so good. Doing Lyra shenanigans with 2 radiant elementals was one the most fun I had in hearthstone
LoE - WotOG was my favourite time period in the whole history of Hearthstone.
Before WotOG was released, I feared that C'thun decks would completely overwhelm the META and the game becomes one-sided and boring, but it turned out that the C'thun-system was so adequately designed, that while C'thun decks were significant, they didn't radically determine the META.
Also I'm on a high degree of agreement with your opinion, such as how Baku and Genn impacted the gameplay and how bad influence on the META United in Stormwind had in general (but the questlines first of all). I also agree that Rise of Shadows (how generic title is this?) and Rastakhan's Rumble were the most forgetable expansions, but I'd include the Boomsday Project here because that felt rather dull to me as well.
Other than that, like others said, LoE is definitely S tier for me, and though Witchwood had Baku and Genn and Shudderwock, I liked everything else in that expansion, espeicially the PvE content, so I would rank it as D at least, and Cobolds and Catacombs had the best PvE content ever (difficult but very entertaining, and thus rewarding), so that definitely deserves a B instead of C for me.
With the rest, as I said, I mostly agree with you.
Have to agree. it was also my alltime favorite period of hearthstone!!
League of Explorers and Journey to Un'Goro take my heart. Old Gods and BRM were fun too.
Frozen throne is S tier. I will die on this hill
You wont die alone brother!
As a former player who mained Priest, I'm with you on this 😂
Same, the deathknights were amazing, and to me it wasn’t just priest and warlock, I remember having a great hunter deck, a mage one… If I remember correctly only the warrior one was really underwhelming.
I havent touched hearthstone consistantly since Descent Of Dragons, but I will always be in love with Saviors Of Uldum, literally that whole little Heros VS Villians story was so fun n cute. Plus Reno best boy.
There are a few breaking points to how this game died
1- witchwood the beginning of the end: shudderwock and odd paladin decks were so outrageous that it put so many people off.
2- ashes of outland hearthstone loses its top spot in the genre: demon hunter did it for me personally, thats when i quit and never looked back.
3- darkmoon faire tavern pass hits the nail on the coffin: and this is the moment when the game officially died. It was already a ridiculously expensive game and adding more stuff to buy just to be able to keep up did it for the remaining casuals.
People who invested resources into this game still plays it but it is just a steep decline from now on.
Anyone remember mean streets packs not giving the correct cards? Haha you would get so many multiples of the same card they gave us extra packs.
LOL that was awesome. that was already the most packs I ever opened with an expansion.... and then because of that bug I got 87 bonus packs. crazy thing is i opened close to 400 packs and I was STILL missing a few rares Rares
God bless duplicate protection. i can get the whole set with 200 packs + dust now.
My personal list
S: Descend of Dragons, Knights of the Frozen Throne, Boomsday, Kobolds and Catacombs
A: Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum, United in Stormwind, Old Gods, Alterac Valley
B: Scholomance Academy, Forged in the Barrens, Darkmoon Faire, League of Explorers. Gadgetzan, Journey to Un'Goro, Naxx
C: Goblins vs Gnomes, Blackrock Mountain, Karazhan, Grand Tournament, Classic
D: Ashes of Outland, Rastakhan's Rumble, Witchwood
I sunk so much time into dungeon runs once Kobolds & Catacombs came out, it probably made up most of my hours in the game when I was playing. Has to be S-Tier for me personally. As far as Rastakhan's Rumble goes the only reason I remember it is the hype ass music in the cinematic trailer. Still hype as hell years later
My tier list (from left to right being best to worst in each tier):
S tier: Journey to Un’Goro, Whispers of the Old Gods, League of Explorers
A tier: Kobolds & Catacombs, Knights of the Frozen Throne, Boomsday Project (I just love mechs sorry), Mean Streets of Gadetzan
B: tier: Saviors of Uldum, Fractured in Alterac Valley, Goblins vs Gnomes, Classic Hearthstone, Descent of Dragons
C tier: Forged in the Barrens, Rise of Shadows, Schoolmance Academy, Blackrock Mountain, Ashes of Outland, One Night in Karazhan, Naxxramas
D tier (most of these didn’t feel like expansions, they didn’t really have their own identity in the meta): Rastakhan’s Rumble, The Witchwood (okay if you consider 2 cards an identity in the meta then it did lol), United in Stormwind (this one is just disgusting, the quests are terribly designed, take me back to Un’Goro quests 😭 although I like the traceable mechanic), Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, The Grand Tournament (cool concept too bad the cards were unplayable 🥲)
Hey Rarran. I really like your content and decided to start stream Hearthstone partly because of you. Tomorrow I'll stream for the first time ever and although I'm really nervous, I really wanna thank you again. Keep up your good work.
I might be wrong, but didn't Shadowreaper Anduin priest die down pretty quickly after Raza rotated shortly after Knights of the Frozen Throne?
I remember Druid being a lot more dominant then priest, and other death knights being a lot more impactful then anduin in standard such as Guldan and as time went on Uther (with the otk) and Rexxar.
This whole video is just pinning down every expansion based on the worst of it, ashes of Outland did have insane demon hunter but it was nerfed really hard only days into the expansion
Ungoro was the greatest expansion ever. I loved doing the quests, and it felt like the cards had a lot of love put into them, compared to other expansions that felt soulless like the barrens.
Pausing the video at BRM, because yes, this was honestly such a good time I don’t think people realize. Was patron warrior meta defining, yeah, but it was also one of the most interesting and highest skill cap decks at the time. Plus, there was either a good or at least fun deck for every class. Hybrid Hunter, Handlock, druid, Oil Rogue( but cmon, mill rogue is where it’s at), Mech Shaman, Tempo Mage, Dragon Paladin, and Lightbomb/Dragon Priest. It was a really fun time, maybe not perfectly balanced, but still
Witchwood and Darkmoon are my two absolute favorite expasions ever, i understand Don't liking them Meta-wise, but Flavor-wise they are both Bangers
I think Koblods was actually my favorite meta. Although, I think that largely comes down to how much I loved Aluneth mage.
League of Explorers was peak Hearthstone for me. I don't say it was the best expansion, but loved the state of the game after it arrived. Frozen Throne strong contender.
fully agreed
Yep Late 2015/2016 was the best time in HS to me Personally
Naxxramas and GVG were S tier, cause they made Arena 500% better when they came out. It was legit the best time of Arena and amazing as an experience.
I feel like after the old gods the game Because worse over the time
Great video!
Thanks for all the effort and the work.
I liked dark moon faire. I agree it was a bit of a weak expansion but you can’t say it was bad in the art department. The cinematic was amazing, the card art, and the old gods. It was also the first expansion that came out while I was playing so it will always be in my top 3.
The peak of hearthstone was Knights of the Frozen Throne era, fight me
My Favorite was Knights of the frozen throne because my main decks were Heal zoo lock & hadronax druid
Heal zoolock was only viable after kobolds and katacombs tho (with Kobold Librarian and Fungal Enchanter)
I played from release up to Mean Streets with a couple breaks in between. After I saved up all my free to play coins to get my raging worgen OTK deck off the ground only for them to nerf it out of existence, such that I didn't even get any dust back, I was just looking for a reason to quit, and once I did I was happier. I should've known from the start that my worgens were on thin ice since that was already the post-Patron era but it doesn't make me any less sad remembering it.
Me: *laying in bed in pajamas because my classes were canceled today. Haven’t shaved today and with terrible bed head. Being a bum watching RUclips*
Rarran “you look fantastic”
Me: :)
Scholomance Academy and Darkmoon Fair revitalized my love for hearthstone and for that they have a special place in my heart
I think i'm one of the few where kobolds and catacombs is my favorite expansion of all time. cubelock is my favorite deck and wished there was more support for it. i also liked RoS because thats when i started getting into rogue even though ive been playing since release.
If I had to make my top decks of all time it would be
K&C Cubelock
Wild Ungoro Silver Hand Recruit Paladin
RoS Tempo Rogue
ahh the days of no duplicate protection..
I remember opening up like 400 packs of Mean Streets and still missing commons and rares LOL
now you can get he whole expansion in 200 packs
It's extremely fun watching this video because my experience with the expansions are tied only to the murloc cards. Yes, i own every murloc card in the game and only the murloc cards. So my interactions with the expansions are tied to what they did for the murloc tribes. So hearing what a normal person has to say about the different expansions is very interesting since i only remember them for what they introduced to the murloc tribe. The best era for murlocs is hands down before they changed the wording on the core murlocs to only affect your cards, because the feeling of facing a rouge that stole a murloc from you and won the game with it because it gets all the buffs you give your own murlocs was a level of pain you never forget.
But for example witchwood wasn't really that good of an expansion, but god damn if the Echo murloc wasn't a godsent. That card alone bumps the expansion up to a B tier because having a murloc that can repopulate the board after you get flamestriked to oblivion completely changed the face of murloc. And that's not to consider the fact that you can get more than 2 of them in your deck with discovers and inspire effects, i had some pretty crazy games even though only a single murloc was added that expansion.
But by far my favorite expansion will always be ungoro because of the crazy options added to the murlocs. If you've read all this, here's a fun little thing about that expansion, Sated Threshadon is my favorite murloc card period, i even nicknamed it 'Nessie' because of how often that card ended up saving my games. To this day it's still an injoke with my friends who i regularly dueled with my murloc decks back then. I was probably the only person who actively played that card, if you're curious why i would play it, it's a super sticky and high value murloc card. It was easily the biggest card in the deck and capable of going toe to toe with all the other classes big cards, and removal didn't work well against it because three 1/1 murlocs are a lot more dangerous than you'd think in a murloc deck, a LOT more dangerous than you'd think, i have won more games with those 1/1 murlocs than i did with the murloc quest from ungoro. They were more dangerous than a 5/7 beast for sure, so using removal to get rid of that big dinosaur could actually be worse than just leaving it on the board for you, and if you left it, it's still a 5/7 card. Truly a legendary card for early murloc that was very weak to big removal, but then we got the echo murloc.
EDIT: Costumed Entertainer is also a card that has given me way too many laughs. In a murloc drought, that card really reminded me how stupid murloc decks really are.
Witchwood was probably my favorite time to be playing, plus added my favorite card, Tess. But KFT is my favorite expansion.
For me personally
BEST: Old Gods, Explorers, Ungoro, FrozenThrone, Naxx
VERY GOOD: Uldum, Dragons, Darkmoon, Catacombs
WORST: Rastakhan, Stormwind, Grand Tournament
I was actually not a fan of scholomance... that was the start of the spell-centric decks and i really did not like that at all.
and you're spot on about Rise of Shadows... that expansion would have been so much better without those fucking lackies
I personally liked darkmoon faire more than a c. Corrupt is my favourite keyword they've added for a while
honestly witchwood&stormwind are my 2 favourite expansions, your tier list is pure shock for me haha
Damn it’s crazy to see how different hearthstone is today compared to back then when i played lol
At the time darkmoon faire came out there was a bit of quitting going on, you know with the rewards track......what a time
My Favorites
Old Gods because of how it felt like a recreation of the classic set (somewhat) but also tried new things
GvG because many cards felt at home with classic
Un'Goro Frozen Throne And Kobolds And Catacombs (God that was like Hearthstone's best year) For just how meta defining cards were, plus hero cards and legendary weapons
Rise Of Shadows, Uldum, and Dragons was cool because of the story
And my last fav was Outland simply bc I love BC in wow, I love Demon Hunters in wow, you give me both, you make me happy
Going to be completely honest, never played standard with Scholomance onward so
I also made my rl friend quit playing hs forever w mechathun. I remember they msgd me when I got to the bottom of the deck "you're letting me win" blew their mind and they haven't played since. Rip.
I just want to go back to Whispers of the Old Gods again. It was the best time ever. Nobody knew anything it was a wild time it took weeks for a solid meta to form. I creeped all the way to legend with my own custom deck. Good times 😃
Big fan of boomsday with the magnetic mechs. Really surprised they didn't add a single one with sunken city and the 600 mechs in it. Clik Clak must have left a terrible impression
This is a really fun to this I'd love to hear a tier list specifically on the cinematic trailers made for each expansion. because just as much as the expansion cards were fun the anticipation and the hype for these were just as amazing.
I actually think kobolds had some of the more fun decks to play/play against, defenitely A-tier for me. Also boomsday was sooooo much fun to me with topsy turvy priest and mech decks, i thought it was so good. S-tier for me
Old gods was my first time going hard in the game and was the most fun I had in HS
I started playing when Blackrock Mountain had just come out. Had a lot of fun back then and I can see many of those sets that came out are top tier. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in late 2017 I stopped playing due to lack of internet for about 3 months. When I came back Kobolds had come out and I felt like it wasnt my style of set (too childish Idk) and that, with my delay in doing dailies and falling behind made me quit until March 2024. Guess it was a good thing since it was followed by Witchwood, Rastakhan and Shadows which many people consider some of the worst. God the game feels so different nowadays.
I like how your worst times, were my best. I love shadows
From an arena players perspective witchwood was one of my favourite expansions because it felt like it lowered the power level of hearthstone back to a reasonable level (but was preceded and followed by expansions that completely ruined that once again). I came back to arena over the past few weeks and it is so frustrating how insane every draft has to be nowadays (I feel like discover is literally on everything now), and how many simply broken cards exist. I remember when firelands portal was the most broken thing you could be doing but now it has been buffed to 6 damage summon a 6 cost like what??
Old gods was my fav, but anytime I can play a cheesy murloc shaman makes me happy.
Should create a G tier of "garbage" to united of stormwing
So true.
I, too, stopped playing in the barrens. Missed the whole year of the gryphon
My favorites:
-Moon faire
-Old Gods
-Forget in the Barrens
rastakan's rumble killed the game for me. I left and went and played Pokemon and Eternal and it looks like I didn't miss much. I would say my peak experience playing hearthstone was Gadgetzan. I loved Jade druid and made legend that cycle. it was the ultimate midrange deck and I had a great time.
as a solo adventure main its hilarious to see my three favorite expanisions in bottom tier
The theme of classic was "if everyone has broken shit, then nothing is broken". Except priest, poor priest had nothing.
Lackey's were actually pretty fun i think, in Rogue and Priest you had to value them out in the right ways which actually brought more strategy then most of the people taught.
Naxx was awful until GvG came out.
In design League of Explorers or Journey to Ungoro are tied the best for me. With Blackrock coming in right behind Them.
The most fun i had was with Khadgar mage. The Giant and that 4 mana twinspell, time your freezes right.
I stopped playing since United in Stormwind tho, that expension sadly ruined the game for me :(.
You can say anything about the the Sets you want.
But the the Kobolds and Catacombs Menu Music just SLAPS!!!!
Un'Goro was so goood! The adapt mechanic was fun and quests are a cool concept that allows for super powerful cardd
Ungoro, Knights and Kobolds were all S tier. That was the best era in Hearthstone.
I loved Naxx / GvG / BRM because the power creep was slow enough back then that I could get away with playing dumb decks way easier. I spent Naxx playing a Kel'thuzad priest / ramp druid deck and continued to tech stupid shit in like the Recombobulator in GvG to turn ancients of lore into rando 7 drops and shoved even more jank into it come BRM alongside playing a dumb RNG dragon mage deck.
They weren't good decks, but I enjoyed playing them and they had a good enough winrate despite how stupid they were. As time went on it's felt like trying to play too far "off meta" is just futile against the strength of good decks as power creep snowballed.
Warriors litterally took CHARGE in the patches the pirate expansion
Of the expacs I've played:
S: KOFT, JTU'G, K&C
A: Boomsday, Barrens, Alterac, Darkmoon, Scholomance
B: Witchwood, Whispers, Stormwind, Gadgetzan, Kharazan
C: RoS, AoO, DoD
It's always fun to see, how Priest Dominates the game or not exist entire Herthstone history. Rouge is somewhat similiar, but she is not exist or piss everyone.
Ungoro was a fun expansion to play arena since they made it easier to get spells in the buckets. I was insta picking priest and often went 10+
For me Un'Goro is the best by far. Introduced us to the Quests (with the Paladin Quest being one of my favorite card), added the Elemental Tribe and just the theme of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric creatures and plant being so cool.
Un'Goro is the one expansion that made me quit Hearthstone. I didn't play for over 2 years after getting killed repeatedly by Quest Rogue.
personal tier list
S: Scholomance, Alterac Valley, Ungoro, WotOG
A: League of Explorers, Barrens, Frozen Throne, Uldum
B: Classic, Blackrock, Stormwind, Boomsday, Rise of Shadows, Descent of Dragons, GvG
C: TGT, K&C, Ashes, Darkmoon
D: Karazhan, Witchwood, Rastakhan's Rumble, Gadgetzan
F- : Naxx
I think if Naxx came out a year later and wasn't the first expansion it would've borderlined killed the game.
MSoG was so stupid back than. I remember going for a local tournament and everyone had the same 4 decks in top3 - aggro shaman, renolock, renomage and pirate warrior
You reminded me how much I loved scholomance!!!!!
I remember when kolbold and catacombs was coming out sooooo long ago now
LoE - WotOG time period was the absolute peak of Hearthstone
Im glad we agree on Old Gods being the best one
I haven't played actively played Hearthstone after KotFT but I remember TGT as a very enjoyable and creative expansion.
The meta decks were obnoxious, sure, but to me it felt like it was the first time they really changed up the game and the wacky legendary cards made for a very experimental experience, which I really liked.
Also the thematic of the set is probably one of my favorites.
GvG era is by far my favorite
I quit in Outland and I have only ever come back for Battlegrounds
It was sad because I loved TBC and Outland is my favorite place in WoW
This is one of the best of these lists like this I've seen.
Witchwood's hard to rate. Baku and Genn caused a LOT of problems for the game, but the set's flavor was so super solid. I also think it's easy to overlook how significant rush was on how the game plays. Granted, there's some new problems caused by rush being a little too commonplace nowadays, but that's more because of later sets than it was witchwood itself.
My own personal list would look a bit different, since I love lower-power formats and I value flavor super highly . Sets like KoFT, DoD, and K&C are easy f-tier for me, but things like Un'goro, Tgt, Rastakhan, and Witchwood I tend to rank really highly. A lot of the overarching storyline sets like Stormwind, RoS, Uldum, or Alterac I generally dislike as much for being boring theme-wise as I might anything actual mechanical. (Stormwind's an exception here, because that set just makes the game worse through-and-through)
Strictly looking at the meta game this is a good list, disagree on some but that’s natural. I’d love to see a series or something where you select an expansion and elaborate on what it was like at the time, cause I’d love to learn what HS was like in the expacs I missed.
I like the expentions when they put some secret combos in with epics. Like the draw a card it transforms to a legendary i had sooo much fun with those 0 mana legendary on turn 2 or 3 🙂
I liked Rhastakhans, mainly cause it was my first expansion, but also im one of those hipster boys who plays whatever people arent playing just to prove it can be viable (mainly control hunter and shaman).
Also that expansion trailer... it hits hard af
I loved the lackeys but I couldn't wait for them to rotate
I haven't played the game in years and just wanted to remember when I stopped. Each time you said a new expansion, I was like oh yea I stopped here. Then you'd say another and I'd be oh yea I remember this. Finally got to witchwood and I realized that's when I stopped playing.
For me, the best expansion would be the one that I have played the most which is why I have more memory of it which leave a bigger impression. But most of the time, it is due to that 1 good legendary from the expansion that I lucky gotten.
Journey to Un'Goro at S - MY MAN
Classic is clearly the best because it gave us the pogchamp that is Boulderfist Ogre.
Just wondering if anyone else quit/lost interest around boomsday? I never really considered why I stopped playing but looking back at Kobolds, Witchwood, Boomsday, Rastakhan, Rise of Shadows. It was definitely a low point in the games history.
Been trying to get back into it f2p these days though!
I think Kobolds was the best expansion because they introduced dungeon run. I love dungeon run.
I quit in witchwood, The Frozen Throne was for me the best. Priest wasnt that prevalent but still probably its highest numbers. I remember Druid being far more prelevant. The rogue class I liked died a few expansions later when they tried to kill off combo decks. I stopped playing because the three styles I liked to play all but died. Attrition and Combo were killed off and I never found tempo or super aggro all that fun.
That scrolling through the card collection on the playhearthstone website was so painful to watch because how laggy it was. :D Otherwise another cool video. :)
You put Mean Streets of Gadgetzan in F-tier right the fuck now!
That expansion was the sole reason why I lost all hope in Hearthstone, and stop really playing it consistently, until I ultimately quit.
Aaaand I left HS after Witchwood (which is D tier). What a surprise!
me being sad and watching everyone bash the witchwood even tho i found it very enyojable (i only player monster hunt tho)
Kobolds and Catacombs should be S-Tier, was so much fun
Kobolds and Catacombs... easy S for me. I had so much fun with dungeon runs.
LISTEN rarran, you don't have to resort to click bait. we all come here to tell you that you are handsome and move on with our day.