Pandaria’s scenarios were a nice pastime for my teammates and me at the time, and it didn’t even have to reward me with great gear. It was simply about the fun of the game. A further development of the concept were scenarios like the Treasure Hunt in Pandaria or the Withered Army of Suramar. You could say that Torghast would be the again logical evolution of this concept … but somehow the “old” scenarios grabbed me more.

Notoriously bad-tempered was not only the Thunder King, but also the weather in the Thunder King’s Treasury.

Source: Buffed

The treasury of the Thunder King

The Treasury of the Thunder King came into the game with patch 5.2 and was only accessible if you looted a certain key from enemies on the Isle of Thunder. During Warlords of Draenor, the scenario was temporarily closed, then reopened, and finally scaled to the level of our heroes with Legion. That access restriction alone, that you had to find a key first and know what to do with it, made the Thunder King’s Treasury special.

Pressed for time, you then sneaked (or stormed) through the trap-laden bank robbery scenario, trying to loot the treasure at the end. This was unique in World of Warcraft at the time. (buy now )!. The Treasury of the Thunder King was already a tricky, unique highlight in my WoW time.

You helped the Withered Army primarily to get quick reputation with the Nightborn. And still, the scenario was a lot of fun! Death from above and all!

Source: buffed

The training of the withered army

If you’ve played the Suramar campaign in Legion far enough, you’ve been able to start the Training of the Withered Army scenario at Thalyssra in Shal’Aran every three days. Unlike the bank heist, your job here was to lead a team of Withered safely and in one piece through the Falanaar ruins, which were packed with normal and elite enemies and nasty traps. Your units upgraded run after run, increasing the chance that you’d reach the end of the scenario with a few Withered.

One of the interesting things about this concept was that you had to weigh which treasures you let your withered carry out of the instance … and which you didn’t. Because if the withered carried the treasures away, they disappeared and you sometimes had to deal with noticeably less NPC punching power. Especially since some of the standard units among the withered fell down after an enemy blow, like … well, a withered tree. If they didn’t shoot themselves into nirvana anyway with the absurdly bad wayfinding.

Chromie’s scenario is one of the most extensive and is not only fun, but is also relevant to the WoW story.

Source: Blizzard

The day Chromie died

Unlike Legion’s Mage Tower, the Withered Army’s training, or even Torghast, it was super-simple to forget Chromie’s scenario … simply to forget. This was probably due to the fact that the scenario could be started away from any Legion content in the Dragon’s Waste in the Wyrmruh Temple. In the race against time, you’ll investigate the region’s dragon shrines, where strange events have occurred, and you’ll have to defeat the bosses there.

In doing so, you’ll unlock portals that will in turn send you to four different timelines in which you’ll have to prevent Chromie’s death. You’ll travel to Mount Hyjal, Stratholme, the Well of Eternity, and the Battle for Andorhal. Your ultimate objective is to prevent all eight of Chromie’s deaths with all the improvements you collect over time. Above all, the variety of locations made the scenario interesting! And the story approach is ingenious anyway.

The Mage Tower and Torghast

Actually, the Mage Tower with the artifact weapon skins could also be called a scenario, but for me – if I may be honest – it’s too much about combat skills and less about the game experience itself. Of course, it’s satisfying to successfully complete one of the scenarios. But there’s no story attached to it, and for quite a few WoW players the Mage Tower was (and still is) more stress than fun. For me, the thing counts little as a solo scenario with atmosphere and an exciting gameplay approach.

The same goes for Torghast, though in the Tower of the Damned, of course, fun is at the very top of the list. The anima forces, which can be found in the partly winding and partly very straight corridors, absolutely turn old accustomed ways of playing upside down. So, if you were lucky enough to find fun powers at the beginning. If the Anima Roulette luck was not with me, I struggled through Torghast for hours. At least the Torghast events were also a highlight! However, I wouldn’t classify the tower as a scenario like the Withered Army, Treasury, and Chromie’s Visions of the Future are for me either. Maybe I’ve run out of steam and don’t want any more solo scenarios after all?

Peace flowers against ghouls – an entertaining fun in the foothills of the hill country.

Source: buffed

The alternative: peace flower vs ghouls

Cataclysm is considered by many WoW fans to be the expansion without an adequate endgame. The raids were pretty good for the most part, but aside from that, there was hardly any true game content to pass the time. But … do you remember Plants vs. Zombies in WoW in the foothills? Adapted from the successful Popcap game, Peacebloom vs Ghouls was absolutely unusual; a tower defense game in an online role-playing game. The mini-game, whose quest line can be started on Brazie’s farm, had some enormous quirks, but was still a lot of fun and rewarded victorious defenders with the singing sunflower, which still gets on the nerves of all sorts of raiders in the raid today.

Yes, WoW is an MMO, but …

All these scenarios I’ve outlined now are not big features and not worth mentioning in an expansion announcement. Most of them came into the game with later patches, except for Torghast. And I know that World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. Still, I think a healthy amount of solo playable content beyond an auction house economy or petbattle meta is exciting for any kind of player; whether you’re into PvP or end-game PvE or pulling tens of thousands of fish from the rivers and seas of Azeroth. Or gold coins from the well of Dalaran. WoW fans want to discover exciting things and have a variety of gameplay options to pass maybe just five minutes, or maybe five hours.