Top 5 Impactful Moments in World of Warcraft

There are many experiences that we've all had in World of Warcraft, some that were pleasant and some that weren't so. But all of them had an impact on the game and, at times, on the real world itself. And we all remember them fondly as things that helped shaped WoW into a better game and a better experience.

In this top five, we will list some of the most recognizable of those experiences and events.

5. The Winterspring Funeral Raid

First in our top 5 is the infamous Winterspring funeral raid. For those who don't know, player interaction is very important to many in MMOs. For some, this can take form in role-playing, where people act out something totally different from their own personality or take on the persona of another character. This funeral was one of those situations.

Since a close friend to many had died, a player decided to host a funeral on the server Illidan, which was a PvP realm, allowing player combat in all neutral zones.

A guild then known as Serenty Now decided to crash the funeral and kill all the players. This caused a huge amount of outrage throughout the community, but it also established an unspoken rule among the MMO community: don't do anything important in PvP zones. It also showed that there are no bounds for the level of jerk people will go to.

4. The Kiting of Doom Lord

The fourth in our list, the kiting of Doom Lord was a rite of passage in Vanilla WoW, but also one of the biggest trolls to ever commit in the early days of the MMO.

Normally the method of kiting, which is staying out of range of a mob while keeping its attention by attacking, was done by hunters who could attack and move at the same time. They would normally do it in groups, and even experienced players would solo this endeavor. But once reaching the main city of the Alliance, the non-player characters would then take over keeping the boss' attention, and all mayhem would break loose.

In most of these cities, you had players of all levels, and this boss was the top of the end game. Merchants were slaughtered, players being killed by areas of effect that they could not escape, and players one-shot by mechanics they had no idea were coming. The video above portrays the horrible, and yet hilarious, assault on Stormwind. Because of this trollish act, the developers at Blizzard brought about the idea of reset range for all mobs in the game. A mob had an area it could roam before it reset, and once a mob reached the edge, it would run back to its original point. With this change, the kiting of world bosses to major cities had ended.

3. Leeroy Jenkins

Third in our countdown is the infamous Leeroy Jenkins. All the rage and the war cry of many pullers of mobs and bosses, Leeroy Jenkins brought about some humor and a different perspective to the idea of dungeons and raids.

As seen in the video above, the community involved in raiding and dungeons is one of planning, but it also comes with some humor and brotherhood/sisterhood. And in the end, even when things don't go according to plan, thinking on the fly becomes a valuable resource.

For many, this video spurred on joining the community of World of Warcraft and the game itself. The video was so well recieved that an achievement, a title, and even many in-game items came about on Blizzard's behalf, solidifying this moment as one of the greatest in World of Warcraft.

2. The Launch of Warlords of Draenor

Second on our list is the horrible tale of the Warlords of Draenor launch. This is one of the worst launches to ever happen, mainly because of the bottlenecking of a few select quests at the beginning of the leveling experience.

These two particular quests require you to talk to a non-player character known as Thrall and to click a telescope in order to activate your garrison, which was a major point for advancing your experience in the game as a whole.

The issues arose with the massive amount of players trying to initiate the quest, causing the servers to lag and not register your interactions. But it also was plagued by troll players standing on enormous mounts to cover Thrall and other various non-player characters, making it impossible to finish or start your quests.

From this, Blizzard enacted two major changes, one done immediately and then one enacted at the beginning of the next expansion's launch. Blizzard outlined non-player characters through players, allowing other players to interact with them even if they are out of view. Another was the staggering of players entering new content, allowing for several starting zones for players,  starting with the expansion of Legion, which was very successful and highly praised for its launch.

1. The Corrupted Blood Pandemic

The top of our list is the least known but probably most important moment, thanks to its real-world impact. Known as the Corrupted Blood Pandemic, it lasted a week after the release of the raid known as Zul'Gurub in September of 2005.

The debuff that was afflicted by the Blood Loa known as Hakarr was one that didn't kill the higher-level players that contested the raid boss. But with a oddity in the coding, the debuff left the zone on players' pets and other non-player companions. From this, the plague spread into the open world.

This was a damage over time (DoT) spell, one that wouldn't kill higher-level players but would almost instantly kill lower-level avatars. Major cities were littered with corpses and skeletons, and people evacuated to more isolated areas. Players then either continued with their playtime or just didn't log on at all.

Blizzard quickly patched the problem, taking a few iterations of the code to get the issue corrected. But the most interesting aspect was the real-world aid it gave to researchers. During this pandemic, real-world researchers of diseases and viruses asked if they could research the movement of this DoT, since the release of a pandemic on a real-world population for research is immoral. The information and knowledge they gained were remarkable.

With their research, they were able to learn more about the spread of viruses like the flu and avian flu, how they spread, and how to counteract these issues. This was monumental and gave World of Warcraft world acclaim.

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