The same, but much better! Must have for MMO fans
Original WoW was epic. The difficulty was high, the 40 man raids just seemed insane. The biggest drawback was storyline...you were just kind of there. Sure you may have a full epic T3 char at level 60. Maybe you beat every raid in the game repeatedly, but even if you finished Naxx, you didn't really feel like a person in the world. You were no more unique than the NPC's walking around town.
When Burning Crusade came out I felt that it was was disorganized. If you are a lore nerd you knew exactly where you were going, what you were doing, and why. It brought major players into the game like Lady Vashj, Illidan, and others, but for regular players was just more grinding. If you really delved deep into the WC3 lore you understood, but many players never finished the WC3 storyline let alon TFT, so it just had a weak overall draw. On a good note the Arena system was implemented and PvP became a blast.
In WotLK however they enforce the story upon you with every quest. Arthas pops up continually in minor "cutscenes." Your questing involves pushing back the scourge. It sucks you in right where TFT left off. If you never played previous warcraft games you can easily get caught up by watching cutscenes and reading your quest text. It really has a draw to it.
Also the drop rates are greatly improved. I haven't had a single quest that gives me a headache just from grinding mobs. For anyone who has ever played, it will feel fresh and most likely smoother than either TBC or regular WoW. The quests are laid out in a nice order so that you don't have much downtime. It is still a grind, but not one that makes you want to shoot yourself and give up. Overall it just feels seamless.
Whether you are new to WoW or a player since day one, you don't want to miss out on WotLK. It is the epitome of what the game should have been since day 1. It was already addicting, fun, and a great game. Now it belongs in the gaming hall of fame