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The Feast of Winter Veil is in full
swing and it will not be long before Greatfather (or Great-father)
Winter bestows presents on us all. This season also means that
another year is drawing to its conclusion. This usually inspires us
to look back on years past and reflect.

We here at Ten Ton Hammer have decided
to do our share of looking back during this time and in doing so we
have dredged up many fond World of Warcraft memories both good and
bad. Since focusing on the good seems to hold more promise for the
years to come, we present to you a product of our reflections in this
article listing the top 5 all time greatest improvements ever added
to World of Warcraft.

Top 5 All Time Greatest Improvements to
World of Warcraft

Dungeon Finder

Remember the days of spamming various
chats looking for groups or being forced to wait for your friends to
be online to get a run going? I do and while it worked, it always
seemed like there had to be an easier way. Blizzard must have been
thinking along the same lines because in Wrath of the Lich King Patch
3.3.0 the Dungeon Finder was launched.

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With the Dungeon Finder interface in
place players only needed to complete a few simple clicks and do a
bit of waiting to get matched with a group for any dungeon at any
time of the day or night. Talk about convenient. The Dungeon Finder
is one of those improvements added to the game that we now almost
can't imagine playing without. The Dungeon Finder received such great
feedback that Blizzard has taken it one step further and integrated
the Dungeon Finder with a Raid and Scenario Finder as well. Due to
it's success and undoubted usefulness, the Dungeon Finder easily
deserves a place on this list.

Flying Mounts

I am a magnet for mobs. No matter where
in the world I am questing in World of Warcraft I know that I will
ultimately pull every mob within 500 feet of my character. Due to
this unfortunate trait, I have never been that fond of walking or
riding around the world. Not to mention the fact that I was of the
opinion that if we could tame creatures to carry us in the air some
of the time, why couldn't we do so all of the time?

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Then came the Burning Crusade and the
introduction of purchasable flying mounts. Not only did these make
travel easier than ever, but the ability to see the world from a
whole different vantage point was something special and made many of
us look at the terrain we saw every day with fresh wonder. While
traveling by ground is still nice, especially when observing new
zones, flying is by far the superior method of travel and most of us
could not imagine the game without it.

Smaller Raid Groups

In the early days of World of Warcraft
those that wished to conquer bosses like those found inside the
legendary Molten Core were required to assemble at least 40 players
to get the task done. Guild rosters numbered in the hundreds and
handing out heal assignments was a task that often required a pen and
paper. Those days are long gone.

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In the Burning Crusade expansion 40 man
raids were wiped out replaced with 10 and 25 player raids designed to
allow more players to participate in raids. While many of us look
back on those days with nostalgia and even lament the loss of 40 man
raids, lets face it, collecting 40 players to fill out a raid was no
easy task and was near impossible for some. Thus, the implementation
of smaller raid groups makes the list if for no better reason than it
allowed more players to easily experience the World of Warcraft
content we love.

Championing

Earning reputation with the various
factions in game is a necessary evil. Over the years Blizzard has
brought us many changes that have made this process (thankfully) more
bearable. One of the biggest changes that we often forget was not
included originally in the game and allows us to earn reputation
quickly and with relative ease is Championing. Championing allows the
player to equip a factions tabard and earn reputation with that
faction while in an instance.

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Can you imagine earning reputation
points without this option? We can't either. Thus Championing makes
our list of all time greatest improvements.

Non-Battleground PvP Zones

I will be the first to admit that when
it comes to PvP I am sorely unskilled. With that being said, some of
my fondest memories are of world PvP attacks on Orgrimmar or the
Crossroads. Sadly, world PvP had become nearly extinct, but not
quite.

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In the second World of Warcraft
expansion non-battleground zones fully dedicated to the idea of world
PvP were introduced. While not exactly like the world more
spontaneous world PvP of old, these zones nonetheless gave us the
world PvP fix we all desired. Better yet is that these zones allow us
to experience as much or as little of world PvP as we want, much like
raid instances. While old school world PvP will forever remain in our
hearts, it potentially would not have survived at all without the
addition of non-battleground PvP zones.

That finishes out our look back to the
all time greatest improvements to World of Warcraft. What do you
think are some of the greatest improvements to World of Warcraft? Do
the line up with the list presented above? Share your thoughts by
using the comment section found below!