#1 - Oct. 6, 2013, 4:22 p.m.
Until MoP a very large part of the content patches and expansions had been built around characters that had their story built up in the RTS series or even before timeline wise. With MoP Blizzard proved that they can pull an expansion out of the blue, which is basically based on nothing, or at least nothing that we already knew from before, but it simply feels odd and out of place.
I do not mean to offend here or anything but personally I have never felt any excitement or attachment when dealing with Pandas, Klaxxi, Mogu, Mantid or the people of Pandaria in general. The only pleasant surprise was when Vol'jin (whom I love as a character) was made Warchieft and he is kinda an old timer as well.
My point is that I feel like for WoW to get exciting again we need a new storyline, new heroes and new villians that we can all love and hate. We need to feel connected and attached to really make us immerse in the World... of Warcraft again. I am almost certain that a lot more people feel related to Illidan or Arthas than to Ji Firepaw or Lorewalker Cho. There are some big names left out there like Alleria, Turalyon, Queen Azshara or an Illidan redemption (IT'S COMING!) and a few more but not many.
So where can we get all this from? A Warcraft 4 between the next expansion and the one after. Warcraft RTS is just a so much better way of developing the story and building up characters that I don't think it can be compared to WoW. It's cool to step into The Black Temple but it is cool because we know about it already. Having something in the RTS series that is later added to WoW brings a lot excitement with it.