I've seen this being ranked as the most popular xpac, but I'd definitely put ShB before it.

- ShB pulled me in from the beginning. The end of the 1st dungeon brought a huge accomplishment to the storyline, one which was also a major reveal when you reflected on the promotional materials & images - OH, so THAT'S what that big V of night sky is about! OMG, & we just DID that! Huge impact 1 level into the story progression.

- EW didn't really pick up for me until midway through. The entire 1st half felt like 'we really need to wrap up some unfinished business before we get to the good stuff'. Then that was largely laid aside for a major turn in the plot direction (not unconnected, just big shift). Mystery in Sharlayan? Yeah, laying that aside... those towers we've been dealing with for awhile now? Yeah, hold up, we need to deal w/ Garlemald... oh but wait, let's go to the moon... no, back to Thavnair for some First-style monster transformations... hold up, the past is where we need to go.... I mean, to say it was 'all over the place' is an understatement: we literally go from a pre-Sundered past to the edge of the universe! Our journey & story in the First just felt like a much tighter plot to me.

- The emotional hits for me had these same pacing issues in each, meaning I didn't feel as connected to what was going on in a big sense in the EW story until much later. Also, some of the little things meant to have impact felt too manipulative to me, largely because they were rushed. In ShB we meet NPCs & have a bit of time to come to care about what happens to them; here it was 'ok - meet NPC', then 'emotional connection moment' 2-3 quests later. Um, ok, I mean I care in a general sense? But not as deeply.

- EW ending felt like a big punch with the Endsinger battle & then an afterthought with the Zenos fight. Why do that? It weakened the entire xpac IMO.

- The Zenos fight also annoyed the <redacted> out of me, to the point I almost logged off midway through & left it for later. Not the difficulty, just the dragged out 'will this ever END?!' of it. Again, having this as my near-final taste of the xpac only weakened the overall experience for me.