Originally Posted by
Tojara
It's like comparing apples to oranges really.
Starting a character fresh on Classic is obviously going to take longer simply because the leveling process is going to take what, four to five times the length of live? All of that extra time you save from the leveling process on the live version of the game can be translated into getting essences, cape upgrades and gear from M+. At this point in time, AP really isn't going to matter, so it's essentially the other three things I listed to get up and ready to raid in live.
The speed at which you do any of these things on live is entirely dependent on a friend group as well. While I don't doubt that you could be high enough iLvL to enter Nyalotha by the end of the week, you're likely not going to get into any Nylotha normal mode pugs by the end of the week unless you have a group of several people willing to help you get gear in M+ or other miscellaneous sources. The biggest barrier to entry is essences (which aren't easy to get on a fresh character) and cloak upgrades, which are also an incredible grind if you're trying to power level through them. Even if you had a group carrying you through M+ dungeons or arena getting you 455-465 gear at best, you're effectively going to be dead weight on live for a few weeks because the amount of power that comes from corruptions (and having the proper ones, again a currency that overlaps three important gearing mechanisms) and essences can't be overstated.
So yeah, getting up to speed on live is actually a huge grind, but most of that grind is basically 'savings' that you otherwise would still be doing, by actually leveling in classic.
Classic on the other hand is going to take at least 4x as long to level in. It's sort of a grind if you want to call it that at max level, but the dungeon blues and world shit that you can get in classic (even with completely unknown people) is incredibly strong. Of course knowing people helps, but for most roles, a full blue set for healing or DPS is going to make you incredibly powerful in classic, and effectively not dead weight.
Having friends in either version of the game is going to be a huge boon in the gearing process, and unless you're talking about the LFR version of Nyalotha, getting into pug normal (or higher) raid dungeons simply isn't going to happen unless you have friends allowing you to be dead weight. I know this gets lost on people, but the live version of the game has four different difficulties and comparing LFR Nyalotha to classic raiding is pretty hilarious (even if this is a fair comparison in difficulty). Getting the necessary amount of iLvL for LFR (if we're going to talk about LFR) isn't going to be "easy" (not claiming this is hard either) if you don't do dungeons, because world quest gear is random (meaning overlaps) and depends on the iLvL of your equipped character (you need 410 iLvL to enter LFR Nyalotha BTW).
There are loads of guilds in Classic depending on what role you pick that would take effectively dead weight, especially if it's a shaman on horde (merely to drop totems) or paladin on alliance (assuming they're missing blessings). As long as you're max level and can do these simple tasks, the value of your character isn't really tied to the gear that your character has. Nobody (again, unless you have friends) is going to take your shitty geared retail character to normal or above with an awful iLvL, terrible essences, and virtually zero corruptions. Obviously it can be done, and boosting exists, but most people don't want to take dead weight on live.
Finally there's not much progression on Classic because every realm except the super dead ones have dozens upon dozens of raids that fully clear all of the relevant content. Most of your player power in Classic comes from consumables and world buffs, and getting a workable set of gear can be done in pugs once you hit max level, with very little organization needed. There are loads of guilds around that will take you as dead weight in Classic guilds if you fulfill certain roles upon hitting max level too. The amount that would do this on the live version of the game simply doesn't exist, unless you have contacts.
I have no doubt that somebody could get into LFR Nyalotha in a single week, but anything beyond that without friends? Naw. It's a silly argument anyway. Classic has one premier difficulty and one raid that's the most "difficult" at the moment, whereas live has four difficulties. Classic wins the preparation time from leveling to AQ40 simply because of the leveling time in Classic, and nothing more. As soon as you hit max level you can pretty much join any "end game" guild in Classic. On the flip side, trying to do the truly difficult things on the live version of the game from scratch is a far harder path, and way more of a grind than anything Classic entails.
This isn't me really trying to bash anything, but trying to compare LFR raiding on live when four difficulties exist to a singular world where one difficulty exists is super silly. Some people might feel like they've seen it all by just doing LFR on live, but it's kinda like doing a 400 meter sprint and saying that it's about the same as a 5000 meter sprint because you've seen the entire track anyways, so why bother?