Originally Posted by
marikae
I started playing a month or two after release, from me Vanilla had a hell of a lot more nostalgia to it...
PVP - Rank 10 (Lieutenant Commander)
PVP was very different, the grind for ranks was awful and I remember people aiming for Grand Marshal would literally PVP all day, you get in the top PVP group (which was something of an honor, especially being bitched at by Swifty for not keeping him healed in a 2 vs 6 fight) and just steam roll the opposition who often would just leave when they saw who they were against.
Alterac Valley would last for days, you could leave for a day or so and join the same game. Korrak would often obliterate everyone, handing in the items for upgrades actually mattered. Summoning Ivus could actually turn the tide, until a horde player would kite him to Drek or worse Ivus would bug the hell out and do nothing.
I can remember in AV, having the entire raid inspired to follow two Grand Marshall paladins just because they had golden armor on and actually winning the game because of it.
PVE - MC/BWL/AQ up to C'thun/Naxx (Cleared spider wing and the first two bosses from the other wings)
Very different feeling towards epics because not everyone had them, getting full tier 2 felt like an achievement (won a few pieces of t3, meh at pally t2.5). The two main guilds I was in never had any issue getting 40 people together for raids, although we certainly carried a few people. Raid bosses weren't particularly hard until the later half of AQ and Naxx, where carrying people became less and less of an option. I can still remember attempts at realm first on an impossible C'thun and how people seem to go crazy over how many wipes there were. One of the funniest moments was our raid leader kiting Patchwerk with a hunter in the room after Anub, it took something like 3 hours and getting hit once would have been the end of it.
There was certainly a dependency on having the right classes, be in right specs, having the right resistance gear, etc.
AQ gate quests were fun, get the top 2-3 guilds on the realm to help get one person the staff. The gate opening event was hilarious because it was so laggy the realm had to be restarted a few times, everyone was wiping on the wandering elites.
Dungeons
Pugging dungeons kinda sucked, spamming "LFM" just to get enough numbers (15) for UBRS was awful although I don't remember why I bothered, probably to fill time. CC was normally (this is back before the change from 10 to 5) required unless the group had a few people in epics, in which case the dungeons were generally a waste of time (gear up alts and friends in MC).
Now
It's been kinda sad watching Blizzard try to balance everything around arena and e-sports, horde gaining paladins and alliance gaining shaman, I made it to around 2000+ rank in BC arena but never really got into it.
It's even worse seeing the raid content get watered down so everyone can experience it. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing but for me personally, I don't feel the need to even raid with a guild anymore (it used to be like having a second job) as I can just get the experience and items in LFR while still playing with friends, who cares if they're 'welfare' epics as they look the same and they will be replaced in a few patches anyway.
/End old timer rant.
Marikae (not to be confused with bigbanger), Paladin. Darkspear - End Result, JubeiThos - Fade.