I had a pretty similar experience. I'm not using any autopilot addons but I did pick up Questie around level 15 so I knew where all the available quests were hidden. As a Prot Paladin, I had a really rough time for a while. Everything took so long to kill and if I pulled more than 1 mob, I was dead. I did play back in the day but that was 14 years ago and I had a friend helping me back then so I don't remember having such a hard time leveling. I basically had to relearn how to play my class in this version of the game. I'm now constantly fighting 2-3 mobs at a time and am enjoying the game a lot more than before. There have been a few slow patches where I didn't really know where to go because all available quests were a bit too difficult for me (orange) and I would keep dying. I'm currently 47 and have been bouncing between Hinterlands, Feralas and Tanaris. I'm all done with Hinterlands now, though. Bouncing around between zones can get a bit annoying. I prefer sticking in one zone and following a story until you fully complete the zone storyline. Overall, the experience has been ok. The game has many flaws and I prefer retail's content but I'm just not enjoying the gameplay of my favorite specs at the moment. Once classes get revamped again, maybe they'll be more enjoyable to play.