Started up in Cataclysm and somehow Classic vanilla stole my heart. I do not seem to enjoy TBC as much as I did with Classic. I really liked the idea that you couldn't just equip BiS for everything and go ham at it. Some bosses required you to have a ton of resist gear to counter them for example.
I really liked that idea, and I didn't mind to go back to Maraudon to farm resist gear. I even took my time to farm out Cenarion Hold rep and since I was a Blacksmith in gear specialisation I could make items with resist gear on top.
I really love this idea. Things weren't time-gated either. You could sit in AQ20 for a few weeks to farm reputation in a passive way, or you could do this tedious grind. Me myself, I just completed the quests in Silithus and took my time with AQ20.
Was really a nice pace of change. When I went back to retail it's just gear with stat sticks with not much concept given to them. Just "sim it bro" is often the conclusion. I'm a tank in retail so my gear to equip is "just the highest item level"! Literally that. Nothing much depth to that I'll say.