Am I Squishy or Do I Suck?

I’ve just recently returned to the game, and I keep dying. Like hard, smacked around, disrespected by the trash mobs doing quests dying lol. Am I squishy, did the game get harder, or do I suck?

Have other returners had this problem?

It could be a gear issue. When dragonflight came out, they adjusted how ilvl scales with level to give it a more linear progression to 60, but that means the existing older that didn’t get bumped up ends up being very low for a players level.

Heirlooms are the easy fix, and at level 35 the MoP adventuring gear vendors have cheap green gear you can buy to help get your gear caught up. For level 45+ characters, questing through Warlords (or for level 50+ Legion) with Chromie Time off can get you caught up without it being too painful. (When you’re 5 levels above the expansion cap you get an overlevel bonus with will compensate for low gear levels.)

If it doesn’t seem like that the issue (such as if you’re already using heirloom gear) then more information would be needed. Class/spec and which areas you’re trying to quest in. Not all classes and specs scale all that well while leveling, and there are sometimes quests or areas that aren’t quite scaled right after all of the squishes and changes.

It’s probably not you. As mentioned, the scaling is tuned to be pretty challenging against certain mobs. Take BfA questing for example. On my new rogue, I have to be careful about pulling multiple mobs. Even a bunch of “little” non-elites will chew through health quite rapidly.

Make sure you’re picking talents that augment your survivability.
Group up for elite mobs.
If your class has a tank spec, use that. If it has a healing spec, consider that.
Use Chromie time. I believe the questing is better balanced in Chromie time.