In Classic WoW, every piece of gear matters, and you could hold on to it for 10-15 levels in certain cases. Gear felt unique and special, and looting an epic piece would be a huge deal.
In Retail, you could get an upgrade and replace in a day or less. Epic gear falls out of the sky and no one cares. It’s just numbers, it all feels very inorganic and artificial. It’s an action game with RPG elements.
Every level matters in Classic WoW, and being level 35 felt just as fun as being level 60. Hitting endgame in Classic WoW felt like an accomplishment.
In Retail WoW, the game is so top heavy that level 119 might as well be level 20. Leveling in Retail feels like an afterthought, and people just rush through it as fast as they can because it means nothing. It’s a relief to hit endgame because that’s when the “real game” starts.
These are just 2 examples but I could list many more but you get the idea.
It’s more that retail wants you to get to end game as fast as possible. Once you’re there the gear can last longer, but prior to getting there you’ll be going at breakneck speeds on just about everything and half the content in the game wont matter such as professions.
and “end game” pretty much consists of just the latest content patch. Once you’re a fresh max level character there is gear to quickly catch you up and get you into raids or PvP.
Both are loot treadmills but while Classic is like training for a marathon, BfA is like training for the 100 meter sprint.
The tone of your post is a little too polarized, but essentially I agree. Leveling was actually part of the game back then, getting a green felt good, and getting a blue was REALLY nice. EPICs were ridiculously rare until raiding–if someone got a Glowing Brightwood Staff drop, they were RICH.
I did enjoy the experience SO much more than retail. That’s kind of the reason I can never get hooked again on retail–leveling is a chore and LFD/R/etc… kind of ruined the experience for me.
That first green really felt like a huge upgrade and as if you hit the lotto. Get a blue to drop from a mob was like being a kid in a candy store, especially if it was something you could use. If not, it was good money from the Auction House or an upgrade for a guild mate!
I’m indifferent on the gearing aspect of vanilla. While I prefer the way it was handled there, I really hate ANY gear treadmill. I liked wrath because it was easy to cap out BIS, so you knew gear wasn’t swinging performance of people in raids and could enjoy the competition without that factor. BFA, however, is utter garbage. Someone who is only doing the same level of play as you can vastly outgear you. There’s a ret in my raid with 5 ilvl over me and yet he does worse in terms of performance and only does the content I do. Why should he have a handicap that I could be putting to better use? I’m constantly left wondering how much better I could do if the roles were reversed and it drives me nuts.
At least vanilla is “the drop is the drop; if you get it, that’s all you have to care about.”
Another ridiculous phenomena of Modern WoW: Expansions aren’t really expansions, the content lasts as long as their current content patch. When 8.1 drops, everything else before it becomes obsolete.
Even gray shoulders at level 18 or so were worn with pride.
And getting a long cloak on your back, no matter if gray, white or green was something you did not vendor.
Which is sad for people who want to play towards the end of the expansion but didn’t experience the whole thing.
Emerald Nightmare by the end of Legion was honestly probably easier than Naxx 40 was in TBC because of the sheer increase in character power over the raid tiers.
@OP, 10-15 was generous for many slots… it wasn’t uncommon to not replace a piece for 20+ levels because the quest rewards were not generous with the upgrades until Cata. Of course, people crawled dungeons like fiends for their upgrades skipping the questing/grinding. And blues were DEFINITE upgrades for the level, unlike today where the difference between green, blue and epic during leveling is only slightly different. Back then they were like “Holy S*** look what I got!” level of different.
For better or worse expansions are mainly just new overarching stories at this point with your level being just a milestone experience. BFA sort of double downed on this by not adding anything to your character along the way. It definitely felt more like a devolution of your character than any previous leveling experience. Though, I think this is because they feel they need to introduce a new character progression system each expansion now (legendaries, azerite, etc) and then have to reel things in by the end of it. When these were items (cloak, ring) they were not nearly as tied in to your character and didn’t seem to gut you when they were removed.
Classic was definitely slower in pace in almost ever aspect of the game and that gave each item much more weight when you finally got it, similar story with the leveling.
I don’t like comparing classic leveling to any expansion’s leveling since it was so unique in that it set the base experience. I’ve enjoy leveling each expansion, and I think the art/quest teams are on fire and get better each release. The troubles really start with end game systems.
I held on to some items for 15 levels because quest rewards and itemization was super whack, not because I felt any sort of attachment to it. ;D
Kind of a shame that any gear or accomplishments in retail seem worthless two months later. Couldn’t really shortcut tiers in Vanilla unless you had people to carry you, even months and months after content showed up. There was still a reason to go back into non-bleeding-edge content that felt genuine.
I remember being ganked mercilessly at 35 by level 60s in Stranglethorn.
I remember my guild getting annoyed that I was playing an alt instead of getting my main to 60 so I could heal their ZG runs or whatever the progression flavor of the week is.
I remember getting to 57-58 and running out of quests. Having to grind the last two or three levels in Eastern Plaguelands. That actually was fun. I love the Plaguelands.
I remember spending countless hours trying to get groups together to get my charger quest chain done. Took over a two months by the end. Then mindlessly farming SM Cathedral and Armory for Silk drops to sell, to squirrel away enough money for other main’s epic Kodo.
At the end if the day making the game harder and more exclusive doesn’t necessarily translate into a better game.