I remember my vanilla guild at the time wiping on Rag and Nef, took months to down them each. I remember going into AQ, but dont think we ever cleared it.
What I also remember is back then, I and no one else I knew in the guild really ever heard of “threat control”. I mean we knew not to pull off the tank, but never really understood how far we could push it and how to optimize those numbers for max dps. I didnt know about talent builds I just chose what i thought sounded helpful.
When I compare myself to the top dps on warcraftlogs I am nowhere near the top players, but I can tell you I’m doing at least double what I was doing in vanilla because of proper talent specs, buffs, and riding the threat meters to stay just below tanks. Vanilla was easy, the players were bad.