– and all other expansions.
In classic, you can get end-game raiding pieces at nearly max level. In current expansions, you have blues until max-level, then they cram your face full of epic items 30x more powerful than what you have currently. 12 hours after hitting max, you could literally take out a hundred freshly-leveled versions of your characters without breaking a sweat.
In Classic, they respected the leveling process as part of the game. It wasn’t homogenized into a “nothing matters until max level” experience. You can actually prepare for max-level while leveling by running dungeons.
Leveling in a current expansion actually feels like a “just bought the expansion” cooldown. It’s as if we could just as well have had a timer for our characters before they can actually be played. You just mash buttons for a few hours and you’re suddenly free to play.
I guess I’m trying to wrap my head around why I can’t stand current expansions and why I honestly wish I had more time to play classic.