not going to fight this any longer but i'll try my best to word it out.
Mechanic wise:
Vanilla's mechanics all were nothing and were considered nothing even by the time's standards. Hell, Naxx 40 was challenging because some of the fights required tanks to stack on one another to midigate cleave damage. There was nothing really else for the off tanks to do other than reduce the damage the main tank was taking.
BC and beyond there was more awareness and the sense that if one or three people died, the boss was considered unkillable for the most part. Yes a Rogue could tank Illidan back then and 5 people could kill Gruul but that was all because of the itemization before Wrath (where certain items were bis even after it's not current content). Then you got mechanics that relied on doing more than just not stand here or wait to hit that. I can tell you right now the only challenging bosses in Vanilla for the times were Ragnaros, Chromagus, Vale (only because of the short time to kill him), Nefarian, C'thun and half of Naxx.
In BC we had a ton of fights that were just as hard or harder. Kaelthas however suffered from Vanilla syndrome because he has 6 phases.
Gameplay wise:
Oh boy. I hope you still don't have those glasses on. Because regardless what you think and what others want to believe... 40 people make the difficulty on more than just unable to control them. It was required that half or more of the raid had the gear for resistances, and tanks are never excluded. It was considered bullshit when you get paladin gear as horde or shaman gear as alliance and wasted those precious runs to get jack shit. Size does not always equal difficult. You want difficult? Have you tried doing hyjal back in BC (And that was a shit place for trash....nightmares of waiting...) and fought against Archiemonde? Well his fight was mainly a no one die fight. If even one person out of the 25 died...that was considered a wipe. No shit. Ragnaros? eh 20 people could die and you could potentially still kill him if you are at the right percent.Â
Back when I was raiding vanilla, I remember having 10 dead people minimum during our prog kills ad at least four dying to Baron or the molten giant (can't remember him off the top of my head) but that was because some healers had to make a choice or were not in range or "Shit I didn't notice" because there were too many people usually to keep track. with the 10 and 25 mans it was a little easier to keep track but that just meant that the less there are, the more you CAN'T die. Suffice to say some people can carry things and with Death Knights, they can prove to nearly solo stuff without any aid.
But gameplay wise, Vanilla was still not that great for raiding and most of the time you spent your dps just auto attacking and occasionally moving to get out of bad.
Now it's more than just move out of bad. you had to pay attention to what happens. And yeah you can toss in the whole ranked talent argument and such but really...who cares? Removing the need to purchase certain ranks was a godsent on my wallet and alts.Â
Honestly, I have raided back then. The problem with raiding in general was the gating of gear and the idea that you needed at the least 30 pals to help make a raid that were not already there. Yes it was fun enough but when I remember vanilla raiding....I remember the times i sat and did nothing but sunder armor and taunt or as a dps just sit still and do nothing but attack and hit certain abilities without any care.Â
Now? I am running around. I am dpsing certain mobs. I am getting in puddles to prevent the death of my teammates. I am pushing bombs into a corner. I am CCing mobs and silencing MCs. I am kiting bosses with fixate on me. I am destroying weapons on a belt. I am doing so many things just as DPs alone.
Vanilla? I was not attacking the mob when melee shield was up...and getting out of bad or getting away from bad. Some fights were just boring and others were interesting at least (Mainly AQ bosses) but the issue lies with how each individual boss was either mass dispel spree or just watch for bad/get out of bad.Â
Tank or DPS or healer...Vanilla raiding was fun when you didn't read into the mechanics. Hence why the rose tinted glasses. I took them off well after BC.
Raiding now may be considered "EAsier" but that is only due to blizzard's intent to let people at least SEE the content instead of restricting it to a 1% minority. Sure not many killed heroic garrosh still but it was way more than Kelthzad 60.
Mechanic wise:
Vanilla's mechanics all were nothing and were considered nothing even by the time's standards. Hell, Naxx 40 was challenging because some of the fights required tanks to stack on one another to midigate cleave damage. There was nothing really else for the off tanks to do other than reduce the damage the main tank was taking.
BC and beyond there was more awareness and the sense that if one or three people died, the boss was considered unkillable for the most part. Yes a Rogue could tank Illidan back then and 5 people could kill Gruul but that was all because of the itemization before Wrath (where certain items were bis even after it's not current content). Then you got mechanics that relied on doing more than just not stand here or wait to hit that. I can tell you right now the only challenging bosses in Vanilla for the times were Ragnaros, Chromagus, Vale (only because of the short time to kill him), Nefarian, C'thun and half of Naxx.
In BC we had a ton of fights that were just as hard or harder. Kaelthas however suffered from Vanilla syndrome because he has 6 phases.
Gameplay wise:
Oh boy. I hope you still don't have those glasses on. Because regardless what you think and what others want to believe... 40 people make the difficulty on more than just unable to control them. It was required that half or more of the raid had the gear for resistances, and tanks are never excluded. It was considered bullshit when you get paladin gear as horde or shaman gear as alliance and wasted those precious runs to get jack shit. Size does not always equal difficult. You want difficult? Have you tried doing hyjal back in BC (And that was a shit place for trash....nightmares of waiting...) and fought against Archiemonde? Well his fight was mainly a no one die fight. If even one person out of the 25 died...that was considered a wipe. No shit. Ragnaros? eh 20 people could die and you could potentially still kill him if you are at the right percent.Â
Back when I was raiding vanilla, I remember having 10 dead people minimum during our prog kills ad at least four dying to Baron or the molten giant (can't remember him off the top of my head) but that was because some healers had to make a choice or were not in range or "Shit I didn't notice" because there were too many people usually to keep track. with the 10 and 25 mans it was a little easier to keep track but that just meant that the less there are, the more you CAN'T die. Suffice to say some people can carry things and with Death Knights, they can prove to nearly solo stuff without any aid.
But gameplay wise, Vanilla was still not that great for raiding and most of the time you spent your dps just auto attacking and occasionally moving to get out of bad.
Now it's more than just move out of bad. you had to pay attention to what happens. And yeah you can toss in the whole ranked talent argument and such but really...who cares? Removing the need to purchase certain ranks was a godsent on my wallet and alts.Â
Honestly, I have raided back then. The problem with raiding in general was the gating of gear and the idea that you needed at the least 30 pals to help make a raid that were not already there. Yes it was fun enough but when I remember vanilla raiding....I remember the times i sat and did nothing but sunder armor and taunt or as a dps just sit still and do nothing but attack and hit certain abilities without any care.Â
Now? I am running around. I am dpsing certain mobs. I am getting in puddles to prevent the death of my teammates. I am pushing bombs into a corner. I am CCing mobs and silencing MCs. I am kiting bosses with fixate on me. I am destroying weapons on a belt. I am doing so many things just as DPs alone.
Vanilla? I was not attacking the mob when melee shield was up...and getting out of bad or getting away from bad. Some fights were just boring and others were interesting at least (Mainly AQ bosses) but the issue lies with how each individual boss was either mass dispel spree or just watch for bad/get out of bad.Â
Tank or DPS or healer...Vanilla raiding was fun when you didn't read into the mechanics. Hence why the rose tinted glasses. I took them off well after BC.
Raiding now may be considered "EAsier" but that is only due to blizzard's intent to let people at least SEE the content instead of restricting it to a 1% minority. Sure not many killed heroic garrosh still but it was way more than Kelthzad 60.