Where is the challenge?

[Arucado]

Basically im done with vanilla since i've cleared all content, just in pugs (retarded difficulty)

AQ and BWL won't be any hard, you just will need a epic geared raid of 40 man, then it will be another gift.

Apart from that im dps warrior, just with blue gear i top dps when there are epic ones in my raid. ( i guess that is the balance)

And why would i want to do pvp when you can solo t3 people as good geared blue shadow priest...

[Simonich]

In retail on my lvl 20 twinked priest (trial account) I could solo a lvl 25 dungeon just cause I could heal.
I also was able to solo lvl 60 NPCs in 5 minutes (missing 90% of times)

I'm pretty sure you can't do that here

[Slicy]

Basically im done with vanilla since i've cleared all content, just in pugs (retarded difficulty)

AQ and BWL won't be any hard, you just will need a epic geared raid of 40 man, then it will be another gift.

Apart from that im dps warrior, just with blue gear i top dps when there are epic ones in my raid. ( i guess that is the balance)

And why would i want to do pvp when you can solo t3 people as good geared blue shadow priest...

Apart from the comparisons between retail and vanilla (which aren't relevant to the topic imo) and concerning the main question OP asked : it's on the players/guilds themselves to create challenges and get the most of what you can (try to) do on a server/project like this one.

Sure clearing the content is nothing new or extraordinary. If you just stick to going from point A to point B and killing things on your way every week in the exact same fashion, I can understand why you don't find it challenging and might lose interest in vanilla.

However, you can experience this content in several ways, be it by racing for server firsts, doing speedruns, beating your guild's cleartime, your own dps, killing x boss in y secs or even better with "iron man" raids like it has been suggested already.
Basically, anything that creates a challenge for you and/or your guild.
There are countless ideas which haven't been realised yet on a blizzlike server I think. People claiming that everything has already been done and re-done in vanilla are those who lack the imagination and/or will to create and accomplish challenges.

If you want random ideas you could try out right now in MC (for instance) : weapons only, no buff/consummables, 10 man full clear, green gear only, etc. Sounds painful right ? Well you asked for it !

Now if you have the time/commitment/right contacts for such things, I'm expecting a "challenge expected"

[Orc_Hunter]

I think in many ways, Vanilla is more challenging. But that's not the sole reason I prefer Vanilla over retail. The main thing for me is that Vanilla feels like an awesome world that I want to be a part of. Retail feels like a lobby game now. The immersiveness went out of the game a long time ago in retail.

And every time I try to play retail, I'll start leveling, and even without heirlooms I can run into a huge camp of mobs, like a dozen or more, and just wreck them with no danger to myself. Try that in Vanilla and you'll be dead in a few seconds.

[Niko]

go back to retail, stop clogging the realms data usage with more of this bullshit.
stop holding back the performance.

[Lowtwo]

The challenge, and for me fun, about vanilla content was that it actually took some time to do without a full 40 man hardcore raid.

I was in a guild that took time to explore all aspects of the game. Do PvE/PvP talk shit with each other on comms etc.

My game time didnt only involve farming stuff for the next raid when IDs would reset and reading pages and pages of guides.

Ofcourse the content wasn't insane on difficulty. It hasn't been for a long time thats why most of it is cleared long before new content comes out. But it also gave guilds that didn't go mad for it some time to clear it before the new content came out or atleast give it a shot.

My guild never fully cleared Naxx or AQ40, wich is sad but I don't give two flying fucks in the end because my vanilla experience was awsome and it was the best MMO experience I had so far!

Then TBC came and the content rush went to a new level and the game went down the shitter...

[AMzo]

Who cares, just play what you enjoy.

I just like Vanilla being more immersive, like you're actually playing in the 'world' of warcraft.
I guess spamming LFD/LFR/afking in garrison is a lot more fun when you're out there clearing that PvE content.

[Dreadz]

WoW was really never harder, just more work with everything (farming, rep etc). WoW Vanilla has a certain feel to it with with everyone sharing the same world (world PvP, meeting new and old rivals, realm events etc). In WoW these days you never travel to meet people, instanced zones etc etc.

Vanilla WoW = a real server community.

[PanTheSatyr]

Private realms are easy because we're on the 1.12.1 client and talents. The reduced stats on gear is a factor, but it's far less a factor than the mechanics.

[myooteme]

I enjoy Vanilla because of what it offered when it first launched. I got back into retail this past month and went from 70 to 100 in 3 weeks. All I did was sit in SW and LFG...

@OP, you can just go back to your Garrison and chill out. At least there you can talk shit and hope that the NPC's will respond.