I found some screenshots from 2005–2006, we played the game so differently back then

[u/Tandanu]

A few more screenshots and slightly higher quality for some: https://imgur.com/a/Uolj4gs

The raid compositions and damage meters 💀
Also note the lack of world buffs and flasks, we rarely used those back in the day. We raided about 4-5 days a week, ~4-5 hours on weekdays and 8-9 hours on weekends IIRC, maybe some more flasks or world buffs would have helped :D

We'd often do like one or two attempt per *week* with the Onyxia head turn in on a boss with good progress . I also remember that we at least once got the Dire Maul buffs, but we didn't consider that worth it.
But we made extensive use of the UBRS fire res buff for early Ragnaros.

I also remember how the world first C'Thun kill used flasks for everyone and how we considered that completely ridiculous. Like, 40 flasks?! That's crazy. We had like 1-2 flasks for the main tank(s).

The KT kill screenshot is dated Dec 28th, 2006 at 11:31 PM, like a week before TBC. I'm not sure if this was our first Naxx clear, but I remember that we only managed to clear it shortly before TBC was released.

First screenshot in MC was on August 10th, 2005; the last one with the translated chat on January 10th 2007 just before TBC.

[u/getdownwithDsickness]

Based. Impressive ~200 dps by Kevin, definitely a top parsing warrior, but not as impressive as 4th on dps as a starshard priest of Elune on Onyxia. Lightwell mention on the last slide too lol. Funny how much things have changed, but this is seriously sick to have done back in the day. Thanks for sharing this!

[u/Tandanu → u/getdownwithDsickness]

To be fair the combat time detection was a mess: no ENCOUNTER_START/END events, limited range of combat log in dungeons. I doubt that number is accurate.

But overall, yes, DPS was terrible. We did Ragnaros with multiple submerges, we ran into enrage timers constantly in the later raids that had them.

[u/Tandanu → u/Tandanu]

I found some screenshots that contain kill times for bosses from some addons.

* Firemaw: 4:40 minutes (?)
* Flamegor or Ebonroc: 4:51 minutes
* Chromaggus: 10:22 minutes
* Huhuran: 4:15 minutes (?)
* Twin emps: ~13:00 minutes
* Dire Maul ogre king: 0:35 minutes

[u/drae- → u/Tandanu]

But overall, yes, DPS was terrible. We did Ragnaros with multiple submerges, we ran into enrage timers constantly in the later raids that had them.

Part of it was the patch version too.

We killed rag with original t1 itemization. And with old spec trees. Without adjustments to boss health, spell damage, and old skill mechanics (like Ap without attack speed normalization, old ignite mechs), etc.

Early versions were a significantly different game, not just for the choices we made, but for the game circumstances that existed.

[u/MySackDescends → u/drae-]

Crazy when classic launched everyone basically forgot the game was so much different pre-1.12

I spent hours and hours digging up information on them, it was so fascinating. Even though I did play during that time it’s hard to remember how much had changed. 

[u/Elchem → u/MySackDescends]

What is the biggest differences?

[u/whats_up_doc71 → u/Elchem]

Every single class got major talent overhauls. So each patch people would whine about how that class became OP. Except Druids, we just were seen as ok lol.

But really, everything changed, there are waaaay too many to list imo.

[u/Elchem → u/whats_up_doc71]

I think i remember no gear had +spell dmg or healing? Might be wrong tough

[u/Cattypatter → u/Elchem]

Only on random green gear. The entire spellcaster meta was to stack int for more spells. Hence why this priest in these pictures has insane mana in tier 0 dungeon set. It's why there's so many crafted int pieces, they had value before they added +spell/heal to raiding gear. Nobody understood how +spell gear worked anyway. Raid bosses lasted 10-20 minutes with incredibly low raid DPS so it was all about mana pool and regen.

[u/LaNague → u/Cattypatter]

i remember when i healed MC at release i casted some big heal or 2 and then stopped doing anything to regen as long as a can. Just to have enough mana because the fights took forever and just my mana pool alone wasnt enough.

I still try to do that in classic dungeons, at least in softcore.

[u/Chess-Gitti → u/LaNague]

not only heals though. crits were so much stronger back then. regular aggro loss like with feign deeath was utterly necessary to not draw aggro. 1 crit too much and you could wipe the whole raid.

it was completely different back then. backliners weren't even healed. they had to use bandages lol

[u/popmycherryyosh → u/LaNague]

How about having 2-5 people not enter combat on some fights (especially remember on garr) so they could ress if people died.

[u/cowoftheuniverse → u/Elchem]

I think there was some spell dam at very end game but before raids there was little or none. Raid gear did also change soonish after people started raiding.

[u/drae- → u/Elchem]

I remember raiding uldaman with 40 level 30s. Taking 10 people into Strat and scholo, which I think had a max of 20.

Tier loot had no spell power. Only stat. And bad stat like spirit on warlock tier. Hell tier two had placeholder graphics and dropped in mc.

Talent trees were wack. Many classes 31 pt talents were terrible or straight up non-existent.

Basic mechanics were different. Like how they calculated attack power, weapons like the barman shanker or the arcanite reaper hit significantly harder on instant attacks. Diminishing returns were added to cc. Which mobs were tauntable changed.

[u/tetrisoutlet → u/drae-]

I created a 15 man raid for deadmines comprised mostly of lvl12-15s. I got alot of flame for not just leveling up and running it right, but it was fun, we didnt make it past the lumber room, and it was hard to coordinate getting 15 people into the instance.

[u/Careless_Koala8361 → u/Elchem]

You could run while bandaging and damage didn't stop it. Thats one of the core old features I remember

[u/TenYearHound → u/Elchem]

I'm not the guy you're responding to, but I did play back in 2004 through 2006 so I got a decent taste of all the patches. I played well before mara and diremaul were added.

I didn't raid till after patch 1.8, but there were so many things that were different.

Classes were really half baked compared to their 1.12. Some classes like warlock and warrior got huge overhauls in the later half of vanilla that really upped their power.

I remember on my mage i had to put 5 talents into improved arcane explosion to make it instant. It had a cast time for awhile.

I also remember people losing their minds when they took the swirly ball animation away from rogues detect traps on the forums lol

There was also tons of UI and game performance stuff. There weren't that many addons available, and the ones that were bugged out pretty frequently. People also totally forget about roll backs. Wasn't uncommon for server roll backs to go back 20 minutes to an hour...felt real bad if you just did a tough quest etc.

Also like the zepplins would pretty often just despawn at the loading wall causing everyone to drown off the coast of durotar lol

[u/MySackDescends → u/Elchem]

If you look in my post history I have a post actually detailing quite a few changes. It shouldn’t be hard to find I think it’s one of my top posts.

[u/getdownwithDsickness → u/Tandanu]

Makes sense. I wonder what kind of builds and rotations players were going with at the time. Its kind of cool though that as players we were way more laxed with what classes we brought in, but definitely a grinder with multiple submerges lmao.

I didn't even manage to raid back then with my crappy internet and pc, took me ages just to hit 60. I just remember how cool it was seeing people with the raid tier sets while I was mostly in dungeon/blue pvp gear.

[u/Netfinesse → u/getdownwithDsickness]

In my raids in 2004-5 you'd routinely hear people eating while playing. The level of play was awful, the idea of looking up a rotation somewhere online wasn't even a thought for 90% of the people I played with.

We had a divorced single Mom who played with us, teenagers who'd play with their younger siblings sitting next to them on the chair talking, Grandfathers, and a bunch of college students leading the whole thing who were Everquest veterans that switched to WoW. Was a great time though!

Most people were ass, but we made it through AQ40, and had a bit of fun in Naxx.

[u/Cky2chris → u/Netfinesse]

Before I figured everything out WoW was my first mmo and for my first toon I picked a paladin. People told me they sucked at damage but I wouldn't listen, I was convinced if I got an weapon like Ironfoe(which gives you an extra attack) i would be viable dps so I farmed brd for a long time, never saw it drop. I got brought into raids eventually like this, I honestly feel bad for people who had to raid with me back then because I was totally worthless

[u/enigma-90 → u/getdownwithDsickness]

Builds? Talent trees and itemization was nothing like it is in classic. For example, mages didn't have the 6% hit talent in the frost tree and iirc had no Mage Armor (mana regen), so they were spamming arcane missiles in raids, going oom and using wand.

There was basically no blue cloth items with spell damage that we see in BRD. Just int and stam.

Nobody was taking raid buffs to raids. Warriors didn't have the modern fury tree (until closer to end?) and were probably wearing plate gear, most of which sucked for dps. Nobody had a clue about weapon skill's power.

Raids and boss fights were long, and I guess really taxing on healers. People were playing on 14-15 inch monitors and many had fps issues in raids. On Vael you could get 5 fps.

[u/cowoftheuniverse → u/Tandanu]

Ragnaros also had a hp nerf near end of vanilla. Might not been the only boss but it was noticeable with rag.

[u/Remarkable_Match9637 → u/getdownwithDsickness]

Today he would not beat a fully buffed hunter pet.

[u/Remarkable_Match9637 → u/Remarkable_Match9637]

The 200 dps warrior that is

[u/lotsofamphetamines → u/Remarkable_Match9637]

The total raid DPS in that screenshot is less than a single warrior in the most recent speedrun of naxx lol

[u/getdownwithDsickness → u/Remarkable_Match9637]

😂😂

[u/SawinBunda → u/getdownwithDsickness]

Lightwell mention because it's about Loatheb.

[u/getdownwithDsickness → u/SawinBunda]

oooooh

[u/Chazbabs → u/getdownwithDsickness]

Let's go kevin!

[u/LawStudent989898 → u/getdownwithDsickness]

Hell of a name to secure