Yes, retail has much, much more in-depth endgame. Much more to do, many more players, and new content added regularly. I would always recommend retail over classic for anyone wishing to focus on raiding or endgame content.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably give it a shot. Would you recommend starting now or waiting until the new expansion?

I've been playing Classic and at this point am just raid logging and not really enjoying doing the same raids every 2 nights a week

This is a phenomenon that's stayed with the game since launch. It's still there. Retail does have a lot more things to do than classic though. Pet battles, achievements, transmog, arena, brawler's guild, and all of the other grinds you can do like rep and getting essences.

If you're playing this game just for raiding and gear progression, you'll still have nothing to do once you catch up in content, it would take longer though because there's more raiding.

Another thing that's different is the encounter complexity. In classic it's mostly stay out of fire but in retail there's much more complex design like interrupts, different phases etc

Well, I'd say I still somewhat enjoy raiding still. It's mostly that Classic content is facerolled and not difficult. We cleared BWL the second week and have already beat ZG on the PTR which is coming out today, so there is no feeling of progression.

Retail isn't as involved in terms of your prep, just hop onto the Auction House and grab a handful of consumables and you're ready.

Retail's fights however, are all WAAAYY more involved. there's more mechanics on individual bosses in Retail than in a whole dungeon in classic?

will retail be more enjoyable than classic for an end game experience? that depends entirely on what you want out of your end game experience. More detailed, involved, and technical fights -> Retail. more planning, progression, and preparation -> classic.

there's more mechanics on individual bosses in Retail than in a whole dungeon in classic?

Most Dungeon bosses in retail have more mechanics than the average raid boss in Classic.

Played Vanilla, TBC and WOTLK at launch. Stopped at Cataclysm.

10+ years later, resubbed for Classic and was there from launch until the first 3 months. Had a very geared Warrior, top 3 DPS and MC on Farm.

I too felt exactly what you were feeling. Even though I had gear, enjoyed the classic vibe and loved the community, my server was medium pop, you'd be lucky to see 5 people in a zone while leveling and SW / IF were quiet... A huge grind, and I even Levelled an Spriest to 60 with decent gear.

I was 100% against retail pre-classic launch. I was under the impression the game was more oriented towards kids because "casual" vs Classic "hardcore". Never looked into any wow related news or info since Cataclysm and simply called it a day...

My cousin recently invited me to resub for a month and quest / level with me in retail so I finally gave in and said "ok, et's give it a shot"

Retail truly is a masterpiece. There's no other way to put it. When you look at the lore, the content, customisation, activities, mechanics and simply the depth of this game (not to mention 15 years of DLC and patches)... It truly is a different game, literally like different planets to Classic or even TBC.

Yes, the "community" is not the same and dungeons feel shorter (PvP I haven't tried) but everything else is just next level.

Honestly, do what I did... Pick your absolute favourite class and specialisation and level from 1-120. After that I recommend boosting the second character to 110 and lastly your 3rd character 120.

I've been playing for 3 weeks now, have read so much online and experienced so much in game and I've still probably only seen 10% of everything and I'm an experienced ex-wow retail / classic player.

FYI the fact that every server offers cross realm groups / guilds / dungeons / PvP / LFG and LFR is absolutely mind blowing for a fresh player like myself.

And no more PvP / PVE servers! There is only one type and you enable or disable PvP in safe zones.

I chose Prot Pally (levelled as this from 10-120) and haven't looked back. It's 100 better than what I remembered and loved from TBC and WOTLK.

PS: Queueing as a tank = instant groups! I'm finding end game mythic dungeons very fun along with world content and looking forward to LFR!

PPS: Forgot to mention all the Quality of Life improvements in Retail vs Classic. I've counted hundreds... I'm my first few weeks. We're talking major, game changing stuff here! Where I had 30-40 add-ons in classic, I'm using 6 in retail.

All the best and enjoy! 😁

Yeah I'm still playing but I only log on to raid and farm consumables. The rest of the time I just sit in IF half afk. I enjoy raiding BWL still but at this point I'm just chasing like 4 pieces of gear. And the same thing will happen once AQ and Naxx come out. I'm just tired of the only thing to look forward to each week is a small chance at a few pieces of rare loot I need to still drop. I only managed to get one character, a resto druid, to 60. I love competing for parses but I have no drive or desire to level a second character up at all..so I don't see things getting better, especially with only 2 raids left for the whole game. I think it's time I move on and give retail a shot. I'll probably level a character to 110 and then buy bfa+shadowlands. Or might just buy it anyway and boost a character to 110. I'm not a huge fan on leveling lol.

You'll definitely like retail more than classic.

I don't understand the belief that classic is somehow harder raiding than retail. Groups have content on farm by the second week and the mechanics are so simple. I think people who say classic is harder are only referring to getting TO the content rather than the content itself. Getting to 60, getting your keys and attunements, those are the hard part.

In contrast retail content is very mechanic focused. There's a lot going on in any particular boss fight that requires much more awareness, at least if you're newer to the content. Sure if you have it on farm it's going to be much easier but it's not as autopilot as classic is.

Also please don't see this is as classic hating. I think it's nice that they offer this and I'm happy that people are enjoying it, they were simple times so the nostalgia is definitely the biggest selling factor for it. But I think it's disingenuous to say that classic endgame is harder than retail endgame, by any stretch of the imagination.

I don't understand the belief that classic is somehow harder raiding than retail.

I mean, almost no one really says that. Even on r/classicwow except for a few individuals people agree on that retail raiding is just harder. I really wouldn't call it a "belief".

I play retail more but I can see why some people enjoy the simplicity of Classic raiding. Nothing wrong with that.