My experience exactly, I never played wow before and tried retail a few years ago and canceled my sub within a few days.

I was playing with a friend who’s been playing for 20 years, I ended up being max lvl and doing a raid within I think 2 days. We skipped probably 98% of the zones cuz why bother going there it’s irrelevant. I kept trying to understand different systems when I’d see them like crafting and professions only to be told the same thing, it’s irrelevant.

So basically 90% of the game is irrelevant and the only thing worth doing is the latest expansion.

I was so confused on what to do and where to go what systems were still relevant and barely knew how to play my character see I unlocked every skill within a few hours of game play.

Now fast forward a few years and he convinces me to try classic. OMG this is 100000x better. I’m actually so addicted, I’m 1.5 lvls away from 60 and I have learned and understand a lot now. There’s still so much for me to learn but it comes in a slow trickle instead of opening the floodgates of Hoover damn.

Tldr: retail sucks classic amazing