>>538051502
Vanilla is actually far less grindy at max level than retail is at max level, the never ending treadmill of crests and upgrades and filling out your vault if you want to actually do high end raiding makes retail a nightmare comparatively, vanilla is so simplified in its endgame though that you can easily hit max and be geared up in pieces that will last you months within a few days

Vanilla leveling is garbage though, I would probably be playing classic or a private server (tried both epoch and turtle up to in the 30 and 40 range before getting tired of the slog and giving up) if I didn't have to go through that shit again I've done it at least a dozen times now though and I can't bring myself to waste another however many hours on tedious quests with 1% drop rates or hyperspawns that will kill you for daring to be in the wrong place at the wrong time