Started playing retail recently after like a 12 year break, definitely isn't the game I remember, but PvP with some old friends has been fun despite me being garbage. It's nice having 20 ping too, don't think I'll ever be able to go back to an MMO that doesn't have an Aus server now.
Getting close to lvl 70 with under 24 hours played time, feels very fast to level, which is kinda nice when you can only play a couple hours here and there throughout the week and occasionally sperg out over weekends. Getting almost a full bar with a single BG victory.
Yeah leveling is fast in retail, even though theres (soon to be) 120 levels. WoW nowadays is great for casual play and if you decide to go a bit more hardcore at endgame, there's always ranked pvp and mythic raids/mythic+ dungeons for pve.
Honestly, after a 12 year break WoW should feel like a completely new game. I know it did for me, and I "only" took break from Wrath of the Lich King expansion until Legion expansion.
I never really understood the immense amount of no-lifing required to become rank 14. Watching a vod on twitch.tv/tipsoutbaby, he hosted a show with some iconic WoW pvp'ers who are all in their different classes incredbly good. Someone mentioned that to reach rank 14 you would have to play around 16 hours a day for 5 days a week for like 3 months.
Reaching rank 14 was legit absolutely insane. I can't remember more than a very small amount of people reaching it per server (and I was on one of the more progressed/hardcore servers). IIRC, the PvP honor system had a decay every week (a percent of your max earned honor) and reaching the higher ranks was always based on how much honor other people grinded, and only a certain % of top honor earners could rank up (10+).
So imagine having to fight like a 20% honor decay AND outgrinding everyone else on the server to be the top honor earner in a given week, for multiple weeks
in a row, so forget taking a week break or something, no way to freeze it. 16 hours a day for 5 days a week for 3 months is not an exaggeration by any means. That is what it actually took to reach rank 14. Lots of people actually shared their account they were trying to rank up so the character could be in pvp 24/7 more or less. It's a shame because it had little to do with skill, just pure grind.