Chainheal isn't gear dependent. It was WOW Classic TBC Gold a game changer and holy moly! It transforms you from an "really excellent healer" to a straight-up "god-tier"

Phase 1 gear is certainly less exciting than phase 1 Classic. This is due to the fact that there is a bigger amount of loot and more options to pick or farm from. Classic was limited to two healing weapons, and the KT Hammer didn't drop. Even though we're in only the first phase, I have numerous healing weapons to pick from. Each phase has an individual weapon. Each upgrade, even though there aren't any famous items such as Benediction or the Xerox, will bring back fond memories.

The reason is that the items available in TBC are more balanced and offer many options in each slot. Vanilla equipment is not as memorable than TBC. But, players will recall broken items like HoJ Reju gemstones and edgemasters that are stronger than other item that is slot-specific.

It's more complicated than declaring "they did not know what they were doing at the time." They intentionally created low-level or even end-game bis items that were both extremely poor for allowing players to make profitable and enjoyable choices.

While classic was famous for its ability to min-max through years of knowledge about pservers and the most brilliant theorycrafters, simulations showed us that a lot of the "bis gearing choices" depended on the length of your guild's encounters were, as well as the clear timings. Think of trinket swaps and threat against mit. Resistance to fire and frost is another instance. Additionally, many trash-swaps and encounters with naxx were facilitated by specialized items such as the smokey's lighter and major recombobulator as well as Ramstein's bolt, cool stopwatches, a nifty gnomish hiding device, and an the electromagnetic gigaflux activator.

These glasses aren't very knowledgeable. Each of the items you've listed has their place. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't make a deliberate design choice to use level 40 BoE gloves that are BiS.

It's not a good idea for an item design to force all warriors into leather in order to take on competitive damage. Blizzard acknowledged it, and slightly modified it through the AQ/Naxx.

Transmogs are the reason I dislike the idea of transmogs. They lose their charm when everyone else is wearing the cheap WOW TBC Gold same style. It's a blast to walk through Tauren Druids dressed in full mooncloth. It's funny, but it's also a great idea.