[Spitty]

Dark - there is no side note.

You're either arguing that the mechanic itself isn't classic (it is), or that the use of the mechanic isn't classic (good luck debating this).

I was using a stripped-down version of AE groups by myself for plat farming during Kunark - Tigirs and Torrent of Poison. The dps was crap, but you could round up a bunch of hill giants or shadowed men and pull in a couple hundred plat by emptying your mana bar and tanking a bunch of slowed greenies. Exact. Same. Mechanism.

It became much more popular, and thus better honed, during Luclin because we had exactly what we're experiencing on P99 - a bunch of bored level 60s needed to pull in experience quickly (AAs for Luclin, alts for P99). People are just using that experience/knowledge, as mentioned before, and applying it to a classic environment with classic mechanics.

You could argue that people shouldn't be able to use future knowledge in a classic game, but you'd be wasting an unbelievable amount of time and energy trying to push that point.