Classic Feel vs Classic Mechanics

[tanknspank]

For me the classic feel comes down to 3 aspects: social-centric, toolset variety/freedom and risk-vs-reward.

Social-centric: The game is focused on working with other people. Making friendships and working together is highly beneficial. Soloing is limited to certain classes or specific mob types / locations / etc. Even the best solo classes have a lot to gain from other players (sow, clarity, ports, rez).

Toolset variety/freedom: Classes have a lot of variety in their toolkit because design was not slave to balance/equality. Furthermore the game places almost no restrictions on how tools are used. Charm a quest giver? Shared wolf form for faction? Kill your own race's guards for XP? Cast/med in between ticks? FD/sneak/invis/whatever pulling? You can do all that.

As a spinoff of the above and combined with a slower pace of combat, these tools often let you salvage a defeat with the proper decisions / actions. In EQ a bad situation often develops gradually and you can often salvage it with creative uses of tools. In WoW-like MMOs this is rarely possible and generally when things go bad it happens fast and is often not salvageable due to limitations (limits on combat rez, mana regen in combat, enrage timers, lack of control abilities/role, etc).

risk-vs-reward: Getting killed in EQ costs you a chunk of XPing time. It's something that stings a lot more than a few gold repairs. Not only that but you can lose levels too, forcing you to fight at a reduced power level to re-earn it. But at the same time you can earn better XP/loot by taking increased risk.

Consider Dreadlands vs LGuk/SolB. DL is relatively safe, full of solo pulls and very flexible as far as your group comp. But the loot is dismal. On the other hand in LGuk/SolB you're getting much more valuable loot, but you need a balanced group and lack a convenient zoneline you can run to as soon as things look bad.