endgame and PvP
vanilla WoW gets a lot of goodwill because people got into huge organic skirmishes and they think of them wistfully. the fact that a group of crazies cleared all available raid content in 5 days speaks to the relatively primative nature of vanilla encounter design compared to the crazier stuff in BC and Wrath, the two most comparable expansions
hell yeah there totally is, PB and PBBG both have the hit clash mechanics from 120%