Pally, Warlock, Mage 3man leveling comp suggestions

[Apatheist]

I wouldn't fully trust whatever anyone has "learned" from them.

Some of it probably doesn't translate but that doesn't mean people haven't acquired a lot more knowledge about the game in the past 15 years. If nothing else, the tricks with particular items or raid strats people figured out on private servers let us know what to look for, right?

[Xyl41]

Some of it probably doesn't translate but that doesn't mean people haven't acquired a lot more knowledge about the game in the past 15 years. If nothing else, the tricks with particular items or raid strats people figured out on private servers let us know what to look for, right?

Not exactly, just due to the number of things that are different. Dungeon elites hit much softer on Classic than on private servers, boss parry is much higher (almost 3x) on Classic compared to private servers, and regular mobs have differences as well. People can use the private server knowledge as a base, but it won't be much more reliable than anything else, just due to the huge amount of guess work used on private servers.
These guys will have a better grasp on Classic than most random people, but that doesn't mean anything they know is right (as evidenced in multiple Blue posts).

[Apatheist]

Not exactly, just due to the number of things that are different.

I'm sure there are some numerical differences. I'm talking about specific mechanics and strategies that are standard practice on private servers but were unheard of outside of maybe the top 1% of guilds in vanilla. For example, stacking on Viscidus so everybody an sapper charge the adds. Stuff like this completely changes the fight.

Even aside from private server players, the average level of player knowledge and competency is generally higher than it was in 2004-2006.