World of Warcraft

Very normal, the game isn’t the leveling it’s the endgame content. There is so much to speed up leveling it’s a little ridiculous sometimes but it speeds you along to the current xpac and that’s where the meat is.

Gear is random but everything outside of a few items are able to be traded - ask if someone got something you can use, but you’ll very likely out level it quickly. Just soak up what you can as you can.

Heirlooms are best if you got them. They’re easy to get and upgrade and you’ll wear the same set until 50 or 60 or something.

Xpac enchanting is broken by xpac. You don’t have to level classic through current, just the bracket you want. You can go straight to Dragonflight enchanting if you want.

This xpac is some of the most fun I’ve had since wrath. It’s not perfect but it’s very good (IMO).

Since the level squish, you level up a lot faster than you're used to. As most people will say, the real part of the game is the endgame, or at least things you can do at max level.

Gear will mostly come from quests whilst leveling, and somewhat sporadically at that. You could run dungeons for more gear, but you'll mostly end up getting the same slots over and over if you do. It's a part of the game that still really feels unpolished.

Good-ish news about professions though! You level them per expansion now. That means that you no longer have to do old content for drops to DE, for example. Instead, once you hit max, you can just learn the latest expansion's version on top, and not bother with having to catch up.