Possibly we were just young and bad, but when I remember EQ being hard, I want to say we didn't have:
- Super relaxed AC/ATK tables
- Reagent free symbols
- Monk fist changes
- Spell reworks (almost always to the upside)
- Potions
I'm not convinced the resists are materially different, but maybe? I think even during the launch of Combine the game was significantly closer to classic difficulty than now. It's currently extremely forgiving. I do remember there was some resist change that was patched in because we suddenly had an impossible time slowing Temple of Veeshan stuff during Combine.
Other things that aren't gameplay related would be:
- Maps
- Light radius
- 3rd person
- Target rings
- Cycle nearest enemy
I would be happy to play on a server with the first list closer to classic, but I'm not sure if I'd could play on an EQ that revises the second list.