I was quite unfamiliar with the diversity of fantasy novels at the time I started reading The WHeel of Time, so maybe that's why books 2 and 3, while still following the same general pattern as The Eye of the World felt different for me. But as I've noted elsewhere, The Eye even then made me think of a poor version of The Sword of Shannara, except the characters were generally far less enjoyable. Moiraine in particular seemed to always try to fit the role of Allanon by going "Oooh... look at me, I have ulterior motives!" as though we were supposed to be suspicious of her when it was blatantly obvious she was a 'good guy', so to speak...

Oh, and the SHienarans. I still have no idea why they randomly speak the Old Tongue, except that the people of Gondor spoke elvish. That's annoying. Most similarities, while present and noticeable, are at least internally coherent.