New WoW Dungeon System – Improving Mediocrity or Dumbing Down Excellence

I couldn't agree more. I have no qualms with making things more accessible for more players (my alts love it!)but when you remove goals and challenges, the game gets boring very fast. And when even the worst player can gear up in a week in a day or two /played, they stop paying when there's nothing left to do.

As a raider, I'm slightly irked that there is little to no rewards for being a better player and conquering challenging content. The difference between TOTC & TOTGC is vast, yet the gear are minor upgrades and all look the same. Groups on our server were pugging the 25 man regular versions the day they came out...and clearing it. I have 3 alts that are almost as well geared as my main (including my hunter that I have no real idea how to play)....there's something wrong there.

Raiding is not a huge time sink. Our schedule is less than 18hrs/week as a server leading guild, and we're bored after one night. Time is not a factor in seeing content anymore. So it coes do to skill - raid smarter, not harder. But when you remove the challenge as well, its time to look for something else.

Avalonna
Bloodhoof

WoW is becoming a multi-layered game to appeal to different types of players. For players who enjoy levelling different alts and playing on a more casual level, the increases to xp through various methods, and the new LFG system will provide a richer gameplay experience. End-game, particularly hardmode end-game, still favors players with a very high level of skill. When ToC came out, there were a lot of people complaining about the fact that the different levels of gear looked the same. End-game is getting less about getting gear and more about enjoying the accomplishment.
I do agree with you that end-game is getting easier to reach, and that is resulting in players who don't fully understand their characters joining pugs. I'm in a 10 man heroic raiding guild (I'm still retired, just social) and what we are seeing when we run 25 man pugs is that there are melee dps that taunt off the tanks, ranged dps that don't move when they need to, and the like.
Personally, I like the normal/hardmode differentiation. It allows me to raid interesting content, and yet allows my friends with more skill to have a challenge.

the elitist jerks who believe the everything should be twenty times harder then what it should be to get gear are out of their minds. this game was supposed to be like this in the beginning but had very few players cause these people thought they were supposed to be the only ones who could get decent gear. it's great to see them innovate to include everyone else in the game because when you get groups you want them to be geared enough to handle the heroic you are trying to achieve, not the other way around. i hope they do more to the game. i would love to see them eliminate the stupid cookie cutter rotation for dps so players can actually play the game the way they want to and not rely on number crunching and robotic movements to kill bosses for gear. math and repetative motions are great for work, but this is a game should be treated as such. i do think that blizz should make more legendary items for people who want to be extremists in the game for 25 man raids alone on the hardest achievements so that when they do actually achieve the extreme stuff they get something higher then a epic item. that would shut the elitists up forever imo.

A problem with the easy epics is a lot (and I mean A LOT) of people get them, and all the power to them, but don't think that having good gear and a cookie cutter dps rotation will get you into a top guild automatically. We deal with this on a daily basis and if the person(s) get rejected from the guild, they go around screaming so and so Guild is Elitist. IT"S NOT THE CASE AT ALL! when you're up against a boss like Heroic Anub, thinking quickly on your feet, being environmentally aware, and such are very important, and skills like that are refined through lots of practice. I do have a lot of respect for the casual gamer and have no problem with helping out people or giving advice, but you also have to remember that hardcore raiders put in tremendous amounts of time and effort into the game, not only in play time, but in researching boss fights and like was mentioned "the math" and can sometimes get upset when somebody comes along in epics thinking they got the goods for an end game Boss and wipe the raid because they ran through the group with Legion Flames.
I do commend Blizzard for trying to make game more accessible to the casual player, and the easy leveling benefits the hardcore raider too, but you have to keep some of the hard content hard, because the thrill of good teamwork on a difficult boss is what drives a lot of people to continue playing, myself included. Also, blizz should refund the gold if they lowered the prices. THATS what burns my bottom, not the fact that someone got their mount at 2o. Its that they got their mount or a quarter of the gold I paid, thats what hurts. thanx for listening to my rant

Look, anyone with an average IQ and the OPPORTUNITY to learn the fights can handle anything WoW throws out. The whole mentality that only a few have the "talent" to click keys and down a boss is in itself flawed. What happens is that a lot of people don't have patience to teach others how to do a fight. Anything that Blizz can do to give everyone a shot at end-game content is a bonus to me. We're all paying the same amount for the game, being shut-out by guilds is ridiculous. Enough with your elitist mentality - all of you. Yes, there are a few out there who are clueless, but trust me, you who think you're "all that" - you're not. For the most part, you were in the right place at the right time.