Originally Posted by
Thylacine
This is the best question you've asked, actually, because I honestly don't have an answer for you. Personally, as far as my guild is concerned, we're progressing nicely enough; our second night on Tortos is tomorrow which, given the length of time the tier will still be live for, is about right (though, clearly, I think Horridon is too much for a second, non-linear boss).
But the role of "normal mode" raiding is actually pretty difficult to accurately gauge. I mean, if we compare the past raids to the present as well as Blizzard's expectation management, we're starting to run into a wall of a different sort. I reckon "heroics are for the hardcore, LFR is for casuals" is much too simple a divide that, for better or worse, wasn't required in WotLK. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that WotLK was SO popular because of the difficulty curves that allowed you to kill multiple bosses, but the top players still had effort to put in.
I'm very interested in continuing this debate with you, actually.