Spend a few minutes on a guide where other players used their own personal time to help others.
If you are in a casual guild then this isnt a problem. If you are in a heroic progression guild then expect to pull your own weight or risk getting replaced by someone else who will put in more effort than you. Finding the casual guilds has gotten harder as Blizzard alienated them this expansion and expected these players to run LFR in Blizzards attempt to make raiding anti-PuG friendly. The hard core did not ask for this change, he developers did so with LFR being their excuse which back fired on them and now they have to introduce Flex mode because being a casual doesnt mean you are bad. Blizzard needs to stop treating casuals as a whole as if they are all incompetent just because of the few rotten apples that populate the casual pool.
"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"
Actually, if YOU re-read your post, you'd realise that your over-riding point in the post is exactly what I answered. You seem to think that paying for it means all the good, none of the bad. If you don't like dealing with other people, then sub to Playstation Plus. You'll get some awesome single player games and no-one will exclude you, unfortunately it seems you're all about the masochistic whining about being excluded and how everyone else is super mean despite you being Kungen 2.0
Though yeah, it's cute you can't justify how much I paid in subs vs. how much you have, but want the same content entitlement.
Pretty sure LFR being significantly easier helped deteriorate those normal mode stepping stone guilds worse then content tuning. Why commit and learn to play when you can watch a movie while progressing your character as you auto attack. It was a mistake and the lower playerbase is suffering for it. Heroic raiders of course will feel the effects too. Currently though just enough players are still aspiring to challenge themselves that we are surviving. For now..
Okay chuckles. Let's say this is true (and I don't think that it is). What do you care? You still have hard content all over the place. The game is busting out the ass with it. THey could mail us purple epics and what would it matter to you? You'd still have hard content available..
1.) I don't think things should just be handed to you, LFR style... Flex raiding will "hopefully" fix that by adding an element of personal responsibility in an otherwise casual environment. An "easy" setting rather than an "enjoy the ride" setting.
2.) Define "lesser skilled". I'm not the worlds best DK but I've beaten normal modes and a couple of heroics.
3.) Screw Ninja Gaiden - That game caused more broken controllers than... AAARGH.
You see wordup? this is the unfortunate players brand new players get to interact with in the game. Where anyone who promotes challenging gameplay is a threat.
The only person limiting you Nameless is yourself. Change your attitude and maybe you would be more appealing to play with.
LULS - so one definition of hardcore is being able to clear all content in a single night, every week. Another definition is to have all the time in the world to the game. Which am I then?
I'm currently unemployed, and play upwards of 12 hours a day. I have 11 90s, all geared enough to ToT LFR, and am basically at the mercy of either my guild, who can barely beat jin'rokh one night a week, or trying to pug on a dying server. I'm casual, because I haven't cleared Horridon. I'm hardcore because I devote so much time?
You people are retarded in your definitions. Make up your fucking mind - no wonder everyone's talking past each other - you've not set the parameters.
The "ladder" is what's fun about it. It's a team-oriented activity, in an environment that at least initially began the same way. Getting together, strategizing, figuring things out, and downing the boss - (what you call min-maxing, logs, theory crafting, etc) - is what it was about, and the camaraderie that emerges from it. The tone of that post sounds like you have baggage, perhaps about some bad guild experiences....well guess what? We all did. We've all been in a group with jerks. Staying in a toxic environment isn't their fault, its yours.
I had to change guilds almost 10 times before I found the right one for me. Then as my life changed, I had to change 2 more times, but I was persistent and I found the right group with the right mentality about raiding.
I feel sorry for anyone - for whatever reason - that misses out on the fun of actual raiding and instead opts to spend their time silently zerging one boss after another with random strangers. It's just not a substitute. Maybe Flex Raid will bring something of it back, but until then I fear real raiding is circling the drain.
The OP doesn't even rank among skilled players. His guild is not even in the top tier progression. I don't think there's any room to say others are "lesser skilled"
If Blizzard truly made content that only hardcore skilled people could complete, I don't think the likes of the OP would make it.
It's always some mediocre player who thinks a little too high of himself, that posts these kinds of threads.
Be seeing you guys on Bloodsail Buccaneers NA!