Originally Posted by
eschatological
I don't care about rankings. I want to have fun. I'm also 13/16H and raid 9-12 hours a week, have a 60 hour a week job, and a social life.
The problem is, fun is subjective. Now, I don't know you, but I'm in my 30s now, and WoW launched *after* I finished college, and the video game culture I grew up in, with the true nerds, considered a real challenge that took you endless amounts of time to beat to be "fun." One of my fondest video game memories of my childhood is finally beating Contra without the 30 lives cheat which is now immortalized in gaming history. Same with beating Super Mario Brothers 1 and 3 without warping.
WoW was made in light of that culture - where hardship and challenge was considered fun, worthwhile, and rewarding. Now, maybe you want to argue that the game's audience has shifted away from that. Maybe you're even right (though I don't believe you are). But fun is still subjective, and fun, for a good chunk of us old school nerds, involves a challenge.
They make casual MMOs like GW2 for the kids who expect everything handed to them and the adults who no longer want to make the time and put in the effort and still get rewards. WoW isn't one of them. Maybe it's time you accept that, and you move on. I have my raid team, full of working professionals with families and kids, and we pledge 12 hours a week to each other, to be present, and get shit done. And shit gets done. And I have my friends in a different guild, who are 8/16 normal mode, who raid the same 12 hours, and don't bother learning to play their class to the max because WoW isn't their main hobby and they don't care to be any better, we're just there for the company of each other. And that's fine too. The disconnect is when the latter group thinks they should have the same progression as the former group without any sense of their own self-responsibility. Heroic modes aren't hard. Normal modes are laughable. I cleared 16/16 on my blood DK the week he hit 90, in a pug which had previously stalled at 4/16 in past weeks and only needed firm direction and helpful suggestions to improve their play. It's shocking to me how many tanks in normal mode don't understand the concept of the shield/mirror buffs on Feng, for example, or how healers on Elegon don't understand the improved healing on targets inside the circle plus their own improved heals for themselves standing in it.