You can't even compare because they are basically two different things, Some things are harder some things a easier. The games has evolved, stop comparing apples to oranges and move on.
TBC had more to do than just raiding and dailies as well. Faction grinding, attunements. Heroic instance farming. Remember too that some BiS gear could be found in heroic dungeons as well. So there were less raiders as well due to additional stuff to do and due to lack of raiding options. You still need to compare the Nerf schedules as well. They nerfed heroics hard early on in TBC and sunwell was arguably one of the hardest raids ever pre Nerf.
In a nutshell, lack of raid options and increased out of raid content really bring down the raid numbers. Plus I'm sure the attunements and gearing through the harder heroics in TBC added to that as well when it came to gearing for raids
Only raiding has gotten harder, anything else has gotten more convient, faster and easiere.
Bad game design when the only thing to challenge you with are few things inn the entire game imo.
Yes, there exsist terrible grinds inn the game just as back then, but that can't really be said is challenging kinda.
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People are seriously getting difficult and overtuned/broken confused.
As others have pointed out, raid bosses on non-easy modes are tactically more difficult, although they tend to lack the raw hitting power of older raid bosses. Everything else is much easier.
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Let's see...
Attunments....gone
Requiring CC....gone
Tanks worrying about threat....gone
Resist gear....gone
Just to name a few reasons why things are easier
The game has gotten much easier since TBC, too easy IMO. The only part where you could debate it is with heroic modes, everything else tho is a lot easier tho IMO.
In terms of raids i think mop is harder than tbc,especially mechanic wise. If we assume that tbc raids are on level of today heroic content.
However tbc was also brutal in any other activity such as 5 mans,accesability to raiding,leveling etc, so if we talking about game as a whole then tbc is harder.
Wrong, try comparing the tactics now to TBC and tell me the same thing. It's a load of shit. Players have gotten better, guilds have recruited better players, took the game more seriously & raided a shit ton more hours than back in TBC. Use your brain. Method have probably spent more hours on Lei Shen HC progression in thoughs few days than you probably have raided this entire expansion.
Also for Flame tanks on Illidan.
Sunwell was rather hard raid, but highly dependent on raid composition.
But heroic raid are much harder now imo.
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To even ACCESS heroic dungeons in TBC you had to be revered with specific faction. By running normal over.. and over.. and over.
I would say the game became incredibly easier
Game is harder than ever but players are also better. Just all there is to it.
And no you can't say overall the game is easier because 5mans (lol) were harder in TBC or Cata or what...