It's been a long while since I've actually posted around here. Been very, very busy with work so I don't have as much time as I would like. So as of Warlords, I've stopped raiding normal modes. I did Highmaul looking for raid this expac, but haven't really had as much time to dedicate to WoW as I used to.
So, as usual: let's talk about LFR (again).
LFR (looking for raid) was created for the casual player that just doesn't have the time or the inclination to go to the next echelon of raiding (also known as normal mode). Now the big debate (at least on the forums) is this: is LFR considered a raid or not?
Blizzard's definition of a raid group is this: a group of 10 or more people getting together to down endgame bosses.
LFR throws together 25 people to down endgame bosses. This suffices Blizzard's definition of raiding.
To me, the difficulty does not matter. LFR counts as a raid because it requires more than the standard 5 people.
For example: let's take any of the old raids that anyone can solo at this point. Did they stop being raids because they are now soloable? No. At the time they were created, you needed 10 or more players to down those bosses.
Bliz isn't (fully) in the habit of making former 10-25 man raids into 5 mans the next expac (looking at you ZG/ZA).
Could LFR be a smidge bit difficult? I know Highmaul could have been (again, I haven't touched the newest one so I can't speak for the difficulty there).
However, the raiding community needs to remember this: LFR is designed for people that aren't going into normal or above mode. It is not designed with full communication in mind. They tried this with 5 mans during Cata- remember how that turned out with random people? There is a huge difference between an ORGANIZED group and one in which half the raid may not even speak the same language.
In fact, with an organized group, things tend to be a bit easier (speaking from lots of experience here) because there is constant communication. As we are gearing through normals, eventually it turns into as much of a snorefest as running LFR with a bunch of raid geared people is.
The reason LFR awards lower raid standard gear is this: casuals do deserve some sort of compensation for their time and patience with putting up with 24 random strangers. There needs to be some sort of progression in power: both as an individual and for when the next tier of LFR comes out (because, yes, things do get more difficult).
So, as usual: let's talk about LFR (again).
LFR (looking for raid) was created for the casual player that just doesn't have the time or the inclination to go to the next echelon of raiding (also known as normal mode). Now the big debate (at least on the forums) is this: is LFR considered a raid or not?
Blizzard's definition of a raid group is this: a group of 10 or more people getting together to down endgame bosses.
LFR throws together 25 people to down endgame bosses. This suffices Blizzard's definition of raiding.
To me, the difficulty does not matter. LFR counts as a raid because it requires more than the standard 5 people.
For example: let's take any of the old raids that anyone can solo at this point. Did they stop being raids because they are now soloable? No. At the time they were created, you needed 10 or more players to down those bosses.
Bliz isn't (fully) in the habit of making former 10-25 man raids into 5 mans the next expac (looking at you ZG/ZA).
Could LFR be a smidge bit difficult? I know Highmaul could have been (again, I haven't touched the newest one so I can't speak for the difficulty there).
However, the raiding community needs to remember this: LFR is designed for people that aren't going into normal or above mode. It is not designed with full communication in mind. They tried this with 5 mans during Cata- remember how that turned out with random people? There is a huge difference between an ORGANIZED group and one in which half the raid may not even speak the same language.
In fact, with an organized group, things tend to be a bit easier (speaking from lots of experience here) because there is constant communication. As we are gearing through normals, eventually it turns into as much of a snorefest as running LFR with a bunch of raid geared people is.
The reason LFR awards lower raid standard gear is this: casuals do deserve some sort of compensation for their time and patience with putting up with 24 random strangers. There needs to be some sort of progression in power: both as an individual and for when the next tier of LFR comes out (because, yes, things do get more difficult).