I agree there should be two levels of progression, and I agree that not being able to buy Tier 8 with badges is @!#!@#. If not for badge buys I would not have my chest or hands, since neither my guild, nor any of the runs I've subbed into, have run the bosses that drop those tokens.

However... I think this entire article and argument begs an important question, which some of you are addressing, is raiding with 15 more people worth 13 ilevels? Personally, I think it is entirely ridiculous that you get better gear because you happen to have a larger group. I think all high-ilvl gear should come from hard modes.

Sure it is harder to organize 25 people, but I disagree that having 24 other people there somehow makes raiders work harder. I've seen so much bone-headed crap in 25s you'd think the characters were being run by drunk, retarded one-eyed muskrats with cerebral palsy. In a 10-man there's no hiding. When you screw up in general it's up there in lights for all to see. On my Spriest geared in less-than-BiS from 10-mans and my 2 pieces of T7, I've outDPSed full 25-man geared Mages and Warlocks. Is it because Spriests are damage monsters? Hell no. I think it's because even though their gear is better, or maybe because their gear is better, and they have 24 other people pounding on the boss, they don't push very hard.

Currently the game rewards you more for herding more cats. Is herding more cats really worth that gear though, especially when an offbeat hybrid DPS whose best gear is 2 pieces a full tier below yours can stomp all over the DPS leaderboards? To me 25 man raids are an excuse to give players better gear, not a reason. If players want to coast through a raid on normal mode and pick up the basic drops, no prob. If they want to take a shot at better gear, a better reward, I think they should have to work for it. The point is, I run the same rotations at the same priorities and use the same situationals in 25-man as in 10-man raids... I do the same work.. and somehow the fact that there are 24 other people there rather than 9 means that what I did was somehow deserving of a greater reward.

If you want a better reward, you should have to earn it, not run the same fight tuned for more people.