Was your choice to put them hours in, nobody forced you to do so. Now you know of this change, why don't you stop playing for hours, and just grind heroics.

Can i ask you something? Did you enjoy the raiding, the hours of wiping, the spending "100's of gold in repairs", the elation of finally down a tricky boss, the thrill when something goes horribly wrong, and you JUST manage to pull it together, the joy of beating a fun challenge with 24(or9) friends? If you didn't, then you are an idiot. The hard work is part of the fun. I don't know why people can't understand that gear is a means to an end. Sure, it can also be a badge of honour, but it's a badge that is immediately out of date once a new patch goes live.

What the hell do you care that people will be wearing gear that is then out of date, while you go do the t9 content? Sure you worked hard for your gear, but if you didn't enjoy earning it, then you are missing the point of the game entirely.

You swapped out the gear that you raided Naxx for months, for quest reward greens, as soon as BC launched. Suck it up, Buttercup. The world moves on despite your inferiority complex.

Just because there are people with a Real Life (it's probably in the dictionary would you be confused here), does that mean they cannot get the fullest out of the game they pay as much for as you do each month?

At least, when I signed up for this game, it did not say in the conditions anywhere I had to put at least five hours a day in playing it to get anywhere.

You chose to spend your time/life on that gear, it doesn't mean others can't have it just because they can/choose to spend less time on it. Quite a selfish comment.

Raiders seem to feel superior over casual players (been like that since I started playing 4 years ago), while actually, I feel soooo much superior for having friends, kids, a home, a life :) AND THE SAME GEAR!

Also, those that do end up getting the gear through Heroics will likely end up putting in more actual HOURS of hard work than you did in Ulduar. Just stop and think about how much time it will take to run enough heroics to buy everything from the vendor, which I might add doesn't make up for all the gear you got in Ulduar given that the vendors only have a certain selection of gear.

Wonk has a very good point, but puts it across badly.

In order to do 'your share' in Ulduar raids you need to have raided Naxxramas. In order to raid Naxxramas you need to have done heroics / crafted epics / bought BoE drops off the AH. All this comes down to 1 word: Effort.
Currently Ulduar 25 bosses drop 25 Emblem of Conquest (1 for each player).
In 3.2 heroic bosses will drop 5 Emblemt of Conquest (1 for each player).
No heroic boss is difficult enough or requires enough from players in terms of skill and gear to warrant dropping 1 Emblems of Conquest, let alone 5.

I do raid for fun, but, just like Wonk, I put a lot of work into getting my character this good. It isn't right that someone should need to put significantly less work into theirs to get to the same level as mine.
In more abstract terms: No character running heroics for gear should be able to do and become as well geared as a character doing the 2nd tier of raids.
Alternatively: Running heroics should not enable anyone to skip an entire tier of raiding.

@Chunkchunk: You seem to be under the impression that completing any heroic in WotLK requires hard work. Even in blues this isn't true.

I'm not bashing Casuals here. If you're not playing the game as much as me, for ANY reason, that's your choice and I respect it. I'm bashing the bad players (not ones that make occasional mistakes, the people who are genuinely bad at this game) don't deserve good gear full stop and will get good gear because of this change.