Yes, but what keeps getting glossed over is that raiding in cata will NOT be jsut one dungeon a patch, but several dungeons. We look at the one lockout and think, well, if we get get locked out of ICC, then there's just TGC or Ulduar.

But that's not how it's going to be, There will be several raid dungeons with a handful of bosses. Getting locked to one still leaves a couple more raid zones open. And the gear will be identical anyway. So there's not more (weakerer) gear to be found in 10s anyway.

For 25s that currently use every availible outlet to gather gear, the simple fact is the game will change. You're too set in your current ways, and we don't have enough information, to view these changes with the proper perspective. Wait and see and then look back and laugh at how nervous you were to make posts like this.

There probably won't be more content per patch though. They specifically said instead of 1 11 man raid you might get a 5 boss raid and 6 boss raid. So there probably won't be more to do each patch.

@undra: tier 7 had 3 raids. 2 were single boss affairs. Naxx had 15. But naxx was an old raid.

Tier 8 had 1 raid. 13 bosses.

Tier 9 had 1 raid. 5 bosses.

Tier 10 has 1 raid, 12 bosses.

If they have a trend it is unlikely to be more than a dozen or so bosses total per tier. So regardless of raid lockouts, we are likely to only see so much gear.

splitting 10 bosses into 2 dungeons instead of 1 is not significantly different than having one raid with 10 bosses in it. There's not going to suddenly be a bunch more content in Cata compared to WotLK.

The point is that Blizzard isn't clueless to all of this, and they (GC specifically) have said MULTIPLE times they aren't trying to doom 25 mans, and we simply don't have enough specifics on what and how much will drop. This doesn't mean the system is somehow infallible or going to be perfect at launch, but I'm pretty sure they simply aren't going to leave off-specs out in the cold.
Perhaps in-raid switches will usually never be necessary, or the gear from points or heroics will help fill the gap, or raids will be tiered for main and off-specs or something.

In summary, people keep trying to put the new Cata "engine" in our old Wrath "car", and then wonder why it isn't working like it should. These are legitimate concerns, no doubt, but we should treat them only as concerns until we have some actual specifics on how it all is going to actually (not hypothetically) work.

PS- this applies to class/zone/spec/talent/leveling changes as well. :-)

Now: 1 dungeon, 10 bosses, 10 + 25 lockouts = 2 lockouts and chances to get loot but not the same gear so people may roll in both because of that difference if you do 10 before 25 for whatever reason.

Cata: 2 dungeons, 5 bosses each, 10 or 25 lockouts = 2 lockouts and chances to get loot and it is the same gear so people won't roll in both.

So, it's not how much content per patch. 10 bosses is still 10 bosses. However, they are breaking it up to compensate for the fewer lockouts by having more lockout points. So you still get the same number of raids AND it's not the same raids in the same week.

I think I'll take this change.