Because they want the definitions of the game to apply. Why is there no epic gear in heroics? Because 'epic' doesn't mean 'I went in with four people I just met and we manage to shoot/hack/burn everything till it was dead and we took their stuff' that's superior.

Epic is 'we went into the final stronghold of the black dragonflight, fought creatures from the depths of the earth, an ancient group of powerful golems, and the twisted creations of a mad dragon bent on destruction'.

Likewise, defeating the most powerful of those dragons, besting a mighty ogre-mage with the power of an old god, and the most powerful elemental lord of air we know of, all counts as 'legendary'.

Because it's a legendary. And legendaries take legendary amounts of effort. They are for the hardcore and the hardcore only, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Absurd. Assuming they don't mean heroic (in which case you'd be justified in your point of view), 12/12 N does NOT take 16 hours a week. You have to kill each boss once...and by the time the chain comes out, you'll also have access to 359 gear just for running random dungeons via JP. Even if you are very casual (3-4 hrs a week), 6-9/12 should not be out of your reach right now. Given this won't be out for another month at the earliest, and you should be looking at 9-11/12 minimum at that point.

It isn't too much of them to ask that you go back and piledrive content that you overgear ONCE. Also...if you aren't capable of downing one tier old content, you won't be getting far on a legendary chain anyway (they aren't going to be passing these out like hotcakes).

Its understandable, but with the new 4.1 gear just raiding 4-8 hours a week should get you 12/12 by the time 4.2 hits.

Well, from the sounds of it you'll need a lot more than just the 4.0 raids - you'll need stuff from firelands too. There's never been a legendary that doesn't require high-end raiding; this is no different.

BWD, BoT and TOFW are fairly puggable, even now. By the time T12 starts rolling in it will be a cakewalk, much like ToC was in ICC gear.

Not all the rewards and content are for the hardcore raiders, though. Minipets, titles, mounts are all available for people who do X amount of quests, gain X amount of exalted reps, collect X amount of minipets and mounts.

Besides, you're not being completely locked out of content because you don't have 16 hours a week to raid, it's just not feasable for you to do -yet-. Ulduar Proto-drakes? Two hours with a half-decent pug these days. Thunderfury and Sulfuras? Can mostly be solo farmed (except for downing razorgore which requires at least two people if you want to farm Ingots instead of buying them). with some dedication and luck. Ashes of A'lar takes a grand total of a half hour to get in and kill Kael'thas with 4 or 5 people and is still one of the coolest mounts in the game. A mount run on Maly can be 4 manned, Onyxia and Skadi can be soloed. 25OS3D is a simple pug of 10 minutes and requires no more than 9 or 10 people if you have awesome DPS.

There's always going to be someone who gets the short end of the stick. Even if you're an extremely hardcore raider, you might be on a dying backwater server with no guilds capable of doing current content.


@ Jonas - You're right. The datamined quests imply that we'll be collecting some sort of Shard in Firelands like we did in ICC and Ulduar.

Because legendaries, in a system where raiding is easier, are still supposed to be really, really hard to get.

Once 4.2 comes out you will be able to get t11 from justice points. Beating BWD BoT and TotFW on normal should be no problem for a raid in full t11 and 353 epics from the new 5 mans. And besides, it is a legendary weapon, and those have always required raiding to create. They are the ultimate reward for hardcore raiders, there are plenty of other things to work towards if you are not an advanced raider.

A correction: Epic means I have massive amounts of free time in large blocks to be able to complete all the stuff that Blizz wants me to do. Those whose uninterrupted free time is generally less than 2 hours at a stretch should ... play Rift maybe?
I must admit that compared to Wrath I'm finding Cata much less enjoyable because of the contiguous time commitments.

What the hell do you need a Legendary for if you haven't even cleared the current tier of content yet? It's like the person who never runs anything but regular dungeons who complains that they don't have a full T11 set.

Hey Noel... Maybe it's just me, but it sounds like you don't deserve things you don't work for.

Does your boss reward you for just coming into work, too?

Some of the PUGs ive run with, I deserve epic gear.