I think that you are forgetting that there are people who put far more time and energy into getting their tier gear, and they have to deal with people who can and will fail them while they are doing it.

It's called "raiding" and "teamwork". You may be really good at playing catch with yourself, but you aren't anywhere near the minor leagues, forget the major ones. You can't expect a contract and millions of dollars without having to work for it.

They are creating, just for people like you, a third tier of raiding. You can go and grind out your gear there, or run the three new five mans to your heart's content. You just have to adjust your expectations on what your play style's "end game gear" is for you. Be proud of what you can get and admire those who go the extra mile.

-signed, a casual

I couldn't disagree more. Everyone in tier 9 ruined the tier set. It meant nothing to see somebody in tier 9, not a thing. When frost dropped in heroics the same thing happened with tier 10, all of my alts got full T10 and it meant nothing. Seeing other people walk around in T10 meant nothing.

This is the best of both worlds, you can use VP and get a cohesive look for your character, and if you see somebody in tier it means they got it by doing the content. It's a WOW factor again (and not the acronym for the game). And, it means that you can actually get matching shoulders and helmets without having mismatched troll crap on.

And since most people will just be transmogrifying their stuff anyways, this is the best way to do this that I can possibly imagine!

I think that the most soul crushing part of a raid isn't having problems overcoming the boss, it's overcoming the boss week after week without any tangible reward. Having a secondary option that doesn't revolve around a complex algorithm solves that frustration.

I don't expect the "million dollar contract," I have only touched heroic raiding once and I'm convinced that if the hardcore players aren't satisfied with it then they're getting insatiable. They can have their heroic tier gear, I just want the gear that I have the skill to earn, but lack the schedule to accomplish in a set raiding team.

I promise I'll explore the Raid Dungeon Finder option, but I honestly don't know if I can handle the RNG on top of the terrible demeanor of the Dungeon Finder community just for a "baby" Tier 13 token.

-Signed, a former set team raider turned casual

But if someone does happen to get geared completely they can help their friends get geared. Or- le gasp! They can... finally be done for a while. Rotate out so that someone new can raid and learn with the more experienced players. Why should you have to smack your head against a boss for the entirety of the content?

Once upon a time you worked a long, long time to get your gear, and it sucked. They made it easier, but it still kinda sucked. Then they made it too easy, and it lost all meaning. They overshot, and they need to find balance. Balance, balance, it's always balance. They need to give the gear meaning, yet make it obtainable without working for 6 months and never ever getting your purple pointy hat. RNG will always suck, it always has- this is an experiment. Blizz has been experimenting since day one, and it still hasn't figured everything out. And guess what? It never will. It will always been balancing and tweaking. It could be that normals are a better way to get tier at somewhat regular intervals, but look at the sunny bright side:

YOU AREN'T LOCKED INTO THE LFR RAID. You can run, and run, and run, and beat your head against the bosses for as long as you desire, (just like a heroic dungeon minus the points, making the stakes higher and stretching out game play time and the bottom line). And if you don't want to do it, you don't have to! No commitment, no problem! Do I think this is the perfect solution? No. But I have full faith that they'll remove anything that doesn't work in the long run. So no worries!