I agree completely.

Naxx was great because each boss had a unique ability that players had to learn. It was executed well, and thus was used twice.

The Cata raids however have 3-5 mechanics per boss. That's very do-able when you are prepared and know what to do, but it's still 3 to 5 times harder than Naxx. It gets even worse when the margin of error allowed is nill because suddenly "healing needs to be more fun" in that if you fuck up for 1 second everything goes to shit.

Sure, we may know how to do each mechanic on its own, but having to handle multiple at once with little room for error makes raids intensely more demanding and significantly less fun.

I'm sorry, but I want to be able to clear a raid within a month of starting it. I enjoy other aspects of the game and it's insane to expect 9 hours a week to slam my head into a wall trying to do regular encounters because I'm not in an elite guild. Blizzard needs to tune down regular fights so that it's easier. Hopefully that's what the raid finder does.

(And as for the super-elite hardcores, they won't quit if it's easier. The best of the best make money playing WoW so of course they won't stop. And if someone does quit because mechanics return to the days of Vanilla, I'm sure it's more of a straw-that-broke-the-camels-back thing.)


TLDR- Make raids like the safety dance. If I can learn the fight but my friends can't, at least I can solo it over 3 hours. WoW is a game, let me feel epic without needing an advanced raiding resume to be with the best-of-the-best and down content. ^_^