I believe the main problem is the lack of alternative venues. You still have time-gating and the person still gets a reward eventually. That way we protect the precious feelings of the raiders, too! Apparently there was this thing called Titanforging in BfA and many casual players liked it. Everything else I think I am fine with. The catalyst does this, though. Also, being a solo player means the need for the power is more abstract and non-quantifiable.
If it were me, some gear including tier would only be available through raiding. I think solo content flourishes best when players are in healthy guilds that take on end-game challenges. The power you got from this relatively easy and social weekly interaction with the game made the other solo activities much easier isle of giants, isle of thunder, dailies, timeless isle because you had the gear that you got from an easy source.
Combining LFR which was also much easier than current LFR with a normal raid once a week gave everyone pretty immense player power that translated really well into the open world and available solo content. I appreciate you being constructive I have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence that people who want to play group content will play group content even if that is not the most rewarding venue in the game. Not sure why one gets more value than the other. Me and others would be quite OK if an average raider can get 4-tier set in, say, 10 weeks, and we the solo players get it after The raiders still get to obtain it first.
No harm done, no? I agree on your take of MoP btw. I played part of it β the beginning and the end β and it was super chill at the last patch. Not as chill as Cataclysm but almost.
I enjoyed my time back then. Make all player groups whose preferences are not compatible with one another segregated. Right now, the incentive to form a group and go into a normal raid is pretty low. I also think that from a resource and game direction perspective having group play healthily intertwined with solo-play as I discussed above makes the game easier to design.
