Jeff goes on to say that at end game, developers stop giving us nice fun instances, and replace that with DICC (Difficult and Increasingly time-Consuming Content). So is raiding all there is to do at level 80? No way! Heroics are the first port of call, and Jeff should love them – all the instances that we enjoyed forming groups for and tackling while we leveled, but re-tuned for level 80s. And we can do them virtually from the moment we reach level 80. I reached level cap on my most recent character on Sunday, and within 3 hours I was doing a heroic instance, which gives me emblems that I can use to buy raid gear, not the “second-rate loot” Jeff mentions. Who says you need to be hardcore or elite to get good gear? 

Back in vanilla days, and possibly in areas of TBC, players would certainly have to set back several hours to complete a raid or even some heroic instances. That's all changed with WotLK though, heroics are just a little harder than a 5 man level 80 normal instance. Blizzard designed all instances in the latest expansion to take players no more than an hour to complete, and heroics don't take much longer. Four hours per game session is an unrealistic view of obtaining raid gear in WoW these days thanks to heroics. Sure, if you're raiding you can set back that much time, but it isn't necessary, and even if you do, many casual guilds can clear the full Naxxramas raid in one evening now.

“Any type of intensely time-consuming content in WoW is glorified and yields great loot, and normal content does not.”

So, assuming 'normal content' here means anything except raiding and Arena (I'll discuss that in a moment), this is wrong. Short heroics that I would consider normal content offer wonderful rewards, and that will improve again in the upcoming patch. Where I do agree with Jeff, however, is that some grinding is rewarded with nice loot. Daily quests which are available to all players, the Argent Tournament ones spring to mind,  now also reward gear equivalent to raid loot. It's not necessary to be organised or skilled to obtain this stuff, just willing to log on and do the same quests for a month, but it's an alternative to heroics for casual players.

Another thing mentioned in the article was the necessity to complete long quest chains and yet more grinds to be able to enter heroics and raids – not anymore Jeff. In TBC, Blizzard significantly reduced the reputation required to be able to enter heroic instances, and completely did away with the notion in WotLK. Now all you need to enter heroics or raids is to be level 80.

The Arena is the next topic, which is dismissed as another straightforward grind. I would like to point out that Jeff does actually say that Arenas require players to “organise the other players on your team” “play consistently” and “win some matches”. Again, I consider the term “grind” to be completely out of place in regards to anything that requires players to have any sort of organisational and playing skills. The Arena is somewhere newbs fear to tread, and for a good reason; the most skilled PvP players roam these lands, and no one should enter them lightly. Go in unprepared and get your behind handed back to you on a plate. The more you lose, the lower your rating drops, and the less points you gain, making the gear hard to obtain. So, you must have some skill, and some PvP gear, to win.

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