The idea that you would consider the vanilla honor grind as “casual” pretty much tells me all I need to know with how out of touch you are with reality.
What was the good solo progression in TBC since you’re bringing it up? Because Im playing TBC classic so I’m not just basing it on nostalgia and I can’t find it.
I am really excited about this. Weapons are the one thing I really have an issue getting right now as a solo player. This was a huge thing I was looking forward to in this patch. The info on the Jiro unlocks is really helpful!
Welp, now I see you did not play Vanilla or BC or LK back when they were current. Rank 14 was a grind, Rank 11, not so much but expecting you to know this pointless as you have never played it.
Rank 11 was still an insane amount of hours. Not like rank 13-14 but still a crazy amount time. Playing this game 30-40 hours a week is in no universe “casual” even though that’s less than the 120+ hours a week needed for rank 14.
Anyway it doesn’t matter.
Hi there. Rank 10 pvp’er from vanilla here. I was grinding 800k+ honor for those last couple of ranks before I burned out. That was at least 8 hours of pvp per day on my server. Not even remotely casual.
And rank 11 was a mount. Rank 10 got you the full superior-quality set. That, plus TuF, was pretty good, but BWL and AQ gear was much better. Can’t comment on rank 14 gear, since I only recall one person in my old guild that ever got it.
Solo progression in 9.2 has been decent, and the cc is great, imo. My only complaints would be cypher weapons should have been a thing from the get-go, and 9.2.5 should have added some additional ranks to cypher gear. If Blizz actually applies what works and what could be improved for DF, I think solo gearing will be in a good place.
I got a random token drop last night that opened cypher weapons for me when turned in. Someone from our guild got the same token as a random drop in raid trash. (Too bad I had already gotten a lower level off spec weapon BEFORE I got the token 
)
while doing my dailies in zerith mortis yesterday(despite the servers sh!tting themselves) i got a quest item, an orb or disc that claimed it would allow me to unlock cypher weapons in zerith mortis.
but since turning that quest in i still havent seen anything.
I picked up the same disc on my main character the other day from a rare kill and unlocked cypher weapons when I turned it in. Today when I turned in the weekly quest Patterns within Patterns I got Rhapsodic Cleaver lvl 252. I am 6/6 cypher research, so your item level may be lower if your research isn’t maxed.
Trinkets and other goodies literally laying there on the floor. For some weird reason there’s no breadcrumbs leading you there.
Not sure if this was mentioned already but I received a quest from a random desert mob staying cypher weapons are available. Have yet to see one
Stranger Danger.
That is strange because the other day I got a quest that unlocked them. I didn’t do any follow up to find out where the actual weapon vendor was because my weapon is 265. 
I’m not actually sure what the plan was anymore. I thought Season 4 was what was announced, but I also got that weapon unlock, however, I haven’t seen a single cypher weapon since turning it in. 
they are already here. you need to go and kill mobs in ZM and they will drop some disc. i didnt know about it. but on my way to raid i seen a chest and a mob came on my so i killed it and this epic disc this dropped quest and it said learn cypher weapons.
I’ve only gotten the actual weapon from the weekly “Patters within Patterns” quest. Anyone else only get the weapon from this?
I’ve had one so far. And, like you from a weekly chest. Nothing else for any of the alts.
Edit: One dropped just now, from the quest ‘Connecting it all’
I had a WQ show a helm as the reward, then I had the disc drop and after turning it in, the same WQ switched rewards to a dagger.
The real problem I have with the system is that it’s not account-wide. So if you want an alt to be able to get cypher weapons, you have to do the entire Jiro quest chain all over again on THAT character, then hope the disc drops before they’ll start getting cypher weapons show up.
At some point Blizz is going to stop making these supposed alt catch-up mechanics not alt friendly.
I got my 252 bow from a puzzle cache today, I’m pretty happy.
So, there are weapons today? runs to log in and check
EDIT
YES! New weapons for like 4 chars for me. This is nice. Fast puzzle quest so I am just cycling through alts now.
TY so much for saying something!
They are out there. I got mine from a WQ last week. It says Cypher Equipment if you look at my character profile.