I have not raided before, is it worth learning and how can one learn when raiding seems so restrictive.
I would say that it is worth trying out. My personal opinion is that it is the best content that Blizzard has to offer.
There are groups and individuals that run new players/learning players through normal mode raids. One frequently posts in the General Discussion forums. Additionally you could try contacting one of the more social guilds that might do some casual raiding and be willing to show you the ropes.
Overall raiding (outside of mythic raiding) isn’t as restrictive as you might think. If schedules don’t work for you due to a hectic life, there are always plenty of pick up groups to be found through group finder.
It’s not really restrictive but it’s a group activity (10-15 is the smallest practical group and 20-25 is the common group size) with a group-learning curve.
As far as your gear goes, most groups want 340 as the min for Normal difficulty raids. And you’re almost there. The warfronts and the new Night Elf quest line and a few gear WQ’s could easily put you over 340.
The real problem you’re are going to have getting past LFR and into more organized raiding is the size of your guild which has less than 6 level 120’s in it. Small guilds, with work become big guilds, and small guilds, if they are willing to create public groups and invite random people in, can still raid. It takes a lot of effort to expand and you can use those public groups as opportunities to recruit others to your guild.
But you joining another guild’s or communities run… Think of guilds like a business. Businesses like investing time and effort into training employees that they have a reasonable expectation of retaining for the long term. When it’s necessary to hire a short-term contractor, training a short-timer they may never see again isn’t a good investment, instead they are going to prefer those with a proven track record that don’t need training.
I have played this game since it came out. This is one of blizzards biggest fails so far. welcome to grindfest.