So how is the grind to Tier 6 – with little/no way to upgrade gear til then – not challenging? It may not be qualitatively/short-term challenging like raiding, but it certainly tests one’s mettle as a quantitative/long-term challenge.
The sprint isn’t the only kind of race. So’s a marathon.
I was pretty shocked too when I saw that as well. I don’t get why you need rank 6 for something so low. IMO rank 4 you should be able to. I don’t think it should be lower because the grind to 3 isn’t all that bad if you do your dailies and get the treasures, quests, etc. and it is gear easy to get doing very little. But rank 6 is a bit much just for 226.
ITT solo players complaining their gear isn’t good enough enough for works quests and solo content.
I think they should get rid of ilvl completely. All epics should have the same total stat allocation regardless of the source they were acquired through. High end end game content should reward cosmetics.
You’re a raider. You have zero stake in this conversation at all.
This gear isn’t for you.
You 
can’t do that because the game makes you go through every upgrade level.
And they’re the ones who will whine and complain that casuals get Normal raid level gear too fast. They constantly whine that casuals shouldn’t be able to reach raid level ilevels. Other MMOs do the same thing: get higher ilevels faster by doing group end game content, get higher ilevels super slow by doing casual, non-group content. This isn’t rocket science. It’s gated super slow behind rank 6 so no one can reach Normal raid ilevel too soon so the raiders won’t whine that people who don’t do group content got group content ilevel.
Not really much of catch up gear with the amount of time it will take to hit rank 6.
It’s literally ilevel 200 to start with for any new level 60 alt. That’s catch up gear. And it takes a whole one run through some rares in less than an hour to get enough research to level that gear a rank or two. That’s catch up gear.
Hell, they’re not even focusing on all of the “three pillars” of end game unless you just count upgraded gear. The only of the “three pillars” to get new content this patch is raiding with Santcum of Domination. They ignore PvP and there’s no new mythic dungeon to run.
Tazavesh would like to say hello.
Are you able to run Tazavesh on Mythic plus? I may have missed that news…if so, I stand corrected.
You said “new mythic dungeon.” Not M+. The M+ version will open up in a future patch, like it always does with megadungeons that have been introduced since Legion.
Should have clarified, mythic plus.
226 and 233 both requiring tier 6 kind feels like Blizzard is kicking dirt in my face.
Mo’greth gave me a 233 trinket… on 2 toons so far
Totally unnecessary. The raid opened on 7/5. Raiders have had 4 weeks head start on us casuals, and I still have at least 2 weeks until I hit rep level 5. By then every raider will have at least 6 pieces of 226 gear EVEN WITHOUT ONE BOSS DROP. Most likely they’ll have 9+, Even if rep level 5 opened up 226 gear I would only be able to upgrade 5, assuming I get a fifth slot to drop (5 helms, 2 legs, 1 weapon, 7 belts-useless because that’s my Lego and one glove) before I run out of currency. Still ahead of the filthy casual would they be. 
Then you’re doing something wrong, because a bunch of us are already rep Tier 6.
This all comes back to, why do you need 233 gear for world quests? 4 weeks is nothing when the patch lasts 6+ months. There are many guilds that are still progressing normal SoD, not all that many cleared heroic SoD in comparison to the amount of players who have achieved KSM. The gear you have is appropriate for the content you are doing.
And I say that means you’re not remotely “casual”. Besides, the renown gate is still two weeks away anyhow, which is enough of a hard gate. Waiting for tier 6 for the 226 upgrades is beyond unnecessary, further evidence that the dev teams hates having to create anything for the casual player and why I’ll be back playing FFXIV come September 1. 
The entire game bends over backwards to cater to casual players.
The only problem is that a lot of “casual players” are never satisfied and just want MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE. Which has been the problem with “Monty Haul campaigns” since the 1970’s.
makes perfect sense, gets you just geared enough to be able to just farm elites without struggling, your first week in korthia you’ll struggle until you upgrade the gear, then it’s easy, you’re not there to farm raiding gear, you’re there to get new mounts