Right
Like twchnically you need the better gear if you are doing the higher content
If youre just keeping it casual you dont really need to be super powerful to survive. Like you NEED powerful gear to raid. Period end of story.
Pvp? I mean, BGs… we’ll see how it goes. The expansion is still new. If peoppe are getting way way stronger than the casuals, it could make random
BGs less fun
I have to agree with OP, been playing since wrath and this is the weirdest launch ever, including wod.
I decided to tone it down this release and i have been on for an hour or two each day.
I enjoy hunting achieves and accepted a long time ago that I am not skilled in PvP and pvp rating quickly gates anything rewarding. Mythic+ was fun but scoring has gated that as well. That leaves casuals with little incentive to play.
Let me remind you that without casuals you have no game.
Good gear has always been about timing. You never get good gear - you get gear that is better than other players’ for a limited time. The game always moves on.
Many folks in this thread clearly share the opinion that gear is a mark or measure of prestige.
The OP makes the point that it also gates content, but not just the prestigious content. Quite quickly after release the main features of Shadowlands became unobtainable for casuals. We see a pale echo of raiding and dungeons, torghast is just not any fun and every area is slow and tedious (seriously, how clearly is Blizz telegraphing the state of the release when you have to walk on foot in the maw?)
It would be great to bring back some king of path for casuals to keep up with relevant content. For others that cant seem to enjoy a good thing unless others are having a hard time, i suggest you run your own race.
Except WoW is a video game. Why are we giving WoW Special treatment here?
WoW is litteraly just a video game. It’s not life or a job, or anything special.
I’m simply telling you a fact here that WoW is a video game. This is the part of your statement here that is wrong, because your giving special treatment to WoW, just because it’s WoW. This “no life” behavior can litteraly be applied to ANYTHING.
Oh what’s that? you work 40 hours then play Call of duty on those zombie matches? Well you must be no lifer!
40 hours, and 100%ing spyro? No lifer!
40 hours and modding the crap out of Skyrim? No lifer!
40 hours and getting good in Dark Souls? No lifer!
Hey, how about spending 40 hours and playing some PS2 games on an emulator? Maybe god, that’s negative life! 
/s
…i would ask how, but you will never explain it…
People have Discord or Skype installed and they can talk to their friends though voice chat, even off games and work.
If your talking about going outside and doing that, you do realize were still in a middle of a pandemic?
I’m a casual…
Actually an issue with PvP gearing this xpac is that the level you can upgrade honor gear to is gated behind covenant rep. It really shouldn’t be that way.
Yes, all of those examples you gave would mean you have no life.
If you don’t benefit financially from games that you play, then you are nothing more than a customer. Not some hobby enthusiast as you like to justify it.
I agree
If the power gap between casuals and endgamers gwts too big
And it hurts random BGs
That would probably demoralize me
It is, it’s a video game. And Video games are hobbies.
So is literally nearly every game now, what’s your point?
Again, a lot of games does this now. What’s your point?
I don’t see how that’s ridiculous. If the person wants to play WoW and work 40 hours, i don’t see how that’s ridiculous.
Personal opinion based off of personal bias.
People go play pool, fish, to the shooting range (a personal favorite), and do other forms of activities that they find personal enjoyment and satisfaction in. Why exactly are you complaining about gatekeeping when you are attempting to gatekeep what is and isn’t a hobby?
BTW… One of my hobbies is to watch horror movies… this involves me purchasing the movie… someone is profiting off of my purchasing of said movie.
Hobby: an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.
Playing WoW is a hobby.
No it’s not, you’re a customer unless you profit from it.
Maybe if your hobby was something that gave you some physical benefit or real life benefit then you can consider that an actual productive hobby, but white knighting for an MMO past it’s prime is not consider a hobby, no.
Watching movies is also not a hobby, that’s just an activity you like doing.
If I go off your logic, my hobby is breathing air.
The amount of people defending unhealthy behaviors such as using all of your free time to sit in front of a computer, and equating it to people who enjoy to go fishing, play pool, and have real social interactions, is quite concerning.
Now you are just arguing to argue. Aka trolling.
Hobby: an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.
You do know that’s the definition of hobby right?
It’s actually quite hilarious because they believe they’re right while they expose themselves to all of us rational normal human beings how deep they are into their addiction, or sorry I mean “hobby” 
What wrong with that? Are you worried some how your experience in game will be affected because some 1 else got loot?
This thought process, where in you worry more about someone else getting happy than your happiness in game is what is sad.
I used to enjoy going fishing but then the waterways have become so polluted by man’s reckless behavior that eating what I catch is no longer a safe and healthy activity.
There is currently a global pandemic that is limiting people’s ability to have real social interactions with each other.
It’s this rampant Elitist vs. Casual mindset, the problem is that the elitists don’t realize that without us casuals they wouldn’t even have a game to play.
Don’t worry, people are unsubbing en masse so things will change or stay the same, either way the only ones who will be stuck in the afterlife population is the elitists that defend it.
Sure, but let’s not sit here and pretend that your habits have changed because of the pandemic. Coronavirus has broad shoulders, but let’s not kid ourselves here.
If you mean this sincerely, then you can pug normal Castle Nathria with little difficulty. You don’t need a dedicated team of friends or a guild to pug M+. You’ll still be able to cap conquest and get 200 pvp gear. There are options out there.
The options end after 200 iLevel for a lot of players which is the point of this post.
Not in the slightest. But the one person here who IS worried that their own in game experience is ruined because someone else got loot is the thread starter. Go ask him this question.
The OP is right, the loot and gearing favors no lifers over the casual player that keeps this game alive and there are many more people who feel like him because that’s the reality of the game for most players.