That is where "welfare epics" come into play. While understanding that the term "Welfare Epics" originally applied to PVP Arena rewards, the term is easily applicable here as well. Instead of farming tier 5 and tier 6 gear for an entire guild, you can leapfrog ahead by running heroic instances or mastering trade skills and have the gear required to experience tier 5 and tier 6 content without the massive (no pun intended) learning curve or gear farming experienced by most end game raiding guilds.


   Some folks might think that it’s making things easy for the casual player, and they would be absolutely correct. However, Blizzard appears to have learned a very valuable lesson. It is not cost-effective, in the long run, for them to design all of this great content that only 5-10% of the player base will ever see. When Burning Crusade went live, guilds that were more casual never gave Zul’Gurub, Ahn’Qiraj, or Naxxramas a second (or even first) glance.