First, who cares if casuals can get good gear?
I mean seriously? Do you people care about your "l33t" factor so much that you think it good that no one gets as good gear as you? Grow up.

Second, it's obviously to close the gap before WotLK comes out.

Because the only people who can get good gear should dedicate a lot of time to where its obscene, am I right?

Wow, so that is the sound a shriveling e-peen makes?

Fascinating!

I'm looking forward to gear being accessible to more folks. That way performance can be properly attributed to skill instead of time spent.

WoW is a pretty fun game as it stands, but the less it feels like a loot roulette wheel, the more I enjoy it.

I don't like the idea that my progression should be tied to dumb luck on drops. Reasonable badge rewards that provide at least some progress for my time invested is a good direction in my opinion.

i completely agree with this guy

Whats sad is your prolly just a elitist jerk wannabe...friends with one of em, but dont have even any idea about endgame, if people can get some gear that is comparable but not as good as mine for end game, go for it...i dont mind. more power too em, still takes teamwork and skill to make it through SSC and TK, killing kael and vashj is not just a gear check...

give the casuals all the gear they want, make raid gear obsolete, whatever - killing raid bosses will still be hella fun. and fun is the reason to play, right?

With Nethers also being transferable, you can also try and convert your badges to gold that way too. So it seems badges will be able to be monetized with 2.4. Now, I just need to get a couple hundred more of them :)

~Tid ... http://blog.wowtid.com/

As a casual player I can point an laugh now. Now I gots the epics you had.

While I agree with what you are saying, I question the point. If these folks never intend to move to 25 man content, then what do they need the gear for? Even with the 2.3 badge loot, heroics are already incredibly easy. Running 5-man heroics in 2.4 badge gear will be snooze worthy (with the exception of Magister's Terrace I suppose).

I think this sort of thing is more of a boon to casual players that want to take a peek at 25-man content. Or perhaps to gear out a guild that focuses on 10 mans to the point that they can start picking up their bear mounts.

Oh, and as a further note, I'd love to see a reason for better gear in 5-mans. Perhaps a legendary mode that is tougher than heroic. I'd suggest that the bosses be much tougher, and drop two badges instead of one to make the effort worthwhile. Or perhaps even introduce a tiered badge reward system with a second type of badge required for the better gear (the better badges dropping out of 25-mans and legendary 5-mans).

It would give people with smaller guilds a progression path that didn't include sacrificing the tight-knit nature of their group for the informal business-like nature of a 25-man raid. I raid with many people, but I only actually enjoy playing with a handful.