In which I rant.

This is an actual response from the blogosphere to Bornakk’s announcement that Emblems of Triumph will soon replace Emblems of Conquest as the “base” emblem:

I am annoyed that I’ll once again have to grind heroics come 3.3 for enough Triumph for full Tier 9!

Complaining about grinding heroics for full Tier 9?  Really?

I have three words for you:

BOO.

FREAKING.

HOO.

Seriously.  How much more "accessible" can this game get?  Short of lowering the level cap to 5 and installing an Emblem of Triumph vendor in the Valley of Trials to exchange T10 pieces for twisted boar’s tails, NOT VERY.

Ugh. 

Just ugh.

My alt — who has never set foot in a 25-man raid harder than Naxxramas — is just three Emblems of Triumph shy of 4pt9.  I've missed more heroic dailies than not and attended a few alt runs of ToC 10 ... and by "alt," I mean "tanked, healed and DPS'd by newly ding'd 80's in quest blues and a smattering of the already widely accessible welfare Emblem of Conquest epics." 

Trial of the Crusader isn't hard. 

And T9?  IS ALREADY FREE. 

But, lo!  Soon™, instead of collecting Emblems of Triumph from daily heroics and the occasional ToC loot-go-round, casual players and up-and-coming 80's will be able to farm heroics for full T9.

/golfclap

I know, I know.  Blizzard is striving to make raid content accessible to the majority of the playerbase while throwing the more serious raiders a bone in the form of hard-modes.  (Unfortunately for us, hard-modes are recycled challenges, not new ones, and there are only so many times you can clear Trial of the Crusader in any one of its four incarnations before it starts to feel claustrophobic anyway.)

So, no, I'm not happy about it — but I do understand that it is ultimately a business decision. 

That's fine.  Really.

It's reading this kind of inane QQ that inspires me to /rage. 

... and then the rage subsides, and I'm just sad.  I miss my linear raid progression.

Edited to add: What he said.