Quote Originally Posted by Granyala View Post
And as soon as you get grouped with a raider in a PuG/DF you realize that your character is trash because you do not happen to like organized large group play.

No thank you.
This is the main thing that drives me away from playing WoW as a non raider, despite still loving Azeroth and feeling at home there. Just because I don't raid anymore doesn't mean I don't analyze and evaluate my performance. Constantly being crap due to a lack of raw stats sucks the fun out of playing completely.
I feel you are confused about the current state of FFXIV. Gear currently does provide power differences. Someone with a 240 weapon can do quite a bit more than someone with a 210, 220 or 230 weapon. However, no one is kicking people who have lower ilvl weapons (at least I've seen no stories of such).