Would you raid if there was no ilvl?

[Vespar]

Meta is a boogeyman that gets passed around yet is rarely ever enforced. Sure, you'll see it more on the higher end statics, but those are exceedingly less common. As for "parsing." You may simply be there for fun, but your idea of fun shouldn't trump everyone else's. People, typically, get uppity about parses in PF if someone is seriously lagging behind, thus putting more pressure on the group to make up for their deficiency. Why hate the tool and not the players who couldn't be bothered to put forth an effort?

To be fair, I mostly just hear about meta and parsing on the forums or in youtube videos. But my experience back in 2.X raiding days left a huge scar on me and I'm still not over it. Tbh, I dont feel like Ive missed much though avoiding the savage versions of the raids. My gear may not be the best of the best, but it gets the job done so far in all other content and I'm totally okay with that. The story content is more-so what Im interested in.
I do miss the challenge of learning the savage mode mechanics though.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

To be fair, I mostly just hear about meta and parsing on the forums or in youtube videos. But my experience back in 2.X raiding days left a huge scar on me and I'm still not over it. Tbh, I dont feel like Ive missed much though avoiding the savage versions of the raids. My gear may not be the best of the best, but it gets the job done so far in all other content and I'm totally okay with that. The story content is more-so what Im interested in.
I do miss the challenge of learning the savage mode mechanics though.

Which is fair. Bad experiences can be hard to overcome. Reddit and the like tend to overplay the importance of meta. Is it valuable? Of course. But plenty of groups even at the hardcore level don't give a damn about it. I know many groups who have brought BLM, MNK, WHM or DRK before some of the buffs they got. It all depends on the group. Parses fall under the same category. Some groups prioritize it more than others. Most use it more as an improvement tool and to make sure everyone is contributing. It's entirely up to you whether you ever want to step back into the raid scene, but with recruitment discords and a better environment thanks to cross world PF, you may it better than it has been before.