Definitions of midcore / hardcore / casual a bit warped here...

[Kitfox]

There are no clear definitions and they can refer to either mindset or schedule. You can't really bring in definitions across games because each game and their community is different so the definitions are also different. It's best if you just find a group that fits your own circumstances and goals. You can have a groups with casual schedule and hardcore mindset, or the other way around. Generally the loose definitions tend to be as follows:

Mindset:
-Casual: We just play for fun. It's nice if we clear.
-Midcore: We want to clear before the next raid tier comes out.
-Hardcore: We want to clear as soon as possible.

Schedule:
-Casual: 2 days a week or less. Less than 3 hours a day.
-Midcore: 3 days a week. 3 hours a day.
-Hardcore: 4-7 days a week. 3-24 hours a day.

One particular aspect about schedules that muddies the definitions is that you can have a group that raids everyday until they clear a fight, but after that only farms the weekly reclears for like 2 hours once a week.

Generally you just want to figure out 3 things and ask these questions from the groups you apply to as well:
-What is your mindset?
-What is kind of schedule fits you?
-What do you want to do after your group clears?

Rather than trying put yourself into any of the categories, figure out what you want and find a group that suits your goals.

If you've found The Balance Discord, I'd take a look at the server listings there for your data center's raiding discord.

[HyoMinPark]

There are no clear definitions and they can refer to either mindset or schedule. You can't really bring in definitions across games because each game and their community is different so the definitions are also different. It's best if you just find a group that fits your own circumstances and goals. You can have a groups with casual schedule and hardcore mindset, or the other way around. Generally the loose definitions tend to be as follows:

Mindset:
-Casual: We just play for fun. It's nice if we clear.
-Midcore: We want to clear before the next raid tier comes out.
-Hardcore: We want to clear as soon as possible.

Schedule:
-Casual: 2 days a week or less. Less than 3 hours a day.
-Midcore: 3 days a week. 3 hours a day.
-Hardcore: 4-7 days a week. 3-24 hours a day.

One particular aspect about schedules that muddies the definitions is that you can have a group that raids everyday until they clear a fight, but after that only farms the weekly reclears for like 2 hours once a week.

Generally you just want to figure out 3 things and ask these questions from the groups you apply to as well:
-What is your mindset?
-What is kind of schedule fits you?
-What do you want to do after your group clears?

Rather than trying put yourself into any of the categories, figure out what you want and find a group that suits your goals.

If you've found The Balance Discord, I'd take a look at the server listings there for your data center's raiding discord.

I think this is a really good definition of what groups likely mean when they say “casual”, “midcore”, or “hardcore”.

In addition, I want to mention other goals a group may have that might fall into one mindset or another.

Casual: the group likely doesn’t care about optimization or damage; just wants to clear, and doesn’t mind if it takes a while to do so
Midcore: the group likely cares about relatively speedy clears (perhaps clearing Savage before the next patch comes out); may care about their damage/parsing, but not to the point of min-maxing or uber optimization
Hardcore: cares about clearing as fast as possible (i.e., Week 1/2 kills), and cares about optimization/min-maxing; may also care about speedkilling

Obviously, you can also put in a semi-hardcore somewhere between midcore and hardcore, where a group may care about killing the fights fast, but may not care too much about going back for parse runs, optimization, or speedkilling.


Then there’s also whether or not a group plans on doing Ultimate. More “casual” groups may poke at it for fun, not really caring if they clear or not, or even get very far in the fight; while midcore and hardcore groups will likely want to go in for a clear or multiple clears or even optimization (definitely hardcore mentality on this last one).


I think the definition goes far deeper than simply how many hours a group meets a week. I’ve known groups with a very casual mindset that raided 3~4 days a week. And I have heard of people doing “weekend statics” where they raid as many hours as they can to try and get in as much progress as possible.