Raiding is becoming less and less optional

[Pintsized]

Also, more on topic, as others have said it's only because they are going to make an upcoming story beat rely on a story beat from the sidequest that involved the raids. Gotta crawl before you can walk and all that.

There are of course millions of story-telling ways to achieve this without forcing people to do what many have chosen for 6+ years not to do .. I'll name one: THE ECHO!!!

I'm nit surprised most of the replies in this thread are dismissive because many people posting on this forum are pin the small minority of MMO players who like large-scale group content (as in all MMOs pretty muc) and treat any one who doesn't as 'filthy casuals' no doubt.