If someone makes a deadly boss mods type addon for ARR would you use it?

[Preypacer]

This sums up your entire post as you pretty much responded to nothing I even wrote.

lol I thought the same thing.

"I require add-ons to defeat high end raid bosses. Why? 'cause I'm a pro raider".

lol.. what the hell is gaming culture coming to when needing add-ons to complete content qualifies as "pro-level". That bar just gets ever lower.

It's right up there with how people who require specific party setups, with specific character builds using specific strategies and specific add-ons in order to succeed at something, or they fall on their face, telling others to "learn how to play". The correct statement should be "Learn how to follow cookie-cutter guides to the letter, and use addons, 'cause I can't succeed otherwise. I'm too lazy and impatient to put in the effort of learning the fight through trial and error". That's all it boils down to.

The ones who actually know the game are those who understand the game mechanics well enough to make a variety of setups work, even when the "optimal everything" isn't feasible. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a group disband before it even started because the setup wasn't exactly 100% "what the guides say to do".

Of course MMO encounters had to get harder with add-ons available. They're supposed to be a challenge. The addons exist for the same reasons walkthrough guides and cookie-cutter templates do: To make "winning" in the game as easy as possible. When people are resorting to the above to defeat content, the developers kinda have to make the encounters more difficult, or it becomes a cake walk, and you end up with people complaining about "content being too easy".

How about just playing the damn game and learning encounters by paying attention and good old-fashioned trial and error?

Add-ons are a crutch. Not a necessity. The moment you concede requiring add-ons to complete content, in my opinion, you forfeit the right to associate yourself as "pro", or "expert" or "elite" anything. You definitely forfeit the right to tell anyone else to "learn to play".