In the expansion please please......

[Xystic]

Whereas with periodic increases newer players can very rapidly catch up due to steps of new gear being easily accessible. Making games like this more welcoming to newer players.

It also made sure that hardcore players had a steady pool of geared people to recruit from. During my hardcore days during vanilla, it was annoying that we would have to turn around to gear newer recruits, which took months, before we could return to the forefront of progression. By that time, you would lose people and would have to repeat that cycle of recruiting/regearing. When content was shortened and up to par gear was provided, it removed the problem of small recruitment pools and huge gear gaps.

It benefited newer players and hardcore players alike.

[kyuven]

It benefited newer players and hardcore players alike.

That reminds me of the old days of content, where content was locked via keys and only a finite number of keys could be produced on the server at any given time.
You were either in the elite of the elite guilds, or you never even got to see one. Nothing in-between.
Dark times, dark times.
Nowadays if Joe Tank leaves the game or finds his true calling as a longshoremen and can't play during raids, you can gear up John Tank in a week or two and not lose any progress.
I don't miss the old system at all.