[quote name='panzerfaust']Any veteran WoW players here? What's the feel of the current game right now? I quit a year ago because the game was just becoming a casual's paradise and there really was no incentive to play anymore. When you can create a guild from scratch and be in the top 10 on the server within a month, you have a problem. Not to mention a horrible community too focused on DPS meters and gear level to do anything else.
Is there something there for more serious players, that kind of separates the men from the boys?
My friends are jumping back in, just want to make sure I'm not wasting my time.[/QUOTE]I was a two year veteran from launch and quit shortly after TBC, so I missed the casual craze but Cata has much more of a non-drooler feel again. Heroics are challenging if you don't know how to play your class or aren't geared/spec'd correctly, but are overall pretty easy. There's also no more body-pulling there without CC unless your tank is geared from T11 raids.
Baradin Hold is akin to how Onyxia was minus all the bullshit fire res gear, but it's a great fight to see where you're at gear-wise and if you need to improve your hit/DPS. I push 17K DPS on that fight now as a Worgen assassination rogue, but 10K is nominal for starters.
The two raids are Twilight Bastion and Throne of the Four Winds, with the latter being the easier of the two. I've been to TotFW once so far, but my gear wasn't up to par at the time despite having a tank/healing failure. It's not so much that the fights are tough, but more so a real need for proper gear. If you're a good player, you will find the fights engaging but if you have droolcup trash playing with you it makes the fights impossible.
TLDR, find 9 good players to raid with and you'll enjoy the expansion. Everyone needs to be on the ball if you want to raid successfully and it will make learning the fights fun. DPS meters are still important, but only because some fights do require a certain level of output. Enrage is a factor in BH after 6 minutes, so you can't be

ing off. Guilds will not be in the top 10 after a month unless they have the skilled players to pull it off.
On a side note: do we have any theorycrafters here who play a rogue? Would be fun to shoot the shit about the class for min/maxing.