Ualaa hit it on the head. When a new expansion comes out guilds run into the first level of raids in blues and heroic gear. They clear it after banging their head against the wall. They push through it, get the gear from that instance and are ready for the next. Fast forward to the third level of instances of the expansion and now a brand new 80 needs a 4k+ GS to go into Naxx??? Yes the same place people cleared in blues/heroics/possible greens BEFORE it was nerfed, yet now that its been nerfed you are going to require the person has been there a few times to get in. Its a friggin catch 20-20. You are told on your newly dinged 80 that you can only go if you have been before. How in the hell is that supposed to work?

My friends started doing a little test of their skills. They tossed on the exact same blues/heroics they had when we started doing Naxx (we were one of the first 5 guilds of our faction to enter Naxx) and jumped into Ulduar. They fully cleared. Was it as easy as it was when they had all the Naxx/Ulduar gear. No. But they did clear it. Just another case showing skill is a lot more important than the cumulative ilvl of your gear.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for a gear grind to show a separation to show where/what you are working on. But, it needs to be that there is a REAL requirement for the gear grind. Some random person I probably have only seen around Dalaran telling me I can't go to an instance because some addon says my gear isn't good enough is NOT a good reason. Yes there are times when it is probably right (a 25k hp tank isn't going to do well in ICC25), but I'm willing to bet 90% of the time people are trying to get into the level of content they are ready for.

As for the 12 yr old comment, that was not aimed to piss of the little kids. Just a stereotype that obviously got my point through.