WoW down to 9.6M subscribers - Thoughts?

This tier of raiding is always daunting.  The progress of most guilds is stunted because 3 separate raids makes planning for them difficult.  Consider this:

Heroic Stone Guard is often killed before normal Sha of Fear.  This gives the allure that heroic modes are easy.  Groups then go and attempt Heroic Feng...and wipe, but they get it eventually.  Lots of 2/6H MSV guilds out there.  Gara'jal is the first 'DPS Check' wall.  Once you have the gear, this fight is trivial.  But consider the difficulty of Spirit Kings...many guilds skip over this to do Heroic Elegon due to its ease.  In fact, you have 2 (or arguably 3) heroic mode encounters in Heart of Fear that are easier than Spirit Kings and Will of the Emperors.  There's even an accessible Heroic mode in Terrace that you can do before knocking off Spirit Kings.  A passable progressive order looks like this:

Stone Guard - Feng - Gara'jal - Elegon - Blade Lord - Wind Lord - Garalon - Lei Shi - Spirit Kings - Will of the Emperors - Vizier - Amber Shaper - Protectors - Shek'zeer - Tsulong - Sha of Fear

In terms of zones, it looks like this...

MSV - MSV - MSV - MSV - HoF - HoF - HoF - ToES - MSV - MSV - HoF - HoF - ToES - HoF - ToES - ToES

Some groups have tried to clear MSV before moving on which limits their growth and gear acquisition as well as their progression.  This creates frustration amongst some groups as others go on to clear more and be better because of a better planned access path.  Think back to T11 when we had to bounce back and forth between Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the Four Winds.  Halfus was very accessible as well as the double dragons...but Ascendent Council?  Guilds often didn't down this until their 9th or 10th heroic out of the 12 (13 if you count Sinestra).  However, most of these groups came back in Firelands and tackled 6/7H either before nerf or definitely after the nerf.  At least they all got to do progression in the same place.

I'm anticipating a number of players returning for 5.2 and sticking it out.  This raid looks as if it will be Ulduar 2.0 which will make many people, myself included, absolutely ecstatic.  I personally have dealt with people leaving and quitting the game only to come back for a new patch, so I'm sure the general population will repeat that pattern.

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