Anyone else supremely disappointed in the badge gear/T7? Most of it isn't even an upgrade from some non-heroic blues? No tanking neck, no strong tanking trinket (dodge one is ok, but not work 40 badges for a minimal upgrade from TBC epics).

All of the T7 "Feral" gear is too low on tanking stats to be solid tanking gear and too over itemized with tanking stats to be good DPS gear. Seems like Blizz kinda screwed the feral with these sets. (2x set bonus is almost useless for tanks)

Am I just too stuck on TBC bear stats to see the real value?

Honestly I think this first level they wanted to keep that way. They made it stupidly easy to gear up in blues and some purples. Most of it isn't any better than the initial Naxx stuff in some cases the blue is better than the Naxx purple. Really I think this first set of raids/heroics is just about getting as many casual players the opportunity to play and enjoy the game. Heroics of today are NOTHING like heroics of BC.

I actually had to pass on two leather drops from Naxx because my crafted gear was better. Although to be honest, the fights probably didn't warrant much better loot. The first 3 bosses went off without a hitch.

Its kind of funny to think how much we struggled with Kara the first few times. In hind sight I am not sure if that was because the gear gap was more significant or if we have all just learned to raid better and know our characters and abilities that much better.

I think its a bit of both. For the experienced people who mastered Kara and beyond I expect Naxx to be a trivial issue for them. But they made gear a lot easier to get also.

For the inexperienced raiders the instances will be hard, but not insurmountable. So hopefully more people get to enjoy all of Naxx and some of what's beyond. It really is a shame not more people in BC got to experience SSC or TK or BT or Mt. Hyjal. Hell I would have liked to have EVER walked in the front door of Sunwell.