To a distant era known as the burning crusades.
During this burning crusades expansion (as in classic wow before it) new players were not simply bumped up to the most recently released raid content. There was a progression path that players followed through the raids as they were released. If you didn't do a raid, you didn't have gear from it, and had to do it before you did the most recently released raid content.
This accomplished four major things for the game,
1. It set a journey for the players that was longer than a single raid tier.
2. It allowed players to experience the previous raids as if they were new.
3. It kept raid content relevant longer (players were still genuinely raiding previous raids).
4. It kept what players did in the previous raid relevant (it was your ticket into the next raid).
The downside was that new or returning players might struggle to find a guild that was at their gear/progression level. Leaving a guild could require taking a major step backwards before the player could continue going forward into new encounters.
This all changed during the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion. Suddenly players were effectively bumped up to the most recently released content by justice/valor points gear. Nobody had to struggle to catch up with their friends or with another guild they wanted to join, but when Ulduar went live, all raid activity in Naxx 80 ceased immediately.
The 486 ilvl requirement for raid finder Throne is trying to return to the vanilla/burning crusades model of raiding. That requirement will most likely come down unless new dungeons or dailies offer new gear options to players but the goal here is to return the tiered progression model.
Post by: Alphadrood, gorefiend
I think this is a perfect item level to enter the new raid, but it will be abit harsh for alts, but why go LFR with alts when you have already seen the content with your main?
/discuss
