Attunements

Let's look back.

ZG: No attunement.
AQ20: No attunement.
MC: Attunement requires a run through BRD.
BWL: Attunement requires a run through UBRS.
AQ40: No attunement.
Naxx: Attunement requires a donation of gold and materials which can be easily purchased; decreases with Argent Dawn rep.

BM: Attunement requires a run through Durnholde.
Kara: Attunement requires runs through SL, SV, Arca, and BM; lifted.
Heroics: Revered reputation with the associated faction; dropped to Honoured.
hMGT: Requires a run through MGT.
ZA: No attunement.
Gruul: No attunement.
Mag: No attunement.
SSC: Attunement requires runs through hSP, Kara, and Gruul; lifted.
TK: Attunement requires a lengthy quest chain with two 5-man parts, and then runs through hSV, hSL, hSH, hArca, and Mag; lifted.
Hyjal: Attunement requires runs through TK and SSC; lifted.
BT: Attunement requires a lengthy quest chain with 5-man parts, a run through Arca, a run to FLK in SSC, a run to Al'ar in TK, and a run to RWC in Hyjal; lifted.
SWP: No attunement.

So we can see that TBC was a real nightmare attunements-wise. I'm in favour of attunements, sorta, but I don't mind no attunements - the real fail was attunements being lifted, leaving first Mag (until his recent nerf), and now Kael and Vashj by the wayside, as content is skipped. Had no attunements existed in TBC from the start, you can bet that there would be an definite increase in difficulty, or at least not a significant decrease, from the end of T5 to the start of T6.

I didn't keep track of it much preBC, but I do believe that you didn't touch BWL until you could kill Rag. You didn't touch AQ40 until you could kill Nef. You perhaps cleared 3 bosses in Naxx, but after that you killed C'thun before moving on.

At least, as far as I know.

Why? Because attunements didn't exist in the form they do now.

They were a little nod to say 'you put the effort in, here's your room number and there are mints on the pillows for you.' You ran a blue-level instance or put some gold on. Anyone could be attuned to Naxx, no problems.

TBC attunements are different. They enforced linear raid progression through artificial walls, despite TBC apparently being all about non-linear. So when you killed Mag your raid could waltz through most of T5; when you killed Kael your raid could waltz through most of T6.

So I say bring back attunements. Make me farm up 100 Icecrown Key Fragments from soloable mobs. Make me clear hUtgarde-80 to get into Utgarde-R. But don't make me kill Malygos to get through to Ulduar. Just make Ulduar Boss #1 harder than Malygos.

And keep the quest chains simple, single-step. Vials of Eternity was perfect (apart from the fact you had to kill raid bosses). Oronok Torn-heart -> Trials of the Naaru was not.

Side note: Hard heroics with Trials-like quests? Yes please. Just not as part of a super-long chain or something that everyone has to be rushed through to get a raid together.