The Evolution of Raiding 2

So at first, after the most hardcore of the hardcore had downed bosses or after a boss proved nearly invincible, Blizzard would respond with nerfs that lowered the skill level needed to down bosses; however, they remained a formidable challenge for most, and the attunements were still there, as daunting as ever before, to the general gaming populace. Then, shortly after the release of the BlackTemple content patch, Blizzard removed the need for attunements altogether. With the advent of the Sunwell Plateau, Blizzard utilized daily quests to open the gate of the instance. The more people on your server that did the daily quests that were made available on the Isle of Quel'Danas, the quicker the gates were opened, which was a great compromise. However, what awaited you on the other side of that instance portal was perhaps the most diabolically difficult raid that Blizzard has created to date, garnering praise from those who could overcome its challenges and scorn from those who could not get past the first pack of trash mobs, who seemed to be as difficult to overcome as Kael'Thas and his lackeys at the end of Tempest Keep - which we all know was merely a setback for the great leader of the Blood Elves.
Then there was the patch, Echoes of Doom and the 20% health and damage nerf to all Burning Crusade raid bosses in addition the massive buffs to player damage and healing in the pre-expansion patch that, in hindsight, almost seemed to presage the easy mode raid dungeons that the expansion pack would bring upon release. Players jumped at the opportunity to faceroll through every instance in the Burning Crusade, and, when Wrath of the Lich King was launched, all the raid bosses then available in the expansion pack were cleared within three days of release. So previous raids were too hard, and the new raids were too easy.