TL;DR version: Make normal modes with retail value (HP, enrage timer), unnerf heroic modes so they were like before, except LDW (gotta nerf her for about 20%-30%).
Hey, I'm Aero from the guild <Raven>. I'd also like to give my personal opinion on the whole matter as part of the Lordaeron raiding community freedback. The reason is simply I LOVE Lordaeron and think it's one, if not THE, very best overall PvE oriented realms out there and I would very much like to see it stay in that place. Also, I am speaking stricktly from my, LOD farming guild, point of view, but since I am involved in the Lordaeron community quite well, I know mostly what kind of a mindset exist on the server. Lastly I also will mostly speak about 25 difficulty (N+HC), because that is what I am raiding the most.
First I'd like to say that MOST of these difficulty changes were not needed and really don't make a lot of sense. For many top guilds the tuning was absolutely fine on pretty much all bosses. The only nerf everyone was asking about was only Lady Deathwhisper because she is quite buggy and completely overtuned. Everything else was completely fine.
Now, I understand that the vast majority of serious raiding guilds do NOT farm LOD every week, but are killing about 7/12 bosses on Heroic difficulty, but that is completely fine. The harder Heroics SHOULD require great gameplay and min-maxing from their raiders because that is what makes a difference between a good guild and a "bad" one. And the majority of people don't posses that kind of skill, which basically means that the harder Heroic bosses are untouched by the less skilled players - but isn't that the whole point of this hardcore realm? Secondly, the better raiding guilds trying to kill a hard Heroic boss but are missing a kill by a few %? GOOD, that way, they will be able to really start min-maxing their gameplay and when they will finally learn and kill that hard boss, the feeling will be so much better and more rewarding as well as they will find new appreciation for the tuning - my point in all of this being, we all like to feel good about ourselves because we have done something hard that others didn't because we put alot of effort into it. And nerfing bosses takes most of the effort away now, not just from us, but from other progressing guilds as well.
In this part I will try to explain my idea of the ideal server and hopefully most people would agree with me - and if not, it's fine. My ideal server would be one that would catter to both casual players not really interested in doing hard Heroic bosses and those of us, hardcore tryhard players aiming to conquer and farm the hardest of the hard Heroics. The answer to this is, in my opinion, quite simple: No ICC buff whatsoever (done on Lordaeron, so that's good), all bosses on normal difficulty are RETAIL value (HP, enrage timer) and all bosses on Heroic difficulty are buffed like they were before this nerf (+HP, enrage timer shortened), except Lady Deathwhisper nerfed abit. That way casual players will be able to enjoy the raiding scene without trying to put that much effort into it, pugs will thrive and allow to kill more bosses and allow us, hardcore raiders, the challenge we long for - and make us happy that only we are able to kill this stuff (which in the end matter most to all hc raiders anyway, isn't this why we're doing ti??). I think normal difficulty being the same as retail will allow for more players to be encouraged to raid here on Lordaeron, because there will be no stigma of it being casual-unfriendly realm, and that means more players will actaully want to start playing on the realm and somewhat boost player numbers.
Anyway, that's my 2cents on the matter.
Aero