Does achieving BiS on a more than a decade-old patch even mean anything anymore?

[h4rdXc0r3]

Since Lordaeron doesn't have a gear shop, earning your endgame pieces is a genuine badge of honor. But let’s be real: this realm has been fully progressed on a more than a decade-old patch. Walk into Dalaran or look at the established raiding core, and you see an entire tier of players who have been sitting on full Heroic 25-man ICC gear, legendary weapons, and ultimate achievements for years.

At this point, does hitting BiS or clearing content still carry the prestige it used to, or has it just become a baseline expectation for the veterans? For newer players trying to catch up in a mature, deeply saturated economy, is the mountain too steep to climb when the active core is already "done"?

I want to know if people still feel a genuine sense of accomplishment when they earn a major piece of gear here, or if we’re all just going through the motions out of nostalgia.

[Allylilith]

I'll give my view on this as someone who plays on lordaeron since right around 8years at this point:

endgame pieces dont hold the same value anymore as back then, whispers of "oh wow your gear is so good wtf" "damn thats the first time I see shadowmourne" etc are much rarer, but still occasionally exist. The buffs to the raids conserve some sort of value to items like lod bow on warriors/rogue, togc cloaks, lady hc legs for hunter etc.
some guilds raid weekly and still dont clear 12hc but rather 8-10hc, so most guilds still see it as a significant achievement for themselves once they kill lod.

as for those that run 12hc weekly, the main motivation to keep showing up to raids isnt gear or nostalgia, but mostly logs. Bis gear may not hold the same excitement after seeing it drop the 20th time, but getting a high rank on a boss never gets old.

so, while the veterans see it as a baseline expectation to join the best guilds, it is by no means necessary to be experienced to enjoy lordaeron imo. there is still a decent influx of new players and if you are doing well, because you either already have past experience with the game or talent, the way into good raids and guilds should be reasonably quick after getting through the initial grinds of leveling and getting some base gear