Cataclysm Raiding: Did Blizzard Sell Us Short?

Cataclysm at launch had 3 raids in Tier 11, Blackwing Descent had 6 bosses, Bastion of Twilight had 4 and Throne of the Four Winds 2 bosses all had solid content that was hard enough for organised raiding groups and well formed pugs, but go in under-geared and without strategy and you didn't get far. We had variety, we had a change of scenery if we chose to do so. We even had the loot pinata in Baradin Hold. best of all we had the promise that we would get more smaller raids in more frequent patches. 4.1 would give us the Abyssal Maw, 4.2  Firelands  and 4.3 Dragon Soul.

As it happens the 4.1 patch came and Blizzard announced no raid, not even a new 5 man. They announced that we weren't clearing content fast enough to warrant a new raid. As we were informed that 4.3 would be the last patch everyone and his dog assumed that 4.2 would contain 2 raids (Abyssal Maw and  Firelands) but as we know the the Abyssal Maw raid just got canned so our gear would share a common theme. 

This is where I realised that Blizzard had gone back to the Wrath model. Since the Cataclysm launch what have we received in terms of new content? Firelands? Yeah a whole host of old models from Molten Core thrown in a big black fiery pit in huge numbers to slow down progression cos you spent half a night killing trash mobs. Agreed the spiders were new, the molten giants got a facelift and we had the firehawks too and they took 7 months to get us that. But to be fair the boss fights were all great until they nerfed 'em. Then 5 months later we got Dragon Soul, great new content but wait our arena for the first boss, Morchok (a new Cataclysm model) was Dragonblight, the next 2 bosses are in the same room we saw in Twilight Highlands questing and their models are from Wrath of the Lich King. Hagara is a standard female orc model in the Eye of Eternity from Wrath of the Lich King. Ultraxion is a standard dragon model back atop the Wyrmrest Temple, Boss 6 is standard Tauren model on a gunship from Wrath of the Lich King. Finally 7 bosses in and  Dragon Soul delivers its first real new content in the form of Deathwing's back and then we go to 4 earth mounds in Deepholm to attack Deathwing's claws and some fiery tentacles.

For my money that is simply lazy content with some, admittedly, some great boss encounters thrown in. World of Pandacraft needs to come quickly and deliver some real end game content for everyone. Especially the raiding community  that likes a challenge.