Tigole talks raids

Two months into the Burning Crusade, and some people's minds are on raids, now that the ranks of 70s are starting to swell. New and challenging content is undoubtedly exciting, but is it too challenging? Panthro, of Eldre'Thelas, has written a well-thought-out post with six main points about the new raids. To summarize:

1. Karazhan and heroics are way harder than normal 5-mans; you need lots of consumables.
   

2. Gear improvements are too marginal.
   

3. Keying is too difficult, so if you lose a member, keying a new one is a pain.

4. Most of the 25-man content is not doable by "normal" guilds (i.e. those of us who are not Death and Taxes).

5. There is a lack of healers.

6. There's no reason to have anything but a Warrior MT now.

Tigole delurked to respond to these. For those who don't know, Tigole is the screen name of Jeff Kaplan, WoW's lead designer for world design, which includes raids. His responses in full are after the cut.

1. [on consumables] We're discussing various solutions to issues with consumables. We're aware of the issue and agree that it is an issue. With that said, I don't really think Karazhan is overly difficult and requires massive amounts of consumables.

2. [on gear] We're taking another look at the raiding gear. I'd agree with your statement.

3. [on keying] I partially agree and partially disagree. We have some ideas that will help people "catch up" who join the endgame later on. With that said, I'm not so sure endgame players would like the face of the game if everyone had instant access to all of the content. There is something to be said for progression and the sense of accomplishment. Don't get me wrong, we have to be careful not to create a brick wall for new people, but I think there is a balance to be struck here.
   

4. [on 25-mans being too hard] I agree. As I have already stated on these forums, Magtheridon is proving more difficult than intended. We are planning on toning him down. We've made some minor fixes to Gruul as well but I think that encounter needs to be toned down too. Gruul and Mag should feel like Onyxia did 6 months into vanilla WoW.
   
   I don't really agree with points 5 and 6 but I do feel like your previous points all had merit. Hopefully, the changes I mentioned will alleviate some of your worries.

This is interesting stuff. I plan on making my BC raiding debut this weekend with my guild in Karazhan, so I don't have any first-hand opinions. What about you guys? How have you fared against Gruul, Karazhanian nasties, and whatnot?