So yeah, they clarified that whole gear scaling thing with Challenge Modes.
Gear will scale down to 463, anything under that will not scale up to 463. I am mildly saddened by this announcement, but it is probably for the best for reasons already outlined. I think a 463 Valanyr or a 463 Heroic Trauma would make healing meters melt. And that would make them "required" gear for the more elitist Challenge Mode groups. Same thing with set bonuses and the like.

That being said, future iterations of Challenge Mode could one day use that kind of gear scaling technology, which I will keep my fingers crossed for.


@Beta
Holy smokes, some of these new bosses...
They look positively...
Pretty.
The Sha are really good looking with that black with white light coloring. I don't care that they basically re-used some models on those guys, the color scheme is excellent.
Lots of the fights have really fun mechanics so far. I look forward to Elgalon, the cloud serpent boss they had up the other day has a really cool DPS/Healing mechanic, Garalon looks like Rhyolith without nearly as much pain in the arse to drive and way less RNG factors.
All the bosses look like great fun on Normal Mode, though I think LFR difficulty will be slightly higher than Dragon Soul LFR. Not much, just a pinch really.


@Karotfarmer
He's 55 today, I should hopefully be in Outland tomorrow or the day after.
I'm on afternoon shift for the next 2 weeks and this week, I see no reason he can't be 85 by August.


@Streaming
Due to the fact that I'm not raiding for the next few weeks, I probably won't be streaming anything other than D3, if I stream at all. Sorry chums, thems the breaks.