I’m playing 4-7 hours/week and I sim my gear. If that makes me hardcore, then how much do casuals play in your opinion? Taking care of my character doesn’t make me “hardcore” and using items based on arbitrary decisions doesn’t make me “casual”.
100% agree, I would also add the multiple versions of items in that list (lfr/normal/hc etc).
Depends on the person, I’m close to your number, I play seriously 3 days a week and do raid 2 days , one day I leave for going to mythic + dungeons, and between that I log in during the week currently to do sometimes dailies and usual things like events, mog and mount farms , and than log off and than I go to play other games. Because till the new content comes in there is nothing that interesting currently in the game which would keep me engaged.
And about caring about your char, you can do that even without sims, you just need to know the stat priority for your class and spec, and going usually for the highest il item is a good move which would increase your primary stat, secondary stats you can always mix up to get what you think its best for your character and what its working for you best in practice.
But stat weights change based on what stats you have (sometimes talents too). There are points when changing a talent can double or triple the value of a stat (particularly if it’s low).
That’s what I said, arbitrary 
The thing currently is that a lot of the classes got certain best talent builds, on the priest I’m playing we have one build for the raids and one for the dungeons, and 90 % of the people use the same of that spec. And no matter of the builds the stats are always prioritized for me on the same way and I guess how that’s also the case for a lot of the other classes.
Every dps spec I played benefited from simming. It certainly beat guessing or arbitrary weights, but I accept that people might prefer these options. My point mostly was that basing your choices on valid information instead of hearsay or gut feeling doesn’t make you hardcore
Playing 35 hours a week, yeah ok that’s pretty hardcore 
When you know your primary stat , and what item increases your il for a nice amount you don’t gear up by gut feeling. Secondary stats aren’t that important in the game to sim them unless you are top tier raider which is racing in one of the world top guilds for prestige.
And I don’t know who is playing for 35 hours a week, I’m not , told you how I’m playing about the same number of hours as you do.
I just don’t care about my dps in that way. If I feel I can comfortably do the content I enjoy, then it’s fine. If it’s a higher ilvl, I will most likely equip it and not worry about any min maxing. I don’t need to justify my character’s performance to anyone, so yeah.
In regards to content I like and me not doing any min-maxing, yeah I’m a casual.
But…
It’s not what I’m doing now because I’m just bored in BfA, but during Legion I was easily getting such numbers. It’s all down to fun; if I’m having a good time, I’ll gladly invest my time.
This is something I can relate to, but I am not bothered by it. I’ve just chosen to seperate progression from the gear. Gear is not a reward to me anymore, though I don’t view that as a bad thing. What I view as rewards today are transmogs and the knowledge that I have defeated the content I wanted to defeat(…so achievements would be a better reward than powerfull gear in my case). I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but yeah, I can totally relate to not caring about gearing up anymore. I guess this might explain why I am not bothered by titanforging at all in my case. I’ve found replacement rewards for powerfull gear.
And that’s totally fine, I’m not suggesting anyone should play more or less than they want to. That being said, 35h/week is not casual, and it’s getting a bit tiresome to be dismissed as “hardcore” or “tryhard” by people that play 5 times as much as I do.
That’s also fine, and more power to you. If all you want to get from gear is seeing a number go up, that’s also fine. It’s not my intention to tell people how to enjoy the game so please return that courtesy and accept that for some other people min-maxing is fun, seeing our character being able to perform better is fun, reaching a point when we can access harder content is fun and ilvl going up is irrelevant. Titanforging takes a part of our progression, our fun, away.
I haven’t once told people that “you should hate titanforging”, yet I keep being told that I should like it. “You think you don’t, but you do”
It’s not deserved in the slightest, when I clear mythic and get a 385 then some sperg in LFR is sitting there with his dick in his hand kills a boss with 0.5 mechanics and gets the same item level.
It’s Just Autistic.
That is literally titanforging btw.
While that’s true for you, it definitely isn’t for some other posters on these forums. My problem with some people on here is that they blame TF for any- and everything. The silliest things in fact.
I’m definitely not telling anyone how to enjoy the game. BUT… If playing in a certain way gives you problems and/or irritations, and the thing that is partially to blame for that trouble isn’t going anywhere (Blizzard’s own words), wouldn’t it make a tiny bit of sense to maybe try and alter the way you enjoy the game?
I know I did the opposite. When Uldir launched, I tried raiding. I really kept an open mind and went in there with my guild. Spent the evening raiding.
Did I enjoy it? Not in the slightest. Spending the evening with trial and error fights, wiping because one person makes a bad call or just doesn’t pay attention, waiting around for everyone to be ready again. Etc etc. It’s not what I enjoy doing. But at least I tried it. Same with mythics. I didn’t want to do any mythics. I hate them. I think doing the same content on a harder difficulty is the stupidest idea ever. Why would I waste extra time and energy on such a nonsense thing?
However, I did try it. Did I hate it? You betcha! But I tried.
Anyway. I’m kind of done talking about this. I’m happy with the fact that Blizzard like TF, they think it’s a good thing for the game and I agree, so there’s really no need for me to keep defending the system (mostly against the same people over and over again).
It’s here to stay and I, for one, am glad it is.
I can’t recall seeing anyone telling others that they should hate titanforging. I’ve seen people put forward why they think it’s good or bad.
You shouldn’t chase TF either. So yeah.
Again, not be chased after. If it happens, it happens. If not, no worries.
It doesn’t encourage that. That is due to that toxic mindset again. YOU. DON’T. NEED. TF. It’s a bonus. BONUS. BONUS. EXTRA. NOT MANDATORY. NOT NEEDED. BONUS.
Repeat after me please.
No it’s not. They’re destroying it for themselves due to their toxic mindset. It’s so easily solved: YOU. DON’T. NEED. TF. It’s a bonus. BONUS. BONUS. EXTRA. NOT MANDATORY. NOT NEEDED. BONUS.
Make this your mantra:
YOU. DON’T. NEED. TF. It’s a bonus. BONUS. BONUS. EXTRA. NOT MANDATORY. NOT NEEDED. BONUS.
Easy there miss caps lock, don’t foam, I’m not about to play the game the way you want. Titanforging is not a bonus, not getting titanforged stuff is a penalty and the system is utter trash.
Fine with me, but then accept that you are causing self-inflicted problems and stop complaining about it. The system is good. Blizzard thankfully knows this.
So you want to ruin the game for yourself, be my guest, but don’t ruin it for the rest of us with your constant complaining.
EDIT: Forgot to add: YOU. DON’T. NEED. TF. It’s a bonus. BONUS. BONUS. EXTRA. NOT MANDATORY. NOT NEEDED. BONUS.
You feel it’s a self inflicted problem. People who don’t like TF/WF feel it’s a Blizzard inflicted problem.
You are delusional.
I’m not going to accept anything of the sort, I’m simply not playing the game. But as long as I have a subscription, I’ll complain about whatever I feel like, and no caps lock hero on forums will prevent me from doing it.
More delusional: someone stating their opinion on the forum, same as you, is “ruining the game” for you. I’m sorry, but you are ridiculous.
But it’s not. Because the system is nothing more than a bonus. You can ignore it if you don’t like it. Yeah, you won’t have the single best piece of gear in the game. But guess what? You don’t need it.
But it is.
The system worked well before, they introduced a new element and some people don’t like it, there are various issues (which have been talked to death).
I can totally understand that some love or are indifferent to the WF/TF system.