A casual player isn’t someone who logs in for fun every now and then and expects to be able to jump into end game content with their hardcore friends. He doesn’t want to be catered to (pitied) like that.
A casual player is a just hardcore player who doesn’t have as much time. He wants what the hardcore player wants – to be a worthwhile. He wants to be a valuable addition to any party whether it’s a dungeon, regular PvE, or in WvW. He understands that it will take him longer, but he’ll get there eventually and be on par with the hardcore player in terms of value to others. He doesn’t mind if you occasionally raise the level of “best gear” that let’s the hardcore player increase the gap between them.
But you have to be careful ANet. If you move the gear treadmill too quickly he’s going to see that either 1) he will never be able to reach parity with the hardcore player at any point in time or 2) every time he does, you raise the standard of gear and he has to grind it out all over again.
ANet, two things make me think you’re going to handle this better than the designers behind other games who’ve faced similar problems. First, you’ve said you’re going to upgrade Legendaries to stay “best-in-slot” which is good for the casual player because he can rest assured knowing all the farming he’s doing right now isn’t going to be overshadowed by the next patch. Second, you’ve already done a great job making sure your “best-in-slot” items are somewhat on par with your much more accessible second-in-class items, which shows the casual player he can still be a valuable addition to any party even while he’s trying to get the best gear.
I urge you to be careful about how you’re making the game accessible to “casual” players. We don’t want handouts or artificial mechanics that make others include us. We want the time we’ve spent to mean something, just like a hardcore player does. Give the hardcore players the gold medals because they’ve spent more time and they deserve it. Just make sure our silver medals still mean something.