After a new patch, a lot of people DO ALL THE THINGS and just postpone the RL stuff to accommodate. I remember those days, and kind of miss them. But hey, life choices.
What this means is that I’m planning to be putting in pretty much the same effort every week. No huge gaming sessions right after a patch release, but no totally slacking off a few weeks in, since I will still be needing stuff. I suspect that’s a different model than many gamers, and a very different model than hard-core raiders. Pacing for a marathon instead of a sprint.
It's a good read.
One good point is that if you aren't going to get the full cap of valor points per week, you are better off doing heroics than troll dungeons. You get about the same VP/hour either way, plus you have an almost zero chance of failing. It's also less fun, in my opinion, but it's definitely easier and more lighthearted.
Another good point is to check carefully about the firelands dailies. First, it takes 425 marks before you unlock the second vendor. As an aside, the first vendor just takes 20 marks, so you surely want to do it if that first vendor has anything useful. Second, even after you unlock them, the gear is only ilvl 365. Thus, it's likely to be temporary anyway.
Personally, I am thinking to VP cap until I get two pieces of tier 12. This is because I do have the time to play that much, and I expect those two pieces of gear to be a significant help in our raiding efforts. So far we have only downed Shannox in the Firelands, and on the other fights we've tried, we seem to have the mechanics down but not the dps and healing throughput. After that, I'll stop doing dailies on my main.
I also plan to complete all the Firelands dailies, but only partially because of the gear. I simply think they are fun!