Perhaps I'm seeing doubleFollow

The same thing that happened in the first EQ is happening here with WoW. It's most commonly referred to as the power creep. Most game designers will agree that it's irreversible in an online game. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just expect nonsenical things to appear in the game, like epic gear with an item level of 85 being outclassed by what should be level 62 and 64 gear.

So if Blizzard puts out 3 new raid instances over the next year and has a second expansion ready for next Christmas, the power creep introduced by those 3 instances will make the next expansion's gear look downright ludicrous.

Fortunately - and it sounds wierd saying this - but WoW is passing out of puberty and into the young adult stage, the equivalent of it's mid-to-late 20's. Average life span of these games so far has been about 5-7 years, and WoW is now 2 years old. Within a couple years, Blizzard will probably start planning and designing the sequel to WoW (assuming they'll be staying in the mmo business, and I can't imagine them not doing so). With luck, they'll be able to address the issues of massive power creep and itemization, casual epics, enforced pve so you can pvp, etc.


Edit: Wow, that just came out of nowhere. As for the OP, it's probably b/c of the intimidation factor + cost. It's cheap and it can potentially dissuade an attacker who looks at you and says "wow, he has GM gear, he must be a hardcore pvp'r."

Edited, Dec 19th 2006 9:26am by Riggy

Hint: They only look "impressive" when complementing the rest of your gear ;)

All those people really do look goofy as hell.... sad too because Warlord gear always looked very cool imo.

That's... odd, since you don't need very good gear at all to solo in the Outlands and the random green drops/first instance drops pretty much outclass everything you can find in Molten Core.

The first instance is balanced around having level 60 blues and some greens with no TBC gear yet. It's not very hard. Go in there with Tier 2/3 and it's beyond cake.

Once you start getting to the Zangamarsh instances it gets considerably more balances as they assume a certain level of TBC gear.

Look for the Warrior with the purple crap coming out of his shoulders - he's got AQ gear, and you should heal him. =p

I see np with what blizz did with this gear. They needed to do it for several reasons already mentioned, and tbh most people who have a big problem with it just seem to be hardcore leeters who believe themselves to be better than casual players.

I play for PvP so an even playing field is nice. I dont understand why raiders or twinks are so against fair competition in PvP, I guess they have just never played a real PvP game where gear plays a much smaller role.

LOL, my pally just got his epic shoulders the other day, first piece earned from the new system. And yeah, I considered waiting for another piece precisely because of how noobish I'd look with mostly greens and then them.

But for me at least shoulders give the most bang for the buck--they're cheap, very good stats, and there isn't a whole lot of alternative for the non-raider.

There are good lvl 60ish craftable/boe legs, hands, helms, etc, for many classes, but for shoulders it's pretty slim pickings.

They spent 2.5-3 months getting gear that will be worn for a long time. You now want people, who dont already have it, to spend 2.5-3 months getting gear that can be replaced withink a week of TBC??

What would be the point?

Hey let me ask.....do you see many people raiding right now? Gee why is that? Oh thats right cause players dont want to spend months getting stuff that going to be replaced a week after TBC.

Ya think Blizz knew that? Yup Trust me Blizz make the money they do and made this MMO as big as it is because they know what they are doing. Sorry it didnt agree with your leetism.

Edited, Dec 19th 2006 1:36pm by Vallock

Just not true. The GM gear is great...but does not really compare to endgame raiding gear. What it seems to be able to do though is allow the more casual player an opportunity to get better gear, in preparation for TBC with a minimum of fuss. Frankly, I loved grinding to rank 11, and I wear my rank proudly. Am I put off by the fact that now there is no longer any cachet to riding a black war tiger? Not in the least! But will I be replacing any of my gear with more easily attainable GM gear? Nope:-)

I used the word leetness cause someone used the word newb to describe someone who didnt have the time to get certain sets of gear via raiding or PvP honor in the old grind system. To me that attitude is leetness.

But I understand why some feel the way they do. Sure it seems that what took you a good amount of time is being given away. True. But like I said its for necessity as far as blizzard is concerned. And from what Ive seen most of the people complaining are afraid of a level battlefield.

And your right I dont care about my toon. I call him a toon I have no love for him and I dont care if I look sweet with awesome gear and glowing effects. Id rather look like a poor vagrant before tearing you apart.

In fact I played a game called shadowbane for 3 years. And in that game I could have some of the most common plain looking gear in the game created with equal or clost to equal stats as the top tier stuff in the game. The amount of people who sent tells laughing at me saying how they are gonna PK me so easy cause my gear sucks was amazing. And most of them couldnt figure out how I did it wearing a dirty looking brown piece of cloth as my armor (if on a mage).

I really only care about PvP and I dont like it when some guy in the BG smokes the entire other team cause he has the best gear and the enemy is wearing greens. Thats not fun for me.

Its not fun to be on a twink or guy in great PvP gear when the guy Im killing isnt even geared well enough to scratch my hp bar before dieing.

I understand that most MMO players want stuff that seperates them from the pack as it were. But me I get bored way to easy when everything in PvP is too easy.

I dont even have the best gear. A mix of purples and blues on my Druid and my new shammy since I restarted is only lvl 39 and in all greens. But do I die? Sure when I run into 3 or more players if they know what they are doing. My brother and I got bored with our 60 hunter/druid combo with mostly blue/purple gear. And now with a shammy and mage with greens we plow over twinks in WSG and AB like they are children (heh most prolly are IRL) and we are giants. Havent lost an arena match yet, and we have to be outnumbered 2 to 5 or more for us to die in a BG. Sure once in a while a nice twink or dual twink combo will take me out before I can get away to heal leaving my brother to have to flee.

Honestly the more blizz makes gear less important the happier I'll be. But I know most of you dont care to play an MMO this way.

Except you're misunderstanding the difference: people are not complaining about their gear being outdated, but that obtaining it is being trivialized beforehand.

I have 8/8 Tier 1. Do I ever wear it? No. I keep it around for nostalgia and for the few pieces enchanted for FR.

I have 8/8 Tier 2. Many of the pieces I will never wear again. I keep it around for nostalgia as it's one of my favorite sets in the game (in terms of looks).

What makes these sets different from the PVP sets? It doesn't matter that MC is old, outdated content with outdated gear... someone still can't just waltz in and get 8/8 Tier 1. The same is true with BWL... even though people run BWL pugs now, you still can't expect to collect 8/8 Tier 2 quickly. Hell, the same is even true of Tier 0 and even moreso for full Tier 0.5! Obtaining the gear still represents an accomplishment and an achievement that cannot be quickly nor easily replicated.

Just because items are going to be outclassed doesn't mean that everyone suddenly deserves to have them. I don't see a vendor where I can turn in tokens for Tier 2 shoulders just because I stood around afk in BWL for a few hours...

The point is that PVPers knew their items would be outclassed on the road to 70 but still expected that possessing them would be a neat memento of "a different time"; it would've been cool for old Rank 14s to throw on all their old gear at level 70, even though it wasn't good anymore, just because it would be something different.... except now every Tom, **** and Harry has the gear as well.

Do I think the system needed to be changed? Yes.
Do I think a system without decay is a good change? Yes.
Do I think it's great that the system has brought a lot of people back to play again before BC? Yes.
Do I think they made it way too easy and made the system LESS about winning than before? Yes.

I understand that games move on and gear is constantly outclassed by the next "tier", but understand that old PVPers really got the shaft in a way that PVEers will not. People complaining about their gear becoming useless are stupid; people complaining that their accomplishments were trivialized have a point.

The only advantage old GMs/HWLs had was that when they hit 14 they got every weapon at once. Of course, this only rewarded those that could actually make use of all those weapons (i.e. mainly warriors/rogues)... and when you compare the time required to grind Rank 14 the old way versus just to grind out every weapon the new way, I guarantee the new way is faster.

And that still does not address the very basic fact that getting 6/6 Warlord/Marshal's gear is ridiculously easy now (in comparison) and, worse yet, that the most distinctive piece (the shoulders) are seen everywhere.

I'm glad that this one random guild doesn't complain on their forum but you'll forgive me if I don't give much credence to your rather limited sampling of the PVP population... I assure you that there are quite a few people who grumble quietly on vent/gchat but don't both complaining loudly since it really would be rather fruitless.

I suppose it's one of those things that's impossible to explain unless you've actually been there and done it... but I felt like trying anyway :)