As most of you will have noticed by now, Blizzard, in yet another clear demonstration that the hardcore whining raider-fabricated myth of the complaining casuals is just that, a myth, kowtowed to the tiny but vocal minority and added arena rating requirements both to most S4 arena gear but also, in a slightly more surprising move, to the S4 honour gear.
As had to be expected, the catassing few are very happy about it, to wit, everyone’s favourite faux hardcore raiding blogger is gloating with Shadenfreude.
Aside from reminding the overeager that S4 is still a while off and things may yet change, I’m quite happy about this myself. As things will stand, looks like the only gear to which you can apply the moniker Welfare Epics is the badge loot, which is obtained through PvE only. In one of those delicious bouts of irony, the very term coined by the catassers‘ role model and lead developer Tigole to mock the PvPers now strictly applies to PvE, his very own area of competency in WoW.
What will this change, if it goes live as announced? Well, for the casual arena player, he will actually start and play in the 1300-1700 range and face opponent teams which do not hopelessly outgear him (especially if you combine these rating requirements with the new mechanisms introduced in 2.4.2 to fight point selling). The casual gamer who does arena because it’s one of the activities available to him due to the limited organization and scheduling required will benefit from more competitive gameplay, where mainly S2 and S3 gear balances itself out with the respective skill of all the contenders.
The competitive PvPers will find themselves in the 2000+ range, just as today, not feeling any particular impact except that they won’t be able to get 3 pieces of S4 the day the new season starts. They’ll also fight with their peers and compete for the honours of top rank. Nothing changed here.
Where there could be a difference, a gear aristocracy of sorts, is in the 1700-2000 range, where the teams trying to move upwards will find themselves matched against those from the bracket above who regularly stay around the fringe. Whether this will really create a 2-season gear gap in practice remain to be seen.
As Stop puts it, there’s no fast track through PvP for late level 70 joiners or alts anymore, which means the raiding gear-up game will start again with renewed strength. I expect there to be more drama generated, again, by top raiding guilds poaching geared members of mid-progression guilds, probably just what we need to offset the lack of popcorn moments generated by the pre-WotLK fatigue WoWInsider keeps telling us has already settled in.
All in all, for the casuals, it changes nothing. They will get S2 and S3 gear with no more efforts than what they need to invest today for S1 and S2 gear, but they can start with S0 blues since patch 2.4. That’s enough to enter entry level PvE content with casual guilds if they so desire - at least for DPS and healers. Tanks have, as always, no alternative solutions or fast track to gearing available to them. For the truly hardcore, it changes nothing. Season gear has always been inferior for top PvE content, and that doesn’t change. The only people this will really affect are any PvE players who face itemization gaps, in particular in the weapons department (or runs of bad loot dropping luck), making it harder for them to switch to a different progression path to compensate. Considering it’s that same crowd who appears to be most happy about the change at present, that shouldn’t be an issue either.
In other words, Blizzard chose wisely with their pandering to the loudmouthed crying hardcore minority.
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26 Responses to “Catering to the Casuals Indeed”
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I think this is a bad move in general. These changes will just encourage even more rampant point/rating selling that it is currently happening.
As for Stop the Moron, I can only pity loot whores like him.
Lawl. Give me a break.
You don’t raid Karazhan a year ago and get Spiteblade to drop, then 4 months later he now drops Talon of Azshara, and 4 months after that Blade of Infamy, etc, etc. I’m totally okay with Blizzard allowing casuals to get gear in PvP, but it’s total crap that they can get gear that good with such minimal effort. Seriously, how can someone say I’m the loot whore when they ding 70 today and get a T6 level raiding helmet in a month of play?
Raiding is a linear gear, and PvP is not. This is why Blizzard added the rating requirements. Blizzard understands that to keep the casual players, they need to give them very easy access to really good gear with these other MMO’s looming. The only difference with this news is, they still want to give all of them really good gear, just not the best gear. I honestly don’t see how people can complain about that. I’m the moron and the loot whore because Rav can’t play 10 games in an hour every week for a Sunwell level piece of gear. Cry me a river.
I think this is a bad move in general. These changes will just encourage even more rampant point/rating selling that it is currently happening.
I’m hoping Blizzard will put enough measures in place to prevent that. I think that beyond penalizing the points earned when there are more than 150 points gap between personal and season rating, if this still isn’t enough they should match the team with its highest rating available (still if there’s more than 150 points spread between team rating and all individual ratings) for opponent selection.
I’m totally okay with Blizzard allowing casuals to get gear in PvP, but it’s total crap that they can get gear that good with such minimal effort. Seriously, how can someone say I’m the loot whore when they ding 70 today and get a T6 level raiding helmet in a month of play?
You’re obsessing over other people’s loot, especially in regards to your own. That makes you a loot whore in my book.
Raiding is a linear gear, and PvP is not.
Exactly. There’s therefore no compelling reason to treat it with any kind of similitude, except to appease the whining raiders. But as I made clear, I don’t think it changes anything in the grand scheme of things. I actually don’t give a shit about what gear level I’m wearing. I’m wearing the best gear I can get to get whatever I’m doing done to the best of my ability.
Considering I’m currently playing a whopping level 16 mage, I give even less a shit about the whole hardcore loot envy drama you keep stirring up.
“I’m the moron and the loot whore because Rav can’t play 10 games in an hour every week for a Sunwell level piece of gear.”
Actually, no. You’re the loot whore because you can’t stand the idea of anyone else getting s3 gears. Even when you know that the gears are in no way comparable to T6 or even T5 for raiding. Even when you know that these people getting their gears will not have any impact whatsoever on your gameplay or enjoyment of the game.
You’re the squalling kid the corner who has an ice lolly, and who doesn’t want anyone else to have one.
Thought I’d correct that for ya. ^_^
I am not quite sure why you all keep referring to Stop as a “loot whore.” As far as I can tell, the term loot whore has nothing to do with other people’s gear level. It is simply a term for someone who wants/rolls on ever single piece of gear they CAN use. For example, when a Black Temple farming guild rolls into Kara with a mix of toons, and someone’s Pally alt bids on every single item, including the off-hand from Moroes, the mail healing shoulders from Curator, the tanking boots from Maiden, both T4 pieces, and the Spiteblade off Netherspite. That is when you can call someone a “loot whore.”
Stop has in now way illustrated that he is a loot whore, but simply that he cares about the loot system within the game itself.
Loot rules the game of WoW. Anyone that says they play this game for any other reason, is lying. (especially to themselves) You play games to “win,” and the only way to “win” this game is to have the best loot at your given style of play. Therefore, Stop makes a very vaild point.
In order to acquire a T6 raiding helm, you must spend months to years of your life in various raid environments (Kara, Mag, Gruul, SSC, TK, Hyj, BT), but, if you want an S3 helm, it’s simply a waiting game where you can play ten games a week and Bob’s your uncle.
Now, you may ask, “but why does Stop care so much?” Well, as I stated before, this game is about loot. The better the loot, the better the player “appears” to be, and the higher their “status.” If some talentless nub can simply lose 10 games a week to acquire loot that looks just as impressive as the gear that comes from Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau, it’s unfair. A simple color change is not enough to differentiate between the people who have spent months/years raiding from the tards that farm arena points.
Now, not all PvPer’s are bad players, but, the fact that terrible players can “farm” the arena epics is unfair, because there are countless encounters that lead up to Illidan where if one person f’s up, it’s a wipe for twenty-four other people.
It breaks down to PvPing being easier than PvEing for the same gear. That’s what pisses the hardcore raiders off.
Loot rules the game of WoW. Anyone that says they play this game for any other reason, is lying. (especially to themselves) You play games to “win,” and the only way to “win” this game is to have the best loot at your given style of play.
No. BS. Complete and utter BS, coming only from the narrow viewpoint of someone who isn’t able to imagine for even one second that out of the 10 million players, some could have different motivations than they do. Check the Bartle test. There are four fundamental player traits, and neither Explorers nor Socializers care about gear that much, and Killers only insofar it facilitates their activities.
Heck, if I was obsessing over gear like anyone else, I’d be playing my level 70 instead of rerolling alts to play with online friends. I’m definitely not the only one not bothered at all by the race for epix.
The existence of multiple alts only further proves my point about loot. The more alts, the more classes, the more specs, the more loot. When you “socialize with your friends,” you’re running quests, or dungeons, right?
Quests lead to higher levels, greater access to loot. Dungeons is where loot drops.
You may think you’re playing for “fun,” or to have a good time while I chillax with my friends, but, the loot in WoW still rules your play style.
As for the “explorer,” well, the moment they start a new character and cannot venture out of the starting zone because the mobs out gear them, they’d run right back in and level to gain some loot so they could explore further.
Loot, loot, loot, loot. Believe it.
If you want to talk about minimum effort, why am I still running 1-2 Kara’s a week on different toons/alts, getting 20+ badges in a block, that adds up to a 100 priced badge item in around 5 weeks, a 150 priced badge weapon in around 7 weeks for my alts?
10 games a week, 200-300 points, that’s 5-6 weeks for a decent S3 item, no shot in hell for the weapon or shoulders.
c whut i did thar?
PVE is hard.
http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/World-of-Ming/PVP-PVE/
The existence of multiple alts only further proves my point about loot. The more alts, the more classes, the more specs, the more loot.
LOL. Blinders, indeed.
Loot as an enabler, not as a goal. The means to an end, not the end. My e-peen isn’t impacted by the quality or colour of my gear. I don’t feel threatened or insecure if someone has better or worse or differently-coloured gear - in fact I’m usually so far zoomed out that I barely can tell a tabard’s colour.
As for the “explorer,” well, the moment they start a new character and cannot venture out of the starting zone because the mobs out gear them, they’d run right back in and level to gain some loot so they could explore further.
That’s not playing for the loot as you put it. That’s getting loot so you can explore further. Where the Achiever is looking at the loot as a goal and a symbol status, the Explorer’s goal is to discover stuff. If he needs a flying mount to get there, he will get one, just as he would hop on a zeppelin for a similar purpose. The fundamental disconnect in this game isn’t playtime or activity type, is between those who view loot as an end and those who see it as the means to an end. You’re a perfect illustration of the former AND the disconnect. You are unable to think outside your own box.
Megan, I could not agree more that the SSO badge vendor is absolutely ridiculous. The gear she provides access to is as good, if not better in some cases, than gear acquired within T6/Black Temple/Hyjal & S3. It makes me sick that people just out of Karazhan can roll into T6 quality gear, as well as epic gems. That gear transition pre-2.4 would have taken 8 months to a year. Actually, if you think about it, in many ways, it makes PvE a bit more like PvP. In the sense that you can get incredible gear for doing very little.
And unfortunately, the example does nothing but further prove my and Stop’s point, that PvP gear is overpowered, and too easy to obtain. There is no reason that a guild in S3 should be able to clear Hyjal and BT in just two weeks. The fact that they can means that the PvPer’s rule WoW, simply because they can use their gear to defeat PvE content, but, PvE gear is worthless in high-end PvP content.
G, as far as the explorers and alt-lovers, it sounds like you play on a RP server. Which is fine, if you like to speak in tongues and pretend you’re an actual space alien that crashed to earth to fight hordes of demons. But, if this is the case, I hate to say it, but you do not speak for the majority of the 10+ million WoW players.
G, as far as the explorers and alt-lovers, it sounds like you play on a RP server.
Funny, the assumptions game. No, actually I play on PvE and PvP realms. Never rolled on an RP server. My turn to do some wild baseless assumptions. You’re male, between 18 and 23 years old, hail in from the USA, and for Obama. What has this to do with anything? Nothing. That’s the thing with baseless assumptions, and making a strawman argument.
There is no reason that a guild in S3 should be able to clear Hyjal and BT in just two weeks.
Let’s also ban the Chinese First who cleared BT in mostly T3. They should clearly have stayed in T5. A troll for another.
Let me ask again, why do you care? How does what the others do remove anything from your own accomplishments?
The fact that they can means that the PvPer’s rule WoW, simply because they can use their gear to defeat PvE content, but, PvE gear is worthless in high-end PvP content.
Your argument just got dealt a massive blow by patch 2.4, I’m afraid, since you can exchange PvE tokens for PvP (but still can’t gear up a tank through PvP, which, oddly enough, might actually be among the reasons why tanks are so rare).
It makes me sick that people just out of Karazhan can roll into T6 quality gear, as well as epic gems.
And why do you obsess over what other players do in this game so much that it sickens you, exactly? What do they take away from you?
Assumptions about someone’s age, sex, location, and political party are clearly as important as someone’s play style in a videogame, when discussing said videogame.
T3 is raid gear. S3 is not raid gear.
And as for trading a T6 token for S2 instead of S3, Blizzard can kiss my ass.
Why do I care that other people obtain the very same loot I once had to achieve, in a fashion ten or a hundred times easier than I did? Because that is all there is to this game! Once you’ve explored everything, and run every dungeon with your friends, and pretended to actually be a young female night elf walking around Ashendale forest only to be preyed upon by a rabid wolf hoping someone will hear your ./y “Help! Help! A savage, blood thirsty wolf has striken me with thine eyes and teeth! Won’t some hero pray upon this beast to save thine fair maiden?”
Raiders raid for loot. The first time you kill Illidan, it’s a rush. But the majority of raiding is farming, which means loot. That’s it. With loot comes notoriety. Without notoriety, there is no “winning” of WoW for raiders.
Because that is all there is to this game!
Raiders raid for loot. The first time you kill Illidan, it’s a rush. But the majority of raiding is farming, which means loot. With loot comes notoriety. Without notoriety, there is no “winning” of WoW for raiders.
You’re a loot whore, and unfortunately, the game has evolved way beyond a point where you can actually enjoy it if the only reward you find is prancing around in some shiny gear to get admiration in a video game. Notoriety for killing a scripted monster in a video game?
Here’s a little secret. MMOGs cannot be won.
I pity you.
Telling a hardcore raider he/she is a lootwhore is like telling someone who invests in the stock market that they are obsessed with money.
Raiding is about killing bosses. To do this you need the best loot.
PvP is about killing other players. To do this you need the best loot.
Playing WoW to spend time with friends is for people too anti-social to leave their basement and go to the bar.
I don’t want your pity. I want your envy. And I’ll bet, whether you like to admit this or not, if you were walking through Shattrath City with your Mark of the Chosen and uncommon quest rewards, you would not be able to help your impulse to think, “damn, i wish i was that guy in full tier 6.”
Click on the about page. We have nothing in common. Your values are totally different from mine. Your world view is detestable to me. You have nothing I could envy you. My pity is all you will get.
The PvP players that cleared Hyjal and BT did it in two weeks due to already having the strategies available, prior raiding experience and superb gear to accomplish it with.
The Chinese players that cleared Hyjal and BT did it in three weeks due to playing 24/7 for those three weeks.
As Megan said, someone spends 2 hours a week, for a total of 7 weeks, to obtain a 103 dps fist weapon.
Someone that raids BT may spend 20 hours a week, for a total of X weeks, with X being dependent on the RNG, to obtain a 100 dps fist weapon. If X averages to three weeks per item, per player, in relation to the amount of people needed to obtain said weapon in relation to the loot gained from that boss over three weeks, the ratio becomes heavily skewed towards raiding Karazhan for 7 weeks.
Nevermind that the reward from doing 2 hours of Karazhan per week is better than the latter example.
You both spend your money on the game to do what you enjoy within it, and I do the same. I’ve said this in the past, and I’ll say it again: I wish I could pay hourly. That way when Blizzard released new content that rewards players with an item that takes 14 hours to get, and is equal to, or better than an item that takes 120 hours to get, I can pay for 14 and take the better item.
The issue that we will never agree on I believe is, I think loot is a means to accomplish the content Blizzard has designed it for. Raiding gear upgrades the raiders so that they can explore more PvE content. In order to explore that content, players must follow a predetermined path of progression. In these recent patches, Blizzard has side-stepped this long-term model by opening up more content for players, and also equipping them to go see this content. In this change, I think Blizzard has done the right thing by opening up more content for more players.
The issue I have, and most people that feel similar to me is, Blizzard constantly opens up more of the game for the casual players via removed attunements and better gear. What did Blizzard give the raiders? Sunwell? An instance so grossly tuned to guilds that are full T6. The next step in progression for me is Sunwell, and yet for everything Blizzard has given the people who hadn’t beaten T4-6 level content, they gave me nothing that wasn’t given to everyone else, and indeed very little that will further or quicken my progression through Sunwell compared to the people now blowing through Hyjal and Black Temple.
Post 2.4, it is a casual’s game, and it’s very inviting right now. One has to wonder if this isn’t all a marketing scheme, and WotLK will only restart the entire cycle. In a year from now, will Gwaen and I be arguing about T9 and S6? Probably.
What did Blizzard give the raiders? Sunwell? An instance so grossly tuned to guilds that are full T6
You still got new raid content, and it’s only through circumstances tied to the timing of your guild’s progression that you aren’t yet fully ready to compete for the world / serverfirstmobile. A couple of days ago you admitted that you might have let the world first mentality carry you a bit away. Seems you’ve recovered pretty well in the meantime. Had circumstances given your guild two months more in BT / MH before the patch went live, you’d be perfectly happy with the instance. The new people who are “blowing through MH / BT”, unless they nerfed the content (didn’t bother to read that part of the patch notes), will not just hit the sudden raised difficulty you yourself blogged about in December when the free loot bosses give way to the harder stuff, some of them will also lack the experience granted by Kael and LV because they skipped them. They still have catching up to do - not that I believe this should matter at all, but I’m not you.
Post 2.4, it is a casual’s game, and it’s very inviting right now. One has to wonder if this isn’t all a marketing scheme,
Insert your favourite ORLY owl picture here. But you’re being very lopsided with your assessment. It’s a more casual game patch by patch, but the raiding game gets expanded step by step as well. Blizzard caters to the unwashed masses but also keeps raising the bar for the small hardcore fringe. It’s called appealing to a broad audience. And they do a good job at it. You and Arthos do certainly sound quite upset about the game, yet neither of you has quit. It’s a marketing scheme alright, and guess what, it’s working pretty well.
In a year from now, will Gwaen and I be arguing about T9 and S6? Probably.
If we keep it up for that long, someone’s bound to compare us to a bickering old couple at some point in time. I think we can both agree, for once, that it’s probably best not to get there.
Perhaps. A friend of mine who leads a raiding guild was stuck on Kael for 2 months prior to the patch. Now they are 3/5 Hyjal and 4/9 BT last we talked. The curve between BT and Sunwell is steep, but it may just be that early Hyjal and BT we’re very easy. I imagine we’ll kill Kalecgos this week, and then I’ll be able to better gauge the gear check based on Brutallus. But regardless, their guild is progressing nicely through T6 content that they otherwise wouldn’t have seen, and I’m glad for them.
True, the raiding game does expand, maybe I just don’t feel it’s equal, but that may be because we’re winding down right now and most raid content was front loaded. I don’t know if we’re upset with the game, I believe we would say we’re upset with the choices Blizzard has made recently.
Well firstly nice use of Shadenfreude
Next Gear is meaningless unless used to complete an objective E.g raiding gear for further raids and PvP gear for PvP
Stop you are right PvP is not linear which is why we DON’T need ratings look right now the kinds of teams you can run up against if you are a fresh 70 Full s3 geared teams in the 1500’s and hell even lower. Now i know you can get season 1 after fighting in Battlegrounds note that fighting i find it very unlikely if you afk every match you won’t die of boredom i hate Afkers and report them at every opportunity so do not use that as an excuse for “Welfare epicz”. Because last time i checked you need lots and lots of marks and you get 1 mark for losing 3 for winning so I’d rather win.
If you are in season 1 and vsing s2 your right the difference isn’t huge but it gets worse and worse with season 3 lets assume you are running a cookie cutter build your outgeared so right away you have a disadvantage. So whats left skill? well yes but not only do you have to be better than them you also have to account for their gear furthermore its a ladder system so you could simply run into a wall where your own improvement is matched by that of your opponents a wall which you can not earn anymore gear and the only choice is to raid or Badge of justice
Thats assuming you are lucky enough to be in a cookie cutter build plenty are not and they have to work even harder which is downright impossible to beat against the overwhelming odds of both cookie cutter builds and the gear discrepancy At the very least when s4 is introduced the previous season season 3 should be removed of all ratings at least then the most they would be behind is 1 season.
Ladder systems fail so terribly its not even funny there will always be class imbalance and as far as the cookie cutters go it will simply be the first there getting the best and staying the best.
if you take 100 of the best players put them on a separate battle group someone is still going to be in the 1300’s and if they didn’t get the gear earlier they are probaly going to be stuck there because of it or class choice.
That being said arena players should have something to set them apart E.g Vanity pets, tabards, tittles, mounts, teleports, buffs, novelty items and maybe even bigger bags. Things that have no impact in terms of balance but that are still highly desirable i know i would love any of the above
And this still allows casuals and newcomers a chance to fight in the big leagues the best move blizzard did was giving everyone the same gear on the arena tournament server.
Now i won’t get into the issue of raiding v pvping or world pvp or even battleground pvp this was just about the arena and i could still post more. Heck, i might even make a blog post of my own about it that being said sorry for hijacking your thread Gwaendar.
P.s sorry for the grammar
the kinds of teams you can run up against if you are a fresh 70 Full s3 geared teams in the 1500’s and hell even lower.
TBH, for me that’s a compelling argument to actually support the change in rating.
That being said arena players should have something to set them apart E.g Vanity pets, tabards, tittles, mounts, teleports, buffs, novelty items and maybe even bigger bags.
In all fairness, arena players get more status symbols than raiders at present. I think they require something more to show for their work than what they have now before arena gets added rewards. Stop has an interesting idea here which I’d fully support if you added the caveat that all the bonuses get disabled when you engage in PvP action.
Yeah raiders need symbols too i said i wasn’t going to get into that as this was purely about arena.
And perhaps yes if there are s3 geared teams the rating should be changed but should it be changed now or when gear resets in wotlk.
I think the latter, Furthermore people will not arena for no reward its nowhere near as fun as battlegrounds or World pvp (the epic sort of tm v ss not random gankings) and blizzard has an intent to push it on us as is clear from the past few patches and this latest tournament.
In short i think the best thing about wow is choice i can go raid i can go pvp i can do 5 mans and gear up and actually progress which is the whole point while not feeling “locked in”
And putting ARENA ratings on gear obtained via battlegrounds is stupid in my opinion if you really needed to fix it fix the afkers and up the honor/marks then not give it to some other travesty of a mini-game
@Gwaendar: The main reason I’m so pessimistic about the ratings scheme is that it’s the same scheme as used now, just expanded to most pieces. Had S3 experiment been successful, point and rating selling would have diminished, and that hasn’t been the case over here in the States. My experience is that I’ve faced more 5/5 S3/T6 teams during the last few weeks than during the whole S2.
Also, it’s ironic to talk about the new Badge Rewards being “Welfare Epics”, since these items are more for raiders than casuals, with all the changes introduced (BoJ from all raid bosses, each new Badge reward costs over 80 BoJ each, etc.)
@Argos: A loot whore is someone that is obsessed with getting all the gear for themselves. When they don’t get the loot, they act childishly, doing and saying stupidities. See Stop the Loot Whore. He doesn’t care about the loot distributing system. Had that been the case, he’d be clamoring for an improvement on the current need/greed rolls, which can lead to unnecessary drama.
There’s a proverb in Spanish that says, ‘Ladron juzga por su condicion’ (Thief judges by his ways). It means that those who do something, will judge others are so.
@Stop the QQer: I play my 10 games weekly, and I give it my best shot to win. It’s hard to swallow when your rating drops like a rock because you faced 3 to 4 point selling teams on a bracket they shouldn’t be.
And last time I checked, Shade of Aran still acts the same way as it did way back in 2.1. He didn’t play arcane/frost during 2.1, then frost/arcane in 2.2, then full frost in 2.4. The only boss I can honestly think that has changed was Loot Reaver, and even that was a “minor” change.
@Megan: As much as I agree with you, let’s give the devil his due. Some raiders are excellent persons and work hard for their accomplishments, especially those that use non-conventional tactics and group compositions to Get Things Done(tm). They shouldn’t be associated with people like Stop and Argos.
Argos, I got an interesting character to analyze. Since you say that we are here just for the loots, explain to me this: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=17702127&sid=1
I really hate the fact that they have made this change. Now battlegrounds need to do arena, not because they are fun; but because Blizzard wants us to play them. I don’t understand forcing players to do the types of play that they don’t like, or don’t have time for. Why not force PvP players to get attuned to Kara?
As for welfare epics for casuals its just not true. The casual player does not have time and exposure to grind up badges to get any more than (maybe) two items of badge gear in the new sets. So that difference of gear will make little difference. 150 badges is a heck of a lot of Kara runs, and a dreadful amount of H instances. Its not there for casuals, its there for raiders who don’t like pvp.
Next changes in a similar vein:
- PvE rewards will require Arena, Tournament, and Battleground games.
- PvP specs will get further buffed in an attempt to make it more desirable.
- Prot spec Warriors and Paladins will have a 15% damage reduction when not in a group - to make them group.
/sigh
Quote “Let’s also ban the Chinese First who cleared BT in mostly T3. They should clearly have stayed in T5. A troll for another.” Realise they posted within 24 hours that in fact the t3 picture was fake. They took off TBC gear and put on t3.
Do people deserver ilvl 159 gear for playing 10 games a week? No luckily in most cases outside weapons its barely better then kara gear depending on the class.
But at the same time dont expect the arena system to continue on now as per normal. Even now in some battlegroups only 20 5v5 teams are good enough for S4 shoulders. Your average joe blow 1500 team is going to be capped on what they can buy incredibly quickly. The players right now are allready saturated with s3 because of the long seasons. Indeed I laughed my head off when my welfare epic alt drew a team with 4 players with s3 weapons at the massive rating of 1350 last night.
The arena system is a pyramid. Players stand on the backs of those with less skill. How will it climb when the bottom rungs just stop playing?
Do people deserver ilvl 159 gear for playing 10 games a week?
That’s actually an interesting point extending the debate further. So let me ask the question: is it a matter of deserving? Will only the good children or the assiduous raiders “deserve” particular gear levels? If you look at it in terms of time invested, you surely have a point, but…
A hardcore player costs Blizzard a lot more than a casual. He’s usually active on the forums, for starters, and requires an armada of moderators to keep in check. He plays more often and for longer hours, meaning he consumes more power and cooling off the servers. He eats up content much faster and keeps clamoring for more more more.
In other words, the hardcore player is the demanding, high-maintenance, low-profit customer. The quiet casual on the other makes a nice profit and doesn’t make a fuss about welfare epics and balance and whatnot. The casual is the better customer, so arguably, he has a valid claim to better rewards.
But all of this is, in the end, a lopsided argument, because most of the changes favouring casuals have actually never been asked for.