Curious to hear others opinions. I think gear in classic was way more interesting.
Having a belt with, for example, str dex int, two red sockets, and hit made the item feel unique in a way. Items in retail feel very bland, like main stat stam + two secondary stats.
This might be better for balancing, sure, but I think a big part of what makes classic exciting is chasing after that perfectly statted piece; even doing old raids for them.
I’m sure having a system for gear and the stats they have has its benefits, but something is lost.
I hope everyone understands what I mean as I struggle putting my thoughts into words.
And I think getting the gear piece with the stats I want and then getting to keep it and upgrade it is far more preferable over having to replace it because there’s an ilevel upgrade with crappier secondaries.
The upgrade system we have benefits all levels of gameplay.
We still chase perfectly stated gear. I prefer retail myself, I can upgrade a piece over a period of weeks instead of hoping for a drop that may never happen. In vanilla I raided molten core for 3 months and never got a piece of gear. I could never go back to that again
Also, why does everything have to be epic? Rarity should mean something. Mythic track pieces should be epic. Heroic track, fully upgraded, should be epic. Below that, blue.
I didn’t type anything about whether or not you should be able to upgrade items. I think the crest system is great. Items can be upgraded regardless of the way they’re statted.
I disagree, gear was quite boring in earlier iterations of the game while also not really being clear as to what you should be gearing towards.
With retail, gear is clear and concise. Secondary stats are straight forward, no arbitrary hit/exp caps to hit and gear has an easier time being used between different roles allowing you to try out tanking or healing as a DPS main without needing an entirely new set of gear.
Just look at items in classic how theyre statted then compare them to retail where it’s just main stat, stam and two secondaries with ilvl determining the cumulative value of the secondaries. The only interesting thing about it is the two of the four secondaries itll have and the weight of the two. It’s extremely systematic and boring.
The crest system has nothing to do with how items are statted.
Making exciting gear comes at the cost of it not really fitting ilvl as youll end up with some piece of gear much better even at lower ilvl.
We still have trinkets and tier sets working that way, we have crafting embelishments but sure all the other pieces are generally stat sticks.
I think working first into making those more exciting or interesting probably should be a goal but going a bit further would still be interesting to me.
In legion for example we had really op tier sets, really op trinkets and the “legiondaries” providing very strong choice of power on your gear with also the borrowed power system which kept power progression fresh (while terrible to grind).
Im not saying we should go to that extreme but I think they can do more easily.
I always enjoyed the rng of stats that make it a rpg and customizable to change up builds so everyone has more flavor and not all the same. Always enjoyed it and always will. Even in pvp.
I believe in earlier versions of the game it was hard for players to know that sometimes the lower ilvl gear with better stats was an upgrade then that new piece of gear from a raid or something.
Blizzard makes it so ilvl upgrade = good. So they try to make stats not too imba.
They also made stats combined, some talents make certain stats act like spirit, stating for hit rating was horrible, we had addons to manage for hit caps and stuff.
The worst was for tanks and defense rating, can’t believe how daunting it is just for a tank to get into tanking without defense rating. It sort of encouraged ninja looting from tanks as you level for a tank offspec in wotlk.
Yet how many people play classic. I’m sorry if you’re confused by the stats of items in classic wow. Tertiary and gem procs are cool, but that’s being placed on the item that’s merely a templated stat stick of main stat stam and two secondary stats affected by ilvl.