I think this would be a reasonable argument if it were possible for most individual players to figure it out, but it’s not. “Figuring it out” right now means copying what streamers/guides/others say to do. It is practically NOT possible to figure out how effective embellishments are without extensive testing (impractical for the typical player).
The discovery/learning involved in this game right now means discovering the right guides/youtube vids to follow. Tell me this isn’t true.
And don’t get me started about PVP tooltips and hidden diminished effects in PVP!
I think we’re putting too much faith into these always being accurate. They’re all going off the same info everybody else has and just sort of throwing something together that seems decent on fundamentals
It isn’t, because even the pros aren’t sure what’s best; they’re all doing different things and making guesses. I understand the fear of not wanting to make a “wrong” decision, but the difference between whatever perfect gear and just buying conquest gear is is like a 1% difference per piece. Yes, that adds up, don’t get me wrong, but it’s SO much worrying over nothing. I’m 1800 on 1 character and 1600 on another at 2200 mmr with just honor gear and no enchants.
Gear isn’t gatekeeping anyone, and to pretend otherwise is doomsaying.
I’ve watched I think 4 vids about gearing right now. Each of them have some slightly different path or gear selection, so optimality has not been found (for the record, I think Venruki’s is a very reasonable path for most players that minimizes risk come week 3).
All of them, however, suggest world PVP gearing + bring up the question of crafting weapons + talk about embellishments + gems. The casual+ player is not going to know about most of this for a while without these guides.
This is the best xpac for PVP I’ve experienced in the past 5+ years. I’m still in full honor and ~1550, and unlike you my rating climb is slowing and perhaps I won’t get much higher – that’s okay. I’m not trying to brag about my (lack of) skill/rating (I’m glad for you though). Nonetheless, I think many that PVP want it to be on as even a playing field as possible, and for the systems to be simple such that it’s more welcoming to new players. Perhaps you don’t.
There will always be those that are complacent with the systems we have instead of striving for things be better.
I…don’t really know how much better they can get. Maybe find a way to avoid having pve and pvp pieces shared from the catalyst and…ksm/ksh/challenger freebie piece.
This whole thing kind of reminds me of Ion mentioning that most players can’t be trusted to purchase items themselves which I didn’t really understand until I found some of these threads.
And I think it is that. Talking about an advantage for 1-2 weeks that goes away entirely when everyone has gear means that it IS an even playing field. The season is snot the first week or two, so to make a statement like,
Yeah, or last season when there was PVE and PVP gear on the same vendor and people bought the wrong piece and were mad. Or the guy in here a week ago who was arguing that you still had to upgrade pvp gear with valorstones for it to work correctly.
The systems could actually be perfect and people would STILL find a way to complain.
I’m all for improvement and addressing legitimate criticisms (the weapon quest is a good example of that), but “gear gatekeeping” is a myth and an excuse for a problem that simply isn’t real.
I’ve actually met more than a few people on both the forums and class discords that said they quit in dragonflight or didn’t pvp because they thought they needed crafts/honor/flightstones to upgrade their pvp gear.
A bit? Xaryu a long time vet had to have his chat walk him through how to do a crafting order because he had no clue. Absterge bought the PvE items off the vendor.
The current set up is pretty stupid honestly.
Not one of the above mentioned seemed to enjoy “figuring” out the systems. I don’t either. Who does exactly?
Sure, but Xaryu being a “vet” doesn’t give him experience with a new system, and I also know that there are plenty of new people who have 0 issues navigating the system. Also, a LOT of players can intuitively look and read the tooltips and go, “yep. we got it”. I know not everyone reads the tooltips or does the in-game quests where they explain how that works, but the information is literally in the game in NPCs and a quest for it.
Also, absterge not reading is on him; it’s literally ON the item tooltip XD
Its complete doable if you have a double digit IQ. You are just too lazy to spend 5 minutes clicking on the NPCs shown on the map and reading what they tell you.
How? What was confusing for you? What did you not understand about any of the crafting between stat selection missives, embelishments, and pvp vs pve ilvl trophies? There’s one box for each type of augment and the rest is just the mats. You can even filter by ilvl and expansion.
He literally did not read and even admitted that he was very dumb for making that mistake.
Then what exactly are you arguing for? To maintain systems that are clearly confusing to a lot of players? I mean, unless I missed it, you’re essentially the first one in this thread to bring up:
And to call what I said asinine and lazy? Look in the mirror.
Yes, exactly. It is okay to not know exactly what the most bis/optimal gearing is day 1 of the season of a brand new expansion.
Yes, because people being confused by something they’ve never seen or done before can be scary or frustrating and any time ANY change happens there is often pushback even if it’s for the better.
Having faster, more accessible gearing with more opportunities for customization sounds like a LOT of potential pros and to buck a system that hasn’t even been live for a week and pretending like it’s preventing people from playing or climbing is incredibly lazy and asinine.
Most people LIKED dragonflight crafting as an option, ESPECIALLY later in the season because it allowed for more min/max opportunities, but also wasn’t important at all for the early to mid parts where the most important thing was to just slap on conquest gear.
That’s STILL the most important part; get and equip conquest gear and don’t overthink it and you’ll be fine.
Just because something is new and you don’t understand it yet doesn’t mean you NEED to understand it immediately.
