Stop The Endless Gear Treadmill

[Wrenchester-moon-guard (Wrenchester)]

@Shiftydruid-stormrage

Gearing was so much worse pre-LK. It was a 3 stage process. Step 1 Get really good blues (this is a starter set). Step 2 Get epics and resistance gear. Stage 3 Get your current Tier.

Unless you were a dwarf priest

Fear Ward, man. Fear Ward. You could get in any MC group you wanted and all you had to do was stand there and spam Fear Ward.

[Shiftydruid-stormrage]

@Wrenchester-moon-guard

Fear Ward

Oh man that takes me back

[Ekhana-frostmourne (Ekhana)]

Also I recall reading that there is an enemy in UBRS who casts a huge fire resistance buff that lasts for an hour, so priests would mind control them and buff the whole raid before MC.

[Zedarr-bonechewer]

Back in the days the only thing any mage ever wanted was netherwind and a staff of the shadow flame. Tier 2 was some kind of style points back in the pre mog days.

Realistically most settled for mantle of the balckwing cabal (which was honestly better) because they either never dropped or some sob saved all their dkp and a mindfang/Grimoire combo for weapons because of similar things.

[Cassändra-emerald-dream]

@Møcha-moon-guard

Wow has literally become an endless stat simulator that resets progress every 2 months. It’s been since WoTLK that I played WoW just to play the game.

This isn’t a WoW problem requiring a WoW fix.

Gear progression has been a thing in WoW since day 1.

Getting new content every two months is exponentially better than going 9 months to a year with a content drought.

The good news is, you have the means to fix the issue you’re having yourself:

• Chasing gear isn’t a requirement. You’re free to, “play WoW just to play the game,” if that’s what you desire.

• If you want to play a game completely without gear progression, perhaps you should find one?

@Møcha-moon-guard

You should get easily attainable gear that is good enough for the xpacs endgame, and will allow you to do the content that you want, and if you get an upgrade as an added bonus, cool. If not, cool, you got to do a fun dungeon or raid because you wanted to. Not this required ilevel mandatory content.

• Nothing is mandatory.
• You can level via gathering, Pet Battles, and Archeology.
• You get gear just by questing.
• LFR is supposed to be entry-level instances, yes?
• Right now you can get 500ish ilevel gear from Timewalking BC raids, which is also entry level content.
• The Superbloom, along with the weekly Dreamseed & Dream Wardens rep quests are dropping around 463 ilvl gear.

[Hellasha-alleria (Hellasha)]

@Møcha-moon-guard

Wow has literally become an endless stat simulator that resets progress every 2 months.

Hyperbole aside, this has always been the case.

@Møcha-moon-guard

You should be doing dungeons / raids because you want to see the encounters and beat the challenge, not to gain a higher fraction of player power trapped inside an endless time loop of power creep and reset.

I’m pretty sure that’s what already happens.

@Møcha-moon-guard

You should get easily attainable gear that is good enough for the xpacs endgame, and will allow you to do the content that you want, and if you get an upgrade as an added bonus, cool. If not, cool, you got to do a fun dungeon or raid because you wanted to. Not this required ilevel mandatory content.

No, you shouldn’t. If you want to do endgame content do the content that gives you endgame level gear and rewards.

[Aqure-westfall]

I was just thinking - I have been playing constantly the last few months and going out of my way to upgrade all my gear and my efforts are basically all be negated in one day of easy gameplay. Makes me wonder why I bothered.

[Brewa-hyjal]

Gearing to overcome new challenges is fine, and can even be fun.

Having to gear again to overcome the same challenges you just beat the week before (as in season 4’s) is stupid.

Gear is a tool. Not a goal. Use the tool to do something, and we’re good.

[Cassändra-emerald-dream]

@Foxmulder-the-venture-co

You may want to learn to use a calendar because no season has ever been 2 months

Correct. However, in Dragonflight the patch release schedule has been every 8 to 10 weeks.

• 10.2 - Nov 7th: Guardians of the Dream
• 10.2.5 - Jan 16th: Seeds of Renewal
• 10.2.6 - March 19th: Plunderstorm
• 10.2.6a - April 23rd [HAPPY BIRTHDAY (and death day) SHAKESPEARE!]: Season 4
• 10.2.7 - May 7th: Dark Heart

[Voiron-moon-guard]

@Mailborn-thrall

Around some dark moist corner no doubt.

I can’t tell you how uncomfortable this sentence made me.

Anyway, OP, GW2 is thataway.

[Brewa-hyjal]

@Aqure-westfall

I was just thinking - I have been playing constantly the last few months and going out of my way to upgrade all my gear and my efforts are basically all be negated in one day of easy gameplay. Makes me wonder why I bothered.

I’ve known over a hundred people IRL who used to play WoW and quit a long time ago, and this is the most-cited reason. “Nothing you do feels worth doing/rewarding, anymore.”

[Cassändra-emerald-dream]

I frequently felt that way in Shadowlands.

Thankfully, I feel the opposite in Dragonflight.

[Breadisfunny-turalyon (Breadisfunny)]

lol. no it wasnt. naxxrammas was so easy.

[Rabititus-shuhalo (Rabititus)]

@Møcha-moon-guard

Endless ilevel and stat grinds are not a substitute for a fun game to play.

You do realize it was actually worse in Vanilla with all the resistance gear grinding for specific raids, and that was with tiny bags.

The gear hamster wheel is the design this game was built on, how are you surprised?

[Evilira-barthilas]

@Møcha-moon-guard

Endless ilevel and stat grinds are not a substitute for a fun game to play.

Did you just start? The “gear treadmill” is a staple and has been since the start of WoW.

[Marsius-bleeding-hollow]

@Møcha-moon-guard

You should be doing dungeons / raids because you want to see the encounters and beat the challenge, not to gain a higher fraction of player power trapped inside an endless time loop of power creep and reset.

As much as I’d enjoy this, dungeons would be a one-and-done affair if there wasn’t a reason to grind gear from them, a la M+

You’d just beat it and not have much reason to return.

Like in WoTLK, there’s no reason to do a single dungeon once you’re raid-geared.

I don’t want to go back to that, I want dungeons to remain relevant.

And the only way that can happen is either wiping progress, or letting dungeons scale upwards as M+ does.

That being said, I do miss grinding dungeons for rep, it was enjoyable.

[Magellica-lightnings-blade]

@Møcha-moon-guard

Back in the day your skill could make up for a lack of gear. Today gear and stats auto play your character.

Not exactly. Back in the day, most players in PVP were not well geared, so you didn’t feel out of place. Even back then, the raid geared players completely dominated, but there were usually only a couple in a given BG, so everyone could do OK in crappy gear. Now most players in PVP have good gear, so you have a hard time just juming in.

[Skalpy-darkspear]

Why are you projecting?
Some of us actually have fun when we play.

[Faedrela-turalyon]

I’d like to point out that SOME crafted gear can last from the beginning to the end of the expansion.

I am using a crafted bow from season 1 (stupid Raz bow never dropped and I’m still salty) and have re-craft it every season until now. I was considering recrafting again, but the new token system has me looking at the vendor bow.

Of course it doesn’t work for tier pieces, but technically some pieces can last all expansion.

[Zeebl-thrall (Zeebl)]

Has literally become? It’s been that way since the beginning.