So… at various times since the end of Mists, the community has begged for reforging to come back. Ion, addressing it at one point, said they removed it because they felt it was ‘too complicated’ and they didn’t want the player to have to download an add-on to find out what worked best.
Which is… kind of ironic given how complicated things are. Atm:
Ilvl often has no relation to actual power, especially with regards to jewelry.
Secondary stats usually outweigh main stats but that number can shift from 5 mans to raiding.
Azerite gear is usually badly explained (is y healing better than x increase to stats? Does an aoe effect work better than a flat damage increase? etc)
Azerite gear needs to be gathered for every spec leading to full bags.
In many cases the trait can overcome ilvl (I had a piece of bad 450 gear be less valuable than a perfect 420… go figure)
Anyone doing serious raiding or mythics needs (at a minimum) something like PAWN and a Simming mod to know what to equip. And the swimming mods charge for their use.
As mentioned, titan forging has thrown out any form of best in slot. But random sockets can radically alter an items desirability atm, making a low item 10 or more ilvls better in power than it says due to the ability to add a gem.
There’s other points I’m sure many could add but the point is, the gearing system in the game is a mess. And the core of that mess is a disconnect between ilvl and actual power.
So… suggestion. Add some sort of power bar to the character that effectively sims on the fly. As we swap out items or talents it shows if something is an improvement or not without us having to resort to paid websites. Doesn’t have to be dps either - it could simply be ‘class power’. Likewise if you want to make azerite traits so all over the place, have a graphical ranking system when we open them up. Like… A gold and 2 bronze. Or three silver. Something that guides the way we pick these things.
Oh and reforging? Gemming on tier gear? Profs adding enchants and sockets and so on? These things were great. A lot of us miss them.
Yes I miss reforging and having gems. My shaman is a JC, and I haven’t seen many socketable pieces. My buddy had a lot of upgrades, and no gem sockets.
I’d like a built in addon for what you’ve described, as someone with certain illnesses, I can’t tell if something is a better piece of gear or not. I used to have a roomate help me during my BC and Wrath raiding years, but now I’m on my own lol
Performance hits from running calculations on the fly and increased resources by the UI from having to keep a database of all items you possess, are why these things are done outside of the game.
Also, www.raidbots.com/simbot is a free site. Paying just brings your job up to the front of the queue, and that’s really only an issue on Tuesdays when everyone has opened their chest(s) and is simming their new items.
I get its a performance hit but this is a major issue. If an average player is getting gear they have NO way of knowing if the gear is good or bad. Without checking a variety of websites they’re not even aware which secondary traits are best (and some of those can change as gear increases). It’s become very… excel spreadsheet which I doubt is anything Blizz want.
As for raidbots - not really. Yes you can do a basic sim comparing a few pieces of gear. If you want it to do a general ‘best in bags’ analysis? (which is a totally reasonable request). You need to pay.
So yea azerith gear bad, titanforging bad, bonus sockets bad.
I don’t think simming or pawn is bad, but clearly the game could do it baseline. But Blizzard prefers to let addons do it.
As for rings I would prefer they get mainstats back but not my biggest issue with gear by a lot. If they don’t they should bring back reforging tho.
they need to just cap Titanforging at +15 levels, bring back gear that always have sockets (and gear that are just Main Stats +2-3 sockets) as well as giving us the ability to upgrade our gear to the +15 titanforge limit with currency like Titan Residuum.
and currently allow you to pick different talents on one azerite piece depending on spec so you are not forced to hold more than one/re-talent it over and over if you play multiple specs
Idk why blizzard just doesn’t build the Pawn addon into their game if they don’t want people to go outside of their game. They have internal tools for testing that do the same crap that pawn and simc does. Just integrate them in the game so every drop tells you what % increase or decrease it is. Have the system update your sims in realtime thanks to it being built in the game and call it a day. If they can’t afford enough servers with that as a multibillion corporation idk what to say because others does it fine off of donations…
Bam, gearing being complex literally isn’t an issue anymore.
But your reply is a great example what I was saying. Versatility is fantastic for a bunch of specs. Just not yours. But… how are people meant to know that WITHOUT homework?
The free sims are drastically limited in terms of the number of combinations you can sim.
Given the complexity the OP noted - more than the “allotted” number of sims is often needed.
The site has also started charging to sim certain items - right now, it won’t let you select certain Azerite Pieces without having the paid premium subscription.
I miss having enchants for almost every slot. Multiple gem sockets on gear. Yes, I guess it was a “hassle” to have to gem and enchant new pieces of gear, but it also made me feel like I was participating in the improvement of my character and gave me some level of customization, rather than just pulling the slot machine handle and hoping.
And god, I loved reforging so-so gear into decent gear back in MoP. Though I won’t lie, I think I get more use out of transmog yak than I did back when he was reforge yak.
Both true points. But Blizzard isn’t going to add simming to the default UI until it becomes a necessity / requirement for playing the game. As of now, it’s at best a tool used to maximize your character. The number of players who min-max is likely inferior to the number who just play the game and accept what they get.
