The fact that just because there’s better gear out there that all the new content release suddenly needs the best gear in order to do it. What I’m saying is there’s this idea and you see it expressed in frustration on the forums here that when it comes to gear it takes too long to do X.
What currently I hate about MMOs is that it feels like if I put my main on pause right now when new content is released in like 3 weeks I’ll be so far behind that I won’t get to do it or that I have to go back and do this slog of a grind just to get back to where I was.
What older MMOs I remember did was you didn’t need the best gear to do the latest content. Was there certain content you needed gear for, sure, but it was such a small part of the game that it didn’t trivialize the rest of the game, and it didn’t make it feel like you had to go through X raid or Y dungeons.
Right now I feel like putting my main guy on pause and seeing what’s going to happen in 3 weeks where everyone will be at.
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In a sense, it demotivates me from playing. I cannot maintain the pace that I had in university, so if I disappear for a few months… might as well be starting at level one.
I can’t be excited for the loot that I get now when I know it will be obsolete in a week or two.
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I would just like an Ultima Online game with wows graphics…
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I never could understand the See-Saw method.
Nonsense. I took an 8-9 month break in BfA (half way through season 3 and all of season 4) and geared up and pugged up to a 2.4k io rating.
Gear is capped within a raid season. So as long as you’re still in that season/patch, catching up is easy.
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I think you’re missing the broader point which was it feels like the gear wheel is the only wheel that in WoW.
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Precisely my point.
Why progress at all in season 3 when you know season 4 is just around the bend for you to, yet again, start from square one? Complete with catch-up mechanics that will completely invalidate the path of progression that you’re currently on?
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What catch up mechanisms? I started over being about 30ilvls behind everyone else and worked my way up.
Just like you do with every new expansion release. It’s character progression. It’s how it works. Your arguments can correlated directly to “why play this game at all”, more or less
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Indeed, it can. I wholeheartedly believe that WoW has put on the horseblinders to any type of progression other than gear, much to their own detriment.
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It’s trying to turn MMOs into a successful brand of E-Sports. The seasons are just exactly this. If they want to do that fine. I guess it’s just me getting older.
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Gotta look at how it’s based I guess. From my understanding (correct me if I’m wrong), but it’s always been a gear based platform.
It’s not that your character got stronger through killing things and gaining experience and thus strength that way. Where the world is static and as you get stronger you move into new places where the baddies are as strong as you and rinse and repeat.
Or ability based where you had to complete tasks to gain abilities which is where your power came from.
It’s always been gear. You increase your gear, you increase your power. To change that platform now would, well, cause a bit of an upstart
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I don’t recall another MMO where I had to do the equivalent of farming Fire Resist gear so I could do Molten Core.
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This gear obsession is a community issue. I mean, the developers didn’t help this by implementing Diablo style loot though. Gear has been raining down from the sky now for 2 expansions.
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I’m not saying that the current structure needs to be torn down and rebuilt. Just that it isn’t the only structure that needs to exist.
I’ve been playing another MMO alongside WoW. I haven’t killed anything in weeks. Yet I’m making progress on my character in a myriad of other ways.
I literally came back to WoW in August last year in the middle of late 8.3 and it took me like 3-4 weeks to catch up on iLvl to most people.
I can think of a few 
Do tell, I’m genuinely curious and I’m all for new ideas being implemented
Edit: you don’t have to name the MMO, I’m not going to fact check you, just curious at what other ways you’re progressing your character
They are talking about mechanics that allow one to do in a day what used to take weeks. So if you don’t mind waiting, you can skip a lot of content.
If you don’t mind waiting, the gains or achievement or whatever is only temporary.
I don’t do high end stuff, but I played a little early in BFA.
I took a break.
I came back after Nashatar (however you spell the water zone) and in about 2 hours I suddenly had a much higher neck and overall item level because they threw about 5 or 6 pieces of gear at me.
Dinged an alt within a few hours of hitting 120, that char also outgeared my first char.
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I pretty much bailed on wow during the shadowlands expansion, finished the storyline up to release point and leveled 2 mains was enough for me. Went back to Ultima Online & my castle.
EQ2 got it right in that you only killed disgusting zombies, they were not a playable race.
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What older MMOS got right (for me) that current WoW doesn't
Fixed the topic title for you. Sorry, 15 year old WoW destroys pretty much every other 10+ year old MMO out there (and pretty much all current MMOS as well)
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