What is required? Never understood that argument in a game. What I consider fun is not the same as you. People should be rewarded for their style of play not yours. WOTR was such a success because they gave everyone a chance for gear. The tokens system allowed you to trade tokens in for raiding gear.
FFXIV is so popular for the same reasons. They don’t punish players for a style. If you want to grind for gear they allow it. If you want to do raider finder go for it, or their savage raids or trials.
Same with ESO. Gear Level is capped with CP. They were smart. Raid gear just rewards benefits that trigger in a raid.
System wise. If people dont get better gear they will always lag behind raid gear and never get a solid chance to raid outside of raid finder. The system alone causes the issue.
I said nothing about fun. It is about choices. Higher ilvl items have requirements to obtain them. You can either do what is required, or you can go without. I am not trying to be rude and I, myself, have to go without certain things as well. You (well we all) have to decide what matters more a) never doing anything we don’t like b) going without some things. This is how the game functions. This is largely the way it has always functioned. Could it change in the future? Certainly, but in this moment that is just the way it is.
Harder content though, still needs to have a greater reward. There should always be a difference between gear I can get by myself, picking 10 flowers or killing 5 nigh-randomly selected mobs and gear that takes 5, 10, 20, 40 people coordinating their attacks and not least their time, to obtain.
So long as the gear we, as open world solo players, can get is sufficient to tackling said open world solo (and old) content, I don’t see the need.
My Pallies gear is already good enough for that and he’s still got lots more upgrades he could get (if I will end up being bothered to get them all, that is).
“Why Do Raiders Care What iLvl Gear Open-World Players Are Running Around In?”
I truly have no clue. What Ilvl someone has that rides by me doesn’t affect me, unless it’s pvp.
I know why “casual and open world” players want higher Ilvl. It’s called progression. Others do see/feel the need. This isn’t the Twentieth century, time to evolve the game, or go under. Filling the tub of anima, will only keep a player so long.
Some people have handicaps and the like, they should still feel a sense of belonging and accomplishments. I can’t see where more pathways could hurt the game, it would only help.
I mean i did tons of wq’s in BFA but only got 1 max ilvl titanforged item during the whole expac. I also did some mythic raiding so i eventually swapped that piece.
But the point is that, that 1 high ilvl item is so much more than a high ilvl item. For those who like a little bit , or more, RP it will be like finding that legendary item on your adventures. For others it might be an apetizer to start doing more high end content.
Same with the mythic and heroic rewards from weekly quest. I mean 2 mythic rewards during 1 patch works wonders as an apetizer for those who could be tempted to do more high end content. And will be that legendary reward for all the heroic work for rp’ers.
But sadly those rewards have been washed away by the sea of salty tears of mythic raiders.
The reason why I say it should be close. If any type of gear path falls to far behind. The next options becomes out of reach. RF gear hardly gets you into normal raids or beyond. There needs to be a system to allows your gear at bare minimum to be able to a value to a dungeon or raid party.
As someone that’s too old these days to want to participate in stressful activities that can turn toxic quickly, I think things are mostly decent where they are. Some sort of upgrade path for sandworn gear that upgrades it to about Mythic key+10 or heroic raid ilvl, but takes a considerable amount of time but can be done as an individual contributor, would have been the ideal for me. Those that like group content could still get more powerful gear more quickly.
And here we thought you raided for FUN!!! and for the exclusive mounts, titles, pets and mogs that only raiders get. It is looking like you are over rewarded for doing that not fun content. maybe a game company should stay with what is fun and leave tedium behind.
you dont need heroic/mythic gear for open world or pvp, so it should gear down to those levels when you are not in a raid. If the gear is only needed for raids, that is where it should stay.
write new raids without the huge ilvl inflation. Make them all about progressing through the mechanics and getting set pieces that only have a bonus in raids. you dont need 20, 30 or 40 ilvl boosts for each raid tier. Make raid gear make you shine in a raid, but it doesnt have to make you a god in open world or pvp. The same with pvp gear. make it shine when in pvp(in WM or in an instance). Make it decent pve gear stats in pve. best of both worlds.
Seriously, this raid gear envy I see from a small portion of the non -raiders every year on this topic is ridiculous. You can “open world” your way to normal raid gear in ZM without setting foot in a raid. It doesn’t get any easier than that. If they want better gear, they need to do the harder content. Simple.
I think he is saying the amount of effort. its the same work to pump out the same rotation solo or with 4 people helping you. you are pushing the same buttons.