After following the blog roll (yes I link to blessing of kings and BoK links to everywhere else for me :P) and being confronted with a seemingly endless discussion on various blogs about why you need to enchant and gem your gear or 'please transfer off of the server noob' I started to wonder a little.
I've gotten my share of whispers commenting on my enchants and my gem choice as well as 'lol what's with the green pants' and frankly I am a bit confused.
What prompts people to comment on your gear out of the blue? They don't know what you do in WoW. They merely assume you either raid or you pvp and that you're serious in either direction. And of course... if you are serious in either direction that enchanting / gemming your gear will help you towards your goals.
On top of that if you're serious in PVE you get laughed out of even 'casual' PVP and PVP geared people are very rarely welcome in PVE instances (at least that seems to be the general behaviour I see).
I've always been a 'freeform' player. I enjoy the ability to solo things as much as I enjoy the grouping aspect. I enjoy PVP and PVE but can also regularly be spotted sitting at a remote pool just fishing or flinging myself off of a mountain repeatedly for that 1 nice to have screenshot.
I am never going to hold a 2000 arena rating nor will I ever be invited to raid sunwell with the T6 guilds and my gear reflects this. It is not uncommon to see me walking around in PVP gear that is gemmed for PVE or vice versa. I take from both worlds what I can because I am not on a specific path of progression but need to be viable in solo, multiplayer and pvp alike.
People have become so pidgeonholed in their end-game specific class / spec / aoproach that they exclude more flexible freeform choices as viable options.
Have people really become so narrow minded that they exclude any possibility of gameplay beyond end-game raiding and pvp?
How satisfying is end-game raiding really? Do you enjoy the challenge of teaming up and taking down a boss? Of course you do... but after the 20th run on the same boss the challenge is gone, you may still have some fun but you're there for the gear.
Freeform is finding the fun without chasing after the gear. Gear is a means to an end, a thing you may need to do what you want but not something that should dictate your game.
Your gear will become invalidated with every expansion. I for one don't want to look back at 200 Karazhan runs and decide I did it for the gear. If you can run Kara 200 times for fun, then by all means do. If you're just doing it for gear then you're on the path that blizzard laid out for you and you should curse your lack of creativity.
Come WotLK your brutal gladiator set and your T6 epics will be for looks only (and they're not all that pretty)... but the ability to polymorph something into a turtle will still be priceless and that sporregar tabard will still be one niftiest tabards around.
By all means, claw your way to 70, burn through the instances you want to do and then look back... because there is a world beyond Raiding and PvP.
Showing posts with label gear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gear. Show all posts
Friday, June 20, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
When is enough?
I've been looking at the gear on my warlock lately and whilst it is far from impressive (a batch of kara purples mixed with some pvp purples and a dabbling of blues/greens) I wonder sometimes if it's not enough as it is.
Sure if you're heavily invested in raiding and really have a hunger for the 10s, 25s and 40 mans out there there is a significant need to keep upgrading your equipment (so they say).
But how much of that really applies to the casual player? Do we even have time for larger raids? I for one struggled enough with cleaning my schedule up enough to squeeze in the occasional 4hour raid and attempting to do this more than twice a week was generally met by a storm of dissaproval from my better half.
What justification could I possibly have spending hours on end grinding things like badges for gear upgrades that already mean very little to me? Sure it would be nice to pick up a few top-shelf badge items but in the end I am not playing for gear I am playing for fun. The fun of summoning people 2000 yards under the ocean or having a good laugh at one of the millions of easter-eggs hidden in the game.
I am not on a 10,25,40 man progression path (not anymore anyway). I can already hold my own in (heroic) 5-mans and my lock is always welcome in a mechanar forey. So in essence one could argue that my gear is 'enough' for what I am doing.
I think at some point we simply have to ask ourselves the question: Do I want to keep gearing up a character even if it brings little to no return or do I at some point decide to jump off the gearing train and find something else to do?
Our gear 'will' become outdated... so are we just gearing up for the sake of gearing up?
I took my pally through RFC a few times the other day. I didn't get any decent gear but I had more fun doing it than I ever had doing a 5man.
The closer I get to 70 and gear that I'd consider 'enough' the more interest I develop for doing things like running Azerothian instances and doing some mild world pvp in the various zones like silithus.
We'll all be sporting WotLK greens soon enough and we'll have nothing to show for our efforts except the questionable honor of having done Kara, ZA, SSC etc. before it could be 2 manned.
When is enough?
Sure if you're heavily invested in raiding and really have a hunger for the 10s, 25s and 40 mans out there there is a significant need to keep upgrading your equipment (so they say).
But how much of that really applies to the casual player? Do we even have time for larger raids? I for one struggled enough with cleaning my schedule up enough to squeeze in the occasional 4hour raid and attempting to do this more than twice a week was generally met by a storm of dissaproval from my better half.
What justification could I possibly have spending hours on end grinding things like badges for gear upgrades that already mean very little to me? Sure it would be nice to pick up a few top-shelf badge items but in the end I am not playing for gear I am playing for fun. The fun of summoning people 2000 yards under the ocean or having a good laugh at one of the millions of easter-eggs hidden in the game.
I am not on a 10,25,40 man progression path (not anymore anyway). I can already hold my own in (heroic) 5-mans and my lock is always welcome in a mechanar forey. So in essence one could argue that my gear is 'enough' for what I am doing.
I think at some point we simply have to ask ourselves the question: Do I want to keep gearing up a character even if it brings little to no return or do I at some point decide to jump off the gearing train and find something else to do?
Our gear 'will' become outdated... so are we just gearing up for the sake of gearing up?
I took my pally through RFC a few times the other day. I didn't get any decent gear but I had more fun doing it than I ever had doing a 5man.
The closer I get to 70 and gear that I'd consider 'enough' the more interest I develop for doing things like running Azerothian instances and doing some mild world pvp in the various zones like silithus.
We'll all be sporting WotLK greens soon enough and we'll have nothing to show for our efforts except the questionable honor of having done Kara, ZA, SSC etc. before it could be 2 manned.
When is enough?
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