There have been people caring about these things since they were introduced, especially Titanforging. The expansion being in a sad state only amplifies the dissatisfaction. It’s simply a matter of more and more people getting pushed over the edge.
Can you honestly say that the current system is better than what we had in, say, Siege of Orgrimmar? Very limited warforging, fixed item stats and sockets, gear upgrades using Valor, tier sets.
Once you got a piece you wanted you slapped some gems into it, enchanted it and were done until a higher difficulty.
Catch-up gear was also limited to only ~LFR gear levels and was relatively hard to farm if I remember correctly, so if you saw somebody with nearly double your HP you knew exactly where they had gotten that gear from and that they were at least competent at the game.
This was the one thing that got me into raiding back then - seeing DKs with 10mil HP obliterating everything in Timeless Isle. The only way to get to that point was raiding, so I raided because I wanted to be able to do the same, and it turns out I enjoyed it.
Compare that to nowadays where you can get 370+ equipped with doing nothing but queued and world content + the occasional titanforge. It’s bloody dumb and gives no reason for a casual player to try harder content that they might end up enjoying.
When I was doing normal/HC (now HC/Mythic in name) Dragon Soul the agil trinket (Vial of ?, it was a black vial which did random shadow damage), the one that drops from all bosses only dropped once, on the 2nd last clear we did. Meanwhile every str class including me (the solo tank, yes I solo tanked the entire instance weekly) had a bone fethis. Kinda felt bad for him, but atleast BiS was BiS and not “Well super duper TF with socket trinket from world boss y is BiS” take away the forging and “That item is pre-raid BiS”.
Forging may be allowed to stay but either only: +5 and +10, go back to MoP/WoD with +6 or +15 but we will use valor (MoP and WoD style) to upgrade items of our choice. Socket? Get rid of the RNG and just include them as standard again. JC is dieing at this point, it’s nearly pointless.
The upgrade required the token from TI was either a:
-Very rare drop
-Given free only once per char
-Farm coins and buy one (high price)
-Farm coins and gamble at the cave.
It was stronger than LFR but weaker or as strong as flex, wanted normal or HC gear? Or in today’s terms HC or mythic, GO RAID!
Edit: How did I forget get JP/VP/badges for PvE and get back a gear vendor, bring back tier and add a PvP vendor where you buy your gear with CP.
Times change, I don’t mind players getting like they got in the Wotlk the catchup gear once the new raid was released from the badge system which was equal to the normal one ( current heroic ) from the previous tier. And I agree with everyone who says how the vendors and the tier sets were much better solution for the gearing than the azerite system. Blizzard should also make the gemming and enchanting how they used to be in the past. And if titanforge will stay have it caped to 15 max so that it doesn’t go to some ridiculous number.
Badge vendor didnt have full set, ZA wasnt “free loot” encounter, but raid, nor offered best ilvl at time. While now we have month and half of free mythic raid ilvl.
i remenber when i get armagedon from 4 horse man in wotlk with my dk, i remenber ralmadin from icc on my warrior,i remenber the bow from deathwing himself on my hunter.
now i dont take the time looking at the item because i know it will take me hour or day to get my next upgrade.
badge vendor were something you could look forward and have a progressing path, now that path is random.
Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers. It took me a month to get it. It is not because we are mentaly ill, it is because of how long it took us and how rewarding it felt after! First thing I did was slapping it a +7 scope and join a battle ground.
For me transmog killed it more, you could tell by looking at someone that they earned to look cool while fighting while today we don’t have to achieve anything to look cool
Don’t really know why he bothers to take up catch up system either since its not of his business being a hardcore raider
well if removing catchup system, and making it harder to get gear, I am affraid wow would not last long now, people would get bored way to fast, due to not being able to get in even a normal mythic, due to how toxic and elitist people are now, even if I can in some twisted way understand those who feel gear should be harder to get, I do not feel it is the right way to do so, personaly Titanforging needs to be changed to mop style where you boost your item your selfs.
you se having best gear only dropp from high end raids, would sooner or later totaly kill off wow, no question about it, becuse the majority would start to struggle to get anything done, this is one reason we have the catchup system in the first place, to assure none is being left behind, and it works, even though some might think otherwise.
People are “toxic and elitists” exactly because gear is not reprisentetive of the content you do. A player’s item level can easily qualify him for Heroic raid, but his skill level more often than not doesn’t. This is the whole proble of the gearing system. Reward =/= effort (I’m 385 with 8/8m, a lot of people are 385 with 0/8m). The free loot world can easily bump your gear for content that you are nowhere near prepared to do as a player.
Back in the olden times getting that shiny epic actually meant something and it was made with human thought behind it. It wasnt just tossed to RNG generator that shoved out stuff like no tomorrow. I still hold my old Valor set (Dungeon set from Vanilla) as the best set there is because it took effort to get it and when I had it, it hold up until I got BC dungeon gear
well it might have been like that, but now nah, wont work anymore, you se splitting the player base beteween raider and none raiders now, where lets say a heroic raider runs whit ilvl 370, and a none raider whit 355, it never works, becuse even if you say people are toxic due to all having good items, aint true, people would be even worse then, none would give a chance to anyone who is not a raider then, becuse how much people have changed now.
All in all we should stop seasons and itemlevel bumps
Instead of bumping up the rewards from m+ allow 5 more keystone levels to scale rewards
No wonder no one has anything to do, there is only ever one raid tier available for progression
When you get a DLC from a game it doesn’t auto complete the main story either
Casuals won’t care about it, well most do not, some are casual and still do, like a mate of mine. But overall they do not care about what they get, or if it is bis, or what not, but sadly they want everything instantly, or is that just the mentality now, lack of time so I want it all now? Shower me with purples?
I ain’t in that team, never will be, RPG for me is a important aspect in a M M O R P G, even if it is almost completely gone, if not already.
I would love to know the names of items, would love to see and check the loot tables to see what drops from what, that one or two items per slot, when it drops and i get it? YES! And once I got all my slots filled I will feel fulfilled, I know its bis, I know no crappy WF or TF will chance it since in my world it wont exist, and then if slowly build a alt to the same level and dedication as my main, and feel dubble fulfilled! Wait can this be!?
Return of Green > Blue > Purple would be great too, where full blue set gear was considered good, a full purple would be epic, full epic raider would be legendary, same goes for pvpers, I love seeing people in full gladiator gear and be awed by their accomplishment.
For easymode blizzard these days a badge system is less time consuming so more probable. What a shame.
It might not have offered best ilvl, but for many classes it did offer BiS. Because it had the newly introduced haste and armor penetration stats on its items which were much more sought after at first than the other stats. (after hit cap, obviously)
Catchup gear needs to stay in the game, and is good for various reasons :
It gives us the chance to gear our alts.
It makes easier for the guilds to recruit people and to progress, and not to get stuck on doing the old content because they don’t have enough of geared raiders to push the content forward.
Is securing that new comers/late comers to the content and the people which took break from the game get up to speed with the new content.
