My nightmare worsens

Earlier, with the release of patch 3.2, I wrote a blog on how gear scores and emblems had soiled the WoW experience for me a bit. Not only did blizzard make gearing too easy, but they made it a competition. I've since sworn off caring about wow-heroes, recount lists and emblem farming, and have tried to focus on enjoying guild progression (epic fails or not). For a while, life was good.

However, (there's always a 'but') as the title of this blog indicates, the simple joys of WoW-hood are becoming harder and harder to hold on to. The latest craze among WoWers is the uber annoying and ultra-snobby "gearscore" addon. It's intention, to make PuGing raids easier and more efficient. It's actual affect, raising noses of elitist jerks to an all time high.

It's hard to say which is worse, toons in a raid bragging about their dps... even though they died from standing in fire, or toons in a raid bragging about their gear score... even though they died from standing in fire. Either way, both leave the bulk of the heavy lifting to the "lesser" toons. You know, the ones who don't raid with their recount window open so they can see what they're standing in and stop dpsing long enough to move out of it? Yeah, those toons.

I know it's clear to everyone that gear score does not guarantee skill. I don't have to share stories of "under geared" toons out dpsing, out healing, out tanking, out lasting, or out classing their uber geared counterparts to convince you of that fact, because I know you've all witnessed it yourselves. Instead I'll sit here, biting my tongue, earnestly hoping you don't allow yourselves to get caught up in the pointless WoW addons that cause me so much annoyance.

If you care enough about playing your character well (and I'm certain you do if you're reading blogs on your class) then don't preoccupy yourself with the numbers of this game. If you spend as much time learning the fights as those "other" toons spend farming daily heroics, then gear won't matter. You'll always be in the right place at the right time, and that's something you can't measure with an addon.