It doesn't seem so long ago when I was just a noobish, "what do you mean the max level wasn't always 70?", kitty feral druid, who had no idea what a 'healbot' was or how to use it. My first "raid" build consisted of EVERY talent in the resto tree. My UI was exactly the same as it was when I first installed the game out of the box. And, if someone took a screen shot of my first visit to Kara, you could easily recognize me as the silly Tauren in full Gladiator gear.
In other words, I'm by no means a veteran of this game or a card carrying pre-BC player. So forgive me if I'm out of line for saying this, but... "Why the hell does Blizzard want to make this game so damn easy all of a sudden?"
When Naxx came out, we had to bang our heads against it for a while before we were able to clear it in one night. If you wanted gear upgrades, guess what... you had to RAID! You had to raid in whatever you had on and hope that you walked away with a loot drop.
Then there was Ulduar. Running through Ulduar was a little bit easier because of the emblem system. But, the only way to get emblems was to RAID! You could supplement your gear pretty nicely by farming Naxx for emblems, but even in full Naxx, Ulduar was still a challenge for most of us. The only way to get better was to run Ulduar and hope to get far enough to earn a loot drop... or at least enough emblems to buy yourself a gear upgrade.
After that... all hell broke loose. The emblems system turned into easy mode. If you wanted upgrades, you didn't have to worry about banging your head against Trial of the Crusader or even farming Ulduar if you didn't want to. You could simply take a new level 80 toon, farm regular Trial of the Champion and any level 80 instance in the game, and inside of a week you'd be just as geared as those toons who progressed through Ulduar the hard way.
Ok, ok, so you've heard this rant before, and you're probably thinking... "So, the emblem system makes gearing up too easy. Get over it, Beck." I am over it. What bothers me is that even with gear being handed out like fliers on the Las Vegas strip, Blizzard still feels the need to "nerf" new content almost immediately after they release it. What's up with that?
The best part of this game, imo, is going into an instance and having to figure out 1. why you wiped and 2. how to fix it so it doesn't happen again. And, if for some reason you can't figure out a way to down a boss in the first week, you get to farm some emblems, gear up a little, and take another crack at it later. The challenge is what makes this game fun... at least for me.
So why does Blizzard feel the need to take that away from us? Why can't they force us to progress instead of bringing the instance down to our level? Why can't it be the way it used to be? Or, at least the way I imagine it used to be.
In my guild's 10 man ICC last night I heard that god awful word again (nerf) and I wanted to find a Blizzard employee to slap! (Well, not so much wanting to slap as to shake a stern finger at.) Rumor has it that ICC will be getting another nerf next week. So, before my guild even gets a look at Plagueworks (14 days after it came out) they're going to nerf it?
FUBAR.
It seems to me that blizz initially made gear the bragging rights. In pre-BC and also in BC.
ReplyDeleteOnce the acheivememt system was introduced, blizz started handing out easier gear and made the real challenge and therefore bragging rights the priviledge of attaining difficult achieves.
Pre-BC, most people never got to see end game content aside from doomed Molten Core raids that couldn't even down the first boss. Blizz really wants everyone to experience the content. Achieves are now the domain of the hardcore raiders (for the most part).
That's my take on it.
I think they realize that forcing everyone to progress from square one each time they roll an alt would simply mean people wouldn't roll alts, they'd play less, and that would hurt Blizzard's bottom line.
ReplyDeleteThink about it...you finally level your alt to 80...would you really want do Heroics > Naxx > Ulduar > ToC > finally ICC? Basically do all the stuff you've already done all over again? NO! This way the progression is basically Heroics > maybe a little ToC > ICC.
Sure the emblem system gives gear to "the casuals" who didn't do any raiding, but really they're the ones losing out...not you. You got to experience the raids while they languished in 5 mans or whatever else casuals do with their time. And isn't experiencing the content the point of the entire game? It's not what you got...but getting there is the real fun.