The friends that I have made in World of Warcraft know that I did not raid in the Burning Crusade Era — I was still reaching for the level cap for in the months leading up to the release of Wrath of the Lich King.
After leveling numerous (4) alts to 80, I’ve run a few BC 5-mans a decent amount of times, to find some blue item with a set bonus and others akin to a drop in other 5-man instances. They were the “entry” raid gear, and usually players would farm an entire set before confidently stepping into a raid environment and upgrading to Tier gear.
In Wrath of the Lich King, there was quite a bit less of that. You could easily farm heroics every day for epics and badges and gear up very quickly. There was little time between hitting level 80 and heading into Naxxramas for your first raid group.
I recalled hearing awhile ago Blizzard stating something on the matter, but I tossed it away as filler news. I was wrong.
Zarhym
…We do intend to make the gear requirements for Heroic dungeons a little less forgiving than they currently are in Wrath of the Lich King.
Continue on to read what else is coming up plus a look at what could be the next gear sets in Cataclysm.
Blizzard continued on the topic because of more QQ on the playerbase side for PvE changes coming in Cataclysm. The lovely Ghostcrawler followed up by posting on the hot issue of raid difficulty with Cataclysm’s shared loot tables and lockouts:
Ghostcrawler
They will probably be unlocked very quickly, maybe after one clear, or maybe right from the beginning. We’re still working those logistics out. We held the LK ones back partially because we shipped that patch late in the year and didn’t want to ask players to raid their asses off over the holiday season. (Yeah, I know, more nanny state discussion ensues.)
I would also expect a little more gearing up from 85 quests / heroics / crafted materials before jumping right into the raids this time around.
This for sure quells my fears of content being fleshed out quicker than before. Blizzard is being genius and covering their bases here. They seem to realize the need for making Heroics feel truly heroic — and inherently necessary since they provide us with gear sets.
For those out there who remember endgame content in both Vanilla WoW and the Burning Crusade, you probably spent ridiculous amounts of time farming out one single item to hit what you needed for the current raid.
It looks like that time is coming again, and Heroics are no longer farmed for just badges points in Cataclysm. Ravenheart.eu datamined and posted some possible, but very likely Dungeon Sets that may be implemented in Cataclysm.
As a warning: These have not been confirmed as the real cloth sets, but look pretty legit and have been posted by a couple of others on MMO-Champion.
Mage Set
Priest Set
Warlock Set
Black Set
If this is to happen, I will be extremely excited. To me, it would make raiding all the more sweeter knowing that I had to work harder to even get into the raid. I personally wouldn’t mind if it took even 500 runs to get the pieces I want, because that’s what PvE is about, and that’s already happening today — just not to the point that it prevents me from raiding. I’m looking at you, Abyssal Rune.
Also, I like the idea that these images bring a more homogenized look to the style of the gear, yet still somehow keep a hint of what class they represent.
What do the readers think? Is this another way for Blizzard to slow down PvE, and make us “enjoy” the content? Would you also call it a great concept coming back from the ashes of Wrath? Or are you of the opinion that grinding for dungeon gear results in a more boring gameplay experience?
Personally, I would LOVE to see the re-introduction of class specific dungeon sets. It adds a flair to dungeons that you don’t find otherwise. While I’m not quite sure on what to think on making heroics easily accessible on a personal level, I can certainly understand Blizzard’s thinking and applaud them for it.
On one hand, with them removing ‘requirements’ such as def caps (since at last word, crit immunity would be talentable), it frees up more time to spend farming those specific peices in heroics that would be an improvement to your spec/class.
On the other hand, if they remove a lot of the ‘requirements’ from heroics, it kind of lessens the ‘heroic’ nature of them, imo. But this is all based on heresy and what not and am more than willing to give it the benefit of the doubt till I see anything otherwise.
On a side note, do the cloth sets remind anyone of the ‘mage’ armor from the FF series?
July 28th, 2010 at 11:30 pmQuote
@Highwayman that is the exact first thing that I thought when I saw them. Those low-brimmed, pointy hats are very reminiscent :)
I, too, would love to see this implemented. I just hope that along with it, we also get some kind of closet / storage solution for our armor sets! My bank is waayyy too full already.
July 29th, 2010 at 1:16 pmQuote
The cloth sets remind me of the main character of Red Steel 2′s attire.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:21 pmQuote
O.o Pixie called me by name /blush
For me, it was the hat and broad cuffed sleeves lol.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:21 pmQuote
On a side note, if they ARE re-introducing class specific armor sets, will the bonuses be homogonized enough that every class can use them effectively? I would hope so but would be counter intuitive imo. It’s the bonuses that make the armor what it is for each spec.
Solution? How about a revival of the token system? Pally token drops? Awesome…the ret, prot and holy all have something to look forward to.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:24 pmQuote
@Highwayman
Are you suggesting a tier token type of drop off the end bosses of the 5-mans? I tend to enjoy that more over the actual slot items.
July 29th, 2010 at 6:59 pmQuote
@Mordril,
That’s precisely what I was getting at. Token A, Head, Token B, Chest, etc.
If they could implement that kind of system where you’d have the choice of which armor peice you wanted for each spec and allow purchase of PvP or Pve gear if you so chose, that’d be an excellent thing, IMO.
July 30th, 2010 at 7:26 pmQuote
And no, Mordril, I’m not gonna blush over you calling me by name. I have a feeling you’re just not as cute as Pixie LOL.
July 30th, 2010 at 7:27 pmQuote
If they make it harder than it is to get PVE gear that is competitive in PVP, I will quit. I hate PVE and I should not be forced to do it to be competitive. I will be happy to never have to step foot in another heroic or learn a specific raid boss fight.
September 21st, 2010 at 3:00 amQuote
The thing I hate the most about wow is the ridiculous amount of time
November 28th, 2010 at 2:35 pmNeeded to get anywhere in the game, specially when it come to
Gear. 500 runs Mordil? Are you insane? The only thing that i
Would enjoy after 500runs to get The gear i want would be a
Bullet to the head. To be a Serious wow player you must barely
have a social life as is. If the time commitment gets bigger I’ll
Be saying seeya to wow for good!
Quote
D’arcy: what would be your solution? I’ve said this before so I’ll say it here: if you want a game that simply HANDS things to you without you having to ‘work’ for it, play DDO online but be prepared for a completely instanced trainwreck.
Also, if you think WoW is grind heavy, try LOTRO (seemingly everbody’s choice of WoW killer these days). Been on it for about a week. Leveling is WAY too easy and the ‘challanging’ fights…not really so.
Why do you have to bust on Mordril? We’re all mostly adults and can choose to spend our time the way we want. Get over it and stop being a jackhat willya?
November 29th, 2010 at 8:23 amQuote