Catering to the masses.

Warning! Elitist views are about to be uttered. While I try to avoid being elitist as best as possible there is no other way to say what I think about this subject without being so.

Disclaimer: I do not feel that I am the best in the world, nor do I feel I am even close to that. I do feel like I am one of the more skilled players and I have taken part in many things that would back up my experiences. (i.e. Hard Modes etc etc.) Also be warned that this is a rant.

With the upcoming patch to WoW labeled 3.3 Blizzard is AGAIN catering to the masses. While it is not completely unreasonable to make a game easily accessible to people of all skill levels I do feel it is unfair to penalize those that are of the higher skill capabilities. The Cost/Benefit ratio of actually putting in the effort and learning to adapt to new situations and learning to coordinate to complete an encounter is becoming lower and lower. With each patch since Wrath of the Lich King came out they have made it easier for even a fresh Level 80 player to get to the same raiding gear levels as those that actually raid and have a reasonable understanding of the games mechanics.

3.3 is no exception. Blizzard has again decided that it is a brilliant idea to spit in the face of the people who actually have the skills to complete the encounters they create. Those of us who have spent countless hours bashing our heads against a wall to try and figure out the way to coordinate a victory in these encounters now get the shaft. The "perk", if you want to call it that, to completing these before they grant access to the gear rewards, for actually beating them, to those with the mentality of an 8 year old are achievements. In some rare cases, however, there are titles for being able to execute a strategy well. That's nice. But it is insanely aggravating to work hard for your gear that realistically should reflect your skill level and/or your experience and capability. While there are always those who get carried by those around them, you used to be able to get a fairly good impression of a persons ability through how they looked.

It worked kind of like a credit score. And while we all know Credit Scores are the bane of existence to some they do tend to reflect a better idea of someones ability in life than nothing. Now I walk around with my gear I've obtained from the hardest modes of an instance many people haven't even completed yet, (Ulduaar), and some schmo who saved up triumph badges from heroic dungeons as difficult as walking across the street is wearing better gear than I am. Now... I don't see where Blizzard felt this was appropriate. Those same schmucks with "better" gear can't even beat the normal version of Ulduaar bosses and yet my guild beats them on the hardest difficulties and our reward is an achievement. Granted... when we can finally beat Yogg +1 we will get a 310% drake and that will make things all the more beautiful, without accomplishing that we have nothing to show for our efforts.

So now, when 3.3. comes out, all the hard work that has been put into beating 10m HToC will be eclipsed by your average nonchalant individual who saves up with triumphs gained from beating a puppy to death every day. That is what I compare the normal heroic dungeons to. They are simplistic now with the monumental leap in gear levels from what's available now and what was available when they were first released. It's like going out to a pound and beating a defenseless puppy to death for its carcass to give to a person who will give you a reward that when combined with enough can yield amazingly powerful items. Ones that rival, if not surpass that which is gained from actually doing something legit like defeating a raid boss on their hardest difficulty.

What is truly and utterly sad is that even with gear a full Tier above if not 2 Tiers above Ulduaar there are many many guilds who have yet to even complete the normal version of it. Those same people will get to gear up in the new Icecrown gear and still won't be able to beat Ulduaar because the mechanics and intelligence needed will elude them. That's an astonishing 3-4 entire Tiers of gear higher and they will be unable to beat it. Yet, those of use skilled enough and/or lucky enough to get into groups of people skilled enough to actually complete the content when it is new and current are only given a pat on the back with an achievement and told to walk the streets of Dalaran looking the same as your 10 yr old who plays only long enough to do the heroic daily and get the tokens to purchase the gear.

That being said let me take just a second to clarify that there are some who are struck with the insane misfortune to meet wonderful people socially that mechanically and skillfully lack so greatly they are held back in the available content. I realize that this is what this brilliant method of dumbing down is aimed to help alleviate.

My problem is that I believe that there should be a Tier of armor for those who save up, badges/emblems/tokens/items of no worth until gathered in mass, and a tier for those that actually raid. It doesn't need to be some enormous gap, but a gap should be present. I shouldn't be able to gear an alt to the same gear-ability as my main character doing nothing more than running heroic dungeons once a day.

If you want to talk numbers let's just say that with 3.2 there should have been iLVL 225 for badge etc farmers and 232 for raiders. That small gap would give some homage to those that put in the effort. And while I personally don't see a way to prevent them from going to older content and getting the credit for those wins I almost feel that those achievements should be made into Feats of Strength because they no longer require the same level of skill and coordination because the increase in iLVL allows for a lot more flexibility due to higher DPS output. I also realize that is just an achievement and it's not amazing, but I just feel that there is something that should be done to help make a raider feel like they are doing something that is worth anything rather than something that just gets them to point A a week before Joe Schmo.

I know I'm complaining abit much and not ushering in an amazing solution, but it's something that irritates me greatly and I just wish that a company that has billions of dollars of revenue flowing through it should be able to get their think tanks to come up with something that does, in fact, bolster the moral of those that put in the time and effort to become skilled enough to pass the trials of new content. That's my $.02 in a nutshell.