Comments on: Gearing up – buying or raiding?

By: Kheldar

Kheldar — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:38:50 +0000

as someone with less time and no time to raid the badge rewards are a great idea.

sure it will take me a while to amass 30 /50 / 70 badges but at least i know i will amass them in time and can look forward to choosing some nice items where as i know 110% guaranteed that i’m never going to see the inside of SSC let alone MH/BT.

By: Ribeye

Ribeye — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:29:34 +0000

FYI, I’d say that the Waistguard of the Great Beast just became worthless, as 30 Badges will now buy you the 2x Nether Vortex that you need to have a raider craft you the Belt of Natural Power. Half the price, and a better piece.

Oh, and I’m looking forward to both the 5-man and the Badge rewards. I’m realitic enough to know that I’m probably not getting into BT, much less an instance scaled *above* that, until WotLK. :)

By: Tox

Tox — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:24:18 +0000

Pfft, I’m just stoked on the leatherworking mayhem that will be the new epic patterns and lack of BoP on the nethers and vortexs. Though I’m also fairly certain that the AH will be filling up with plenty of the crafted BoE epics with this new turn of events, I’ll be taking part in it, that’s for sure :P

Good Hunting,
Tox

By: Erthshade

Erthshade — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:17:49 +0000

I really can’t say I’m excited for any of the upcoming content. Yes, the badge gear interests me (at least the chest since I’m not likely to see Magtheridon, ever), though I have to wonder a little why there’s no tanking shoulders from badges yet and why haste, of all things, since this is pretty precisely oriented to ferals otherwise.

The idea of a new 5-man interests me more. I think this is the first time since Dire Maul they’ve added a non-raid instance in a non-expansion patch. This is especially nice for people like me, who have a lot of time on their hands to play but are unable to raid due to a set schedule available. I will LOVE to see new content, as I’m never going to see the inside of BT, Hyjal, or TK, and SSC depends on how lucky I am to pug a slot with one guild I know when my schedule coincides with theirs.

By: Shmoopy

Shmoopy — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:37:34 +0000

I’m stoked for the badge rewards. Need to ditch the Clefthoof armor set. Been preparing with Kara badges (145 currently). New alchemist stone is nice too. Although I am also looking forward to the new rep grind too.

By: Logan

Logan — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:37:28 +0000

As soon as Magister’s Terrace is open I will be running it on heroic daily until the warlock trinket drops. Have you seen that thing?! Sexy!

And I go back and forth on the badge rewards. It sucks that people will be able to grind out gear that others have literally raided months to get, but it’s also nice that we won’t have to hope and pray for that one drop to happen on our umpteenth kill of Curator, or Leotheras the Blind, or Shade of Akama… From the looks of things the badge gear is mostly going to be there to keep guilds from having to farm Black Temple for months to get geared enough to handle even the first few Sunwell Plateau bosses. Take Brutallis: 10 million health and a 6 minute enrage timer… insane.

By: Melpo

Melpo — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:32:22 +0000

I am more excited for the 5-man, mainly because I am a true casual player. I rarely have the time to run heroics (let alone raid Kara), and when I do, it’s usually a pug that doesn’t make it too far in before someone DC’s or what not.

This basically puts the badge rewards out of reach, though I plan on trying for the swords at least.

Can’t wait to try the Magister’s Terrace…sounds really cool. And I want that phoenix pet :P

By: Ahmen

Ahmen — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:06:51 +0000

Meh, I’m more excited about the new instance than the badge rewards. I love getting new leatherworking patterns though.

By: Kal

Kal — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:57:38 +0000

Oh yeah – another thing I’m looking forward to is honor gear. S2 becoming purchasable with honor will be very nice. I don’t know whether we’ll have a new belt/boot/glove set, but being able to get the S2 weapon without arena points is going to be nice, at least for dps.

By: Aertho

Aertho — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:36:16 +0000

Well, I hope Blizzard is learning, and implementing better itemization methods (I said Methods!) in WOTLK. The Badge system isn’t ideal, as it take the more outlandish offspecs 5 times as much playtime to get comparable gear than his/her more standard specced peer. It also keeps us in Karazhan, filling up runs that other players and less geared alts could benefit more from.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the Badge system. I geared my tankadin and moonkin in complete badge sets. But it’s hardly ideal.

In the future, I’d hope that they make more variable turn-in gear, using the sunmote process with more generic reputation items. Consider the Depleted items from Ogri’La, and imagine them dropping in dungeons. An “Eroded Weapon” with +80 attack power and 35 stamina becomes ideal if NPCs allow you the choice to add an additional +35 agility OR +35 strength OR even +25 defense rating for the turn-in price of 30 arrakoa feather-like reputation items and 10 gold. The result is an itemized weapon ideal for tanks, warriors, hunters, at least one kind of rogue, ret paladins, and enh shamans. Similarly, “eroded polearms” could be modified to become feral tanking or feral dps staves.

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As for 2.4, I’m currently rerolled as a resto shaman for the red team. I’m not hot for the new patch. I’m excited for new dailies, as sad as that may be. Of course, if having a major quest hub away from shattrath means less congestion, I’ll be a very happy Tauren.