#1 - Oct. 12, 2006, 7:29 p.m.
I'm finding it really hard to cope with the fact that the gear I have right now will be completely replaced by level 70 blue gear. I've spent the last year of my life raiding, and dispite my guild's laid-back, 3 day a week schedule, we've worked hard, we were in the first 10 guilds on our server to down Nef, we were in Naxx within a few weeks of it opening, yada yada, etcetera etcetera.
But here's the thing, beyond "My uber gear is going to help me level faster! Hyaaa!" All of me and my guildie's forward progress for the last year has nothing to show for it. No system in place to reward content progression, save bragging rights.
As far as I'm concerned, everyone I know is starting all over again as if we were the first bunch of nublets to hit 60 way back in april of 2005. To be perfectly frank, that just strait up sucks.
So here's my proposal. There should be secondary character advancement points. You kill a boss for the first time, you get to allocate points, you gain a pvp rank for the first time, you allocate points, "Hey, you and your team got first place in this semester's arena ladder system, well guess what?" You get to allocate points. "You got rank 1 with your team in the arena ladder system again?!?! Well here's some points you pvp-machine!"
Now I know what your forum moderators are thinking: "This is a thread for the suggestion forums!" No, its not, because that would imply that I have any confidence that my suggestion will ever get read, heard, discussed or considered. I want this in general because I want the general populace to give thier thoughts and opinions, and discuss the benefiets of a system like this being implimented. On that note, I used the word "implimented", it has 4 sylables, and is tough to spell correctly, so I'm obviously a very smart person, and my opinions should be taken seriously.
"Okay, you sexy, but completely insane psychopath, what are these "points" and what do they do?" Easy. The points are stats. You and your rag-tag guild of basement dwelling stoner's and moma's boys managed to down MajorDomo Executus for the first time? Well here's a stat point; agility, strength, intellect, spirit(I know, I'm hillarious) spend it any way you want. Kel'Thuzad? Well here's 4 points, congratulations. Why? Because items aren't enough. Items should be an extension of your character, not the fiber that holds it together. One rufee in your morning glory dew and -BAM- you're stripped nekkid and left dead, okay not really, but you get what I mean. The point is, there's nothing to show for boss kills, short of the gear, which will eventually become replaced.
Yes, I get it, "The gear you got from MC helped you beat Nefarian, which GOT you to Kel'Thuzad." But for what? More gear to kill more bosses, so the level cap can be raised again, more bosses added untill you're level 100 with a green one-handed sword that out DPS's your Ashkandi. I worked my ass off for our first Nef kill, and now that TBC is comming, I look back and see the all my progress was for not.
All I'm saying is the bosses we kill and the pvp accomplishments we overcome should reward long-term benefiets. Yes, it will widen the gap between casuals and hardcore players, but isn't that how it should be? "That guy has +25 more agility then I do, thats OP" Well, he killed Kel'Thuzad AND held rank 4 with his team on the ladder system, you didn't, sorry about your luck. The system we have is a limited reward system, and to be honest I'm going to miss my gear setup, its a good gear setup, I spent a long, long time getting it, and come TBC its gone for good, replaced by blues. My time spent is erased.
Think about PvP. The gear is static, you complete a goal, you get your gear, you stop pvp'ing. Why? You have your reward, the incentive is gone. With my extremely easy system, you have your incentive, its right there, stay on top of the ladder system for a few semesters and you have yourself some very nice gear, backed up with some slaughterful stats, your team is unbeatable, holy crap! Don't mess with XxXSephirothninjaXxX, that guy will dice your tuna into sushi!
I have a good friend, my old guild leader, he ran the guild, the guild website, tracked DKP, handled guild recruiting, etc. etc. the whole nine yards. He loved this game, he's a pvp addict, and a good guy. One day we log in and he had looked at the new items, all these new pretty shiny new items, all with thier own bosses and dungeons to run and kill for loot. He quit playing shortly after because he realized there IS no long term reward for raiding, except the prospect of more raiding. We need a better, more long term benefeits for raiding and killing bosses, because what we have now just doesn't cut it.
It's the nature of the beast.