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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The Hot Topic: WoWs Current Loot System


Since the release of Mists of Pandaria the Loot System in WoW has been under heavy criticism. Whether it be the gating of Valor gear behind reputation grinds that could only be doe through dailies, or the LFR system of loot.

This Expansion Blizzard decided to give us a new way to obtain loot, by giving us Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. By collecting 90 of these thing, through dailies, you could then turn them in for 3 tokens which grant a bonus roll on a boss. This system for the first tier of raiding was under scrutiny because of the frequency that you got gold from it, especially if you got gold from your normal loot roll as well. People dont see it as a bonus roll they see it as something that should guarantee them loot, as the old saying goes the only thing guaranteed in life is death and taxes, and for a WoW player that just means death and lots of time (the tax) grinding.

The last couple days there has a been a heated debate between EU forum posters and Blizzard Blue Draztal (summary found here), about the need for a better way to guarantee PvE loot to players, this case weapons, much like the PvP loot system.

After the break I will talk about my thought on the subject.



In all seriousness this is where Blizzard went wrong in the first place with the implemantation of Badges of Justice (what gear currency was originally called). It gave players this expectation that gear should be easy to come by.

This next bit will be a little social and political for some of you.

When the system was first implemented epics obtained from them were known as "welfare epics". They have lost that name since possibly because it is the norm now. But essentially they still are welfare epics as is what comes out of LFR. They are Blizzard's provision to the player base for minimum well being. LFR was originally meant to allow the casual players to see the raid which contained lore story elements, not a way for Raiders to get gear to supplement their regular raid gear.

So what that you dont get your welfare gear every run Blizzard still want's to make you work for your payout. You are still putting in less effort than the people running 10 and 25 normals and heroics. And those of you who do run Normal and Heroics shouldn't be complaining because you are essentially double dipping the loot system.

Now I will admit I have no idea what the numbers are of people who solely run LFR vs those who solely run Normal vs those you run LFR & Normal, I also don't know those things about those who are complaining about the system. 

Sure it would be nice to have a guaranteed piece of loot  each raid but that woud make the raiding boring. The one thing from LFR I could see changed is that if you run all the available LFRs in a week that you would be awarded a chest that contains a guaranteed piece of loot, but here is the kicker it would not be a guaranteed upgrade or and an item that you dont have. Im sure this idea would also make people complain because once again they aren't guaranteed something useful. And since when did gold become not useful.

However all that being said  I have to agree with Draztal that if I were guaranteed loot off of every boss or every run I would not have fun. I have seen guilds who are hardcore run through content so fast and gear up so quickly that they literally stop playing. I for one don't like that because some of us in those guilds do enjoy playing, which includes raiding and if your raid group decides they have everything and quits till the next patch then those of us who do enjoy playing are kind of SOL. 

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