Gear
I finally got my first toon to level 70 a couple of weeks ago. While pursuing that seemingly unreachable goal, there was always this mysterious “endgame” everyone talked about. I became excited at this endgame concept, imagining myself running around with other 70s doing level 70 things…what ever that meant.
I felt let down when I found out what that really meant. Endgame, it turns out, just means: Get better gear. And the way you do that determines how you should spec your talents, who you should run with, whether you made the right guild choice and what you like to grind. Here are your choices when you’re level 70:
Grind PvP (Battlegrounds, Arenas, etc)
Grind Dungeons/Instances
Grind mobs for Rep
If you’re a tailor, LW, etc, log in every four days to make a piece of a piece of gear.
These, from what I can tell so far, are the four things you can do when you hit level 70 and the four “paths” to gear. The gear rewards from each path depend on which path you chose. For example, if you’re grinding PvP, then you get PvP gear. If you’re grinding instances/raids, you get PvE gear.
There are two problems I have with gear being the driving force behind the “endgame”.
- When you get the epic set for the path you chose, after many, many hours of grinding, you’re done. By the time you get that set, and you do your little celebration dance, you’re burned out from all the grinding that it’s not appealing or fun any more. If you grind battlegrounds, for instance, and you finally get that epic PvP gear you’ve been working so hard to get, do you really want to do more battlegrounds just to do it? Everyone I’ve asked that question answer with a resounding “No.”
- The other problem I have with it is it’s about to be obsolete…again. When I hit 58, my friends, who are much more experienced than I, all suggested I go straight to the Outlands. “But what about MC, LBRS, UBRS, attunement and all that,” I asked. “It doesn’t matter, you’ll get better gear after your first few quests in the Outlands,” they all responded, or something similar. So that brings up the very interesting question: What happens when WotLK comes out? I’ve been told that Blizzard “learned their lesson” and will adjust the gear drops in the new area, however I seriously doubt they will set the level 68-72 mobs so difficult that only epic gear will have a chance against them. Shouldn’t I be able to take down a level 71 mob with my blue 70s? That would be consistent with the game up to this point. Knowing that, why would I spend day after day grinding and grinding for that epic set, just so that when WotLK comes out I can kill the same mob that a fresh 70 in blues and greens can? Sure, that epic gear will last a couple of levels but after a certain point, the green and blue drops/quest rewards you get will be better and it’s time to DE or sell it. But wait, that means breaking up a set, with bonuses, because a better pair of green pants dropped. Don’t worry though, you’ll get the chance for more epics, at level 80, where you get to grind again and the cycle continues.
Another interesting quagmire I’ve found myself in is the guild. I joined a relatively new guild around level 20. I felt I was lucky because it wasn’t a guild filled with alts, with their mains in another, more active guild. In addition, they weren’t all 70s and they were a helpful bunch. Several of us all hit 70 within about a week or two of each other, which meant we would be about the same, as far as gear and raiding is concerned. Shortly after I hit 70, we attempted our first guild-only Kara run. It was a diseaster. In the end, it was decided, by the guild, that we all needed better gear before attempting to run again. But…wait…don’t we need to run Kara for that gear? Even if it’s just the first couple of bosses? Their answer is to grind battlegrounds for better gear. Wait, that means I have to spec for PvP now. Then, when everyone is finally geared “enough”, respec back to PvE to give it another shot. Of course, not everyone has the time I have to play, so there’s no telling when they will get that gear.
Since that failed Kara attempt (we only tried once, mind you), we’ve had a few 70s leave the guild, which drops us below the 10-man raid. When the guild leader asked someone else if they were thinking about leaving, the other guildy replied, “I’m here for fun, not loot.” Yep, that’s a great answer. But where are you going to find that fun without the loot? Dancing in IF with a random NE female? Blizzards idea of fun IS loot (or at least the process to get that loot). And that guildy’s reply answers the question that he isn’t working on getting better gear for another Kara attempt any time soon.
Now I’m stuck and have become reluctant to do anything in WoW. My guild isn’t going to advance, I suck at PvP and I’ve already done so much mob grinding to get to level 70 that Rep just doesn’t appeal to me any more. What am I supposed to do while I’m waiting on the cooldown to expire on my Shadowcloth? Daily’s? That’s all fine and dandy but what’s the point? More gold? For what? Certainly not going to pay 5000g for an epic flying mount. Plus, it takes like a couple of hours to do the daily’s…what am I supposed to do for the other 22 hours in a day?
