Subs equal Pay-to-Win

Anyone concerned about World of Warcraft adopting a Pay-to-Win system needs to realize it already is the model they use. Subscriptions are Pay-to-Win.

I've noticed a lot of online discussion about WoW possibly going free to play and other payment models. Gamebreakers has one here. Naysayers think free-to-play is the downfall of any game and these hybrid concepts are an abomination. One major complaint is the idea of being able to pay cash for gear. This concept is touted as the worst possible decision a company could make because it would become a Pay-to-Win system.

In Pay-to-Win, people spend cash to get uber gear or something else that gives them an unfair advantage over players who don’t shell out cash.

Subscriptions are basically the same as a Pay-to-Win business model. You can't win if you don't play. Any subscribers can log in and grind dailies, dungeons or raids until they get the top-of-the-line gear. But this option is only available to those who pony up the dough for a sub. You pay money, you can get gear. You don’t pay and you’re out in the cold.

If they added an option to be able to buy gear, I wouldn't complain. Granted, I'm too cheap to use the option myself, but I think they should sell extras to those willing to pay more to play the game as they wish. 

Let's face it. Time is money. Buying a piece of gear for cash is just an extension of that. People like to argue that a subscription model creates a level playing field. But it doesn't. 

Time is as much a resource as money. Some would argue that it's not fair if some kid with rich parents can buy something I spent a month to earn in a game. I would argue it's not fair that the kid didn't have an extra month in his life to earn the item himself. Maybe he has a part-time job. Maybe his parents limit his Internet access.

Now, I'm not in favor of players being able to buy the absolute best gear. I think that should be reserved for the elite raiders who have that extra time and dedication to participate in weekly raids.  But I don't see why players shouldn't be allowed to purchase the next best thing. I'm talking about the epics like those you can get in dungeons or through daily quests. 

Consider this example. Let's say you want an uber helmet. It's not best in slot, but it will get you into the latest raid. It will take you 30 days of grinding a daily quest to get.

You purchase two months of a subscription for $15 a month. You grind out the helm for 30 days and have another 30 days to raid with the guild. Total cost = $30.

Your friend wants the same helm. But he works a lot of hours and can't log in every day to grind it out. It would take him two months under a subscription to grind enough dailies to buy it. Total cost with a month to raid = $45.

Now let's say a more equitable option were available. If an option to buy gear was added, he could pay $15 to buy the helm. Add that to a month sub to raid with the guild and his total cost is $30.

Your friend doesn't have some unfair advantage just because he didn't spend the 30 days grinding dailies. He just caught up to you. It doesn't make your helm worthless. It's worth $15. You spent the $15 for a sub. Your friend just wanted the helmet. 

Under the Pay-to-Win model, each player would be able to decide whether to spend in-game time to get something or fork over cash. I don't see how having money to buy an item you want is any different than spending X amount of hours to acquire it. 

The end result is the same. 


Hardcore players shouldn't mind easier

Some people have been up in arms about Blizzard's decision to nerf current raids.

As a member of the casual masses, I welcome this change but I can't understand why the hardcore players care.

Blizzard wants to have players experience the raid content, a fact made evident by the gear being thrown to players left and right during Wrath. While I loved the harder heroic 5-man instances released with ICC, they ended up being loot pinatas and threw the idea of hard-won gear out the window.

Reducing the difficulty of the current raiding tier with the release of 4.2 is brilliant. Serious players get a new raid, with new gear, while casuals basically get the same. Sure, we have access to the current raid content, but we never really got to the point of being able to consider it farming for gear. If we made it through (and our guild has yet to see many fights), it is tough each and every week. The difficulty has gotten to some of our raiders, apparently, because they stopped showing up on a regular basis.

By allowing for more mistakes during raiding, casuals can get a feel for it and learn at a lower level. Let's face it: right now, there is no place for a causal guild to learn how to raid.

Before anyone says it, I'm not complaining that Cata raids are too hard. Even though I haven't completed most of the raiding content, I still don't have a problem with the difficulty of the expansion. I'm a casual player and I don't expect to have easy access to all parts of the game without hard work.

As it stands, casual guilds can basically hit a brick wall trying to get a start into raiding. Rather than asking for loot pinatas, I would rather they make the old raid content easier. Not only will it allow more people access to the gear they will need to try to survive in Firelands, but it will give less experienced or less dedicated raiders a place to hone their skills. Casuals can hit a brick wall in raiding with Firelands, but now struggling guilds fall back to BWD and BoT.

Hardcore raiders should be thrilled that Blizzard isn't going to implement another set of 5-man heroics to help casuals gear up. Instead of worrying about a heroic instance putting out better loot than they are wearing, they can focus on Firelands. It also makes the current raid tier a place for us noobs to practice.

Storyline shortfalls

Matticus recently wrote about the story line shortfalls in Cataclysm and I have to agree with him.

I feel the same about the lack of connection to the current story and wanted to share my thoughts as well.

Granted, I never played Warcraft III and didn’t start World of Warcraft until Burning Crusade shortly before Wrath. As my wife and I leveled through Azeroth and Outlands, I enjoyed the stories and exploring this huge new world (though it didn’t feel as huge as Star Wars: Galaxies when we had to walk across contintents).

In Shattrath, I felt a connection to the Aldor, whom I viewed as the good guys (We’re playing Alliance) and wanted to help them out. I didn’t get into much endgame stuff as Wrath was around the corner. With Wrath, I felt like we delved into what made Arthas tick as we saw his downfall. By the time we hit the Icecrown area, I could tell Arthas was a bad mofo. I couldn’t wait for the Citadel to open so we could bum rush him.

By contrast, I feel nothing toward Deathwing, other than gratitude for cleaning up some things around the world. Through the various new questing areas, I have dislike of a few NPCs, but Deathwing hasn’t really affected me. I have little info on his background or motivations.

Now, I will admit I didn’t read each quest through each area, but I didn’t in Wrath either. Be it by cutscenes or whatnot, I understood the story and cared about it.

I don’t for Deathwing. But I hope the new questing hubs coming in 4.2 will change that.

Best stats for a Resto Shaman?

With the new changes to mastery for resto shamen in 4.1, I have to re-evaluate my stat choices.

Even with the change, it feels to me like haste should take the cake. The faster I can cast, the better chance I have of getting a heal off. When heals go off, people don't die.

Of course, you have to have spirit to go with haste. Earlier, I didn't realize this and stacked haste to the point my spirit couldn't keep up. Now, I scaled back and reforged off my haste because it was considered the least valuable stat.

But now, I have to rethink everything, since I want to be at the top of my game for raids.

And the Elitist Jerks site is no help. In their 4.1 discussion, they label Intellect as the most valuable stat, followed by Spirit. The problem is they don't take a stand on the stats I can do something about with reforging, haste, crit and mastery.

I recall reading other sites that suggest you get to 916 haste and then move onto other stats.

I guess I will stay away from reforging, outside of Spirit until I figure it out.

What stats are my fellow shamen prioritizing?

Call me the Dread Pirate Roberts

Woot,

I finally got the ring I've been looking for forever, [Dread Pirate Ring].

It was six minutes after the tournament had started and I had just told my son that someone was about to win the tournament. But I said I would keep going until it was announced.

Two casts later, [Blacktip Shark] pops up.

This time around, I wasn't too excited about it. I'd seen the stupid fish make its way into my bags twice before and I still awaited the first prize. My computer is kinda slow, so loading a new area takes a while sometimes.

Anyway, I started my Astral Recall spell to port me back to Dalaran and waited for Elder Clearwater's red words announcing my failure once again.

But he didn't announce a winner by the time I arrived in Dalaran, so I turned Ghost Wolf and raced to Elder Clearwater.

The problem was I couldn't see the guy. (Did I mention my computer can be slow? Sometimes this equates to my toon walking around in a deserted town until the computer catches up.)

So I wait a few anxious seconds while the computer thinks about whether I have waited long enough for the ring. I'd only missed it by precious seconds a couple times before, so maybe I needed another of those.

But to my surprise, Elder Clearwater appeared and I clicked as fast as I could to get the ring. The first time I found the [Blacktip Shark], I lost the tournament because I forgot to choose a prize. Not that there was a doubt.

As the quest box leaves, I notice a Worgen racing up to Elder Clearwater. She cheered at me when Clearwater announced I had won, but I think she was probably looking to score the shiny new ring herself.

I've been glowing all day, insisting people call me by my new title, the Dread Pirate Roberts. It's too bad the contest didn't come with the new title so I could show off to the WoW world.

Lich King finally goes down.

Since the beginning of time (or at least the middle of the Lich King expansion), I have wanted to fight my way to Arthas' throne and beat some sense into the guy.

Even after hitting 85, that was my main goal. There is a lot of stuff going on in that fight, so it was hard for a noob like me to manage.

But victory tastes sweet, now that I have my Kingslayer title. Granted, it's a day late and a dollar short, but at least it's done.

Archaeology finally pays off.

All that hard work digging for fragments and piecing together vendor trash finally paid off when I completed my first Tol'vir rare: Ring of the Boy Emperor.

That ring was the reason I started the profession in the first place. That, and the fun I had with the Harrison Jones quest line in Uldum. Too bad the actual profession isn't as glamorous as the quests.

I'm now done with Rare #13 for my Professor title from the achievement It Belongs in a Museum. I can't wait for this title. Finally, I'll have something to replace my Brewmaster title, another one I enjoyed getting.

I also realized I'm at 94/100 commons from getting Diggerest, so I guess I do want some more commons to proc.

I actually have enough fragments to complete the Fossilized Raptor, but I'm holding onto it. For some superstitious reason, I think having a rare that is being built helps other rares to proc. Consciously, I know that's not true, but I can't help it. It's kinda like Indiana Jones needing to have his lucky hat with him at all times.

So I just need six more rares to be a Professor, but I think Ring of the Boy Emperor will be my favorite find by far.

What is your favorite archaeology find?

Old raids can still be fun.

Well, we cleared Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep. I know these are level 70 raids and shouldn’t pose much of a problem at level 85, but I found both enjoyable. There were some interesting mechanics involved in some of those fights. I especially enjoyed the Hot Potato passing feel of Lady Vashj.

We had a good raid leader taking us through and explaining the fights. Luckily, we had enough firepower to make many of the fights much less dangerous than they could have been, even for the level 85s in the group.

Since I reached level 70 for the first time a matter of weeks before the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, I didn’t have much time for raiding in Burning Crusade. I got myself geared up a bit and ran Karazan once before the expansion.

Afterward, there wasn’t much of a reason for me to go back. The gear was obsolete and I was more focused on new content. Since there was an achievement for it, my wife and I eventually wanted to complete it, but it wasn’t high on our list until we started working on[Outland Raider].

So, I was glad to see that our guild was running the old instances/raids for achievements. I was even more impressed that we had someone who knew the fights well and could explain them for us who hadn’t been there before.

Two more achievements down. Next, I’m looking at the Battle for Mount Hyjal.

Why not kill Deathwing?

I'm not concerned with Deathwing's demise.

I'm not sure if I haven't been paying as much attention during leveling, but I don't have any feelings toward this world-changing upstart at all. It's almost the opposite. Thanks to Deathwing, I get to fly around Azeroth and witness some major scenery changes in the old world. He helped bring heroic versions of Deadmines, an instance I always liked and spent a lot of time running.
I have only leveled my main character to 85, but I didn't seem to learn too much about the black dragon supposedly bent on world destruction.

This is quite a change from the Wrath of the Lich King for me. As I leveled Morkk to 80, many quests gave me Arthas' backstory and I didn't like what he was becoming. I started a death knight, like everyone else, and absolutely loved that storyline. I was surprised by how much I wanted to kill the Lich King for telling me I was nothing and he was the next best thing to sliced bread. By the end of that chain, I was more than ready to off the big guy himself.

Of course, I had to wait. As others have commented, we got to storm all the way up to Icecrown Citadel and then turn around and fly off to Ulduar. Just you wait, you evil man, we'll be back for you. Then we had to prove that we were up for the challenge, which was a step I didn't mind, before getting a shot at Arthas himself.

Granted I don't raid much, and didn't spend much time in Ulduar or ToC until I needed gear for Icecrown. Mostly, I didn't care about those raids. But when the ICC 5-man instances showed up, I was all over those. They offered tougher fights than heroics at the time, and added even more to my quest to hunt down the Lich King. Plus, I got gear to help me be less of a smear against the floor in ICC.

In the end, I had plenty of reasons to want to see Arthas dead. Unfortunately, my guild and I weren't skilled enough to tackle him and I didn't get to see him drop. (Now, I have a new guild and am level 85, so you can't avoid death forever, Arthas.)

But in Cataclysm, I don't have that passion against Deathwing. It was interesting to see some folks from vanilla instances come back and the effects they had on the world, but I don't really see Deathwing as a threat.
I plan to pay more attention as I level up my death knight, but right now, I don't see myself caring if Deathwing lives or dies.

Does anyone think the "World Destroyer" needs to go down?

No winner makes me even sadder.

In a disturbing turn of events, no one won the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby on Saturday.

Normally, I participate in that tournament at every available opportunity. I really want the [Dread Pirate Ring] simply for The Princess Bride reference. Plus, extra 5 percent experience while leveling is always cool.

Anywho, it was Saturday again and I was busy writing an article for the local newspaper when my son tells me that the tournament has started. After I landed from my leap off the couch, I realized that by the time I started up the game and hauled my Draenei butt to Northrend, I might just be in time for Elder Clearwater to announce I was a loser yet again. Twice before, I have found the [Blacktip Shark] only to have someone else beat me to the turn-in.

So, I decided to save myself the grief and finish writing my article. I was supposed to be working anyway.

About an hour later, my son makes another announcement: the tournament is over.

What?!? The tournament never lasts more than six minutes. What are these strange words you speak?

But, sure enough, it was true. The tournament had expired because no one had claimed the top prize. I cried a little inside because I had been trying to get this goofy ring for such a long time and here nobody even wanted to try this week — the one week I was too busy to participate. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I will be even more frustrated when I fish up the shark next week just as Elder Clearwater announces the winner.

As a word of advice, if you are on the Dalaran server, I wouldn’t bother with the tournament on Saturday. This week, I’ll be carrying home the prize.

Sindragosa fight shows promise

Sindragosa fight shows promise

I found myself as the 10th man in a guild run shooting to down Sindragosa. I had read about the fight and watched videos on it, but actually being there is another thing.

For instance, it's easy to know that you have to run out of her Blistering Cold blast radius whenever she sucks you in with Icy Grip, but actually turning around and running out of range fast enough is much more difficult.

We decided to run back onto the stairs after she pulled us, but I have a hard time turning around and hauling my hooves up the stairs. Even with Tuskarr's Vitality, I couldn't get out of the way fast enough. On the last few tries, I started just running to the other side of Sindragosa to get out of the blast radius and then rejoining the group later. Sure, I didn't get to heal much doing all that running, but at least I could stay alive that way.

Other than running from her Blistering Cold, I didn't have many problems with the fight. Staying to the dragon's side always seems like a good idea any time I see one. Hiding behind frozen people reminded me of Sapphiron . While I didn't do that fight often, I had plenty of practice line-of-sighting Forgemaster Garfrost's Permafrost.

The group consistently got to Phase 3, even if I didn't make it that long on the first couple tries, but we couldn't seal the deal.
Even though we didn't make it out of there with phat lootz, I learned a lot about the fight and should be able to best her the next time I'm in there.

ICC progress report

Rotface is down.

Our casual guild finally made it through Putricide's other creation.
We didn't have any problems taking down the first four encounters plus Festergut, but Rotface stopped us dead. We gave him half a dozen tries the first night, and about that many more on the second night and we got him down.

Some may complain about the repair bill, but I enjoyed learning, troubleshooting and finally getting the fight down. Since ours is a casual guild, I know that others have accomplished this faster, but for us, this is a great achievement.

After downing him, we decided to take a few shots at his creator, but that didn't go so well. But at least I saw the fight, so I can read up on the strats more and it will mean something.

And just for fun, we decided to take a stab at the Dreamwalker encounter. As a healer, I was pumped for trying this one out, since the encounter calls for the dragon to be healed 6 million hps before completion. That's another fight that I will have to read up on because me and two other healers were only able to get her healed about 1.1 million hps before we wiped.

Obviously we have some more learning to do, but I have to admit I enjoyed fighting our way to the Lich King.

I hope to see him sooner than later.

Malygos Must Die

While this isn’t as exciting as Rahana downing the Lich King, but I’m happy to report that I was able to PuG my way through Malygos the other day.

I had gotten the key for the place out of Naxx a while ago, but only used it once before. Back before ToC came out, I tried it with a PuG, but we couldn’t make it past Phase 2 before the group fell apart.

This time, I ran with a group wanting to complete [Malygos Must Die]. Actually, I was surprised to see a group looking for that quest. This was the first time it came up as a random weekly raid quest since I restarted my account.

I knew enough to stay at the dragon’s side and I remembered reading about staying in the bubbles on Phase 2, but just before Phase 3, my computer bugged out on me and I died to his Deep Breath (I think, my computer seemed to think it was the ideal time to run an HP update).

Instead of half the group leaving after we wiped on the first try, we just talked about what we needed to change. (I still find it odd that some people like to hang out on a dragon’s tail.) Luckily, the group listened to the raid leader, (not me, I had no idea what I was doing) stayed to the sides of the dragon, moved to the biggest bubbles in Phase 2 and got the right rotation down on Phase 3 on our third try.

In the end, it wasn't too painful and I was glad to get that one out of the way.

Afterward, I also realized I received the [Champion of the Frozen Wastes] achievement out of the deal, so I had even more reason to celebrate.

Next step: find a way to PuG my way to Arthas' throne.

Clearing Trial of the Crusader

Well, the weekly raid quest lured me into Trial of the Crusader for the first time last night. Luckily, I had a guild invite me to the run, so it was a smoother learning curve than would have occurred in a PuG.

Many of the group already understood the mechanics of the fight and could explain/remind those of us whom didn't know what we were doing. As healer, I didn't have to worry about quite as much as if I had been tank.

The Beasts weren't too much of a problem until Icehowl. He seemed fine until he turned his sights on me. I tried to get out of his path, but didn't quite make it before his charge. After his charge killed me, I popped Reincarnation and healed up myself and the tank. A bit later, Icehowl tried to punt me again, but I got out of his way and he was downed shortly after the stun.

Lord Jaraxxus went down without much of a problem and then we moved on to the Faction Champions. We wiped on these guys three times before we got them down. For the last attempt, I tossed on my PvP trinket to get out of Polymorph, but I still spent most of my time wandering around as a sheep as the mage seemed fixated on me.

After stumbling a bit on the PvP fight, we had little trouble with the Twin Val'kyr and Anub'arak. Overall it was a nice run and great learning experience for me.

Stepping into Icecrown Citadel

I took my first step into Icecrown Citadel last night and had a blast.
Due to my schedule and lack of desire, it’s been a while since I participated in a raid. Most of my recent experience has been healing heroics to earn badges for newer gear. I also ran a lot of the new 5-man ICC heroics to improve my gear in preparation for heading after the Lich King.
I really enjoyed the story presented in the 5-man instances and was looking to continue that experience while fighting my way to Arthas.
Right from first pull, I could feel the difference and quickly realized I was going to have to up my game to heal in Icecrown.
I had done some reading on the raid, but it’s is completely different when you are actually there. Luckily, I had the Deadly Boss Mods addon to help remind me of things, such as to stop casting when Deafening Roar was cast.
We steadily cleared the trash in the area and found ourselves facing Lord Marrowgar. I think most of the group had seen the skeletal beastie before, but this was my first time. After a few wipes, I figured out how to get away from his Bone Storm and could survive the encounter, leading to downing the boss.
After that, we took a couple stabs at Lady Deathwhisper but couldn’t down her.
Overall, it was a fun experience and I look forward to trying again.

Dread Pirate Ring ripped from my hands

Staring at the coveted [Dread Pirate Ring], I couldn't believe I lost it. No matter how many times I clicked Continue, I couldn't trade my [Blacktip Shark] for the ring. I was half a second away from winning the Kulu'ak Fishing Derby Saturday and if I could click faster, it would have been mine.

Fishing in the Sholazar Basin, I had nearly given up on finding the shark this week. It had been around 5-10 minutes and I knew a winner would be announced soon, just as in the last three weeks I've attempted the derby. Then I did a double-take and when the [Blacktip Shark] came across my screen.

I didn't bother opening my bags to double check, I just hit my Astral Recall (which takes 7.89 seconds thanks to my haste rating).

I arrived in Dalaran quickly because I had already lowered the quality of my video and disabled all my addons for the tournament. Out the inn door and running, I didn't see anyone near Elder Clearwater. I click through the first dialog box and try to click through the second, but it stops me. I didn't choose a reward!

For the bonus 5 percent experience and "The Princess Bride" references, I only wanted one item - [Dread Pirate Ring].

Moving my mouse back up to choose the ring, I couldn't believe it when Elder Clearwater announced the winner, using the name of some Horde character who wasn't around when I arrived.

I tried several times to complete the quest, but it wouldn't work. In the end, I had to settle for a [Bag of Fishing Treasures].

Though not much of a consolation prize, at least I picked up a [Strand Crawler].

Ninja looting

Last week, Gevlon claimed that ninjaing can be beneficial as long as it's from M&S (morons and slackers for those of you unfamiliar with his site.)

While I can understand his argument, I disagree with ninjaing items on the whole. It's a underhanded way of getting something you want.

For example, I was healing a pug group through Heroic Pit of Saron the other day, when Ick's Rotting Thumb drops.
The tank says, "Finally!" and rolls need.
Since he's the tank, so I pass, figuring he should get the item, making our journey to Scourgelord Tyrannus even easier.
But, of course, a dps death knight decides he wants it for his off-set and rolls Need.
The RNG gods side with the dps and the tank apologizes and quits, leaving the rest of us around to wait.

While, ninjaing hasn't taken an item I needed, it has abruptly halted my progress through the dungeon and wasted my time. Of course having nothing better to do than chastise the DK for his error in judgement, I did. If the tank hadn't left, I probably could have gotten the DK to turn over the trinket. Luckily, I haven't had to do convince many players to "do the right thing" and hand over ill-gotten booty.

While I understand that Gevlon is entitled to his opinion, I think any M&S stumbling upon his site are going to use that post as an excuse to ninja anything just to better themselves.
That's unacceptable.

Clear out cloth before 3.3.3

As the title suggests, I'm getting rid of most of my [Moonshroud], [Spellweave] and [Ebonweave] before the next patch.

When 3.3.3 hits, the cooldown and location restrictions for the cloths will be lifted, making it easier for crafters to make and causing the price to drop. Depending on your server's current prices, it may be wise to liquidate these before the patch.

On my server, the prices have steadily decreased since the release of the incoming patch notes, but they are still about 20-40g more than the cost for materials. As the patch hits, you can expect this profit margin to drop closer to the material costs.

At the same time, we'll see a drop in the prices for epic items made from the cloths, though the ilevel 264 craftables will still fetch a high price given the cost of [Primordial Saronite].

I've also been toying with the idea of crafting a bunch of [Glacial Bag], but given the expected drop in material prices that may not be a wise investment. It's debatable how the pending 7-day cooldown on the bags will balance with the decreased material cost.

I'm leaning toward ignoring the market because I don't have a tailor who is exalted with the Sons of Hodir, but I've heard others are making a slew of them before the patch.

Blizzard should hand out skill with epic gear

While it's nice for us casual players to have easier access to better gear, I think it would be a better idea to offer more opportunities to learn group skills at an earlier time.

Epic gear falling from the heavens is fun, but without skill, it just leads to a nice-looking corpse.

With my shaman, I leveled as Restoration. Granted, I'm cheap and didn't want to pay the cost to respec, but I leveled that way because I knew that I wanted to heal in raids. I put my wife's paladin into Protection and that's the way we learned our characters. (We also named them Morkk and Mindey after the TV show for anyone who remembers that one.)

Leveling in restoration helped me understand my spells better and learn to use more of them reflexively. Granted, it took longer to level, but it was worth it. I have received many complements about my healing in random groups I have joined.

When dual specs were released, I shelled out the 1k gold to make an Elemental spec. (I still don't know how I justified that when I refused a 5g respec cost.) But I quickly found that I wasn't as proficient with the spells and had a lot of learning. The basics are the same, but the talents specific to elemental shamen were foreign to me. Practice has helped me develop my DPS a bit, but I still feel more comfortable healing with occasional DPS. I imagine the reverse would be true for future tanks and healers leveling in a DPS spec.

If players had more opportunities to tank or heal before reaching max level, I think we would see more skill develop as players are more familiar with their abilities. We need a better way to train tanks and healers than trial by fire, usually resulting in a great many wipes.

I can work on my DPS rotation with the training dummies, but they offer nothing for the two most difficult jobs in a group.But the static training dummies don't do much to prepare raiders. Even DPS rarely get to stand around in a raid.

Blizzard already offers multiple zones for leveling up, so it would just be a matter of having two ways to do it.

For example, in Cataclysm they will likely have two 81-82 zones. One would be easily soloable, but not offer as much experience, meaning it would take longer to level.

The second zone could be more challenging and have a good share of 3-man group quests that offer more experience. Going through solo would be very challenging, but innovative and hardcore players could do it. It would also offer an incentive for group play before the level cap rather than random group quests (which I believe are largely ignored anyway).

Blizzard already offers separate zones for the same level areas. This would just make the zones actually different, rather than changing the quests so you gather 8 acorns instead of 8 wolf tails.

Downfall of gear scores

With all this talk of gear scores, I've been paying more attention to mine and I'm starting to rebel.

First of all, gear score has never been a good assessment of a player's skill. While his character should be able to do something, that doesn't mean the player behind the mask can accomplish the task.

The gear score also doesn't factor in what items are good for a character, it just looks at a number and assumes players would only wear useful gear.
Yay! Our tank has a 3800 gear score. It would be more impressive if half of it weren't cloth.

So as all these morons run around asking for groups with 5k gear scores, I am left wondering if it would be better to equip useless gear just because it has a higher score and make it easier to group up.

For example, I just picked up [Mudslide Boots], but my gear score went down. I had been wearing [Lightning Grounded Boots], a 226 ilevel item, but my score dropped by 6 points when I equipped the [Mudslide Boots].

Since the new boots are better for me, but the gear score fanatics out there would have me use the old boots.
What's a spacegoat to do?