The Great Item Squish (or Not) of Pandaria

[Isrozzis]

I think the squish would probably be a good solution, but they do make a good point that it just feels weird.

It would certainly scale down ridiculous item level jumps and stuff. Maybe they should ptr it sometime for feedback.

[Deleted]

This would be a good thing, but most people (even myself a little, though I understand everything is relative) will not appreciate being 'nerfed' to such a ridiculous degree. MMOs are supposed to be about constant progression, yet if this went through we'd be back to TBC Numbers.

As I said, I personally think it's a good idea (Though I'd be sad to lose my big numbers), the backlash from it would be insane.

One thing I do immensely dislike about it is, it will make Old Content challenging again. Some people might like this, but personally I like the fact that I can faceroll my way through TBC and WoTLK raids with a small number of people to get Transmog gear.

I'm sure it's weird in the beginning, but we will adept like we did with all those item levels. There was a time were 20 strength was much, now it's less than the difference between normal and heroic version.

It's the only way and i hope they go for the squish.

[Aurimas]

They could write the stats as 6(10e4) or something, looks less fancy, but that allows for numbers up to the trillions without much clutter.

Acutally from your example it's (6x10^4) or (6e4). I point this out not to be a prick, only because lots of people WoW age end up bombing science tests based simply on not knowing how to use a calculator, while knowing how to do the actual math correctly.

On topic: Squish!

Funny how people have been telling them this for a couple expansions, and in the past it's been "big numbers are just big, we can still make the math work out", now they finally admit they have a problem.

[Ratboy]

Why are people thinking they won't be able to solo old content? Everything (stats, health pools, damage & healing down) is cut down by the same amount, so it would just like loving the decimal one place to the left. You going from having 100,000 health hitting a target with 1,000,000 for 25,000 to something like 10,000 health hitting a target with 1000,000 for 2,500. I'm sure people will make an addon to add an extra 0 or two to the combat log to make you feel more powerful.

[ElDoorO]

If /everything/ is scaled down by, say, 80% -- this won't make older content harder. You do less damage, have less HP -- and so does the boss.If they scale only level's 60+ down -- then, and only then, will any content get harder.

[Graedahl]

Actually, another thought I just had...What about squishing before each xpac? Allow the same increased curve for the next xpac, so that you are getting rewarded strong with ilvl jumps. But then before an xpac launches, squish the numbers down and decrease the disparity between a fresh max level and a fully-raided max level right before the level grind of the next xpac.

That is precisely what the item squish mechanic was outlined to do. Note the cata jump (as we are still in cata) in the final graph.

[The Stormbringer]

That screenshot is EXACTLY what they need to implement. I want to crit for 12 MEGAAA DAMAAAAGE!!!!

[zeock]

what's wrong with big numbers? why are people so afraid to see big numbers? you level up, get more powerful items, you get more stats and do more damage, what's wrong with that?

[Raztalin]

If they end up doing this, it's going to feel really weird. I also feel it will be EXTREMELY buggy because they'll have to rework the health of pretty much everything.

Can't see it being buggy ...

Applying a percentage decrease keeps everything in line

[pocky_rin]

Is it really actually an issue? Tbh when I think about my damage in icc hcs with the 30% buff, it was liek around 30k, when I think about the nicest raid boss now my dmg is liek 30k, so wrath -> cata was only a 30% buff in dmg? Just adding on something tiny like cata -> Pandas 10% dmg buff people will still notice and be ok with, we dont have to go from 30k - 30million dps surely. Depending on how many expansions theyre thinking of it would have to be done later but I don't think it's much of a problem now.

[Queen of Hamsters]

For example.Today we can solo for the blue proto-drake in Utgarde Pinnacle without much difficulty. If we get squished, then they either have to nerf that boss down to do insanely low damage, OR simply let it be and have level 95 chars struggle with it....I'm all AGAINST the squish. Rather let us be really elite and fix the display of the numbers. Player characters should be powerful and it would follow the progression so far in stats and power.

[Deleted]

Why are people thinking they won't be able to solo old content? Everything (stats, health pools, damage & healing down) is cut down by the same amount, so it would just like loving the decimal one place to the left. You going from having 100,000 health hitting a target with 1,000,000 for 25,000 to something like 10,000 health hitting a target with 1000,000 for 2,500. I'm sure people will make an addon to add an extra 0 or two to the combat log to make you feel more powerful.

You miss the point.
The "squishy" solution is great and works very well.
But the pratice will be different from the (perfect) theory due to Blizzard's incompetence on making changes in WoW the way they should be made. ^^

[Black Rider]

Item squish is better solution!

[SleepySlug]

But you do know that the stonecore and vortex items would have lowered stats as well thus being again in the exactly same situation as you were before the squish?

The problem with cataclysm was that the old content remained the same while the new content wasnt adjusted perfectly

It's an issue of relativity. I mention the Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle instances as examples for what a RAID'S difficulty would be if those differences were cut in half, not of the difficulty of those instances. Obviously those would be even EASIER.

[Acquiesce of Telara]

But you do know that the stonecore and vortex items would have lowered stats as well thus being again in the exactly same situation as you were before the squish?

The problem with cataclysm was that the old content remained the same while the new content wasnt adjusted perfectly

The thing is, older raids and such would become more difficult.

Let's say a 40 man raid boss at level 60 had 1 million health, and a baseline level 60 player had 5000 hp, and they're doing, say 600dps. there's a major difference between player and boss, despite both being at 100% stat power. Once a player reaches level 85, they've got 150k hp and they're doing 30k dps. That level 60 boss has only 6.66x the hp of the player, and produces negligible damage.

Once the Squish occurs, the level 85 player only has 20k hp (1/50th of the boss) and puts out 3k dps. The Vanilla raid boss's damage/HP wouldn't likely change any, as they were implemented into a linear system and wouldn't need to be adjusted.

40 man raid bosses would be difficult (or at the least, very time consuming) at almost any character level, simply due to the character to boss ratio (40:1). 25 man bosses would be more difficult to guess at, as they were all produced under the exponential model.

[Lucofthewind]

My answer on the Blizz blog post:.....

Well thought out and hits the nail on the head, please tell me you posted that on the official blog too ^_^

[Deleted]

Mionel says exactly what the issue is with all the proposed methods. I hope they read her posts over there.

[Patcarnig]

I'd love to see small numbers again, thr current situation is getting way out of hand.

[Vargur]

Don't agree with deflation.

[DarkPChan]

LOL if they do Mega Damage, I want them to include the Glitter Boy class :P First thing that popped up in my head was the RIFTS pen and paper RPG