No Item Upgrades, 5.2 LFR Item Level, PTR Class Balance, Blue Posts, Weekly Roundup

[F-Minus]

5.2 has a new season, so everything you said doesnt really matter to pvp at all.

Also is hilarious how many of you pay 0 attention, the Item upgrade is planned to come back in none raid patches (i.e. 5.3) acourding to GC, so it will stilll serve as a good catch up for returning players. Please do research before you make walls to blindly complain.

Who cares about that it comes back.

If you happen to have an ilvl510 upgraded Starshatter it's better as the ilvl509 Shin'ka by a lot, and since there will be no-way to upgrade Shin'ka to ilvl 517, there is no point for me to even go to Terrace, to even get it, the legendary gem weapon is all-of-a-sudden usless, which was supposed to be the best weapon raid progress wise.

It just makes not sense, to remove item upgrades for 5.0, 5.1. There's even a bigger gap for normal gear. The upgrade on some items is simply amazing.

I really don't care if they remove the item upgrading forever from 5.2, but they should leave it up for 5.0, 5.1 items, it's that simple. People are in the middle of upgrading, and why would they fuck them over now, for no reason at all, the "damage" has been done, just leave it in, don't allow 5.2 items to be upgraded, everything is fine.

[Novarius]

I made an smal picture to the fired npc i hope my english is okay

"http: //carbonitegilde.funpic.de/ Edgeworld/ Voidbinder_Shadzor.png" (cant send links so delete the spacers in this link)

[Etherius]

The item upgrade system was neat, but I'd be okay with it removed until the back half of a major patch. Other than upgrading your weapon, which I saw was worth the valor, 750 VP on items that give you 40-50 int/str/agil and maybe 20 haste/crit/mastery seems hardly worth being forced to upgrade, especially with how much equipment there is. If you had the intention on making your set fully upgraded, that's 750 x 2 x 16. That's 24,000 VP - 24 weeks... about 5 1/2 months. Meditate on that for a moment =p

Also, it's obviously still up for debate, and I'm a firm believer that what the community says does make a difference, so everyone certainly should give an opinion.. constructively. To me, so long as they deliver potential craftables, VP gear to purchase and the obvious raid/LFR per raid patch, then there's a way to upgrade at the start, always. Some will just get higher up faster. However, if they do fully remove it, then we're all still on the same playing field =) no VIP upgrade tickets for anyone!

[tangers58]

I just wish Blizzard would stop waffling all the time. Either have item upgrades, or don't have them; don't switch constantly.

[Vantro]

I'm glad the valor capping is gone for now. While many of you complain because you need the item upgrades, I feel it forces busy work onto raiders just for the sake of something to do. And yes it is forced, while I choose to be a raider I didn't choose to valor cap every single week after all content is down just for the sake of something to do. It wasn't like this in the past, I got all my gear from VP, got offspec gear from VP and could stop caring. Contrary to popular belief I and many other raiders) enjoy when the game gets a little boring for us, so we don't have to play everyday until that next patch hits.

[Novarius]

i like the upgrade option because if you have no time for raiding you can upgrade your old stuff to get a bit clother to new content. the new patch brings new gear okay but thats no reason to disable his npc a better way would be that the new gear becomes no upgrade option until it is possible in relation with the new content. an other point is what the hell we will do with the damn valor points...

i think its fail to completely kill this nice feature block for new stuff would be enough but ghostcrawler has the last word.

[Revak]

Terrible that you will not be able to upgrade the current gear when the new patch comes out. If you don't want upgrades to the new gear, don't allow it to happen. But don't take it away from gear that is already upgradeable. I thought they wanted us to use current Raids/LFR to gear up for 5.2 Raids/LFR. So anyone who isn't already 90 and upgrading their gear is at a disadvantage.

I already have 3 90's and they are all above or at 480 so it doesn't affect them. But I like playing alts so this makes the already terrible expansion for alts (d/t dailies/gating) even worse.

IMO

[Berri]

Thank god, I really didn't like item upgrades,

[Deleted]

Thank you for removing item upgrades. Felt as a necessity. And endless grind.

-Heroic raider-

[Ferocity]

This expansion feels very unstable. "Let's introduce VP item upgrades, now hey let's remove VP item upgrades but reintroduce later". Meanwhile the main problems are still ignored.

[Eleveneleven]

Good. Item upgrades ACTUALLY made it feel like I had to play every day, unlike dailies.

What are you talking about? Dailies = new items.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Well that's because what NOW constitutes hardcore and casuals (as those terms are used in forums such as this) is much different than what it used to be. The casuals have become more casual as blizz gave more and more things to them. As such, anytime anything new requires any effort at all they consider it to be catering to the "hardcore" crowd not realizing that most of the stuff they consider hardcore really isn't by Vanilla WoW standards (the "hardcores" aren't as hardcore as they used to be either).

It doesn't help that blizzard keeps changing their minds and implementing and removing features like JP gear upgrades and more and than slightly less dailies. The new "hardcore" features really aren't hardcore but rather attempts by Blizzard to slow progression solely for the purpose of trying to stop players from blowing thru content way faster then they can develop it and un-subbing while waiting for the next patch. But constantly trying to put the genie back in the bottle (to extend game play and not to appeal to hardcores) and then caving to the whiners feeds perceptions about the state of the game that allow for the simultaneous conclusion that they are catering to either the hardcores or the casuals.

In reality what they have done is to destroy the suspension of disbelief and immersion required to make WoW the epic adventure it once was. To be very honest they would probably be better off just going the farmville route completely because the game really isn't hardcore, by any objective standard, and the casuals would complain less. While it might not be better it would be a more consistent and honest approach.

I agree with almost everything here. I just hope they don't decide on the farmville idea. They have sold out enough.

[Volendrung]

"We don't have to do your new dailies... the valor gear is just as good as my upgraded 5.1 gear."

I like how that was revoked pretty quick. Too bad they didn't think it through to begin with... I like the idea of upgrading and what not.

[Deleted]

For me personally, upgrade items option was another nightmare which actually made me stop playing because it blew my mind! So, I've gathered that little amount of VP I can and I was presented with an option of buying one new better item from some faction quartermaster or upgrade a couple of items from the existing gear knowing very well that the latter was subject to the rng 'oh you have just spent all your vp on upgrades and after weeks of no drops, let me now shower you with many drops in LFR, so all your upgrade are null'.

In a way it is a great idea but for me it didn't work out, not in the current system as it is.

But I also feel the frustration of people for whom this was a viable option, simply removing it is another Blizzard's teeter board moment.

[F-Minus]

People believe to be forced into way too many things with this game. I think it's better they just stop playing completely.

- forced to do dailys
- forced to collect charms of good fortune
- forced to cap valor
- forced to do LFR
- forced to plant "stuff" on their in-game farm
- forced to ...

Why do you insist on playing this game, you seem to be a slave.

The reality is, you don't have to do any of those things, but then again, all those things are an incentive to actually play the game as opposed to stand in a major city waiting for a raid to happen like it happened 4 month into every previous expansion. I feel like I'm getting my monthly subscriptions worth for the first time in many years. That said, I'm not doing dailys, LFR or cap valor every week, I take breaks and I do it only when I'm up to it, but as said at least when I log into the game I have a reason to play the game outside of guild raids.

Removing item-upgrading completely will just make raids prior to 5.2 non-interesting, and we're back to only one viable raid instead of having still options to go to HoF, Terrace and upgrading an item from there that might help you in 5.2.

[Venant]

Thank you for removing item upgrades. Felt as a necessity. And endless grind.

-Heroic raider-

Hey, while their at it how about we just remove heroic modes too, its such a pain having to learn fights twice and wiping so much. And lets remove cooking, enchanting and anything else that you 'need' for raiding. It is ridiculous to remove upgrades altogether, it would be one thing to just turn it off for new gear, but now you are essentially taking a ton of gear out of the game.

Upgrading is really useful when trying to get the required ilvl for things like LFR, which is quite annoying when you have a geared main character and you are leveling alts.

[Deleted]

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

The 2pc and 4pc both can crit.
Direhorn Stampede are everything you dream them to be.

meaning?
ok, its some sort of triceratops, and i can build my own jurassic park.
with rexie, raffie and now brunhilda...
but.. yeah..stampede?

[xenogear3]

VP gear is and will be gated by daily.
If upgrade is there, lazy people will upgrade, not doing daily.

In 4.1, too many people upgrade weapon, Sha's tier gloves and pants.
NOT doing daily.

You MUST do daily. No other option. There.
If you don't do daily, Blizzard doesn't want you $15.

[Granyala]

The fact -you- don't see a reason is irrelevant. The people who develop the game see a reason. And there is nothing in his statements that should lead you to believe it won't return. They already explained the shift to off-raid patches well enough for any adult to understand.

Wouldn't be too sure about that. GC also stated that currently you have way too much to do with an item in order to get it to it's max potential.

Gem, enchant, reforge AND upgrade. It's all a bit much and they want to reduce on the burdens.

I think they will reiterate on the upgrade system. We'll see if they find a solution they are pleased with.

[JIMM-]

item upgrades are fine actually, for justice , valor and honor really, but it is absolutely horrible for conquest gear due to obvious reasons.

If they dont want raiders to be forced to cap max valor everyweek .. why not just give more valor for each boss kill or
they need to come out with something like a scenario within a raid, like what we had in ICC (e.g. lady deathwhisper a random add dude spawn that needs to stay alive throughout the fight or u fail the objective or the stone giant thing( the stone giant one sucks though it didnt happen during boss fight )) in order to get some reward. That was kinda challenging and new back then, didnt know why the idea got scrapped later on in cata.

They could grant some special item / currency that allows u to upgrade ur item if u manage to complete the objective while killing raid boss , makes the encounter more interesting and less dull. (for 10 / 25 raids only , not for LFR)

still waiting blizz to remove 10 and 25 and make all raids 15 man ..