Edit: To clarify in advance, I neither care about BiS nor is this meant to be a discussion about BiS. If you really must make your post about BiS, then consider this a discussion about whether "preventing the 1% or less of players that were actually managing BiS during normal-length tiers from obtaining BiS anymore" is worth all of the incoming changes to loot and gear. It's an imaginary problem with almost no statistical significance.
My main issues with all of the changes to be discussed here are 1) the dampening of min/maxing via gear customization (though many will laugh at the notion), caused largely by the randomization of sockets rather than them remaining standard as they are currently, and 2) the changes to the way tier works, particularly the ability for tier to proc as WF, socketed, etc., when tokens are turned in. At the very least, bonuses should appear on the tier token so that we can more easily decide who to loot them to in our raids. At most, tier should be reverted to its original system for simplicity: no bonuses, no randomization. Tier is tier, and tier is a good thing to have.
There's also the incredible loot frustration that is sure to come of adding a second randomized, performance-enhancing affix (sockets); the upgrades that people want or need are going to be incredibly specific within x amount of weeks of raiding any given tier. Of a single item, there are: the blank version (no bonuses), the socketed version, the WF version, and the WFS (WF-socket) version. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how this will eventually translate into an even bigger pile of epic shards in your guild bank than usual.
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TLDR; WF-style sockets (non-standard and not guaranteed) and tier having a chance to proc WF, etc., is bad for the game in more than a couple of ways. I believe changes are needed (see the bottom of the post).
Randomization on gear in WoD includes randomized sockets (instead of the standard sockets we currently have), the continued existence of Warforged items, and Tertiary stats (Speed, Avoidance, Leech, Indestructible). The problem is randomized sockets. Warforged alone was fine; it had an acceptably average impact on the rate of upgrades dropping in raids and did not cause a very large divide in player ranking and performance. The addition of randomized sockets effectively triples the chances that you will only find disappointment each time a boss dies, finding that it dropped the wrong version of an item you already had -- i.e. you have a WF chest piece, so you need a socketed WF piece, but it only ever drops a blank, a WF, or a socket-only piece instead of the perfect piece you need. That's if it drops the item at all.
There are other outlining issues that crop up as consequences of the incoming changes; some affect only a small portion of players, others affect a much larger number of us. Said issues are discussed further down the body of this post.
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In it's current state, gearing in WoD is going to be a travesty.
Gear customization is being gutted, particularly in terms of gems. "More powerful gems," but fewer of them ultimately boils down to less ability to fine tune and play around with your stats in the interests of experimentation and min/maxing. I won't comment on enchants since they're one-per-slot by level of power each expansion anyway.
Then there's the way sockets themselves are going to work. WF itself was a pretty poor idea, but at least it was only
one extra thing that we had to worry about in terms of getting gear to drop. That said, the extra 6 item levels alone made a big difference in performance over not having them. But now we have sockets working on the same system as WF. They aren't standard, they only have a chance to drop, which means gear customization is literally limited to chance, with the exception of enchants.
Having trouble finally getting that Mythic piece to drop? Well, don't worry, you'll get it eventually. Except it probably won't be both WF+Socket. It has a greater chance of being 1 of the 2 or neither. This isn't even considering tertiary stats, which aren't a huge deal, but there are certain to be one or two that are especially advantageous to stack.
And now they're attaching these "bonuses" to tier tokens. Not only will you need to have a boss drop your tier token and then
win said token through whatever loot system your guild or group uses, but you will then have to hope that it procs as WF when you turn the token in. If you aren't trying to min/max, you may not be particularly worried about doing repeat turn-ins for a socket and/or tertiaries, but having full or near-full WF is a huge boost in raw output, whether it be healing or damage. Everyone will want to do repeat turn-ins for WF tier, and tier tokens are already the most sought-after and competitive-to-win pieces of loot as it is, since multiple classes (+ all specs of those classes) share the same tokens, and tokens are limited. Imagine the potential loot drama in pugs and newer, less seasoned guilds.
It's a good thing stats on gear change dynamically based on spec in WoD, because this new tier system alone would kill off-spec gearing until everyone's MS tier was full WFS.
Now, I read somewhere that they're "increasing" the chances for these suffixes
per se (WF, socket, tertiary) to drop on gear compared to current WF rates, but all this does is remind me of D3 and how they increased the legendary drop rates by 100%. And, sure enough, plenty of people have been comparing the direction that gear/loot is going in Warlords of Draenor to Diablo 3's loot system lately. This isn't a good thing.
At the risk of sounding saltier than usual, if I wanted a Diablo-style gear grind, I would play Diablo. I do play Diablo, and I get enough of its often fruitless gear grind during those play sessions. The difference there is that I can spam rifts, bounties, and everything else as much as I want, as often as I want. Raids and loot lockouts don't exist in Diablo like they do in WoW, where I'll only have weekly chances at getting the gear I need to drop, and then get it to drop again with more suffixes as needed.
These changes are all but confirmed to be attempts to A) extend the life of tiers and B) cause BiS to be more difficult to obtain. The issue here is that 1% or less of players actually obtain BiS over the course of normal-length tiers (ones that aren't SoO or DS). Preventing that <1% from obtaining BiS is hardly worth all of the problems that are sure as day going to come of the changes to loot and gear in WoD.
The changes to gems, sockets, and tier are superfluous at best, and are inevitably going to do little but cause great frustration and animosity within the organized raiding community. Maybe not at first, since everyone will be busy enjoying the fresh scenery and content, but eventually all anyone will be able to think about is when their off-set legs are going to drop as WF with a socket, or when they'll get another chance to turn in a tier token to try for WF tier gloves, or a chest piece with a socket. Look for the signs around the time the first couple of guilds start finishing the tier.
The worst case scenario (granted, it's a tad extreme) is that one mid-ranking guild has absolutely dreadful luck with loot and another one has incredible luck. The performance difference between a very well-geared group (lots of WF, sockets, and WFS + good tertiaries) and one with absolutely dreadful luck with suffixes WILL be noticeable for non-world ranking guilds. Further down the hardcore/casual totem pole, some groups will find it difficult to push into more difficult content simply because they're taking even longer than usual to get into strong enough gear to off-set any experience deficits they may be struggling with. This just reminds me again of Diablo 3, where your luck with rolls on the same pieces as another player can quite easily be the difference between clearing that next Grift and earning a new rank or failing by a few seconds.
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I know this is a lot to read, and I may come off a little salty or sensationalist, but I'm genuinely worried about (for starters) the health of many raiding communities when it comes to the mounting frustration with gear that's sure to accompany these new loot systems. I'm also quite passionate about this game and I hate the idea of the experience being mucked up by such superfluous changes to... mostly working systems.
For one, consider the potential loot drama surrounding the new tier token system, especially in less seasoned raid groups and pugs. Humans are greedy, and are sure to cause problems over wanting tier tokens to try to turn in for WF/socketed versions of pieces they already have instead of letting someone who does not have their tier bonuses yet have a token. This obviously won't be as big of a problem with organized guild groups with their own loot systems, but it will still be an issue for many.
There's also the ideal of wanting to feel like we have more control over our stats and our performance as raiders, both casual and hardcore. Being able to play with and fine-tune our many different stat values is fun and interesting, but less so when our options to do so are so limited. Performance difference between small differences in stat customization may not be big on paper, but the idea of min/maxing every last point of stat still matters and is very enjoyable to a lot of people.
I'm not asking for the return of reforging or massive quantities of sockets; all I'd like to see is more fine-tunable, min/maxable gear customization. More options. Less RNG, less frustration. Gear customization is fun, but the current system is hardly worth calling "customization" compared to what we have now. We're going from one extreme (large amounts of customization) to another (little to none, based on luck with loot), when we should be looking for a middle ground such as simple reduction of socket quantities.
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All things stated, I would implore the developers to at least consider & discuss a few things:
1. Revert tier to its original system, or a slightly modified one: no chance at WF or sockets, but keep tertiaries. Alternatively, remove all affixes from tier completely. Guaranteeing sockets but removing other suffixes may also be an option.
Edit: Having the affixes roll when the tier token drops instead of when it's turned it would be more acceptable than the current system as well. Being able to see if a token will reward a WF piece or not, for example, would make life a lot easier for everyone, especially organized guild groups.
2. Remove sockets from the "WF loot table" and add them back to gear as standards, just with fewer of them, i.e. only one or two sockets on chest pieces as opposed to the current standard of three. Gems could have their bonuses reduced to compensate for the return of standard sockets without much of an effect on balance or tuning (if any at all).
3. Look back over tertiary stats. Consider reducing the power of some that could be especially strong when stacking them (such as Leech or Avoidance). Consider guaranteeing a random tertiary on all loot to make it less frustrating to never get the ones you want (or, worse, to never get any at all). I know that many people would find it nice to know they're at least getting SOMETHING extra on their gear.
I know my ideas aren't revolutionary or necessarily new, but I hope you'll take my words into consideration. Thanks for reading.
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