A Gearscore Rant

[Zarukae]

We see threads like these every day, going on about nonsense between the WoW community. Weither it be in regards to bad players, trolls, That Retarded Horse, Fight Mechanics, Dead Lore, or Gearscore. Some of you are probably tired of reading threads like this one, and I implore you to not even bother reading, as this will be quite long. So i'll begin with the simple sentence of :

GEARSCORE IS RUINING THE GAME.

We've heard that saying over and over again, and people are on both sides of the fence. The first, stating that gearscore helps weed out bad players, and the other saying how it turns people into assholes. Lets dive deeper into bother points of the arguement.

"Gearscore is great! It weeds out bad players, and gives me an understanding of what gear and skill the player possesses!"

Yes, from this point of view, Gearscore is quite helpful. A decent portion of the time, the gearscore of a player does show that they are knowledgeable, a bit knowledgeable about their class, and spent time gearing up. However, within every harvest, theres always bound to be a bad apple. Or in this case, a bad batch of apples. Although we don't like to admit it most of the time, because we argue like children when we don't get our way, Blizzard IS doing a great job with the World of Warcraft. They've made raiding more accessible to players, I know I for one never began raiding until Wrath launched. They've expanded on the world, and lore. They've made gearing become simple for those wanting a vast army of alts. However, the latter is the one that can be seen as a complete stroke of genius, or a complete stroke of ignorance.
It WAS an amazing day when people learned that Heroics would replace their feebly little heroism badges, with Triumph badges. It made people WANT to level alts. The fact that one could simply get an alt to 80, and spend several days, or weeks getting an easily obtainable (Although not amazing) set of 232 Tier gear, was fantastic. When I heard the news, I knew what I was going to do on my spare time when not raiding. Same goes for everyone else within my guild. Comeon, who DIDN'T see the massive influx of alts once that patch hit?
Although it was a great crowning achievement for heroics, it was....a dark day. With the sought out Triumph badges easily obtainable in heroics, the the "Rotten Apples" of the community, began to overrun the community like never before. It wasnt uncommon to see Hunters, Death Knights, Mages, Locks, etc. In full 232/245 gear who could barely break a 2000 DPS. Those players were/are the ones that are dragging down the community. They are the cancer that is killing us, those unwilling to put a tiny amount of effort to play at their peak. By all means, you can easily say "I'm having fun! Get the fuck out of my face.", you may be having fun, but you're causing 4/9/24 other people an amazing amount of stress, anger, and disappointment.


"Gearscore is shit, its the cancer thats killing the community!"

Yes, yes it is. I for one am a big proponant of this side of the arguement. However, it's not without its own faults, i'll explain later. From this point of view, one can easily say Gear=/=Skill, and although thats right to a certain extent, it is also, not. Take for example, a warlock with 3k Gearscore, which we will name Bob, and a 4k gearscore warlock, whom we will name Jim. Bob has been farming heroics day in and day out, gearing himself up and hes ready to raid! Jim has been doing the exact same, however hes been farming heroics for much longer than Bob. Now it comes time to prove themselves. Bob is doing great! He looked up what to gem, enchant, and rotation, and hes pulling a fairly decent 4500 DPS. Now Jim, thinks hes hot shit. "Fuck yea, I got 4k gearscore, I'm so pro, I dont have to do shit in the raid, they KNOW im a certified badass!", he slacks off, and barely breaks 2000 DPS.
Now remember when I said Gear=/=Skill? Who would you rather take on a raid that you're pugging? Bob, the 4500 DPS warlock? Or Jim, the insanely Hot-Shit warlock with 2000 DPS? If you guessed Bob, youre horribly horribly wrong. We all know its not fair. "But but, Bob pulled more deeps that one fight last week!" youre saying to yourself. The sad truth is, Jim's gonna get that spot over Bob. No one knows Bob pulled that 4500 DPS, or that Jim is a slacker. If youre organizing the group, you would obviously take the 4k gearscore warlock over the 3k gearscore one, simply for the fact that Jim, has a higher Gearscore, and that means, he has the potential to be greater than Bob. Bob has some more gearing up to do, but hes a great player! Jims got the gear but cant do anything with it. To quote a saying "You can polish a turd, but its still gonna be shit".

There, I just Both defended AND shot down both sides of the arguement.

But wait, theres more!

Lets just say, for arguements sake, that about 95% of the player base has some form of Gearscore addon installed. Nowadays, the idiocy the community has risen to is almost unbelieveable. Gearscore is creating a Gap between raiders and freshly dinged 80's, and its becomming bigger and bigger.
For instance, I have two 80's. My hunter, which is my main, and my Paladin whom I tank with as an alt. Back when ICC was released, my guild easily cleared the first 2 wings once they were released, and after a while, it felt great. Soon after, I quit for about 3 months to get my priorities settled, and I returned to see what my server had become. I was now down-ranked to a "Friend" and I lost my Raider position in my guild, which I could understand. I was just happy to be back. First thing I saw in trade chat was "LFM ICC10 PST GS". I thought, "What the Heck, i'll give it a shot, get my ol' raiding belt back on.". I whispered the recruiter, stated that I had 5700 gearscore, cleared the first 2 wings, I even bothered to link them and state that they were cleared the day the wings were released, and that I was a fairly knowledgeable raider.
The reply? "Lol 5700 GS scrub". I was appauled, and a bit saddened. I thought it was just the recruiter, so I shrugged it off and moved to the next advertisement. I got a few "Sorry, but we need someone with Blood Wing+ Experience." Which was copletely understandable. I had just come back to the raiding scene and I was inexperienced in those new fights. However, most of the time I was met with "Lol shit gs" "Lol scrub" etc. etc. After that point, I didn't even bother with trying to get into a raid. If they wouldnt let a seasoned 5700 GS hunter join, what hope was there for my Paladin? I gave it a shot, seeing as how my paladin was a tank, I felt people would be more acceptable in regards to his gearscore, 37k unbuffed health, I felt pretty confident. I mean, before I left I was able to tank ToC25, and I even tanked ICC10.But again, even for tanks these days, people only see Gearscore, and not the gear.

For the last few days i've closely monitored trade chat, reading all the raid advertisements....well....advertised. "LFM ULD 25 5K+ GS", "LFM TOC25 5300+ GS" (Is it even POSSIBLE to hit 5300 GS WITHOUT gear from ToC25 OR craftable gear?) and even the dreaded "LFM 5500+ VOA25". Yes, people are asking for Gearscore for Vault of Archavon. VAULT OF FUCKING FACEROLLAVON.

Basically, the Gap has been widened to such an extent, that even an experienced raider such as myself, with a fairly decent geared alt, can't even enter simple pugs. I can't go back to raiding with my previous guild, as theyre currently on Hardmodes, and my gear may have been great a few months back, would now only be a burden for my guild, as I wouldn't be able to compete with all the other raiders in their Heroic-ICC gear. I'm now doomed to try and find pugs who will take me, or possibly, by a stroke of luck, take my paladin.

TL;DR Version : Lol, read the damn post you lazy bum.

Feel free to post your opinions on the matter.

[AnotherPaladin]

I read a good portion of it, and I have to say that I agree. Whether people can see through their nostalgic lens or not is up to them, but the game is a lot more accessible to the everyday player. I take gearscore into consideration, but it is by no means the final say if someone can go on a raid or not.

[Krayzz]

I'll bite.

These are things we all, as players, understand. It has been mentioned multiple times and I guarantee if you spent a little time with the search function, you'll find multiple threads stating this very fact.

All you've posted was information we all know very well, and could care less to look at again.

Also, yes, I did read the thread.

[Deleted]

I read a little bit of it, but my opinion is that GS and raid achievements make the game shit for casual players. You should see all the abuse I get just because I don't have the Ulduar achievement for uber high GS. GS, in my opinion, should be against the ToS.

[Indiglo]

This thread is new and interesting. Sigh...

[Gungtah]

This is important

[foxHeart]

This thread is relevant to my interests! :-X

[Silentshank]

i read a bit of that and i lol'd. everything i read is true on my server except for the gs and voa part.

[Thorzon157]

*Yawn*

You people still aren't done whining?

[jikimiki]

gearscore is way to easy to get. A priest in my guild actually has a set of gear that is just there so he can get into raids demanding a stupidly high GS for the raid, but does shit for his healing and after the raid starts he switches his armor back to his good set.

[Warwithin]

This is important

[Deleted]

T-r-o-l-l, this is not Zul'forum, you took the wrong turn somewhere, mate.

First post, your TLR is "Lol, read the damn post you lazy bum"


If i were to read this, without really trying hard, i would truly prefer some more, smaller, paragraphs. This text kind of just melted together to one big grey mass, even if it's well written, simply because you are, all in all, just saying the exact same thing as everyone else..

You could wonder why i even bother to write this, considering it's just another gearscore whine, but atleast this one is more than just -
Title: Gs..
content: GS SAWK OMG, it doesnt measure skill, it measures gear!

at the end of the day, GS whiners are all about Rinse and Repeat, because it seems to be the only thing they do when complaining.

[Thatwsntmilk]

I like every single constructive discussion about the topic as it seems to be the only way to abolish this disease.

[nanaki]

Here it comes.
Kissing the Godstorm word, he loads it into the Gris Gris Hammer .50 and fires. As it tears through the trolls and causes ripples in the very fabric of the forum, the mods descend upon him, stamping him out for his one, final act of sacrifice.
"Cool story, bro."

[frownface2000]

OP what server are you playing on where ANYONE could POSSIBLY think 5700 is a bad GS? i think there are MAYBE 25 players on my server (Shadowmoon US, Horde side) who have anything well over 5700, and that would be Conspiracy's core 25 man group (shadowmoon's #1 guild)

for our server its 5k GS for ICC
4.5k for ToC
4.8k or 5k for ToGC
4.5k for VoA (although i agree, faceroll raid)
and ppl mostly look at ur hp pool if ur a tank.

I'm sorry that your server has become an elitist hellhole =(

[nanaki]

The shell fired, he was certain of it. How was it that the redtext had not knocked him clear off the server? Why did they continue to post? Did they not see the tusks, the toes, did OP's Rasta accent fall on deaf ears? Why did they continue?

[Toffie]

Everything at the OP's post is highlighted as TROLL! 5700 gs = scrub? Riiiight. Even if you took a break after the 2 first wings theres no way in hell you could have gotten 5700 gs since thats made mostly of 264's.......

[Sellas]

In the end it turns into a little QQ, and to be honest..that post was kinda a waste of time IMO. But if you wanna get your gear back, lead your own dam pugs.

[Izhara]

Looks like we have a semisuccessful troll here.
-1 post count
-Controversial topic as their first post
-Wrong board
-Two pages of people buying into it or calling him out
-Highly inflammatory post tone
-Totally ignoring the fact that people did the same thing using different addons before GS became popular

[nanaki]

No, no, no they continue. Why do they run to him, lambs to the slaughter? Why don't they turn, why did they post, they will never recover those posts! He screamed into the void of his computer screen, the shot was wasted, why did it not stop them? In a Nietzchian fashion they venerate an exposed troll, they worship a dead god, the dead god of Zul'Forum. DA VOODOO! YOU LIED!!!!