Breaking ilvl 940 without raiding?

[Accendor]

So im a playing on and off since release but as with each time i return to the game i hit a wall where unless i commit to raiding i cant progress anymore.
I simply dont have the time to commit to raiding, yes some evenings i might be lucky to have time but again i might have to leave at the drop of the hat, real life kids etc basically so raiding is more or less not an option.

Unless i raid am i really left with nothing else to do?
I have all classes at 110 and the ones i enjoy sitting at 930-940 ilvl.
Mythic+ dungeons seem to be my only option but even still i cant seem to get better ilvl to get into groups for 15+ unless i raid.
Alliance classes have kept me busy the last few weeks but now ive that wall again and considering unsubbing yet again.
How should i be trying to get a decent ilvl to take on 15+?
That gap between 940 to 960 seems to be impossible without raiding, or am i missing something?

I do not want to attack you, but for me it seams that you do not have interest in raiding (due to time) but also you have no interest in m+. So my question is: Why do you want higher gear in the first place, if you are not playing the content where it is relevant? Because in Open World Content every dies instantly no matter if you are 930 or 960...

[Eazy]

Probably because your M+ score is really low.

But in the second part of the comment I said that I had done the dungeon they're looking DPS for on higher levels than they need to...

[fathom81]

If you can pug some bosses its easy...i got 5 chars 960+ and i dont have a guild.

[msdos]

So what you're saying is, you can't sit at your computer uninterrupted for long periods of time?

I don't see you really gearing up at all, to be honest. You have to be able to actually play the game to progress in it.
I have an IRL friend and guildie who is in the same boat. They always have to work and can't sit uninterrupted because of their child, so they basically can't raid or do 5 mans.
Wait until your child requires less attention from you, then try gearing up, that's my advice.

[HuxNeva]

Then they can start raiding or do high rating pvp. You want a game where you progress doing trivial solo content?

And sorry to burst your bubble but the game has never changed one bit about raid or die endgame.

I guess you slept through the M+ briefing. Oh well. Happy dinosaur day. Someday you'll evolve.

[Tyris Flare]

Not they aren't. Behavior like this is basically the rat pushing a lever to get more food. Gear is about power. Power is only needed to accomplish things. At 940 nothing in the world will be much of a challenge, so...

Now... if someone's saying "I want to do X content (M+ at over 15, whatever) and I'm seeing my gear level as a barrier... how do I get better gear so I can do that content..." that's very different. Not what I heard in the OP but... eh.

In the words of Ghostcrawler, this game is fundamentally about upgrading your stuff. Once people hit a wall and can't do that, they are more likely to quit.

This is a separate point from "should people be able to get upgrades by doing x." You can argue the merits of that all you want, but the answer to "why do you need gear" is "the entire endgame is based on that basic dopamine response."

[Barnabas]

So im a playing on and off since release but as with each time i return to the game i hit a wall where unless i commit to raiding i cant progress anymore.
I simply dont have the time to commit to raiding, yes some evenings i might be lucky to have time but again i might have to leave at the drop of the hat, real life kids etc basically so raiding is more or less not an option.

Unless i raid am i really left with nothing else to do?
I have all classes at 110 and the ones i enjoy sitting at 930-940 ilvl.
Mythic+ dungeons seem to be my only option but even still i cant seem to get better ilvl to get into groups for 15+ unless i raid.
Alliance classes have kept me busy the last few weeks but now ive that wall again and considering unsubbing yet again.
How should i be trying to get a decent ilvl to take on 15+?
That gap between 940 to 960 seems to be impossible without raiding, or am i missing something?

Then buy tokens and turn that gold into carries every week until you get enough gear. That's the easiest method you have available. Just gotta play wow once per week and you get an extra item in your chest for the most minimal effort.

[Ange]

I have all classes at 110 and the ones i enjoy sitting at 930-940 ilvl.
Mythic+ dungeons seem to be my only option but even still i cant seem to get better ilvl to get into groups for 15+ unless i raid.

The M+ DPS spot competition is just brutal, 975-3.5k-100+ is what you get for anything but seat15 at any time of the day/night if you queue your key.

The average group lead may think a while about my DK-980-3.6k-250+ before I get an invite or get instantly declined and the same group lead will just invite any random tank class with 950ish ilvl, 1.5k rating and maybe 10 dungeons XP in total.

=> with limited time for gaming, I don't even get why you think playing EVERY/MULTIPLE classes at once helps your gear progression in the current expansion where many players just main 1 character and even limit main specs for longer time periods to help with gearing even more.

=> play a wanted class/role/spec out of the M+ meta where your ilvl is not that important: TANK. You control the pulls, so you can allways work around your limited ilvl. You can ask for DPS assist (stuns/CC/slow-for kiting) and you can get cooldowns from the HEAL. No other role gets that much babysitting. As a DPS you HAVE to survive the shitpulls your tank is doing and as HEAL you have to keep your shitgroup alive.

=> if you are not willing to limit your class/role/spec for the entry in M+ gearing, you can allways just lower your expectations for gear progression with your limited playtime.

Do you ever ask players with gear you would like to have, how much they played in legion to get that far? Comparing your playtime in pve with the average non-boosted/non-TF-lucky player should be very sobering.

[Wries]

If youre not going to raid anyway I dont see the point for you to progress your gear any further. Dont apply for +15, go for +12 and the like. Will be a similar challenge for you as 940 as for another going a 15 in 960. High ilvl is for mythic raid encounters and with that some time commitment is required.

[Azerate]

Unless i raid am i really left with nothing else to do?

Your mistake is that to you the only content in the game are raids & dungeons of the newest tier. And with this assumption - yes, there is nothing else to do for you and you should probably quit after reaching 940ish ilvl.

Or you can actually try to explore the game a bit more and find the hundreds of hours of gameplay that you are ignoring

[clevin]

In the words of Ghostcrawler, this game is fundamentally about upgrading your stuff. Once people hit a wall and can't do that, they are more likely to quit.

This is a separate point from "should people be able to get upgrades by doing x." You can argue the merits of that all you want, but the answer to "why do you need gear" is "the entire endgame is based on that basic dopamine response."

Which is silly.

I'm engaged by storylines, quests that tell them, etc. I want new things. I think that anyone who really is motivated to devote hundreds of hours of their lives just to make a number go up is mentally deficient. I'm serious there, not just being insulting - an adult who has so little self-control and self-awareness strikes me as a person who needs help.

- - - Updated - - -

Your mistake is that to you the only content in the game are raids & dungeons of the newest tier. And with this assumption - yes, there is nothing else to do for you and you should probably quit after reaching 940ish ilvl.

Or you can actually try to explore the game a bit more and find the hundreds of hours of gameplay that you are ignoring

Like? Because I don't see a lot else to do unless you're new to the game and this is your first, maybe second drought.

Me, I've been playing since just before TBC so I've seen literally years of downtime between the last patch and the next expansion and I played all of the expansions from then to now. So things like time walking or running old raids aren't new to me. I've done them as new content and gone back and done some as solo content. I've run most of the BGs hundreds of time which isn't that impressive to a real PVPer but it's plenty to say "been there, run that". Similarly, I've leveled several characters to max or close to it both before and after Cata.

So, do tell - where's the trove of gameplay?

[darklogrus]

Unless its your key or your key grp then be prepared to be over looked 99% of the time. Even at 970 and a class people generally would bring to a mythic I get over looked, even when that char has cleared 5 levels higher then what they are looking for.

Personally I just been gettin alts to 69 traits on their weapons, around 930-940 an just calling them done for the expansion. They wont be doing anything higher so theres really no point going beyond that

[Deleted]

But in the second part of the comment I said that I had done the dungeon they're looking DPS for on higher levels than they need to...

Not really, it has nothing to do with 971 ilvl but everything to do with M+ score being too low.

[kamuimac]

If youre not going to raid anyway I dont see the point for you to progress your gear any further. Dont apply for +15, go for +12 and the like. Will be a similar challenge for you as 940 as for another going a 15 in 960. High ilvl is for mythic raid encounters and with that some time commitment is required.

i see that a lot of you are completly missing the point of why people play mmorpgs

the core and main attraction to mmorpgs since very begining was alwayd gear progression - it could be slow but it always had to be steady

it wasnt untill last 3 years when blizzard changed its paradygm completly to push people into "chalenging themsleves" instead of "progressing your toons" (mop chalenge modes failed , wod chalenge modes failed , legion mythic + didnt fail only because raiders supplement their raid gear with them - without mythic raiders they would fail hugely too - and i bet you right now that BfA "ai scenarios" will fail too - since most people playing games dont want to deal with chalenges on daily basis

people play mmorpgs to feel "overpowered" not to feel "chalenged"

thats why legion although it should be doin much better is doin as bad if not worse then wod

people dont want to play "grouped action rpg" people want to play mmorpgs like they were at its inception . thats why such demand for classic servers of anything (hell even ultima online classic servers are popular nowadays"

[Efioanaes]

I do both raiding and M+. My life is not as busy as you. But I can tell you that M+ geared me way faster than raiding. I got to like 962 with basically only M+ and then lowered that ilvl by getting tier pieces that were all lower than my M+ gear (but in the end it's an upgrade because of set bonus obviously).
What I'm saying is M+ can get your ilvl up pretty fast you just have to do it right and do it a lot. Raiding is extremely limited, you only have 1 heroic raid a week (I doubt you do mythic based on what you're saying, and normal gives shit ilvl so heroic is the only viable option in this situation) but you have an amount of M+ only limited by the amount of time you play.

Join the groups you can join and you'll get stuff eventually, do LFR and hope for titanforge shit, try to replace your lowest piece with argulite items in the vindicaar, see what boss drops the better upgrades for you and use your seals there to give you an extra chance. There's a bunch of different little things you can do, nothing is miraculous and we can't get everything in life. You may not have a 970+ ilvl character but you have kids, that counts for more than ilvl that will be irrelevant in the next xpack lol.

Perfectly explained thanks.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

When I get alts to 940ish, I am looking mostly at 10-14 keys (if pugging). If I get into a 13 or 14 and we push, then I am usually invited to do the resulting 15 or 16. Do that every week and add those people as friends! If you have a successful run and the people are pleasant to game with, why wouldn't you send friend requests? Worst they can do is say no, and the potential upside is huge. You want to build a list of contacts for running keys that know you and know you are solid player so they will want to run with you again. Do this every week, and soon you will have 15-20 people you can check in with every week instead of trying to get into groups with strangers. Then gearing all your toons becomes easier.

[tankbug]

I see there is some confusion as to why anyone would like to gear up without the intention to do raids.
I'm somewhat in a similar situation. It gives you a much higher chance of completing Mage Tower challenges.

[xcess]

Just pug normal, most grps dont care if you randomly leave, keep spamming mythic+ and pray to rngesus for high titanforge. Buy a run with the free gold you get from class hall

[fathom81]

I see there is some confusion as to why anyone would like to gear up without the intention to do raids.
I'm somewhat in a similar situation. It gives you a much higher chance of completing Mage Tower challenges.

You shouldnt need more then 940 to do it...i did some and you pratically ignore every mechanic and just spank the bosses.

[Barnabas]

i see that a lot of you are completly missing the point of why people play mmorpgs

the core and main attraction to mmorpgs since very begining was alwayd gear progression - it could be slow but it always had to be steady

it wasnt untill last 3 years when blizzard changed its paradygm completly to push people into "chalenging themsleves" instead of "progressing your toons" (mop chalenge modes failed , wod chalenge modes failed , legion mythic + didnt fail only because raiders supplement their raid gear with them - without mythic raiders they would fail hugely too - and i bet you right now that BfA "ai scenarios" will fail too - since most people playing games dont want to deal with chalenges on daily basis

people play mmorpgs to feel "overpowered" not to feel "chalenged"

thats why legion although it should be doin much better is doin as bad if not worse then wod

people dont want to play "grouped action rpg" people want to play mmorpgs like they were at its inception . thats why such demand for classic servers of anything (hell even ultima online classic servers are popular nowadays"

wrong. your time commitment determines your progress in these types of games unless you pay to be carried. classic servers will be the same thing. you will hit a wall with your gear progression there also.