The Great Item Squish (or Not) of Pandaria

[critterkiller]

I want to be able to get the Arcanite ripper again

[SoupShandris]

Yes, please do this. I thought it was a must for this expansion, and it deff is now. Please squish us Blizzard!

[Rennadrel]

Well, I think if they wanted to really fix the whole stat increase issue, drop the change in item levels between tiers and expansions to be smaller increases, at least for primary stats anyway. I think one thing that really has always bothered me is how little the impact of green stats has had on your character overall, they don't really have a huge impact on your performance for a lot of classes. And Blizzard wants to promote Mastery, which they need to make a popular stat for all classes, rather then a cancerous piece of garbage like it is for say Warrior DPS. Going back to the base critical strike rating methodology needs to happen as well, having a base 20% would make sense.

[greyghost]

The fact that anyone considers this to be in any way shape or form as a nerf is wrong. Ive only read the first few pages of this thread and I consistently am seeing "nerf", which when this squash goes ACROSS the board for EVERYTHING will be no difference then what it is now. The only difference is instead of hitting for 50k on a 100k hp target you will be hitting 5k on a 10k hp target(not actual numbers but an example). I for one vote squash. Will be a simple effective change, period.

Effective, yes. Simple, no. To retune all the stats on EVERYTHING in the game will take lots of man hours on Blizzard's part.... but it's still something they should do to address an issue that they've been ignoring for years.

The 'simple' solution is to go into the 'megadamage' route, whey they simply change the display of numbers, putting a big bandaid over the whole problem.

[anyaka21]

Item squish would actually benefit in a couple of different ways. First, it will make older bosses relevant again. You just can't/won't be able to solo an older tier of bosses because the latest tier or e/pansion serioly trivalizes them. It could potentially add a more balanced progression path into the game. Much more like the old EQ model where you had guilds constantly at different levels of progression. The drawback is that a to on wouldn't be able to go back and solo older content.Secondly, it would bring a more linear balance to the game. It would add value to tier gear and make them usable longer. No more 5 mins into the next expansion and you've replaced half you gear with quest greens.Finally, the whole Mega damage thingseems/feels cheesy. More like Pokemon than an mmorpg

[Bijin]

Squish looks better...

[Nalnik]

The fact that anyone considers this to be in any way shape or form as a nerf is wrong. Ive only read the first few pages of this thread and I consistently am seeing "nerf", which when this squash goes ACROSS the board for EVERYTHING will be no difference then what it is now. The only difference is instead of hitting for 50k on a 100k hp target you will be hitting 5k on a 10k hp target(not actual numbers but an example). I for one vote squash. Will be a simple effective change, period.

I believe the concern is over people who don't pay attention to things that go on around them, then complain about it.
What they notice is that their meter suddenly went from 20k to 2k. They don't notice that the boss health went from 16 million to 1.6 million.
They notice their life went from 120k down to 20k. They don't notice the boss went from hitting for 60k down to 10k.

While it isn't actually a nerf, it may well feel like one and lead to.... annoying people posting.

[Keristrasza]

If they do decide to do this, it would be best to wait. We have had enough QQ already due to the expansion announcement, and the Talent trees. They add this and it's just going to make trying to read the forums even worse than it already is.

[Glorious Leader]

So we arrived at this point in a logical fashion, and we don’t really think we should have handled things any differently.

I assume that blizzard has had a plan for World of Warcraft since at least TBC. A plan that covers the life of the game right through to the last expansion. If we take that assumption then yes you could have done things differently. A stat gain doesn't need to be huge to make it feel like you got a reward out of an item. Plenty of leeway to play in that regard but since it didn't happen were back in the stat inflation game. Man I wish I could dismiss any criticism as easily as the blues do...

[Freezeframe]

I don't want them to compress the item level back down to TBC or Wrath amounts. It's so perfect as of right now imo.

[Vexies]

I dont even understand what all the fuss is. Numbers are just that numbers and what does it matter that they get bigger? I for one expect and want my character to feel more powerful as I lvl. I want that to be tangable and real. The very idea that I will have less stats at 90 than I had at 85 is just ludicrous for me. People seem to think that its the Panda's and pokemon that are driving folks away and im sure they are to some extent. However as far as i am concerned its what they are doing to the game mechanics that I cant stomach.

I have played wow faithfully for 6 years. I have backed every xpac and eagerly looked forward to each one. However I just cant abide with what they are doing here. I know many will champion it as the best thing since sliced bread and for those that want this all I can say is enjoy. I accept the fact that the game changes and grows but for me and those like me its just not the game for me anymore.

[Deleted]

I think Blizzard underestimates, given the sheer amount of items and content in the game which has evolved over 7 years, just how difficult it would be to "squish" stats and for everything to remain balanced.

They showed with the Azeroth revamp in Cataclysm how easy it is to get the balance wrong when you start messing with the game. I would prefer if they just admit they got it horribly wrong in Cataclysm by intentionally inflating the stats for design reasons (rather than saying "we don’t really think we should have handled things any differently"), and squished Cataclysm items only. That way there is less risk of them completely imbalancing the level 1 - 80 experience.

[anyaka21]

Itscjust numbers. It honestly doesnt mattervin terms of end gamr progression if you do 50 or 50k if bosses and fights are scaled properly. It also seems to me that it will reward skill more. If a guild can take down end game bosses without everyone Max level, it's a tribute to their skill

[natharo]

I would like to see the item squish implemented. It could always be tested in the 5.0 ptr or in the mop beta at some point, to try it out and see how it feels to everyone!

[druidicitus]

Because bigger numbers take more CPU time to calculate? And in future, damage numbers could even overflow data type they are using for damage calculations and that would be a problem.

[Bogesh]

Agreed, my word usage there was incorrect.

[Spoonman]

Mega damage sounds lame, myself Im aware of this and I dont think its wrong that gear got 5000 of a stat on it. The gap is like the same amount of gear from Vanilla compared too to days game. At first were all like, HOLY SHIT. But after weve gotten used to it shit runs smooth.

[Deleted]

Item squish would actually benefit in a couple of different ways. First, it will make older bosses relevant again. You just can't/won't be able to solo an older tier of bosses because the latest tier or e/pansion serioly trivalizes them. It could potentially add a more balanced progression path into the game. Much more like the old EQ model where you had guilds constantly at different levels of progression. The drawback is that a to on wouldn't be able to go back and solo older content.Secondly, it would bring a more linear balance to the game. It would add value to tier gear and make them usable longer. No more 5 mins into the next expansion and you've replaced half you gear with quest greens.Finally, the whole Mega damage thingseems/feels cheesy. More like Pokemon than an mmorpg

People need to understand that this will not make people want to do old raids again, the only thing that this could do is make older raids more useless. Since you won't be able to find 40 people to wipe on AQ40 bosses.

Sure they can change numbers, but if they want to scale as they show on their graphs. Well then, we won't be able to solo old stuff as we do now, which means those raids will never be touched again.

[dragconus]

i still say do a lil of both ....but not the "megadamage" do the k's.....cause when a number like 12M pop's up it leaves a huge amount of room for other missing numbers....where saying 12,000k can also be like 12,999k...not quite 13 million but pretty close and visable. A small item squish can make it better...but i do mean small...atm we are doing at most 70k on a huge aoe add fight...so going up into the lower 100k's is viable...in the millions is dumb...at least for now.Appeal to both idea's can better more people then by just doing one..

• " Change in moderation "Ghostcrawler i believe, once wrote . What we need here is doing both at much lower lvl's for a medium change to make better for all players...despite what we want or side with.

[Vaem]

The true problem lies within the % power increase each tier. They should change this to a FLAT AMOUNT OF STATS per tierifference between T11 and T12 should be (for example) 100 strenght, varied in any way stats can.Difference between T12 and T13 should be (for example) 100 strenght, varied in any way stats can.TADAAA a steady clime in stats, and you wont end up having ridicule numbers