Realisations about WoW

[ShasVa]

1) Gear != Skill
Saw this somewhere else on the net recently. Surely the amount/level of gear does not equal a player's skill with their character, right? A person could be decked out in full T15 Heroic/T-Forged gear but be a mediocre player, whilst another with Valor gear and maybe some LFR could be far more skilled. Is this a viable statement? I'd like to think so. I've had gear obsession in the past (way back to T10.5 when I first played WoW) and I've tried to lower my gear-expectations before, albeit it hasn't always worked. But seriously, does gear really equal skill in WoW?

2) Trying to have fun
If something isn't fun in WoW, then don't do it. Like me, I'm getting bored of running LFR constantly on my Hunter, who has yet to obtain the x-bow from Durumu, or the gun from Iron Qon. Tried rolling a Mage, but the novelty of a true-glass-cannon has worn off I believe. I'm thinking of re-rolling an Elemental Shaman like I did when I first played. I would be willing to do Normal raids for my Hunter, however I'm not keen on strict raiding times as it turns out. I guess I'm a casual player after all.

3) Gear obsession and eventual obsolete status
By this I'm trying to state that my previous/current mindset of being obsessed with great gear (not necessarily BiS though, but close enough) is itself a confusing contradiction. The weapons in 5.0 and 5.1 were made obsolete pretty much when the weapons of 5.2 came out. Again using my Hunter as an example, she currently has the LFR Taoren gun equipped (483 + sha gem and extra gem). I didn't get it until after 5.2 came in, so it was obsolete, yet I really wanted it for so long. Using ToS-violating raiding services has crossed my mind before, yet always stalled due to money, AND the above realisation that the gear I'd be getting would become less viable for future content, which in turn would make the purchase of such a service a waste of money.

I think I'm just venting here, but I'll try and make some points:
- player-gear shouldn't be as important as player-skill, whether its full T15 gear with some TF gear, or Valor gear with a little bit of LFR gear
- making a gear plan and doing your hardest to stick to it shouldn't be a bad thing
- being a casual player is also not a bad thing

Constructive comments and thoughts are welcome. They may even help me out with determining my future playing WoW.

[Chonar]

1) I would turn the statement slightly around. I would say that Lack of Gear = Lack of Skill is false. After all, there may be highly skilled players who live a life wherein they have no place for proper time investment in WoW to aquire their elite PVP and heroic PVE shinies. However, when you do see someone decked out in the highest quality PVE or PVP gear, you can safely assume these people were not piggybacking along with the top-end gladiators / dungeoncrawlers on the server, and they earned their purples in their respective fields. Gear = Skill is partially true, but Lack-of-Gear = Lack-of-Skill is far more untrue.

2) If something doesn't entertain you, don't do it? Well, yeah. However, the concept of gated content sometimes means you have to bite the bullet to get to the chewy taffy center. That makes getting to the good part all the more rewarding, much like real life. Also, I think I just invented a new kind of candy. BRB.

3) This is why I, personally, value funny/unique items higher than raiding gear. You will replace your chestpiece. You will never replace a trinket that spawns a tentacle in the faces of bank alts. Blarrr~!

[-Superman-]

Everything is subjective. If you take a race car driver and a VW driver and switch them, the race car driver in the old VW will win every time. It's knowing what you can and cannot do, and how to pull out all the stops to save yourself. if you are more than 5 levels in difference, (85 vs 90) there is no way to accurately gauge skill vs gear since 90 gear is ridiculously 2.5 times stronger than lvl 85 gear.

[anaxie]

d/ed 2 541 Xbows from durumu this reset with 0 hunters in the raid. WTB 2handers and not crap loot

person could be decked out in full T15 Heroic/T-Forged gear but be a mediocre player, whilst another with Valor gear and maybe some LFR could be far more skilled. Is this a viable statement? I'd like to think so.

Depends is the LFR player a main or an alt? Does the LFR player have any experience with cutting edge content? Can't compare yourself to raid clearing players when endgame content consists of Lei Shien normal and oondasta as the pinnacle of their raiding experience.