Are Titanforged items still bonuses?

[styil]

Titanforged items were introduced as a way to increase replayability of content and repeating boss kills by offering bonus forged upgraded gear to players. However in recent times, we have seen Titanforged items shift from being this nice little side bonus to what seems like a standard, mandatory part of the gearing process. Raid encounter tuning has become so tight lately that having mostly Titanforged gearset and being almost Titanforged gear capped is almost essential these days to overcome these raid challenges. And given the effect that Titanforged gear has on player power, it is impossible to ignore Titanforged gear when balancing content.

Which then begs the question, if content is being tuned around Titanforged gear, then what's the point of having it? Since it no longer is considered a bonus but just a shift of the goalposts of base gear.

So has Titanforged gear become the standard gear these days with content being balanced around having Titanforged gear? Or are they still a nice bonus to get from time to time?

[Super Kami Dende]

I've always seen them as a bonus. So idk.

[Alga]

Besides average Styli Thread things. They are still a bonus, currently my gear just owns some warforged pieces but not a titanforged one.

[Lochton]

Titanforged items were introduced as a way to increase replayability of content and repeating boss kills by offering bonus forged upgraded gear to players. However in recent times, we have seen Titanforged items shift from being this nice little side bonus to what seems like a standard, mandatory part of the gearing process. Raid encounter tuning has become so tight lately that having mostly Titanforged gearset and being almost Titanforged gear capped is almost essential these days to overcome these raid challenges. And given the effect that Titanforged gear has on player power, it is impossible to ignore Titanforged gear when balancing content.

Which then begs the question, if content is being tuned around Titanforged gear, then what's the point of having it? Since it no longer is considered a bonus but just a shift of the goalposts of base gear.

So has Titanforged gear become the standard gear these days with content being balanced around having Titanforged gear? Or are they still a nice bonus to get from time to time?

Always seen them as a bonus, and not actual gear.

[Chonar]

Stop presenting your theory in the form of a question and actually put it forward as a theory you have.

No, I don't think content is being balanced around the assumption the raiders are wearing Titanforged gear pieces.

[Kralljin]

Because it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

You introduce another way to increase player power.

You tune content around that, thus forcing players to engage into it (ignoring that you cannot "influence" titanforging, but you get the idea)
or
You don't tune content around that, thus any people that engaged into that have a much easier time.

It's a bit like artifacts except being RNG, if ignore this factors, you just undertune content for those that have it.

This is also the reason why a lot of Patchwerk / gearcheck encounters have vanished from the game, because gearing is by no means an issue anymore and the primary difficulty of those encounter was the gear thing.
Tuning encounters solely around titanforging would be due to its RNG an obviously bad decision.

That aside, Titanforging was never truly meant as a bonus, it's there to substitute the fact that people have been gearing themselves faster than before, thus still giving you a reason to play and improve your character.

Whereas in previous expansion you've been running the same raid for weeks / months in order to get the few upgrades you're still missing, you now run a raid in order to get +5 / +10 (or sockets) on your items.

[A Chozo]

So has Titanforged gear become the standard gear these days with content being balanced around having Titanforged gear?

No.

Content isn't designed around having titanforged gear. At all. It's like raiders who think that mythic+ gearing is mandatory for raiding.

People are mistaking the actual bonus that higher gear provides with things being mandatory.

[Gaidax]

TF is by no means mandatory and content is not tuned around it, so it is a bonus.

[Sinndra]

it was never seen as the bonus that blizzard tried (still tries) to make them out to be.

players want to check things off their list, and one thing on that list is BiS gear. which now means highest possible RNG win. TF/WF plus socket plus bonus stats. if it doesnt have all that, its crap.

its highly unlikely to obtain every prefect piece.. which is part of the problem and shows how RNG has infected too much of the game. go back to the days of Wrath where gear was static and targetable, and badges made sure you were done with your set in short amount of time, thus checking that box on your xpac to~do list.

[RoKPaNda]

Always been a nice bonus to me.

[Tharkkun]

Titanforged items were introduced as a way to increase replayability of content and repeating boss kills by offering bonus forged upgraded gear to players. However in recent times, we have seen Titanforged items shift from being this nice little side bonus to what seems like a standard, mandatory part of the gearing process. Raid encounter tuning has become so tight lately that having mostly Titanforged gearset and being almost Titanforged gear capped is almost essential these days to overcome these raid challenges. And given the effect that Titanforged gear has on player power, it is impossible to ignore Titanforged gear when balancing content.

Which then begs the question, if content is being tuned around Titanforged gear, then what's the point of having it? Since it no longer is considered a bonus but just a shift of the goalposts of base gear.

So has Titanforged gear become the standard gear these days with content being balanced around having Titanforged gear? Or are they still a nice bonus to get from time to time?

Required? That's the mentality of the community where they believe whatever the best you can get must be the requirement. Blizzard doesn't balance around everything being Titanforged. It's one of the main reasons they stopped weapons from going more than 10 ilevels because it was throwing encounters out of balance if people got really good weapons early.

For example if you ran Heroic and nearly everyone titanforged a weapon to 425 you'd all have weapons above Mythic cap. That would make some encounters easier. So the limit weapons to 10 ilevels so a heroic weapon could only forge up to 410 from 400. The mythic weapon would be an upgrade in most cases then.

Method and the top tier guilds kill these encounters in Mythic 15-20 ilevels lower than the average. So it's obviously not gear that holds it back.

[styil]

TF is by no means mandatory and content is not tuned around it, so it is a bonus.

How can it not be? Titanforged loot provides massive increases to output. Given its widespread availability, Blizzard would have to assume that players have this loot otherwise Blizzard's content would be far too easy.

[Gaidax]

How can it not be? Titanforged loot provides massive increases to output. Given its widespread availability, Blizzard would have to assume that players have this loot otherwise Blizzard's content would be far too easy.

Because mythic raids can be cleared perfectly well without TF galore as been proven so far?

TF is not that widespread, so you accumulate it over time long after actual progression is over.

[Lurker1]

Titanforged items were introduced as a way to increase replayability of content and repeating boss kills by offering bonus forged upgraded gear to players. However in recent times, we have seen Titanforged items shift from being this nice little side bonus to what seems like a standard, mandatory part of the gearing process. Raid encounter tuning has become so tight lately that having mostly Titanforged gearset and being almost Titanforged gear capped is almost essential these days to overcome these raid challenges. And given the effect that Titanforged gear has on player power, it is impossible to ignore Titanforged gear when balancing content.

Which then begs the question, if content is being tuned around Titanforged gear, then what's the point of having it? Since it no longer is considered a bonus but just a shift of the goalposts of base gear.

So has Titanforged gear become the standard gear these days with content being balanced around having Titanforged gear? Or are they still a nice bonus to get from time to time?

Yes i always see them as bonuses.

[Eleccybubb]

Don't feel like a bonus anymore personally.

Just feels like RNG layered on RNG layered on even more RNG with gear these days.

Titanforging.
Tertiary Stats
Sockets (YES THEY REMOVED SOCKET TO MAKE THEM RNG ROLLS LOL).

Sockets is the most pathetic one because as I said above the fact they removed something on gear that was fun and then just added it to the RNG pile is despicable.

[Onikaroshi]

Warforging was a nice bonus when it was only 6 ilvl. Titanforging makes you feel like shit when it doesn't happen, thank god it's probably getting removed.

[nToxik]

Titanforged the norm? No.
Titanforged mandatory? No.
Titanforged a massive DPS output? No.
Content balanced around Titanforged gear? LOL No.

[Raelbo]

No, I don't think content is being balanced around the assumption the raiders are wearing Titanforged gear pieces.

This.

While it may be true that some guilds rely on TF gear to progress, that is simply because they're weaker than other guilds. That's actually one the intended purposes of TF gear - to help make content better tuned for a broader spectrum of players without adding a myriad of different difficulty settings. While the stronger guilds may clear a raid tier in 3-4 weeks, weaker guilds might take 3-4 months, but at least they still manage to clear the content.

- - - Updated - - -

To be fair; Titanforge didn´t change from a bonus into a mandatory feature. What changed was the attitude of some of the players that like to complain on the forums. TF remains the same.

Absolutely spot on.

[Lurker1]

Don't feel like a bonus anymore personally.

Just feels like RNG layered on RNG layered on even more RNG with gear these days.

Titanforging.
Tertiary Stats
Sockets (YES THEY REMOVED SOCKET TO MAKE THEM RNG ROLLS LOL).

Sockets is the most pathetic one because as I said above the fact they removed something on gear that was fun and then just added it to the RNG pile is despicable.

Nope once a bonus always a bonus.

[Bangdingow]

I like titanforging. I like sockets more atm but it generally feels like a bonus to have an item titanforge.