What's the difference between outgearing content and lowering the difficulty?

[Deleted]

Like let's say you can't beat a boss and you go get better gear, or you get group members with better itemlevel, so that it's easier to kill the boss, you do more damage, the boss dies faster, the damage the boss is doing is easier to survive... isn't that like lowering the difficulty of a fight straight away? Like if you were playing a single player game and you were at a boss fight and you just lowered the difficulty, so the health bar of the boss goes down quicker and he doesn't hit as hard. That's what it's like to outgear a fight.

But in that sense, every gear upgrade lowers the difficulty of a fight. So why try to get better gear? Why not just do the fight at a lower difficulty? In the end getting better gear will have the same effect as doing the boss on a lower difficulty will have.

[glowpipe]

Because this is the system in place in the game already and spending time adding another system which does the exact same as we currently have, is needed because ?

[Deleted]

Because this is the system in place in the game already and spending time adding another system which does the exact same as we currently have, is needed because ?

Where did I say anything about adding another system?

[protip]

Obviously because the reward structure is set up to reward both skill and time investment. That's how MMORPGs work.

[micwini]

Like let's say you can't beat a boss and you go get better gear, or you get group members with better itemlevel, so that it's easier to kill the boss, you do more damage, the boss dies faster, the damage the boss is doing is easier to survive... isn't that like lowering the difficulty of a fight straight away? Like if you were playing a single player game and you were at a boss fight and you just lowered the difficulty, so the health bar of the boss goes down quicker and he doesn't hit as hard. That's what it's like to outgear a fight.

But in that sense, every gear upgrade lowers the difficulty of a fight. So why try to get better gear? Why not just do the fight at a lower difficulty? In the end getting better gear will have the same effect as doing the boss on a lower difficulty will have.

Pretty sure lowering difficulty is more than just lowering HP/damage. Lowering the difficulty in raids for example, removed mechanics from the fight.

[Shadowsgrace]

Out gearing is the individual groups use of Gear that raises their Performance levels above what you need to achieve the desired outcome, to compensate for lack of DPS or in some places experience or skill. Lowering the difficulty is a World wide Lowering the bar so everyone makes it over. One effects the singular group, one effects everyone who plays the game.

[Thagrynor]

Like let's say you can't beat a boss and you go get better gear, or you get group members with better itemlevel, so that it's easier to kill the boss, you do more damage, the boss dies faster, the damage the boss is doing is easier to survive... isn't that like lowering the difficulty of a fight straight away? Like if you were playing a single player game and you were at a boss fight and you just lowered the difficulty, so the health bar of the boss goes down quicker and he doesn't hit as hard. That's what it's like to outgear a fight.

But in that sense, every gear upgrade lowers the difficulty of a fight. So why try to get better gear? Why not just do the fight at a lower difficulty? In the end getting better gear will have the same effect as doing the boss on a lower difficulty will have.

It isn't the same thing, at least from the developer side, as you will need to have either progressed elsewhere/put in work elsewhere/have others who put in work elsewhere to get the gear needed to clear that content. Effectively, it is very similar to lowering the difficulty, but it is the same as you working to earn $100 vs someone gifting you $100. In the end, yes, you have $100. But it is the means by which you got there. A game is not fun or challenging or worth the time if they just gift you the kill by making it akin to LFR. Some people don't care about difficulty, but those are the folks that rarely go over Normal or maybe Heroic.

[Deleted]

Pretty sure lowering difficulty is more than just lowering HP/damage. Lowering the difficulty in raids for example, removed mechanics from the fight.

But if you outgear the fight, the mechanics matter less, cause you can often ignore them.

[HuxNeva]

The outgearing is a very gradual process.
Nerfing the fight directly is a very binary bifurcation that leaves all with a bad feeling.

[Voltsmasher]

But if you outgear the fight, the mechanics matter less, cause you can often ignore them.

That's not always true, there are many fights that will one shot you despite your gear. Assuming we are talking current patch heroic or higher raids.

Out gearing is to pass simple boss checks like dps and healing. It won't save you from dopes that stand in everything all the time.

[micwini]

But if you outgear the fight, the mechanics matter less, cause you can often ignore them.

It can be done with some, but not most of them. It gets less punishing if you fuck up, but oneshot mechanics are still oneshot mechanics. On top of that, it is still a difference between lowering difficulty and outgearing something. If you outgear something, you've either completed your goal or you can pursue higher difficulties. This progression system is what the game is all about.

[owbu]

Systemwise the difference is that a boss nerf effects all players while items only help players that have played the content.

Psychologywise one feels like getting better to overcome the challenge in front of you while the other feels like Blizzard handing out free victories because you are not good enough. (See also rested xp vs unrested malus and artifact knowledge in legion vs bfa).


(This answers why Blizzard has a gear system and not weekly 5% debuff for the bosses, the reason why we equip gear is because raids are tuned in a way that only the best players in the world can beat it without gear, because blizzard assumes that we will equip the gear. Also because getting more powerful is fun.)

[fengosa]

The difference is one tricks the community and the other doesn't but it's definitely one reason gear inflation has become prevalent. It's more palpable than baseline nerfs which they haven't done since cata.

[melodramocracy]

Like let's say you can't beat a boss and you go get better gear, or you get group members with better itemlevel, so that it's easier to kill the boss, you do more damage, the boss dies faster, the damage the boss is doing is easier to survive... isn't that like lowering the difficulty of a fight straight away? Like if you were playing a single player game and you were at a boss fight and you just lowered the difficulty, so the health bar of the boss goes down quicker and he doesn't hit as hard. That's what it's like to outgear a fight.

But in that sense, every gear upgrade lowers the difficulty of a fight. So why try to get better gear? Why not just do the fight at a lower difficulty? In the end getting better gear will have the same effect as doing the boss on a lower difficulty will have.

This makes little sense. Raids above LFR are designed to be a bit of a challenge for a group at a given ilvl (and if they aren't for you, you walked in overgeared in the first place). The bosses cumulatively drop the gear required to eventually conquer the entire place, which goes hand in hand with encounters in any raid typically getting a bit more difficult the farther in you go.

Upgrades are how you level your character once leveling itself is capped, and drive the replay value of the game. That's really all there is to it.

[kamuimac]

Like let's say you can't beat a boss and you go get better gear, or you get group members with better itemlevel, so that it's easier to kill the boss, you do more damage, the boss dies faster, the damage the boss is doing is easier to survive... isn't that like lowering the difficulty of a fight straight away? Like if you were playing a single player game and you were at a boss fight and you just lowered the difficulty, so the health bar of the boss goes down quicker and he doesn't hit as hard. That's what it's like to outgear a fight.

But in that sense, every gear upgrade lowers the difficulty of a fight. So why try to get better gear? Why not just do the fight at a lower difficulty? In the end getting better gear will have the same effect as doing the boss on a lower difficulty will have.

the difference is that with o vergrearing neckbeards can just feel better about themselves by denying other do do said content.

and with lowering the difficulty everyone can do it.

the different is deliberate exclusion to feel better about themselves.