131243-what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-to-prepare-for-the-next-drop

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It is specified here in our knowledge base (there may be other places, this is just the one I know is easily located)


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There are 4 rune sets per class, 2 for each role. 2 of these rune sets are ilvl 100 (GA level gear) and 2 are ilvl 120 (DS level gear). The runesets require a Pure Class Focus (lvl 100) or Divine Class Focus (lvl 120) to craft them. These class focuses are not class specific and drop from their respective raids and from salvaging the gear from that raid. Also, just like all other runes, they won't be usable in gear above their level. This is a big reason why DS crafted gear loses its luster almost immediately. Even though its ilvl 118 it has to use ilvl 100 runes.


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Crap I didn't think about this... ugh, c'mon Carbine. @_@


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The current solution is to tell nonraiders to either leave or raid, so it's worth asking if there's other ways to keep raiding progression and nonraiding progression from competing with each other. Because there is, and the game's developers have already even implemented it--badly at first--and then improved it considerably to reduce competition between PvP and PvE progressions. They just need to do the same thing again between solo/small group/5-person content and raids. Raid specific stats for gear that is obtained in raids and intended to be used in raids, and solo/small group stats for gear that is obtained outside of raids and intended to be used outside of raids would prevent either raiders or nonraiders from ever feeling pressured into doing the other type of content unless they wanted to. This game's developers were actually toying with this idea enough to even tell all of us and the press about it, and then never implemented it. In my opinion, that mistake is long overdue for fixing. Separate the two major PvE playstyles on to separate tracks that don't overlap. Stop holding back nonraid progression content to keep raiders happy, and stop pushing people who don't actually enjoy raiding into raids for the phat lewt. If you want to do both types of content, do raid progression on raid nights and nonraid progression other times.


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Exactly right. What I'm asking for is more progression content that is soloable, as well as that can be done by soloers and/or small groups up to 5 people. So you're right that my main concern here is giving all nonraiders a longer chain to improve along, but I am also mindful that this should not just be in the form of more content that requires 5-man groups. Progression content that must be done solo, I don't particularly care about. Only that some of that new progression content can be done solo.

This game has released a great deal of new content, none of which has provided any tangible means of stepping further along the scale of increased challenge that returns increased rewards. The only exception to that hasn't even really been a true increase so much as a course correction to improve accessibility of an existing tier that was being largely ignored, and it was this: bugfixing and retuning of DS to make it playable for the hardcore raiders of today, who don't want to do 40 man raids nearly as much as they thought they did. It's no more rewarding than the 40 man content, but now more people are willing to actually do it. That's it. Everything else has been "here's a new bit of content that will not give you any further progression than the old bit of content" (Northern Wastes, Blighthaven, Defile, Star-comm, Vet Shiphands, BoB, Ultimate Protogames) or "here's something that will give you better rewards for no challenge at all. Get to grinding." (Contracts). So with all due respect, in terms of the PvE content at least, the focus has been on "here's some change in scenery for you" and not on "here's more for you to do that would actually require you to have completed what's available at your preferred playstyle, that will reward you with better than what you've already got." Adding yet another adventure/dungeon/world zone/expedition/whatever that does not lead to any tangible way to improve is a complete waste of time just like the last one was.


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Well, like I said in another post, focusing on other types of game play is fine once the game is successful but splitting dev time right now is not the smartest idea. Especially when Carbine has put so many of its eggs in the group PvE basket already.


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Well raids are only seen by a small portion of the population, it wasn't enough to retain significant players to stop going f2p, the focus should really be on smaller group content ,pvp and daily zones


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