Like Tycho said the game really does change as you progress. Since we hit level 60 Kara and I have started no less than five alts and are playing back through the game with new characters and having a blast. The problem we ran into at 60 is that our adventures became more like a trip through some sort of fantasy casino. At 60 we’re no longer gaining XP so what that means is that now we’re after loot. Like pretty much every other Rogue I’m hungry for the Shadowcraft armor and Kara like any good Druid is hunting down her Wildheart set. So every other night we jump into a ten man raid group and we run through one of the three instances that hold these rare treasures. Like a trip to Vegas this involves a lot of finger crossing and dice rolling. Every time no matter what group we fall in with it’s exactly the same. The most effective paths through each of these dungeons has been plotted out long ago and like a ride a Disney Land we simply latch the bar and follow the rails. The same mobs are pulled in the same order and through the same rooms while the same spells are cast for roughly two or three hours.
On my desk is a list of all the equipment that we’d like to obtain. Along with the boss that drops it, where they live and the percentage chance that they’ll actually drop what I’m looking for. Now the first time I did one of these raids I made the mistake of going along with another Rogue. Of course my first time through a piece of Shadowcraft armor drops and I’m out rolled by this other guy. It was at this point that I realized it’s silly to do this with another person of the same class. Why waste two hours of your life fighting through an instance praying that a boss who only has a 3% chance to drop what you’re looking for will actually drop it and then face the chance of being out rolled for the item by someone else after the same thing. So the next time we go through I make it clear that I’m not taking any other Rogues. However the group of guys I fall in with tells me they know a Rogue who already has the entire set and he’d like to come along and help. So I invite him in and sure enough I see that he’s sporting the Shadowcraft gear. Halfway through the instance we beat a boss who drops the boots I need. JOY! Then I see this other Rogue roll on them. Is this some kind of joke, he has the entire set. I take a closer look at him. He’s got the entire set except for the BOOTS! Of course I am out rolled again. I feel true rage perhaps for the first time in my life.
So we continue to blow through these instances and since those first two raids none of our gear has dropped. We keep going back though and I guess that’s why Casinos make so much money. The siren song of that elusive jackpot is hard to deny. The frustrating part is that even if I hit that jackpot and I am able to obtain my Shadowcraft set, what then? I’m doing all this and after it’s all done I’ll look just like every other level 60 Rogue. Sure there are the guys that raid Molten Core every night and are decked out with Nightslayer gear or the crazy kids that spend their lives in Battlegrounds running around with the Warlords armor of Jesus Christ or whatever. For the most part I’m going to end up looking just like every other Rogue. Honestly I think that’s a huge problem
Of course I have a bunch of ideas for what I’d like to see Blizzard do to fix this but honestly none of them matter. There are a million other back seat MMO designers bitching at them in their forums every day. What it boils down to is that I trust them. I trust that the game I love will continue to get better and better with each new patch. I’ve been playing their game since early beta and I’m still hooked. I’m very happy to see Tycho return their Game of the Year award as I certainly think they deserve it. Whatever I say about their endgame the fact is tonight I’ll be in Scholomance with my fingers crossed praying for those bracers to drop.
-Gabe out :o:
