Blizzard try as they may, they always seem to shoot themselves in the foot. They make every class easier to play but because the gear gap has never been higher, it is a complete nightmare catching up, especially on a pvp server. This is because the combination of artifacts, legendaries and gear cause such a power spike, it feels like you're level 5 by comparison. Raid tanks can literally solo 4 middle end players with minimal effort, simply because they take 0 damage but deal almost as much as a dedicated dps.
I'm seeing all kinds of stupid **** that should never happen, like 920 dk tanks outhealing 880 healers, 920 healers outdamaging 880 dps and so on. Have fun trying to catch up in Mythics, you will have to do +2-5's for an eternity before you're ready for +10-15. Just so many bad gear design choices that casts a fog over any positive changes they might have done.
I've been playing WoW since launch and have never felt further behind than I do in Legion, and that's with the artifact catchup mechanics in patch 7.2. I can't even imagine before. If you don't already have a character in Legion, my advice is don't even bother.
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Just gotta go in with a different mindset and not worry about catching up as quickly as possible. It's a lot of RNG and that'll just frustrate you.
This is true but i've been playing WoW since the beginning. The gear gap is worse than ever because of artifacts, mass legendaries and huge stat jumps. It's extra sad because they were trying to make the game more accessible and did just the opposite.
you would think this would be common sense. pvp should always be about skill not gear or is it even really pvp anymore?
Yup. They clearly don't want you to play the game. Casual is best. :proud:
Though atm, you can compete in raiding just fine. The new raid tier won't even be out for a while yet.
The kick in the pants is, there's a big part gated behind your artifact progression. Your artifact plays very heavily into your overall performance. A lot of traits are straight up overall % increases. Get the right secondary artifacts (rings/armor/etc), and that's another big change in performance.
Artifact Power is gated behind Artifact Knowledge. Artifact Knowledge is timed (one per every few days or so), you are not able to just sit and grind Artifact Power without AK behind it. If you were late to the party on AK, your screwed. Sure, there's a couple of catch-up mechanics (there's a server-wide decrease to the amount of time it takes to research, as well as tokens you can buy for alts once you have a main that goes through it), but the server-wide mechanic is not terribly effective at allowing players to catch up, as your still days between AK ranks, and still grinding just as much AP in between that.
Add in the 3 extra gear slots they snuck in on the artifacts (relics), and yeah, Legion is the most gear-oriented expansion I've ever seen.
I'm still playing, 7.2 changed the treadmill a bit and that kept me interested. I had stopped for a few weeks before 7.2, as I had gotten more or less stuck in iLvl (got all I could from casual content and don't have the time to dedicate to a raiding crew). We'll see how long this lasts.
It would appear from the OP getting to 920 is not so easy (lots of grinding) but until you do expect to have your ass handed to you in PVP if only at 880.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
First off - getting to 920 is not easy and only a handful of people have been able to do it. This is not a realistic expectation. Unless you're a part of a top tier mythic raiding guild. Even those guys are not 920 for the most part. If the OP is simply referring to world PvP, then I'd love to know how he's encountering these 920 ilvl players, lol. If he's in battlegrounds, then the gear scores become much less valuable. Legendary items do not work in BGs and stats are squished.
You can have controlled environments where matching and artificial restrictions are placed and customizations is allowed like the PvP in GW2 or in battlegrounds. Surely anyone PvPing in MMORPGs should have realised this by now.
For the Horde!!!
OP implies 920s regularly crushing 880s....but hyperbole is strong in these sorts of threads.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If anyone doesn't understand the hate Holinka receives, they need look no further than this thread.
920 is an extreme example. As someone already pointed out the difference in 10 ilvl is huge. Everyone is around 900 which makes you a free kill because that equals 2 legendaries(completely RNG) and 1 million more health than you. As for battlegrounds, stats are only slightly squished. You can still expect to be very far behind regardless. My 887 toon has 800k-1million less health than everyone else in BG's and arenas so don't expect normalization to save you.
PvE wise the problem is even worse because now you become a drag on every group you join, due to a 920 healer or 900 tank being able to out damage a 880 dps.