Patch 3.3 Emblem Change

I might go back to posting on the ridiculousness of restrooms in my area soon, but today I wanted to give my thoughts on something that generated a lot of rage, not so long ago, and the potential rage it could currently bring. I go where the rage goes people!

In patch 3.2, all dungeons that currently dropped Emblems of Heroism/Valor started dropping Emblems of Conquest. This got a lot of people up in arms about loot, gear, welfare epics, etc.

The big deal was that people who raided complained that they worked for their gear and now any scrub running 5 mans could one day get the gear they have. (Notice I didn't use the word "achieved," while it is true gear can be a representation of what you have achieved, it is no longer a standard.) The counterpoint from other raiders was basically this, "Fine, give them the gear we have, they haven't ran raids and we know what we are doing. Skill>gear. Also, we can gear up our alts faster to so why are we even complaining?"

Now in patch 3.3, "All dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Conquest will drop Emblems of Triumph."

I am going to be honest and say I did not see this change coming and was excited when it was announced. After I settled down the change makes sense and I know what Blizzard is trying to do. There are millions of people that play this game for a hundred different reasons. In this expansion, Blizzard is trying to make sure that even someone who doesn't raid and only runs 5 mans can possibly gear up to one day fight the Lich King, should they have the time to get the group together and such. It is about content. Blizzard has said they they don't want to put content into the game that only 5% of the players get to experience. So if that means giving away epics like candy so that you can raid the current content, fine.

I would like to think that everyone who plays this game is playing to have fun. As much as I started to rage when my friends started out gearing me with 5 man ToC gear, I see where Blizzard is going with this expansion and what they are trying to do. If I only have to run 5 mans for a couple of weeks and then get to fight the Lich King with ten different alts, awesome. If you play to see new content, why not make gearing up for it easier (for many people) the second time around? If you are a raider you probably already have a geared toon ready for the Lich King, so now, you can grab and alt and not have to raid so much to gear up to do it again. Blizzard is making things easier the second time around and i think it is all for the better.

If you play the game because you want a challenge and you want to beat your head on the desk after wiping constantly, WoW has hard modes. However, if you just want to see all the content because you paid $50 for a game and then $15 bucks a month for a year waiting for the "Final Boss," well then go down the Lich King.

One point I do want to make soon is how raid progression has evolved through WoW and it's 2 expansions and what the future will hold for raiding. Post on my thoughts about that, coming soon, when I can collect them all coherently.