Upgrade to Crafted 2H Weapons?Follow

I'm posting this here because it applies to blacksmith warriors.

Has any one seen, or heard, of upgrades to the Stormherald, Lionheart Executioner, Bloodmoon?

Perhaps a future patch or the expansion?

The blacksmithing tiered weapons won't last you past the first level or two in WotLK. While the "gear shock" is supposed to be less than it was in TBC, blizz isn't going to force people to keep BOP weapons from 10 levels ago just so that they can upgrade them. I think that blizz is still planning to use the tiered weapon system, but you won't be needing Bloodmoon or any other weapon for them.

Edited, Jul 6th 2008 1:21pm by SomnusSleeper

Here's my take on it ..

Kara, Gruul, Mag gear - replaced by Level 71
ZA, SSC, TK gear - Replaced by Level 72/73
Badge Gear - Replaced by level 73/74
BT, MH Gear - Replaced by Level 74/75
Sunwell Gear - Replaced by Level 76

By the time we get our flying mounts again at level 77 ... we'll all be equal in terms of gear again ...

So yeah, expect your T3 BS weapons (and even your Engineering Goggles) to be replaced by level 72 or so ... if the pattern holds though ... you'll have some Blue BoP deliciousness (is that even a word ?? ;->) at level 75, and a new epic at 80 (ready to be upgraded again).

This picture (Level 70 Blue 2H Axe Drop) supports my assumptions (to a degree) ;-)

Edited, Jul 10th 2008 1:37pm by robertlofthouse

That's about how long it took last time, though - you'd use Naxx gear up until about Karazhan, where you'd finally start seeing upgrades in most slots. The major exception was for tanks, and that's a consequence of the way they changed Stamina itemization.

I may have been a touch off with the Sunwell stuff, but I've seen alpha pics of a level 75 (required) 2h 142 dps sword (Full Stats Below). Now that could easily be better than any SSC/TK/ZA stuff (possible even BT/MH, depending on what you're looking for in a weapon - although it DOES appear to be a better MS weapon than anything available now ... by far).

Stats-wise - it's a bit down on str/ap, but up on armour pen and crit.

Trollcrusher
Binds when picked up
Two-Hand Sword
420-630 Damage Speed 3.70
(141.9 damage per second)
+52 Stamina
+42 Agility
Requires level 75
Equip: Increases attack power by 92.
Equip: Your attacks ignore 441 of your opponent's armor

Fair enough, still, as a Hunter weapon, would it not compare favourably with the Twin Blade off Kael (or the polearm from somewhere in BT - not that clued up on Hunter weapons, I just know there's a Polearm in BT that Hunter's drool over ;->).

Personally, I would say that it's good if your Sunwell stuff lasts you to level 80 - makes things fair in terms of rewarding the raiders for their efforts.

As far as Naxx stuff vs TBC stuff ... one example I can think of is the Might of Menethil - as a level 60 2h mace, you cannot (arguably ;->)replace that with the best level 70 blue ... the best you can do is Kara stuff - which solidly supports RPZip's comment.

Ultimately, my point was regarding replacing normal level 70 gear - obtained with some "casual" play (this seems to include SSC/TK nowadays as well), most of this stuff, you will not have past the end of the first 2 zones. This includes T3 Blacksmith weapons.

Edited, Jul 14th 2008 10:38am by robertlofthouse

No, you're absolutely not the only one ... I'm forward to the gear reset with open arms.

Hell, I've just hit outlands on my 3rd toon, and I still get excited at the massive jump in gear levels from Azeroth ... The only ones I can see, who are not happy, are the entry level raiders, those who have spent massive amounts of time farming Kara and even T5 instances, purely for the gear. They will see all of that time being nullified very quickly.

However, higher geared raiders will still have benefit from their gear for a little while longer.

A gear reset MUST happen, you can't expect a new level 70 character to suddenly be geared to the same level as someone who has been spending the last year (or even 6 months) at level 70 gearing himself up, without some intervention from the "Gear Reset".

Same applies to mount prices ... I believe those will drop too - you can't expect a level 70 to stop at that level and grind up 5000g just to get a mount he won't even use. You can bet your *** they will ask you to buy a new riding rank to use your mounts at level 77, and that will depend on having epic flight training.

I cannot wait ... it's gonna be so cool ;-D

I don't know about you, but I would not like to level to 70, then spend a year (or 6 months, or heck, even 2-3 months)doing all the raid instances, just so that I could gear myself up to carry on leveling.

For that matter, as a level 70 right now, who is really only T4 level geared .. I would not like to be forced into clearing all the way to the end of Black Temple, just to get the gear I need to enter Northrend, if that was the case, I'd have to stop playing... and I promise you - I'm with the majority here ... and that'd be bad news for Blizz and the game.

"Bothering" to do the high level raid content meant spending a very large amount of time raiding instead of being able to jump into the new leveling content of the expansion.

Ten man raiding won't change that with the new content ... they've always got to consider a new character starting from scratch, those new characters cannot be forced into doing Previous incarnations of the game's end game content first before carrying on ... it's just not feasible.

One thing I am hoping for though, is an extended levelling experience. Getting from 60-70 was a short little push in comparison to getting from 1-60. Which meant the expansion felt like little more than a tag-on.

If getting from 70-80 means a major effort (ie, not doable in 24 hours /played), then the "Challenging" aspect of the game will return to a degree. Every quest completed will be an accomplishment, and every level dinged will be greated with server-side fanfare, and for a very long time, seeing a level 80 will be something to behold.

However, any environment where you give players an extended amount of time at max level to gather gear (cos that's the main goal - experience "End-Game" content), you disadvantage other players who are not at max level (or who haven't been there as long) when you start releasing new leveling content. It'll be the same with the Expansion after wrath, and it'll be the same after that as well.

Edited, Jul 16th 2008 12:24pm by robertlofthouse

I'm not sure (not being a raider), but would raiders prefer farming BT for xp and gear, or questing for levels and gear. You would have to provide both options, in order to satisfy all types of players.

End game content is there simply to allow players to do something when they get to max level. It's the goal of the game - get to max level, and you can REALLY start playing. When you raise the level cap, your reason for doing all that previous endgame content dissappears, and you start focussing again on getting to the new max level, in order to experience the new end game content. I can't see why it's that much of an issue.


Edit : removed unnecessary fluff

Edited, Jul 17th 2008 3:46pm by robertlofthouse