Monday 6 April 2009

Worth the Upgrade?

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I've been keeping an eye on my gear recently, picking up the odd upgrade whenever possible.
But I'm starting to question how effective the upgrades are for me.

My possible upgrades according to gear-wishlist.appspot.com aren't very much. I'm not even full epic yet, I still have blue rings and trinkets, but my only worthwhile upgrades come from 25 man raids.
There are one or two minor upgrades I could get, but nothing that's going to be worth the hassle until Ulduar comes along.
I think part of the problem is that blues are so damn good these days. Naxx is clearable in nothing but blues, if you have a good team.

I've even picked up one or two raid items recently, but when I've come to equip them, my stats have dropped so much that I've switched back.

I'll be picking up as much "Valorous" gear as I can, to replace my "Heroes" set. As the set bonuses are great, and the stats are big improvements. I'm also workign on my Kirin Tor rep for an epic ring.
But I'm struggling to see the point in paying 900g for a Titanium Impact Band when it's not erally a major upgrde.
Once I get my Kirin Tor Ring, and 12 more emblems of valor, I'll have 2 epic rings, for a fraction of that cost.

The epics dropped by Heroic bosses, and easily available from rep vendors, these days is also Uber. The items are almost identical to 10-man raid drops, meaning you never even have to set foot in a 10 man raid to start doing 25 mans.

Also, in my experience, and from browsing the interweb, many others. 25 man raids are easier than 10 mans. There's alot more room for error. And the rewards are much much greater.

The Munquis easily 19 manned Sarth last week. That means we could happily boost 6 or more brand new level 80's at a time. Achievements all-round, emblems-a-plenty, and gear-upgrades directly from green to purple.

I'm not complaining, I like the level of difficulty. For a social guild, like ours, it's great. And I'll probably return to Naxx even when Uludar is with us. Because there'll be a new troop of level 80's dying to see what it's like.
But instead of taking months to clear the place, it'll probably be only a matter of weeks.

There's nothing like the feeling of GodLike-Power when a bunch of green-geared newbies see you nuking a boss to death single-handedly. And make "ooooooohh" and "ahhhhh" noises.