The one thing that really annoys me about WoW is the lack of weapons choices at high levels.    OMG I am so sick of seeing the same weapons being used by every other character that plays the same class - why?  Because it is the best weapon for that class!

For instance - why is it that almost every Hunter in game is running around with Marrowstrike strapped across their back?   I'll tell you why - because there is not enough weapons diversity in this game and it blows!   Same for armor choices and the like.   God I see clone after clone after clone and it is really getting on my nerves.   

Blizzard needs to increase the different types of weapons and armor so we're not all clones!

Why not give us some decent one handed swords for a change as well?  Why is it that swords are so drab and so lacking in numbers?   This really is a sticking point with me.    Character custimization is a full package - looks, stats, attrributes, armor, weapons the works...as it is right now you see one Hunter and you've seen them all.   

Why is it also that in order to get half-way decent weapons you "must" run high level 25+ instances and pray that a certain weapon drops?   Why can't crafters make decent weapons on par with those that drop?   Why oh why do I have to endure those long arse raids in the hopes that the weapon my character could really use drops?   I mean there are some weapons that hae a mere 4  and 5 percent drop rate and that means running the same instances over and over again and that gets so freaking old I want to puke!

OK rant off.

Blizzard really needs to address this stuff and soon!

I have a question totally unrelated to your post that I agree with.

When you played Vanguard when it launched, did somebody pee in your cheerios? (I know it sounds ridiculous).

That annoyed me too teala. You should be able to craft (imo) better than you can find with exception of raid instances. The stuff you do craft becomes obsolete as soon as you hit a new level. One of the many reasons why I quit WOW 4 months after BC.

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH dances with Teala and the Granola Girls)

guess i can agree completely

especially now with ToC and ToGC as the new hip raids, people are getting the same looking items from both raids!

in ulduar at least there was a bit of a looks diversity between 10 and 25man. I guess i wouldn't mind it as much if there were some sort of outfit system like in LOTRO, what i wouldn't give to be raiding wearing a black tuxedo and not be entirely useless........

Originally posted by Teala

Why is it also that in order to get half-way decent weapons you "must" run high level 25+ instances and pray that a certain weapon drops?   Why can't crafters make decent weapons on par with those that drop?   Why oh why do I have to endure those long arse raids in the hopes that the weapon my character could really use drops?   I mean there are some weapons that hae a mere 4  and 5 percent drop rate and that means running the same instances over and over again and that gets so freaking old I want to puke!

It basically falls down to the raider mentality pushed by the developers. Which is exactly why I could never get into WOW. Sure you have other options, however you're gimped in PVP without participating in a totally different play-style. That IMO is bad design, plain and simple bad design. A game should offer different routes to becoming competitive, rather than one static option. Some may argue that by adding in a different raid every few months they add diversity, I just do not buy it. Because with every raid they add, the rewards from the last become obsolete.

All the problems listed above are only worsened by the need this to group with us in pve mentality, again pushed by the devs.

I just left WoW for the second time because of basically what you said. It wasn't so much the lack of diversity that bothered me, but that I had to do the 25 man raids constantly to progress further. I enjoyed the journey to getting to a high level and then getting the good gear, but then I hit a wall. The raid schedual need to follow to advance just took up too much of my time, and I didn't feel like being traped in a game with no way to escape, so I left. Now I am searching for something new.

Well you cannot just add different weapons ,if their is no game design.A proper combat system needs to utilize as many mechanics as possible ,so that there is NEVER one choice .

Examples are what we have seen before crushing/slicing,piercing ect ect.

Then you can add in elemental factors like fire/water/earth/ice/ ect ect.

Gear approach is far too linear it is usually DPS or defense for tanking,not much creativity there.So to add creativity,you can have weapons that can apply various ways to DOT and better yet,they can utilize enfeebles.Example a club type weapon can have stunning qualities,where as a dagger/piercing type weapon can have Bleed effects,witch continue to drain HP,or slicing could have agility affects like slows a mob or makes it miss more often.

Then to get creative,something Blizzard lacks is something FFXI was great at.You can utilize certain weapons for a sort of RENKAI effect as in FFXI.By this each weapon has it's own elemental properties and it's own weapon skills,combining different weapon skills with other players weapon skills creates a special elemental effect damage bonus.So if the mob was an Earth based mob you use 2/3/4 weapons combinations in succession[time based] to create a WIND damage effect,because Wind >Earth.This means that no one weapon will ever be tops in the game.

There is i am sure other creative ways to design combat,i touched on a few.FFXI was only a bare bones start on a great combat system, i wish another developer would copy it's design and make it better.Peopel think the Fantasy genre is stagnant ,well it is only because the developers are stagnant,they seem to be all C++ geeks and have no creativity.

Originally posted by Wizardry

Well you cannot just add different weapons ,if their is no game design.A proper combat system needs to utilize as many mechanics as possible ,so that there is NEVER one choice .

Examples are what we have seen before crushing/slicing,piercing ect ect.

Then you can add in elemental factors like fire/water/earth/ice/ ect ect.

Gear approach is far too linear it is usually DPS or defense for tanking,not much creativity there.So to add creativity,you can have weapons that can apply various ways to DOT and better yet,they can utilize enfeebles.Example a club type weapon can have stunning qualities,where as a dagger/piercing type weapon can have Bleed effects,witch continue to drain HP,or slicing could have agility affects like slows a mob or makes it miss more often.

Then to get creative,something Blizzard lacks is something FFXI was great at.You can utilize certain weapons for a sort of RENKAI effect as in FFXI.By this each weapon has it's own elemental properties and it's own weapon skills,combining different weapon skills with other players weapon skills creates a special elemental effect damage bonus.So if the mob was an Earth based mob you use 2/3/4 weapons combinations in succession[time based] to create a WIND damage effect,because Wind >Earth.This means that no one weapon will ever be tops in the game.

There is i am sure other creative ways to design combat,i touched on a few.FFXI was only a bare bones start on a great combat system, i wish another developer would copy it's design and make it better.Peopel think the Fantasy genre is stagnant ,well it is only because the developers are stagnant,they seem to be all C++ geeks and have no creativity.

 

Though options per profession were still  limited early in SWG, I loved the way they handled damage vs resisistance, with itemization as well as the diversity in dots.

Well with the new update I'm looking to come back and try wow.  The lack of equipment diversity doesn't sound good...  For me the single biggest issue I had with wow was the endless soloing.  The new update should fix that I hope.

So I'm coming from eq2 would anyone contrast equipment variety vs eq2?  Sometimes what people say in a complaint is extreme.  Usually I guess in most games there is some items that are pretty inevitably the best but might take forever to get.  Like in EQ2 I've been playing for quite awhile and I'm doing the raid thing which I love.  I have a bank full or raid weapons that I've traded off over time.  Something like maybe 7-8 weapons.  They are all somewhat close but with various tradeoffs.  One does a bit more dps  but doesn't have as much in stats like str & sta, another has a proc that heals you some on hits, one does a deagro, on has a poison proc and great str no other stats. 

Also in eq2 you have appearance slots so you can load items you want to have appear.  So even if there was one best sword you could use a different sword for appearance?  I'm assuming this feature doesn't exist in wow??

In any event I have not played wow in a few years so I'm kinda looking forward to restarting when the next update comes out.  Just trying to see how it differs from eq2 in it's current revision.

I know what you mean, its my biggest annoyance across a large number of MMO's seeing all the clones running around.

I think all MMO's should adopt the lotro cosmetic system where you can wear Armour for looks but not stats and still get the stats off your "official" Armour. I believe Aion may have something similar where you can take the stats off gear and put the stats on other pieces of gear. Also the appearance system in EQ2 at least something to cull the clones.

Wish all current gen MMO's had systems like that because like I said I hate seeing clones all the dam time :(

---

Originally posted by Teala
The one thing that really annoys me about WoW is the lack of weapons choices at high levels.    OMG I am so sick of seeing the same weapons being used by every other character that plays the same class - why?  Because it is the best weapon for that class!

---

Putting any appearance system and individual player skill aside, can you name any MMO where you can perform the best without equipping the best?

---

For instance - why is it that almost every Hunter in game is running around with Marrowstrike strapped across their back?   I'll tell you why - because there is not enough weapons diversity in this game and it blows!   Same for armor choices and the like.   God I see clone after clone after clone and it is really getting on my nerves. 

---

For weapons, I can't agree to this. There are plenty of weapon options, they are just overlooked because they are not _the_ best and/or the reluctance of getting intermediate equipment. For armor, I can partly agree. Some classes/builds do have some options and some have none. But how many different equipment pieces can they really add in one single content update? As far as I know, it's not as simple as just throwing some stats around and slapping skin on it.

---

Blizzard needs to increase the different types of weapons and armor so we're not all clones!

Why not give us some decent one handed swords for a change as well?  Why is it that swords are so drab and so lacking in numbers?   This really is a sticking point with me.    Character custimization is a full package - looks, stats, attrributes, armor, weapons the works...as it is right now you see one Hunter and you've seen them all.   

---

You obviously haven't seen my hunter. Which brings me to my play style. I don't care about the best and I always consider the look when getting new equipment. When in raids, I do wear the best I have, and while not every piece of equipment might be the best I could have, I still perform as good as any other in there and get my job done. But out of raids, I do wear wide range of equipment, depending what I do and what I need to wear to make it happen and of course how do I look doing that.

---

Why is it also that in order to get half-way decent weapons you "must" run high level 25+ instances and pray that a certain weapon drops?   Why can't crafters make decent weapons on par with those that drop?   Why oh why do I have to endure those long arse raids in the hopes that the weapon my character could really use drops?   I mean there are some weapons that hae a mere 4  and 5 percent drop rate and that means running the same instances over and over again and that gets so freaking old I want to puke!
OK rant off.
Blizzard really needs to address this stuff and soon!

---

I can partly agree on this. For a casual player who doesn't raid even the easy 10-man raids, it can be difficult to upgrade your weapon at certain point. Also it is little bit unfortunate that weapon crafting has been left like how it is now. But weapons aren't the only way to improve your character. There are so many options to do that for a casual who doesn't raid at all. However, if you raid at least the 10-man raids and still are unable to get some weapon upgrades, then I think the problem is in your end. There is some luck factor in it, but given all the actual options, it's not that big. I have lost count of the equipment, including lot of weapons, that has gone into shards in our raids just because they weren't the best.
 

Originally posted by Zorndorf

@ the BLUE poster. Who apparently is a neewvbie over here at www.wowhate.com.

If you would have READ the OP,

 

you would have seen he posted this for the WEAPONS in the present day Wotlk.

He was posting NOTHING about the armour, which is MORE diverse than ANY other mmorpg. Period.

Not the armour. And of course, immediatly you start promoting Lotro and the ALL precious Korean copycat (as we are used to now on the mmorpg.com mentality:  8.7 guys for a terribly boring and badly developped Korean....). Making mmorpg.com the joke of the industry at the moment.

The thing is: Blizzard is perfectly streamlining the availabiltiy of weapons.

1. Newly 80's can do dungeons OR buy the CRAFTED ones on the AH or do the reputation factions to obtain new weapons at 80.

2. The rest of the weapons is obtainable through indeed PVE group play in specific dungeons and later raids. Also the weapons CAN be had now by doing rated PVP (as low as 1400) while the more interesting latest weapons need an 1800 PvP rating.

Blizzard made an

----> EXCELLENT change to early TBC where you could do the BG's and automatically would have that weapon. This destroyed the "natural" flow of obtaining the weapons through phase one and two above.

------

The design philosophy of WotLK ... was very clear from the start: PROMOTE end game dungeons and Raids by making it more accessible (in a scaled form from easy to VERY hard) and obtain the much needed weapons through them.

Btw: as can be seen doing heroic dungeons give NOT the weapons of higher Raid, so again motivating people to do higher content.

If you can't see the mechanism behind it, you're simply dumb.

-------

The crafted weapons are there for the new guys and alts before they can enter the latest 80 dungeon and raid content. (Just like the reputation weapons that can be obtained for these new characters).

-------

Again SOME XXXX storm in (who have NO clue whatsoever how Blizzard is designing this game anno 2009) and speak pure crap while they have NO idea what's it all about. Or simply lack the capacity to view the design decisions.

The fact they were joined by a NON reading blue poster, shows the overall lack of quality seen on mmorpg.com.

---> This is BLIZZARD you're talking about amateurs, not some Korean half made stuff to put the money out of your pockets with 5% of Blizzard resources in game design and development.

 

this man knows what he's talking 'bout. word.

I really miss atunement for raids. I know it hurts the whole dungeon access to everyone thing they have going, but getting a key for a raid after working for a bit to get it was awesome. I guess it kind of hid the gearing for the raid as for some of the keys you needed to defeate a boss that you wouldn't be able to unless you had the gear which was the gear you needed to go into the next instance.

i agree with op, also like to say it would not be big thing to make different looking armors and weapon skins, so the next 10 warriors standing next to me looks exactly the same. item remodeller in wow thanks.

cheers

I honestly don't see the argument. Even back in EQ and other games, there was the "ideal" weapon for each class. Heck, even in older games, you would do builds with the ideal equipment in each slot. WOW is the same way. I think their should be some more models for certain pieces of gear (in terms of design, color, style) but that goes with any game right now except for maybe Borderlands.