PTR notes: Mass quantities of epics retuned
by Eliah Hecht 
May 7th 2007 at 11:08PM
It's a common complaint that level 70 epics are too marginal of upgrades over dungeon blues; heck, I've even kept some quest reward greens over Karazhan epics. It looks like a lot of that is set to change with patch 2.1. According to reports from the PTRs almost every 70 epic has had its stats buffed in tonight's PTR patch, and fairly considerably, too. World of Raids is reporting that Tier 4 gear has had its item level ("ilvl" for short) bumped from the current 105 up to 120; Tier 5 has gone from 120 to 133; and the rest of the epic loot has been increased a corresponding degree -- T4-level stuff has gone up by 15 ilvls, and T5-level stuff by 13.What's all this ilvl nonsense, you ask? Well, the math is pretty complicated (1.5th roots are involved), but in short, ilvl represents how "good" an item is. An item's equip level
So, getting back to the subject at hand: level 70 epics are getting better. Their ilvls are getting boosted, which means they get to have more stats. And for examples of specifics, head over to World of Raids, where they're keeping a constantly updated directory full of new item tooltips, in alphabetical order. Edit: MMO-Champion also has a very good listing of new stats. There are also a few reagent changes for some craftables. World of Raids reports:
Blacksmith changes (5-7-07)
- Tier 3 weapons require 5 nether vortex.
- Tier 2 weapons require 8 primal nethers.
Engineering changes (5-7-07)
- Goggles now require a primal nether.
(Image courtesy of the International Mountain Bicycling Association)
Filed under: Patches, Items, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nogun May 7th 2007 11:37PM
"An item's equip level is determined by its ilvl (specifically, it's ilvl minus 5, with a cap at 70), but other than that there's no way to directly see ilvl in the default UI"
This was true for every pre-TBC item with a cap at 60. Every item post-TBC doesn't follow this rule anymore, there are uncommon items requiring level 59 at ilvl 80. With the exception of vendor trash (gray) that still have required level = ilvl-5.
Thallid May 7th 2007 11:47PM
Engineering changes (5-7-07)
- 'Goggles now require a primal nether.'
Ugh. So much for making something at least partially worth while for engineering (and casual players) into another method of forcing people to group up for heroic 5-mans...
Who even thought of that silly requirement for those goggles anyways?
Rich May 8th 2007 12:03AM
The same people that think that everyone should be doing heroic 5 mans 10x a day.
Rich May 8th 2007 12:20AM
"there are a few nerfs in the form of reagent increases for some craftables."
Used to be 12 primal nethers and 20 nether vortexes, so this is not an increase. This is actually great news for me, since I have 2 nethers and 8 badges (2.8 nethers) and now I need not 9.2 but only 5.2 more nethers! Woot!
Rich May 8th 2007 12:28AM
Also...I want to know if Arena gear is getting buffed. If not, :-(...my only 70 epics are Thunder and Arena gear, haven't seen many Warriors drops in Kara so far.
eliah.hecht May 8th 2007 12:35AM
Thanks Rich and Nogun, I'm just full of innacuracy tonight it seems...
Also, as far as the Arena stuff goes, Drysc said buffs for that were coming as well and just didn't make it into this PTR patch:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=102850551&pageNo=7&sid=1#121
GamerJunkie May 8th 2007 12:41AM
Its too late, a lot of active players have stopped playing because the poor execution and direction of BC endgame has not been that great.
Lots of folks realize why bother raiding for T4 when they just showed T6. Why not just stop playing and wait til T5,T6 becomes farmable stuff.
With the buff to the epic weapons comes Arena gear being nerfed.
Whatever Drysc said about Arena gear being equal to the highest dungeon epix is now out the window.
dd May 8th 2007 1:47AM
@7
patients ppl.
Has Drysc said that arena gear will not be buffed in line with t4/5/6?
RSH May 8th 2007 2:19AM
Does anyone know if this new Primal Nether requirement applies to the already-existing Gnomish Battle/Power Goggles (hopefully corresponding with an increase in their fairly pathetic stats) or to the new 2.1 goggles (in which case, BOOOO)?
Scalin May 8th 2007 2:42AM
From what I've seen, it's just for the new epic goggles. Speaking of those, though, how retarded is that that you can only learn the ones for your highest armor? Should be able to learn any rec you want that you can wear the armor type.
As for the old goggles, I don't remember seeing anywhere anything about the stats being increased, but that might be one of those small things they slip in.
khaosworks May 8th 2007 2:47AM
I really dislike the way Blizzard has made heroics mandatory, as opposed to optional. I simply don't have the time to keep grinding Shadow Labs, et al. over and over to get the keys, and to make completing heroics a requirement to get to Hyjal is just nuts. At least give us poor casuals a chance to grind rep outside instances. Obviously, it won't be as fast as gaining rep inside those instances, but at least make it possible.
honkhonk May 8th 2007 3:37AM
well fuck that. first tempt everyone with the nice new goggles and then making them annoyingly difficult to acquire again by requiring a primal nether. as if leveling engineering that far with all the bullshit pattens isn't enough hassle.
woeye May 8th 2007 3:46AM
From a raider perspective it's quite fair to inrease the stats on the T4/5/6 sets. Because raiders do invest a LOT of time in order to get their gear. Better gear is the _only_ way in WoW raiders can get rewared. But this approach makes one thing pretty clear: WoW is and will always remain mostly a raid-only game. If you have no time to raid this game isn't for you. And raiding gear will always be _far_ better then crafted gear because effort of raids > effort of crafting by a single person.
I am a casual player. Therefore I think I better cancel my subscription and better make room for the "real hardcore guys" ;-)
Bandyn May 8th 2007 3:54AM
@11, Khaosworks:
There's a difference between a "casual player" and solo. You want to get attuned for Hyjal, of all places, solo? Heroics are not much to ask for, for an instance like Hyjal. There's a huge difference between getting 40 semi-skilled players together for Naxx and getting 5 skilled players together for Heroic Underbog (or whatever). And you're not planning on soloing Hyjal, are you?
The endgame emphasizes skill (for the most part) rather than button mashing, now. Or mindless farming of name-your-least-favorite-mob-here outside instances. Or getting 40 warm bodies together in the same place at the same time. This is a Good Thing[tm].
Savok May 8th 2007 3:59AM
I was reading that and thinking "finally, they fucking get it, stop breaking everything around an item and just buff it"
And then I read Primal Nether for goggles. Useless, totally and utterly useless people work for Blizzard these days.
Astrellas May 8th 2007 4:16AM
I was just wondering what all the 'casuals' who complain about not having access to "epix" plan to do with them if they had them?
Pwn Mechanar a few times maybe? Solo Deadmines?
Smutcakes May 8th 2007 4:32AM
16 - sure, I recall how I back in the day when I was still raiding kept going to strat in T2 simply because it was fun. Being able to effortlessly make 45minute runs was a great passtime. Don't see why the same shouldn't be true for Mechanar with crafted epics at 70 now that I retired from raiding.
woeye May 8th 2007 7:07AM
Before TBC raiders would go to battlegrounds and "pwn" some undergeared players. Can't say if this still applies due to resilience though. But I guess that melee classes with big fat bad weapons from endgame will still have a lot fun ;-)
Necrous May 8th 2007 7:57AM
On epic upgrades:
I'm really glad to hear this personally. Soon as we had enough keyed 70's in the guild we spent about two months in Kara until we could complete it. A few weeks of several repairs per night, everyone chugging consumables, some times frustrating, sometimes triumphant. All in all I have no complaints about the "quality" of the time spent there. I am however seriously disappointed with the rewards. After several attempts to get a boss down for the first time only to have the loot from said boss be hardly better, if any, than the blues your wearing from a level 68 shadowlabs quest... You could arena for the same amount of time, less the heavy repair bills and consumables, and end up with an epic set that looks and performs almost the same as T4 sets. Kara in its current form is no more than an exercise in BC raiding and a stepping stone to SSC attunement.
On primals:
Primal nethers, even to the casual player seem like a non-issue to me. Getting keyed for any particular instance is not a very difficult task. Most factions do offer different methods of gaining rep (to revered anyway). For many factions, such as Thrallmar, you should already have a nice chunk of rep already just from doing quests to get 70 in the first place. And those that don't, Keepers of time for example, give you massive rep for the instance quests. First completion of Black Morass gives 8500 rep for goodness sake. Heroic keys aside, I've seen 3 nethers drop off bosses in Non-heroic instances in the last week gearing up my new 70 warrior. They are rare, but they do drop.
On Eng goggles:
Engineers got the shaft, no nice way of putting it. Sad, it was a fun profession that I didn't want to drop but I'm glad I did. =(
Smithra May 8th 2007 8:20AM
To put things in context, I'm in a casual-esque raiding guild (Windmasters on Lothar, we're recruiting) that's up to Aran in Kara.
@khaosworks: The heroic attunement requirement for Hyjal is an advance notification that it's going to be difficult content...ie not tuned for the casual player.
@goggle people: You know nethers have something like a 10% drop rate in non-heroics right? Still not a cake walk, but entirely accessible to the casual gamer willing to group for a few 5-mans. Sure, if you only can do 1 5-man a week it may take a while, but you can't expect to get the same rewards as people putting in 4 hours a night in the same timeframe.
@everyone: If you're not having fun, stop playing. Whether this means taking a break or cancelling your account, I don't really care. If you are having fun, does it really matter how easy/hard it is to craft things/get epix/get attuned/etc. I'm having a blast in instances, heroics, fishing for the elusive Mr. Pinchy and the occasional Arena battle or Battleground. If none of the content is worth to you the effort it takes to access it, then go outside, buy a wii, read a book, something.