Epic gear coming to Scarlet Monastery (and elsewhere)
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 17th 2007 at 12:30PM
Here's a little change I missed in the midlevel updates notes: Epic gear will now drop for lowbies. Example number one is the Deadman's Hand, which will drop from Arcanist Doan in SM, and has a proc that "freezes" attackers for a full three seconds. Hawt! Eyonix, who's poking around the forums today after a long absence, confirms that the proc will scale with level, which means it'll be basically useless by 70.But still-- Epic gear for lowbies! What is the world coming to? A quick search on Wowhead doesn't bring anything else new yet that I can see (lots of Epic turn-ins and the old World Drops that we already know about), but this can't be the only Epic they're adding to the lowbie dungeons-- I'm sure we'll see lots more pop up as more people test the PTR and the patch eventually goes live.
Yes, giving Epics to folks who haven't hit even 50 yet might seem a little strange-- just how epic can a piece of equipment be if a knockover like Arcanist Doan can hang on to it? But it's more than worth it, as even lowbies running instances should have a chance to know what it feels like to loot a boss-- and find some of those tasty Professor Plums.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Leveling, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chad Oct 17th 2007 12:47PM
But adding epics at lower levels will give gear that should stick with the players a little longer. With the increased xp and leveling changes in 2.3 a player will be going through gear much quicker than they currently are.
Primary Oct 17th 2007 12:56PM
As long as the epics don't have a .01% to drop, this helps the express lane they are putting in for the
Acceptable Risk Oct 17th 2007 12:55PM
Chad pretty much nailed it. Since the leveling curves are going to be lowered, gear churn will be bigger than ever. Tossing in a high-powered item or two into each instance will help keep the re-equip costs in line.
Primary Oct 17th 2007 1:00PM
What I was trying to say before being so rudely cut off... It will help the under-60 grind. If these items have a poor drop rate then a player will quickly out level the instance before even seeing the item drop since they tightened up the level range.
makabak Oct 17th 2007 1:01PM
This will certainly change things for twinks, eh?
Urthona Oct 17th 2007 1:02PM
This is mid-level content.
I approve.
More please.
d503 Oct 17th 2007 1:07PM
I sense alot of me getting frozen in 20-29 bgz :( lol
Kinda funny that they made it 29...perfect twink level...either way, I'd be happy to see more epixx get in those mid-level ranges. I just finished 1-60 on a warrior I've been leveling for about the last 1.5mo's, and the gear was...questionable...at best. I ended up buying a Fiery War Axe because it was the only thing that would last more than 3-5 levels.
Hopefully Blizz might also tweak drop rates on items like Ironfoe, and other epixx to make them worth farming for characters. Or maybe make bosses drop two loots more often, instead of waiting for one.
Who knows.
Doug DeJulio Oct 17th 2007 1:18PM
An interesting aspect of this is, it might help them with BG gear matching in the twink brackets.
I mean, after a while, most twinks would be dripping with epics, no? It's going to be easier to algorithmically differentiate them from the people in random greens with a few blues.
ASCII Dec 21st 2007 11:24AM
This is more of an anti-twink thing really- what twink would be willing to run the monastery enough times to have a good shot at this, gaining experience each time?
makabak Oct 17th 2007 1:25PM
@7 - I agree with you that more epics should drop in the mid-levels, but I would hate to see more purples drop in end-game. Epics will hopefully make leveling easier, with less gear grinding, but I think that end-game epics should be just that - epic. If they're powerful, they should be difficult to get.
This is coming from a guy who has crafted Robe of the Archmage and a Spellfire set.And now I'm working on the Spellstrike.
Smurk Oct 17th 2007 1:48PM
I like the implementation of "baby epics," but my understanding (possibly wrong) is that quest reward gear will be improved in line with low/mid-level dungeon drops.
Levelling in Azeroth right now, it is rare for most quest rewards to be worth equipping. Buff those rewards, and the new XP requirements won't have people out-levelling their grear as fast.
Nightwatch Oct 17th 2007 2:03PM
Great, now I'll be pestered to run lowbies though SM even more. *sigh*
Andrew Oct 17th 2007 3:00PM
Epic items are just a color, so chill.
infection Oct 17th 2007 2:49PM
Actually, I hope they can implement in some way that if you are not in the level range of the dungeon, that the epic item does not drop.
This game barely has anyone that runs low level instances on their own. There needs to be a way to encourage that.
Getting level 70's to run you through for the item will not help at all for endgame.
I say add the epic's, but make it at a cost. Let people that actually run the instance with the right group level achieve something, not the one's with a friend.
This would also make the twinks actually have to run the instance for the item, not stand at the entrance while someone else barrels though.
Chris Gardner Oct 17th 2007 2:43PM
You guys do realize "baby epics" have been in the game since the beginning? I still have these (largely useless) level 37 epic gloves in my bank: http://thottbot.com/?i=5376
deleted Oct 17th 2007 5:16PM
I've said all along that in order to keep the old content relevant, Blizzard needs to sprinkle twink items in every lower level instance, and make sure that there's plenty of twink enchants and recipes along with required materials that can be farmed from the old questing locations and/or instances.
Without twinks (love them or hate them) there's no reason at all to repeat lower level content.
...
Krick
http://www.tankadin.com
Dirtyboy Oct 17th 2007 6:58PM
I did a quick run to Doan yesterday and he dropped Illusionary Rod with slightly different stats. Also his previously green-level cloth shoulders are now blue.
Dirtyboy Oct 17th 2007 6:58PM
*on test server*
IKT Oct 17th 2007 9:41PM
"14. Epic items are just a color, so chill." - If epic items are just a colour, why isn't every single item in the game epic? since afterall..it's just a colour..
outlaw Oct 18th 2007 7:56AM
Epics are no longer 'Epic' In vanila wow it was thrilling to get your hands on an epic item and although it was mainly the lucky few who had them often through contless hours of dungeon trolling and or being lucky with getting into a good guild it feels wrong for everyone to have them (not sure why really)..
I know theres the whole we all pay the same so we should get the same... well invest enough time and effort and we all do. I just dont like the fact that every man woman and child is now coated in epics, it's just taken something out of the game imo.
Anyhow i see the point of placing more epics into the mid content area but as #1 Chad points out they need to make sure these will last longer than a few levels at least and i hope they implement something which means you need to group with people of your level to get them otherwise people will hire a L70 to clear the place for easy loot but no improvement for the other people leveling that content.
I think it would have been better to have items (low % drop) that have quests or something tied to them as you level which can be improved as you level, just a though.
Also if they really needed to spark interest in doing the 1 - 70 slog again or just keeping the old world alive, why not have some sort of budy system where mobs or players even loot are scaled for an instance (make of that what you will).