I wrote about this topic as news a few days back and thought nothing of it. When I read the change, I immediately thought “Hey that’s smart, its better for everyone involved now!”
I then went on my merry way, made some lunch, drank a beer or two and never thought about it again…
Until recently, that is. Then I opened my eyes and saw alllll the massive posts on the official forums, and on every fan site under the moon. That is around the time that my confusion began.
So how do you guys feel about this? I’m typically not one to bash on LFR because I recognize its place in the game, but the fact that so many people suddenly want its purpose to be more than it should really gets my blood hot.
To recap, LFR will now have gear that is not equatable to the actual raid drops, meaning no tier set bonuses or trinkets or the like. Instead, it will be an alternative to 5 man heroics for the casual players looking to see the content, but still faceroll it and get some gear on the side.
When I say the word “faceroll” along side the word “gear,” do you think this change is bad? How could you? This is the way it should have been from the start, and here is exactly why.
When you have tier set bonuses and trinkets in LFR it opens up a lot of player’s eyes towards their availability. Imagine the first month of WoD, the four set for Resto Shaman is just mandatory. So good that it makes everything else seem weak, as is often the case for the first tier of a new expansion. People will then be near forced to run every difficulty under the sun just to get the set bonus, no matter the item level of the pieces. This creates the constant instability that rests with the first month or two, as people are scrambling to replace blues as fast as possible in order to push Mythic progression, and growing frustrated with many of the game’s systems. (A clear example of this was with Dailies in MoP!)
Another evident benefit of this change is funneling more people into Flexible difficulties now known as “Normal” and “Heroic.” The goal of the end game PVE model has always been progression, and LFR had its role in that until Flex came out and usurped it. It made it so LFR’s item level gear was completely by-passable and people would simply start with Flex when gearing up, but continue to do LFR to control their fate a bit more. This led to more petty grievances with LFR popping up by the week, chock full of the typical name calling and flame that you would expect. The more LFR goes down this path, the worse it gets, essentially being devoid of its true purpose, which is to help casual players see the content as their own pace. When a majority of the players in there are all immature self-entitled children, who really wins with those arguments?
So realistically, funneling people into Flex will be of great benefit to everyone involved, at least in my eyes! Now, players who only care to see the content, not have any challenge associated with it, can continue to spend their time in LFR. Those who are interested in good gear and character progression will work towards doing the new “Normal” difficulty, and likely fuel interest into further progression. This helps everyone involved, by adding more pool for recruitment for guilds building from 10 to 20 for mythic, as well as revitalizing the raiding scene and eliminating the stigma that its become too easy just because of one difficulty.
So if you are actually upset about these gear changes to LFR, what is your argument? I really can’t even think of one that makes much sense to me.
Facts are, if you are doing LFR weekly, you are doing it because you want to. If you are choosing to do this difficulty at the moment you know what comes with it. Near irrelevant gear comparatively, essentially no challenge, and a lot of impatience.
What changes in WoD? I’d imagine they make it even easier now. But what else?
Slightly less relevant gear? Marginally so, but even if that’s the case, does it actually matter? Even now, if you want good gear, you do Flex. It drops significantly higher item level gear and really is in no way challenging unless you have your brain on the table instead of in your skull.
I just haven’t seen a single facet of any argument have anything relevant to say here, yet soooo many people seem to be up in arms about this topic.
You can still do LFR friends, no reason to get so upset! Really, nothing changes except a small quality of life concern for those raiding at the highest level.
There are no even unique models for LFR gear, something that could not be said with SoO!
But anyway, what do you think? Let’s hear about your thoughts in the forums!
Get the conversation started over at https://wordpress.ravenant.com/community/threads/lfr-loot-changes-are-you-for-or-against.315398/