Random gear movements

EDIT: As I got into this train of thoughts, it got a little deep. So this became part 1.

Yesterdays' post about "Blizzarata" revived a few memories of Sol's Wrath times. I'm sure we all experienced in some way or another the times of gearscore requirements for pugged raids and gold runs. Those "pst w/achievements..." and the on-going inspection routines at Dal's flight deck. But, we're not here to talk about all those elitist and ass-hat times. They are but a moment in time now past.


In slight relationship to those times though, I do have some thoughts about gear, gearing up, and general game play.

There was a time during Wrath when Sol was trying to gear himself for endgame dungeons and possibly (hopefully), raiding. He really didn't have much to start with. A mix of greens (mostly); and blues from a conglamuration of quests, the AH and some crafted stuff. He was also deep into all the forums and blogs reccomended by the pros, pushing himself for that magical 6k min. dps number. You know, trying to be like the best (most vocal) players in game. Chasing a rainbow, is what I call it now. And the pot of gold never in sight.

At one point Sol asked questions of some forums, hopefully to learn something. One time, I recall that one of the knowledgeable people had done an armory on me before replying to the question. He said it was not easy to answer since he could'nt tell if I was going for PVE or PVP according to my gear. That was actually the truth of the matter. In gearing up Sol had dabbled in all the resources available to him, including the points he gained running Wintergrasp.

Anyway, his gear ended up being all blues and maybe two purps if I recall rightly, but also pretty evenly split between pve and pvp. Not thinking very well, or just not knowing better at the time, Sol didn't see much of a difference where the gear came from. After all, everything was a definite upgrade from what he had started with, and his gearscore was finally up to minimum acceptable.

This time around, with Cata, Sol paid attention and strove for the purist route making sure everything was pve proper. Here, is where I'm still having some back thoughts about gearing. I know that there are a couple of pvp items which would make some nice additions to several stats. Both the hunter and mage, which are climbing steadily towards end game, have a number of battleground options available to them which would also split their gear between pve and pvp. ???

So that's my real question. What is so wrong or off-coarse with mixing gear? The stats difference? (resiliance comes to mind) DPS output? (chasing down that .01% hardcore stuff) So what if I come to a dungeon with some pvp gear on? Does it really make any in my spell rotations or life expectancy? And then there's the battleground scene. I remember the first time my mage tried out WSG. She died a bit, but got through it with pve gear. At the end, someone pst'd her and made a snide comment about coming in pvp gear next time. Really? I didn't see that requirement when I went into the que. Are people so bent out of shape over what gear to wear where? I gather so.

Okay, let's just take a deep breath here and settle into the thought that all this is going somewhere. It's, (or I am), just taking the scenic route. :) I will take a moment though to point you to another post which contributed to reviving these thoughts within me. "5 lessons learned from our readers". It was portions of "reason #5" that sent me back into time.


Coming in Part 2- more about my UI/add-ons as parts of the whole.

Enjoy the game~Sol