After killing this blasted weed 12 times over for these shoulders, I was so flipping happy when Razorlash finally coughed them up.
That was until I logged in on this toon post patch 4.0.3a…
Normally I’m on top of this sort of stuff, but lately I’ve been spread a little thin and must’ve missed the mention about Maraudon having its level requirement reduced. 😡
Prior to this week’s patch, Phytoskin Spaulders were just below the BoA shoulders in terms of best-in-slot for 49 hunters. Now they’re just a stopgap item for rogues, feral druids and hunters while leveling through their 30’s.
Grrrrr…
Alright, so why am I irritated enough over this change to post about it..?
Read on…
With the introduction of regional battlegrounds, twinking has risen from the grave. In the nights I have queued on my 19 hunter, I’ve seen BG queues pop frequently and within minutes. Because of this fact, I felt the desire to get active again on my 49 Orc hunter.
Last week I decided to log on to my horde hunter and see what kind of shape his gear was in. Apart from a few pieces containing the recently-rendered-useless-for-hunters-intellect-stat, his gear was looking solid. One of the pieces I needed to replace were his shoulders.
My Orc hunter I rolled on a different server where I do not know a soul, therefore, no BoAs of any kind. My previous shoulders (Rockshard Pauldrons from pre-4.0.3 Uldaman) were once great, but with intellect now being a useless stat, I needed to find something else.
Using WoWHead’s item database, I quickly ascertained that Phytoskin Spaulders were the new Bee’s Knees as far as 49 hunter shoulders were concerned. They weren’t bad before, but now they were even better – losing the strength stat and gaining even more agility and stamina. Realizing that Razorlash was holding one of the pieces to my gear puzzle, it was time to go out to Mara and kick his ass repeatedly until he gave me what I came for.
12 kills later… Phytoskin Spaulders.
In addition to my shoulders, I had to replace my Bracer’s of the Stone Princess, which previously had intellect on them as well. No problem… I picked up the epic leather WSG bracers and I was all good. The last piece of gear I had unsettled were my drawers, which were unable to be equipped due to them requiring a trade skill that had since been removed from the game..?! Apparently Blizzard forgot to remove the specialization requirements for certain LW items when they removed the specializations themselves. Therefore, my Blackstorm Leggings were of no use… 🙁
Anyway, I figured they’d have that sorted out pretty quick, and they did.
Upon logging in this past week, I was pleased as punch to discover that the Elemental Leatherworking requirement had been removed!
Unfortunately, the delight from that pleasant surprise was quickly snuffed by the dismay over what had happened to all of my hard-earned Maraudon and Uldaman gear. In other words, most all of my gear…
Part of me is shaking my head – thinking… damn, how did I miss that..?! The other part of me is spouting obscenities, cursing Blizzard for constantly tampering with existing s**t. It took me a good while farming all of that über level 49 gear, and now it’s rubbish. 😡
I was really looking forward to jumping back into the 40-49 BGs, but now I need to re-assess my whole gear situation, buy new enchants, etc… The thought pisses me off actually.
While I do enjoy the whole process of building a twink, I hate the thought of having to re-do it completely. I was quite proud of what I accomplished to build this guy, and now it’s all for naught.
*long-drawn-out-sigh*
Anyway, I just wanted to vent some…
I’m done now… I think.
With the resurrection of twinking in Cataclysm, expect me to talk a fair bit about this aspect of the game.
Fewer abilities, with a greater emphasis on movement and positioning… now that’s the kind of PvP I like! Not to mention… you can get your toon battle-ready within days or weeks, rather than months.
I’m getting tired of this time-sink crap. No joke.
This is a subscription-based game, and Blizzard has cleverly crafted it so that you need to spend an ungodly amount of hours getting to where you feel you can be competitive. I hate that.
The beauty of twinking is… a skilled player can be geared and ready in days or weeks – leaving 100% of play-time for pure “fun”. No grinds, no farming, no time-sink… The only catch being… you need to enjoy PvP.
I do, so we’re all good there.