Who is gonna raid now with the iLvl 110 gear handed to people??

[Krr]

If you go back far enough, people coveted other people over signs of fertility such as big hips and large mammary glands.

Given that we kind of need those to reproduce and exist as a species, yes. It's quite a bit different from desiring internet swords or large piles of green paper or gold, things we don't require for survival but demand in excess anyway.

[Worm]

Going strong? Lol one would pay their subs and has been deemed a failure if you READ.

Gosh that little bit of sarcasm flew right over your head. Look, it's not my fault you're using a sliding scale for what F2P means. TOR is F2P because it supports your arguments and EQ2 is subscription based because it supports your arguments. I'm sure contradictions like this don't even register to you anymore. I mean afterall who cares if you're honest right, being a professional MMO forum arguer is about shouting down the opposition and scaring anyone who reads your post.

[Wolf_Gang]

MMOs aren't all about raiding.

[Kerrigen]

Some people get their satisfaction from clearing content, not from the carrot they get from it, and some people are just interested in the carrot. I'm fine with both groups coexisting, even though the second group will never be satisfied when this game is bound to become an endless treadmill for gear. What I'm not fine with is a single piece of ("casual" yet competitive) content eclisping almost everything else in terms of rewards.
To the people who are hurt that filthy casuals can now get the same ilv as raiders (if you've been raiding from the start of 2.2, you're probably gearing your second, third and fourth job by now unless unlucky but eh), welcome to catch-up patches. There will be tears when the items you're handed through quests are better than your raiding gear from previous raid tier when the first expansion drops, and I'm not looking forward to it.

[Kiara1]

MMOs aren't all about raiding.

I agree with this!
I'm not raiding cause 1. I don't have time and 2. Actually number 1 is enough
But I'm enjoying the game anyway, going for all the cute glamours, collecting minions and I actually like the hunt (in the morning when people seem to be more mature and helping eachother out)

The game is what you make it, and if raids is all you think the end game should have I think you might be playing the wrong game

[Dwill]

If you look not only at what I've posted in the past but listen to my podcast as well, you will see I am supportive of more options for endgame and that the sands behind handed out like candy was a mistake especially with people cheating their way to get them asap. However, non-raiders (Casual and mainstream alike) want to feel a sense of progression, not a barrier. Raiders however are the bleeding edge of content. I mean heck, they technically got a HARDER second coil this patch. Considering this is the THIRD patch that's a rather big deal.

No offense meant but I don't have the time to look at every person that I reply to post history so I'll just take your word for it. I understand the need for a sense of progression but giving some the best iLvL item for nearly not the same effort at all is not the best of idea for the health of the game.

I can't even begin to tell you how revisionist this narrative is. Post-Wrath WoW wasn't too easy; it was too twelve-damn boring and dry and Ghostcrawler couldn't get his head out of his rear when people told him the talent revamp totally ruined several specs.
The godawful lazy nostalgia design and obsessive recycling of dungeons and bosses nobody wanted to see or cared about again is what screwed up post-Cataclysm WoW, not some mystic plague of casuals that wanted to do ICC10 right before it became obsolete.

That's funny because a lot of what was done in WoW was to please the casual playerbase yet when given what they asked for, it's not what they exactly wanted. Big surprise there. Honestly, the rest of your post lost credibility once you've pointed Ghostcrawler. (Hint: WoW's decision making, heck every MMO's decision making is made as a team and not by a particular individual)

MMOs aren't all about raiding.

Nor is it all about casuals thinking that anything that doesn't fit their ideology of fun isn't good.

[Kerrigen]

I agree with your sentiment completely. However, don't you think it is absurd to institute such a strong catch up mechanism half way through a raid content cycle? I think most people expect catch-up mechanism when a new raid is released, not while players are still raiding that tier as the highest level of content.

It's completely stupid and they botched their rewards system hardcore, we're in agreement. People should not have been able to get sands that fast. They should have been able to get ilv110 through welfare systems during the 3-4 months of this patch cycle. That was the whole point of a tiered tome gear system, to let raiders have their fun first and keep raiding gear relevant throughout the tier.
Besides, there's already a cap in place to prevent people from gearing all their jobs (meaning capping out sands/oils will eventually happen), and I expect it to be removed when 2.4 hits. By that time, raiders should have most of their jobs at 100-110 while non raiders will only have 1 or 2.

[Nel_Celestine]

It's completely stupid and they botched their rewards system hardcore, we're in agreement. People should not have been able to get sands that fast. They should have been able to get ilv110 through welfare systems during the 3-4 months of this patch cycle. That was the whole point of a tiered tome gear system, to let raiders have their fun first and keep raiding gear relevant throughout the tier.
Besides, there's already a cap in place to prevent people from gearing all their jobs, and I expect it to be removed when 2.4 hits. By that time, raiders should have most of their jobs at 100-110 while casuals will only have 1 or 2 (well, would have, if SE hadn't made it so you could get all the sands you need within a few days).

really? Is that what non-raiders are? Welfare collectors? I agree that sands/oils were handed out far to fast but is that really the best term for this?

[axemtitanium]

Whenever I see someone in full soldiery gear, I /r/cringe. With sands and oils coming from hunts, my reaction still will not change. Let the hunters spam if they want.

[Nabian]

I think what most people are upset with in regards to gear is the timing of the "catch-up" phase. I among many others feel it was done too early. Placing the echo in coil 1 two weeks after coil 2 was released was brilliant timing imo. It gives the hardcore players a chance to work on new content, while giving other players a chance to catch up. If they had released sands/oils into the hunts "after" the release of coil 2 when the new level cap is ilvl130 I would have been perfectly content with them giving handouts to lazy players. I say lazy because lets be honest...raiding takes very minimal time. Unless your part of blue garter or one of the other hardcore end-game FC, many typical raiders raid on average of 5-6 hours per week.

Why are casual players so afraid of letting the higher skilled players have better gear than them. As others have said, if your not raiding then really there isn't much point to having i110 gear. The most challenging dungeon outside of raids requires ilvl 70. At ilvl100 your gear is 30 levels over the minimum of what you need. Is that not enough?

Also before people complain about *entitled this....elitist that* I have yet to clear t8 and have only cleared t7 twice. Yet, despite this, even I feel that gear is being handed out too freely.