Dev Watercooler - The Great Item Squish (or Not) of Pandaria

[poptart]

I believe you can occasionally get essences from armor too?

VERY occasionally.

I cannot remember the percentages right now, but I think it is about 85%/15%...

Weapons gives 85% chance for essence, 15% chance for dust

Armor gives 85% chance for dust, 15% chance for essence

And since quest rewards (the primary source for enchanting mats early in an xpac) and random BoE gear drops favor armor over weapons by a large amount....dust is always more plentiful until something like the Spikes industry gets going.

Poptart

[Tev]

In Cataclysm they changed uncommon/rare/epic qualities to not have an effect on stat allocation, so that's why.

So they got rid of Blues having X% more points over a Green, or do you mean they no longer have the item points itemized like crap (i.e. greens with all their points in spirit)?

You have a link to this information? I want to read up more on it and what else I may have missed.

[Skye1013]

In Cataclysm they changed uncommon/rare/epic qualities to not have an effect on stat allocation, so that's why.

So they got rid of Blues having X% more points over a Green, or do you mean they no longer have the item points itemized like crap (i.e. greens with all their points in spirit)?

You have a link to this information? I want to read up more on it and what else I may have missed.

I don't have a link, but if you compare a green and blue item of the same ilvl, they will have equivalent stats. They made it so color corresponds with how early you receive an item (for example: blue 318s being available in Deepholm, green 318s being available in Twilight Highlands, but the stat allocation being the same.)

Honestly, I think new 5 mans should drop blues, while new raids drop purples. You could have a rare chance to drop a purple from 5 mans (much like the starting heroics for TBC/LK) thereby allowing the crystals to still be obtainable outside of raiding. Alternatively, make LFR blue, normal raids purple, heroic raids "heroic" purple. Sure that introduce blue tier gear, but that isn't unprecedented with the dungeon sets of classic/TBC.

[Tev]

I guess it comes down to... why have the colors any more (other than for disenchanting). At least I know now that iLvL is the sole determination for item quality now (well other than stat distribution).

[Paxen]

I think it would be awesome if items bought for valor/conquest were epic, but the same items bought (later) for justice/honor would be blue, even though the ilvl and stats were identical.

5 mans could drop blues too - they are attained at the same time as higher ilvl epics aren't they!

[Nikachelle]

I think it would be awesome if items bought for valor/conquest were epic, but the same items bought (later) for justice/honor would be blue, even though the ilvl and stats were identical.

I like this.

[Worldie]

I think it would be awesome if items bought for valor/conquest were epic, but the same items bought (later) for justice/honor would be blue, even though the ilvl and stats were identical.

I like this.

Would get my approval too, but that's not something we'll ever see.

[KysenMurrin]

Wonder why they don't just copy part of the PvP model, and have a set of gear on the lower currency that just gets its ilevel bumped every tier.

[Hrobertgar]

They allow some limited enchanting mat conversions.

For example you can take lvl 60 epic shards and convert them to lvl 70 blue shard fragments and then convert those to lvl 70 epic shards.

Perhaps we could suggest to Blizz that if they push the same Dust bonanza at the expense of essences, that they then allow conversion of dust into essences via some obscure and highly inefficient process. Like 10 dust per essence, even a lesser essence.

[Sabindeus]

I think it would be awesome if items bought for valor/conquest were epic, but the same items bought (later) for justice/honor would be blue, even though the ilvl and stats were identical.

I like this.

Would get my approval too, but that's not something we'll ever see.

I don't get the point of this... you're basically asking for the items to denote when they were purchased on the tooltip, essentially?

[Flex]

I don't get the point of this... you're basically asking for the items to denote when they were purchased on the tooltip, essentially?

There is no point to it outside of "I am better than you because I got it when it was harder/took longer to get."

[Sabindeus]

I don't get the point of this... you're basically asking for the items to denote when they were purchased on the tooltip, essentially?

There is no point to it outside of "I am better than you because I got it when it was harder/took longer to get."

that's dumb. :|

[Sabindeus]

In Cataclysm they changed uncommon/rare/epic qualities to not have an effect on stat allocation, so that's why.

So they got rid of Blues having X% more points over a Green, or do you mean they no longer have the item points itemized like crap (i.e. greens with all their points in spirit)?

You have a link to this information? I want to read up more on it and what else I may have missed.

Correct. In Cataclysm, Green/Blue/Epic is more of a relationship between item level and level available, i.e. at L81 you might get a item level 278 green from a regular quest but an ilvl 292 blue from a group/dungeon quest.

[Worldie]

I don't get the point of this... you're basically asking for the items to denote when they were purchased on the tooltip, essentially?

There is no point to it outside of "I am better than you because I got it when it was harder/took longer to get."

that's dumb.

Well that's sort of how PvP gear works right now. It says "ahah you are stupid you bought that gear spending hard farmed CP when i bought it at higher ilvl spending mere HP"

[theckhd]

I don't get the point of this... you're basically asking for the items to denote when they were purchased on the tooltip, essentially?

There is no point to it outside of "I am better than you because I got it when it was harder/took longer to get."

that's dumb.

I think people are entirely too caught up in what color their items are, honestly. On both sides of the argument.

I wouldn't bat an eye if Dragon Soul dropped blues instead of purples. If that's the gear I need to wear to work on challenging content and get enjoyment out of the game, that's what I'll wear. Gear is a means to an end. Yes, it's a status symbol, but the status is derived from how difficult that gear is to obtain, not from the color.

The old days of "purple = hard to get" are long gone, and people really need to get used to it. I don't think it's ever coming back, and it doesn't need to. A Dragonslayer or Firelord title says 100 times more than any tooltip does, anyway.