Operation Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall have begun!
Patch 3.3 PTR: Craftable nature resist gear
by Eliah Hecht 
Oct 1st 2009 at 11:30PM
The patch 3.3 PTR is up (as you must have noticed if you're reading the same site I'm writing on), and among other things, it contains a battery of crafted gear that confers nature resistance for users of the various armor classes. There's leg and foot wear for all armor types, in various versions where appropriate (like DPS/tanking/spell for plate).
This is a pretty good sign that we're going to want/need nature resist somewhere in Icecrown Citadel. The mats list is another hint in that direction, calling as it does for Icecrown Thing of Crafting Things [PH]. It's a good thing they put "PH" there, or I might not have known the name was a placeholder.
But seriously folks, get ready to craft another set of resistance gear. I'm not particularly jazzed about this myself - I mostly raid as a druid these days, and we have little enough bag space as it is - but I guess it's one way to make sure players don't consume the content too quickly (if they have to stock up on Things of Crafting Things from earlier bosses first). Still seems like a silly hoop to make us jump through.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kirkules Oct 1st 2009 11:34PM
lol, I hope it's not a PlaceHolder.
Phish Tawko Oct 1st 2009 11:37PM
That's... Exciting?
Elmouth Oct 2nd 2009 12:05AM
I was just reading a thread on the wow forums yesterday about how lame and cheap it was of blizz to use resist gear as a mean to artificially slow down progression and that it would obviously never be used again.
I lol'd
But I agree, this is a very cheap way to proceed, if resist is needed by everyone and their mothers.
devilsei Oct 2nd 2009 12:38AM
Honestly, blizzard has really screwed up when it comes to the last raid they added (ToC), and adding in an arbitrary grind of bosses to get items to craft gear to kill the next boss, is only going to make it worse.
I hate how I HAVE to grind badges out for Tier gear, instead of being able to buy maybe the head and chest piece with badges, and able to earn it through other ways. I also hate how I have to roll against every other person in a 25man just to get a trophy, when at least with restricted tokens, I had a chance. It wasn't enough they actually made players wait a full month just for the dungeon to fully unlock, nope.
If they keep this convoluted Tier system AND add in a mandatory "grind boss for X weeks for Y pieces of Z resist gear", I swear I'm just gonna quit until Cataclysm (but honestly, archealogy seems like one big mandatory time-grinder as well). This entire expansion has been one whole bait-and-switch in terms of what Blizzard says, and what they do.
They WERE going to give away Cold Weather flying through quests, but in the end, say f*** you and make you pay.
They WERE going to keep with the tiered emblem system to promote progression, but go back on their words in no time.
They WERE going to make sure gear never goes to waste, but then they implement VoA and its horrid extremely-luck-and-RNG-based loot system.
They WERE going to never use another arbitrary limit on a raid to try and milk out money from the player base, but looky here...
Yep... Hello World of B-TeamCraft...
Maxpowr Oct 2nd 2009 2:53AM
@ Devilsei.
Welcome to classic WoW! Where you had to farm Onyxia to get scales to make the Onyxia scale cloak so that each raid member (count 40) had one so they could actually survive in BWL. Not to mention EVERY raid member had to be attuned to even enter Onyxia's lair (classic players will remember Jailbreak VERY well).
Even BT with Mother Shahraz had the gear block when you needed to farm Hearts of Darkness to make shadow resistance gear.
Personally, this is a welcomed refresher to the raiding scene. We all don't like these "blocks". However, it just makes the end result that much more epic when you and your guild worked so hard to get all the stuff needed to take down that baddie.
Honestly though, if you are gonna complain about an RPG that involves grinding, you are playing the wrong genre.
Boydboyd Oct 2nd 2009 7:46AM
First and foremost, I agree with Maxpowr that these changes almost seem like a shift in some of the dungeon requirements of Vanilla.
Personally, I don't mind having to grind out some resist gear from a boss. I know I'm probably part of a minority in that respect, but it could be worse: I could be doing something in Real Life instead. (Yuck!)
So why did Devilsei get downrated? Sure he's obviously not happy with some of the changes, but he wasn't flaming anyone or trolling really. Since when did voicing your opinion become bad when it is against a certain change?
Eshin Oct 2nd 2009 2:10PM
Finally some checks and balances and some things you have to work on to progress. I'm not looking for a sun-well type level but I am sure as hell looking for some kind of prep. I'm tired of people not showing up for runs because they have all the gear they want. I'm happy that we will once again have to work together to advance. No more seeing Prom, or Ensida clearing content in a week. Now they have to work some time for it.
devilsei Oct 3rd 2009 1:27PM
Max, please, please do not assume that because it is an RPG (which it isn't, it's an MMO, there is actually a difference) that grinding is a necessity.
Why do I not like mandatory gear blocks? Because, it replaces skill with numbers. I'd rather down a boss after several hours of throwing ourselves against them, learning his attacks, learning what to and not to stand in, and when to stare into his giant lid-less gaze, instead of throwing on a bunch of resist gear and heading down easy street. I am not saying that the bosses that require said resistance gear will be that simple, but it practically assures that as long as you have that set of gear, it will be easier. Its just a way to artificially boost the time it takes for people to actually reach the end.
I can understand the almost nostalgic feeling that some people get from this, but WoW isn't Vanilla anymore, and it also isn't TBC. The people that enjoyed such grinds are, and always will be the minority, and Blizzard's design choices were tailored towards allowing more to see higher tiered content.
Boyd, main reason I assume is because I was, in their eyes, doing something much worse, "flaming" Blizzard for going back on several choices they publicaly stated. I actually liked the idea of Tiered badges, promoted actually working towards a goal. They should of stuck with it, or never have implemented it at all.
Eshin, this doesn't change that really. They'll grind for the resist gear, then when they are done with all the gear they wanted, if they are the type who snub you off if they got what they wanted, they won't come regardless of the fact. It just means you have more of a reason to Gkick them (and considering this is the final raid for LK, they won't care anyways).
And, since this is more of an off-topic thing, I'm putting it bottom. Max, look up a little game called Disgaea for me, I'm far more used to grinding than you assume. Try repeating one stage over 200 times, where you got it down to a science and can do it eyes closed, just to get a character past lvl 300 (in my case, mine hit lvl 1200). The game's max level is 9999, and only needed if you try for the highest of high parts of the game, which I'm working towards.
Split Oct 6th 2009 10:06AM
@devilsei tl;dr
However, I did read first couple lines and want to point out that World of Warcraft is an MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Just fyi.
devilsei Oct 7th 2009 5:34PM
True, but MMO is easier to say and type, the RPG is just to be rather picky about it :P
As for the TL:DR thing, I'll do it for both posts.
"Blizzard's B-teams need to look up what the A-teams said while working on Lich King, and stop going back on changes that were stated not going to happen, as in the arbitrary resist-gear raid grinds (which doesn't equate to skill), or badges for current tier from heroics. Though the A-team did similar things, as with the Cold Flying originally being a quest (a rather easy one at that) reward, and did nothing to help the supposed "No one did it" problem they remedied with simple letters in the mail before. And also all of VoA, they wanted to get rid of the gear-going-to-waste issue, but all the VoA runs I see, at least one piece from each boss is DE'd, thus wasted."
Craig R Oct 1st 2009 11:39PM
we deal with resist gear every day. resilience is just the resist gear of PvP.
you can't progress until you have some.
Tyrrax Oct 1st 2009 11:46PM
Seriously, can we dispense with this crap? All we'll end up getting this worthless gear that we won't use in any other situation. When we're not using it for one, maybe two special fights they'll do nothing but take up inventory space.
This is a stupid mechanic that needs to go.
Mattias Oct 1st 2009 11:46PM
I'm guessing that those items haven't been statted out yet, and the nature resist is a placeholder. If you look at all the craftable items, it's only the three blacksmithing plate legs that have the nature resist (and 55 stam, which seems absurdly low for the ilvl) on them. Cloth and leather do not have any nature resist craftables shown.
Tradyk Oct 1st 2009 11:57PM
What Mattias said, those stats are definitely placeholder stats. If you look at the leather items, there's only two actual sets of stats for all 6 items. It's too early to be making any sort of calls about itemisation in IC yet.
iamwolfthing Oct 2nd 2009 12:01AM
Riveting.
Leviathon Oct 2nd 2009 12:16AM
Placeholders are placeholders
Ablimoth Oct 2nd 2009 12:43AM
I am 100% certain it is placeholder stats. 6 XXXXX Orbs to craft something required by the whole raid? I call shennanigans.
staffan.johansson Oct 2nd 2009 4:57AM
I agree with the sentiment that these are almost certainly placeholders. If you look at the patch notes from mmo-champion, you will see six different blacksmith plans, but if you look closer you'll see that it's three different names for legs with 2210 armor, 55 stam and 60 nature resist; and three different names for boots with 1736 armor, 69 Str, 126 stam, red+blue socket, 49 crit and 48 haste. Similar things apply to the leather and cloth recipes as well.
Further, nature resistance gear just doesn't make sense in the Icecrown context. I could see it have some use in a plague-themed encounter, but on the whole I reckon frost and shadow resistance would be more useful.
QQinsider Oct 2nd 2009 6:42AM
Agreed, it's just a placeholder stat, author jumped to conclusions.
Kanap Oct 2nd 2009 8:08AM
Well we already have frost resist gear, and shadow does make sense but you never know what they are going to make one of the encounters as. I mean yes this could just be a place holder but bliz did release those back resist enchants which I thought were pretty useless.