Raiding - Gear vs Skill
The gap between gear and skill
Throughout the history of World of Warcraft there has been massive debate around the Gear > Skill or Skill > Gear ways of thinking, while they each have valid points to make it seems pretty obvious to me that it’s all very dependant on which point in an expansion phase we are at. Reading that back it doesn’t seem instantly apparent what I mean by that so keep reading and I will explain.
Initial Expansion Release
After an initial expansion release the level cap has been raised, the new areas have just opened and new features and content added. During this period of time people are exploring, getting used to new talent builds and changes in abilities, new equipment and quests and not to mention any new instances and bosses that have been released. All in all this is an exciting time but very much a time where learning the new aspects of the game is done while levelling up in preparation for the end game. At this point the Gear vs Skill debate is largely irrelevant as people are levelling up and their kit changing so often it’s very difficult to compare like for like.
Heroic Farming Post Expansion
Once your server has started to enter the post levelling raid content and more people have reached that level cap the Gear vs Skill debate starts to focus on what gear a character has, more than is sometimes healthy. Large numbers of heroic dungeon runs will be completed while people collect the easy to get epics and the emblems or badges that are currently in use in an effort to kit themselves up ready for raiding. It’s at this point that some people start to emerge as being on top of their game, I’ve been into heroic instances with well kitted people who just play badly and don’t perform well but I’ve also been in with some folks in mainly green kit with a smattering of blues and been pleasantly surprised, it’s those people that you can see massive potential in for the future tiers of raiding content, it’s at this point that Gear vs Skill debate starts to take on more meaning, even though the majority of the WoW community still focus very heavily on what a player is wearing.
First Raiding Tier Post Expansion
Ok so the heroics are done, the majority of your server is now at the level cap, they are kitted well enough to enter the first tier of raiding content post the expansion release and there are teams going into the raid instances on a daily basis. The first tier of raid content after a new expansion is generally the easiest, historically we can say that places like Karazhan and Naxxramas are entry level raid instances and will yield high returns on kit upgrades for minimal expertise and skills. It’s here that we can see that raiding players increase their kit levels a substantial degree and combined with the emblems from heroics and raid bosses most players will be kitted to at least 2 pieces of tier with a great majority hitting 4 pieces very early on. With the amount of loot that is available and each player having access to some of the best gear where there are sometimes only a few stat points difference between varying combinations of kit this is when the Skill > Gear debate really starts to spark an interest but because we are still on easy raid content there are very few situations where the skill of a player really needs to shine through as the level of gear is almost certainly enough to carry them through some major and a great deal of minor errors.
Second Raiding Tier Post Expansion
As more raiding content is released and we hit into the second tier of raiding post an expansion release we can see that there is now potential for a much larger opportunity for a player to show their skill against their gear level. Fights become more complex and (in theory) increase in difficulty, this in turn means that the top quality of loot is available to less players and therefore you have a two fold situation. Does the player that is wearing the gear have higher skills or have they in turn been carried through the higher level raiding content by their guild or friends? I have encountered many situations where there are players who bounce from guild to guild where they never settle because quite honestly they are not up to the standard, they hang around long enough to get one or two pieces of kit and then have to move on because they find themselves letting the team down. Adversely I also have seen many members join a guild who have less than the best quality kit available to them but out perform members who are much better kitted than them, how can you explain this away? Two reasons come to mind, either the people they are outperforming are not doing as well as they perceive or the person doing well has a better understanding of their class and a better ability to use that class to it’s full potential. Second tier raiding starts to stretch the gap between those who bumble through and those who actually know what they are doing.
Third Tier Raiding Post Expansion
This is where it starts to become apparent between those who actually play the game to excel and those who take a much more casual attitude. More in depth strategy and increased difficulty (again subjective I know!) helps to weed out those that don’t keep up the pressure and pace, giving those who perform well access to again the top level loot and in theory a good way to identify them would be to do an equipment check. This isn’t the case anymore, with the latest scenario we find ourselves with a great deal of opportunity for the casual gamer to get high level kit, and even if the absolute top level items are not available to them the encounters and instances are not so finely tuned that they cant be completed with less than the best kit. Another reason to start thinking that just because a person is running around in good kit that they have a high level of ability. Be careful now, this is where the Gear vs Skills debate starts to get heated. Do you really think in the current WoW climate that a person sporting decent level epics must be skilled in the games mechanics and finer points and have a good ability to play the game?
Continuing onwards
I strongly suggest that people stop looking at Kit as an indication of skill and start to look at the player themselves, take notice of talent trees, enchants and gems used. I would much rather take a person into a raid that has 1 or 2 pieces of lower iLevel gear but knows the strategy and can play their character than someone who is decked out in top tier kit. This may sound mental to a lot of people but it’s about reliability, I know I can rely on that person to do their job well and to execute the plan and strategy correctly, as long as they have a good enough output so that we can complete the encounter successfully I don’t care what they are wearing. In all honesty if they do their job and provide me with either a stable and solid tank, a good output healer who is both proactive and reactive or an excellent level of DPS then they could be naked for all I care!
Here’s the crux of the matter folks
Stop worrying about the guys who doesn’t have 100% top level epics because right now kit is available so freely it’s no indication of skill and quite often the skilled person will outplay the unskilled even in the full top level tier versus the previous raiding tier.
So there you have it.
SKILL > GEAR
….because gear is just so damn easy to get these days.
Comments and Flames welcome… I’m sure not everyone agrees with me, just be polite
Cyb.
Last Updated on Monday, 14 June 2010 13:48 Written by Cybac Monday, 07 September 2009 13:45