Deien
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Tier gear and you
Deien over on the Mug'thol realm has proposed some interesting theories on the new Tier gear sets released since the expansion. He says in a recent forum post that he believes that the sets have not been improving substantially enough the way that the previous sets have. Now that we have five piece sets rather than the eight piece sets, he contends that the itemization is pretty much broken. It's much more difficult to mix and match set pieces to get the set bonuses you need. And the bonuses seem now to be focused on one type of game play, so if you aren't specc'd the right way, you get little benefit from having the complete set. This part I have to agree with. I know that with the Incanter's Regalia the first set bonus improves the casting time of Flamestrike. That's great, except that I'm a frost mage, so it's useless to me. And if it weren't for the fact that I am using Mana Shield instead of Ice Barrier, the set bonuses would end up being a waste of space on my little frame. Deien doesn't just give us some diatribe though in his post, he suggests a solution. He says remove the set bonuses completely. Now, before you flip out, let me just say that this isn't all. He proposes that Blizzard instead instigate a "Bonus Socket" on each item, a socket that has several choices of plusses to armor, spell damage, etc. In this way the set bonuses can be customized for the player's actual build and play style. It's an intriguing concept. Although I don't really agree that the Tier sets are "broken," I am always interested in ways that we might improve the current system. As it's been said before, a lot of the level 70 epic items will be getting revamps soon, so perhaps this all will be taken into account. I'd like to hear what you think on this. Do you have another option that might "fix" the Tier gear system? Or do you think it is fine the way it stands, and maybe I should just use the spells my gear tells me to? [via Deien]
