Form vs. Function

Have you ever gone for a piece of gear because it LOOKS good or do you not care about how your toon looks and go for the upgrades it will give your toon to their stats? This question didn’t really pop up in my mind until a certain female tank I respect was talking to me about a noob move I did way back when. So let’s talk about my situation and then you can decide what you think.

I was a member of a guild that was far beyond my level. Not only was my gear pretty low but also my experience was behind where they were as a guild. As a result I was doing instances that they were bored with and had run a million times. I was then forced to do what I could to work on higher-powered gear as a solo player. What do I do?

After making it into the Outlands with my high level toons I kept drooling over the way the Tier 1 set looked for the paladin. I asked my guildmates to help me run through the old-world "Vanilla WoW" content to help me get it. They constantly told me that the gear I would find in Outlands would blow it away, I wanted it because of its looks. The Lightforge Armor must be mine! http://www.wowwiki.com/Lightforge_Armor After attempts on my own to gather up some of the pieces I decided that it was best to move on into the Outlands and do as guildmates have said and work on Outlands content and gain new gear that way.

I leveled to 70 with both of my toons and then WHAM! I am back in the same boat, will the guild help me in the content I have to work on? Again, they had been level 70 for MONTHS at this point and had run heroics and dailies until they were blue in the face. So of course the guild chat would be silent when I asked for runs through regular instances.

I went to www.wowhead.com and started to look at gear and I always clicked on the “View in 3D” button and looked for gear that I thought looked good and then looked to see what I had to do to get it. Then, lo and behold, I saw the Grand Marshal's Lamellar Shoulders! http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28683 They look good don’t they? Instead of wasting my time with PUG’s I decided to waste my time getting yelled at in battlegrounds (BG’s) by those hardcore PvP folks that ask me why I am in battlegrounds without any resilience gear. (Refer to http://theexperiencednoob.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-can-i-get-experience-if-no-one-will.html) I can never win. But I stuck to it and ran battlegrounds and smiled at those who thought I was insane and I got my shoulders. But with all the time I put into the BG’s I could have gone into PUG’s and eventually got me more “Tiered” gear and probably even received less voices yelling at me like in BG’s.

What it boils down to, I learned that all gear could eventually be outgrown. So avoid the Auction House unless you are completing a set or you are worrying about materials for professions. Save your money for that ULTRA RARE set piece you REALLY want. Some gear may look ugly but may provide you that extra couple points of dodge or block as a tank. The form will come with the gear you will get in heroics and raids, until then you will have random pieces of gear that won’t match but who cares… would you rather stay alive or die looking pretty?

Again, it is a game. Go with what makes you feel good and is comfortable for you. You might like the “bright orange crocs with a business suit” (Glanthur, http://ctrlaltwow.blogspot.com/) while someone does not. It is your toon, you play it how you want to and just have fun.