The Problem of 'ilvl Creep'

*Amateur math and statistics inside.

Everyone is familiar with the 'gearing up' routine in WoW: Defeat encounters and get better gear from them. Use this better gear to tackle the next, harder encounter. Get new gear from this harder encounter and take on the next, harder encounter. Get new gear from this harder encounter and...you get the picture.

There is no problem of gearing up, progressing, and moving forward in the game. In fact, there is quite a bit of fun to be had in the process! My problem is the current stage of WoW is suffering from 'ilvl creep'. What I mean is that quality of gear available to level 80 characters is creeping higher and higher with each content patch.

I assume most of you know by now that every item has an item level, or 'ilvl' that shows the item's relative power to other items. This means not every epic (purple) item is equal. Take, for example, Noth's Curse, a drop from Naxxramas 10-man. It's ilvl is 200. It has 184 points of stamina, intellect, and spirit combined. It also has 2 gem sockets, about a 1% increase in haste, and 85 spell power. Now let's look at the best current item of the same type, Runetotem's Headpiece of Triumph, at ilvl 258. It has 318 combined Sta/Int/Spi, 2 sockets, a 2% increase in crit, and 151 spell power. Very roughly calculated, the ilvl 258 piece has a 75% increase in stats!

(Yes this is one item of many, I checked some other comparisons and found similar increases of 65-75%)

Notice however, that ilvl 258 divided by ilvl 200 is 1.29, or only a 29% increase in ilvl. In other words, the amounts of stats on an item are increasing faster than ilvl is. For every ilvl you add, the item gets 1.29% stronger.

Enough numbers yet?

Here's some more - way back in 2004 dinosaurs roamed the earth, and the level cap was 60. Epic items were rumors, and the few level 60s that were around were busy conquering Upper Blackrock Spire and Scholomance. The highest ilvl item then? 63. 60->63, not a huge gap, eh? Then we got Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Ahn-Qiraj, and the first version of Naxxramas. When all was said and done, the level 60s were running around in tier 3 armor with an average ilvl of 88. 88/60=1.47. In other words, the gear was 47% over their level. Now at level 80, after 2 expansions and 6 more tiers of gear, we are at 258, (never mind that a few of the hard mode rewards are at ilvl 272!) 258/80=3.225, a 223% increase over their level.

I hope you can see through my slipshod math to the demonstrable trend: Gear is improving at an increasingly exponential rate compared to Character level and even to ilvl.

What if gear was scaled at original levels? The first tier of epic armor sets were at ilvl 66. 9 tiers at 6 ilvl per tier would put us up 54, to ilvl 114. That would put us at the level of gear dropped in Kharazan, the first raid dungeon in the Burning Crusade. This is roughly equal to the green gear you can pick up as a level 68 in Northrend. It seems to be straightforward, but why wasn't it done this way? I think its because players wouldn't get the satisfaction of noticeable improvement in their character.

If you raided throughout all the dungeons of WotLK and killed Arthas, but only gained 30 intellect and 50 spell power along the way, would the sense of accomplishment feel the same? Some would say yes, that the encounters and raiding are what is fun, not waggling your e-appendage around, and showing off gear to others. And, its entirely possible the game could have been designed that way. Just scale the bosses damage and health to match the quality and stats of the player's expected armor, but keep the demands of coordination and teamwork the same. If I have 10,000 health instead of 20,000, just make some damaging attack hit for 5,000 instead of 10,000.

This is getting kind of silly. In Cataclysm, will my level 85 mage have 50,000 health, 60,000 mana, and fireballs that hit for 25,000 damage? How is that different from having 5,000 health, 6,000 mana, and fireballs that hit for 2,500? They also have to keep readjusting values for secondary stats like crit, or we would have all hit 100% crit long ago.

However, Blizzard chose not to do it this way. Gear is creeping up, up, up, and it is getting to the point where character level and ilvl will become trivialized as markers of comparison and progression. It seems, unfortunately, that gear creep is being used to obfuscate the fact that our characters cannot progress in many other ways. Why can't my mage use a mace or learn a single healing spell? Why can't rogues learn to set a freezing trap? Why can't I develop and personalize my character more as I'd like to? Who cares, here's some gear that will make your fireball hit for 15,000 damage, oooo, aaaaa! For all the creativity and ability Blizzard has, it seems they are just pumping up item levels without considering other ways to progress characters.

Some of this is being addressed in Cataclysm with the Path of the Titans feature, and a lower level cap increase to only 85, but no new talents are being introduced. I still worry how ilvl creep will continue to grow and grow. As I stroll through Orgrimmar as a level 85 in my ilvl 420 gear, sitting at 6,000 spell power and 3,000 intellect, will it feel any different than it is now? Or will it just be an inflated balloon version of my current self, bigger but with no substance inside?

(*This post was inspired by a string of voa pugs I was in, three weeks in a row. The top dps and/or main tank left after beating Koralon - there is nothing of value dropped by the other bosses for them, not even emblems, so they just leave, stranding 22 locked out players without a main tank to continue. While it pisses me off, I can see their side of it, why should they waste their time on bosses that drop gear so inferior to the current t9? It wouldn't be an issue if there wasn't such a huge disparity in level 80 epic ilvls.)

Who, me? Main tank?

My Druid, ostensibly my 'main', has been, for the most part, a healer. I enjoy healing and especially healing as a druid. Of course I have dabbled in the many roles a druid can take. I have tried my hand at Boomkinning, and Cat-ting, and Bear-ing. But I always go back to the reliable old tree as my spec of choice. However, I had a great experience last night that may signal a shift in my druid's future.

Since my mage has become my dps character of choice, I have set my druid's second spec to bear tanking. If you look at any LFG in chat, tanks are always the most sought after, so I thought I'd make myself available. I've amassed a mishmash of gear that doesn't quite approach an optimal tanking set, but it does the job. I have the crafted frost resist items, which are notable for their huge amounts of stamina. I have a pvp belt from the latest season socketed up with epic stamina gems. Over the past couple months and especially since patch 3.2, my tank set has come together nicely, and now I sit at over 45,000 hit points with raid buffs. My dodge is so-so and I haven't squeezed every drop out of enchants and gems, but I felt I was in a 'good place' as far as my tanking goes.

It all came together when I ended up tanking the new Onyxia 10-man encounter. My guilds usual main tank was AWOL, and I was the next best choice, and we had the healers to cover my usual spot. It was a real thrill to charge in on Onyxia and tank her - I have also tanked Sartharion (0 drakes ezmode) and it seems Onyxia is a tad bigger. During the relatively static phase 1, I zoomed out my camera from the side and got an impressive view. It felt like a truly epic encounter.

The trickiest part was phase 3 where she fears the raid and I need to keep her head and swinging tail away from the raid. On the first attempt, I saw a loose add and moved over to grab it. I didn't realize that I faced her into one group, who promptly got fire-breathed, and the other group got a taste of her tail, and of course that was a wipe. Kinda funny to watch tho in that /facepalm kind of way. I really felt the responsibility of the encounter on my shoulders.

After 5 attempts everything clicked, and she went down. And what drops, but a very nice tanking neck piece. It was a real satisfying kill. It was a world different from tanking some heroic dungeon pincushion or other farm content. For our guild, it was a cutting edge-progression raid, with me leading the charge. I look forward to becoming a better tank and helping my guild out more in future challenges.

The Tree Healer Creed (Inspired by Big Bear Butt Blogger)

The Tree Healer Creed
(Inspired by Big Bear Butt Blogger)

I shall lay out all raid member's health bars upon my screen, so that I may observe their rise and fall, an undulation not unlike branches swaying in a gentle breeze.

If I see a health bar decrease, I shall click on that bar and place a spell of Rejuvenation on them. If the decrease was large, they may get another spell cast on them. If that spell is Nourish, Lifebloom, Swiftmend, or Regrowth, the possibilities are as numerous as my leaves.

The spell of Wild Growth shall always be on cooldown; when it is not cast many a wail of pain and death shall be heard.

I shall use a macro for my Battle Resurrection spell so that the raid and most importantly the recipient are aware that they are to soon rejoin the fray.

If the recipient of the Battle Resurrection spell is a caster, they shall also be bestowed an Innervate when they rise.

Should the ally I resurrected in battle die soon after they rise, I shall forgive them; such is the nature of life and death. But they shall be sweared at. 20 minutes cooldown is an eternity, even for a tree.

Should I need to, I will forsake the comforts of my boughs and revert to my common form to entangle an enemy in roots or envelop enemies in the fires of the moon and stars. But I will not like it.

If I am healing a tank, they shall receive the full blessing of my many heals, so many that they cascade upon one another, as drops of rain quench the thirst of burning, parched soil.

I shall not stand in the fire, or do other things that cause undue stress on my fellow healers. I shall also remember to heal myself should I commit such a grievous sin.

If no other suitable druid is at hand, I shall cast Thorns on the tank. Sometimes the workings of nature are subtle and delicate, but in the end a tangible contribution.

I shall gear myself in the finest of leathers and cloths of epic quality. Every bare patch shall be bejeweled in the finest of gems, and enchanted with the most magical of enhancements. But I shall never grind Hodir to exalted, for that is boring. Even a tree needs to have fun now and then.

I shall not secretly take the talents desirous for player versus player combat and hope no one notices; my talents and glyphs shall be purely selected and dedicated towards the goal of slaying our greatest foes.

The tree healer's motto: If the tank dies, it is our fault. If the DPS dies, it is our fault. If another healer dies, it is our fault. If we wipe, it was totally the paladin's fault.

DPS Land

Most of my raiding experience and endgame play has been as a healer. From Molten Core through to AQ40, and during BC in the arenas, I was a resto druid. Now in Wrath I have the resto Druid and a Holy paladin, who were, up to recently, the most played and best geared of all my characters.

Recently, the focus of my attention has been my Mage, and I am really enjoying the pure dps role.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoying healing, and I enjoy the challenge of being the guy that keeps everyone alive. But there is a selfish pleasure in going all-out dps, where your only worry is blasting the crap out of whatever is around you. Yes, I know there are moments where CC or a decurse is needed and DPS isn't all about blowing up things. But, 98% of my playtime as a mage is solely concentrated on dissolving foes using fire, ice, and arcane powers.

I've tried arcane and I am really intrigued by the aspect of managing cooldowns and mana use against various damage rotations for maximum output. I've gone through fire and frostfire specs with living bomb, where you can get some insane aoe damage going with a lot of visceral impact (I love the roaring fire sound made when hot streak procs). I've tried frost and was underwhelmed, it seems to be a spec designed for PVP play and not much else, where arcane and fire can shine in both settings. DPSing as a mage is not mindless or just spamming one button - to paraphrase, with a mage there is more than one way to blow up a cat.

PVP as a dps is much more satisfying than as a healer. A good pvp healer is like a jagged rock - attackers throw themselves at you but are eventually worn out and you outlive them. PVP as a DPS is much more proactive. People never feared my druid, some gave up after being unable to kill me, but as a mage, I have had people run away from me! It's a great sense of power.

Another thing I like is I can change spec and use the same gear for every spec! Sure, I know one spec favors haste over crit or bla bla bla, but unlike a druid or pally I have a lot more freedom to hop between specs without worrying about having 4 sets of gear (and yes my druid has 4 sets of gear + pvp gear!). Once or twice a week I have been trying out new specs and combinations, and enjoying every minute of it.

After starting out in the paltry level 78 frostweave PVP set, I am building up my PVP gear and now stand a good chance in most one-on-one fights. In PVE, I can hold my own and consistently average 3.5k dps, which is more than adequate for most of Ulduar and even Koralon, the new boss in VOA. I still have a lot of Naxx level gear and I hope to upgrade more items soon.

My first character (and first level 60) in WOW was a mage, and its coming full circle - my mage may very well become my new 'main'.

P.S. - If you like, check out the armory link on the right side of the page for Arcturus - you can see what a 'geared' mage looked like pre-raid in vanilla wow. I think I have maybe 70 spell power!

Random philosophosizing

My arm is getting better, and I have gotten back to playing WoW, just a little less nimbly. Can you imagine reaching to hit the esc or f1 key requiring undue effort? That is my reality for the time being.

Every player has, at one time or another, has sought after an item that just wont drop, or when it does drop, they don't win the roll. A fair share of drama and emotion revolves around these situations. It is also very easy, in the face of bad luck, to forget more fortuitous epsiodes.

My mage has been running Heroic Trial of the Champion every time I log on. The main reason is I am going after the caster dagger, which is the best caster weapon you can get from any 5-man instance, and quite a short and easy one at that. But I have yet to see it drop. To add insult to injury, it seems that rarely any cloth or caster items I can use drop either. It seems like an exercise in futility.

As I cast a glare at the underpowered blue dagger I am relegated to using, its so easy to overlook the fact my character sheet also shows t8 gloves and legs. How'd a guy who never sees the drops he's after get such nice gear? From sheer good luck. I did back-to-back Vaults of Archavon runs, 25-man and 10-man. And what should drop from Emalon both times? A T8 piece for mages! And who happens to be the only mage in both raids? Yours truly! You can never expect a drop just for you when running in a PUG raid, but fortune truly smiled on me that day.

In an even more fortuitous development, on Wednesday evening I was able to get into a PUG for Koralon, the brand new boss in the Vaults, on my Druid. This was no ordinary PUG. It was as if the minor deities of Azeroth twittered each other on an off day: "Hey man wanna go say hi to Koralon and kick his ass?" And I managed to slip in. Average dps in the group was well over 4,000. Everyone pulled their weight, no one stood in the fires and died. Koralon went down in one-shot. And when the T9.5 druid healer gloves dropped, who happened to be the only caster druid in the raid? Yours truly!

Just reflecting a bit on my recent experiences in-game. You may find yourself in a terrible PUG, a battleground full of AFKers, or the gear you want is just out of reach for one reason or another. Don't let it get to you. Its easy to forget the good, when the bad is staring you in the face. I know I'm coming off as a new-age hippy or something (I'm tempted to blame my pain medications), but don't stress about your in-game experiences, just enjoy yourself as much as you can and you will find many more rewards than you expected.