The State of Epics

An interesting thing happened to me today while doing my Daily Heroic. A Bind on Equip epic dropped, and I didn't even pay attention, I just saw "lvl 200 epic" and hit the DE button...worse I won. The rest of the group screamed "You could have sold that!!" And I noticed that my response was....ambivalence. I just didn't care that I had just disenchanted an epic...it has just become so common place in our lives at this point. Sure I might have been able to sell it on the AH for a couple hundred gold, but really I make that every day just from doing daily quests. Taking the time to go back to the old world to post a level 200 epic on auction house with at least 4 others of the same type just didn't appeal to me in the slightest.

When I first stated playing WoW over four years ago epics were the types of things only the most dedicated players could possibly possess. You spent hours raiding or doing PvP to gain matching sets of epic gear. The only other option was the RARE BoE epic drop which sold for thousands of gold on the auction house. Having an epic MEANT something in those days, they were quite frankly status symbols. When you saw someone walk by wearing matching gear sets you KNEW that this was a SERIOUS player.

Now a days we have epics coming out of our ears. The color purple means nothing to us anymore. Instead the focus is all on the item level. With item level the thought is the higher the better. The only problem is the vast majority of our epics look EXACTLY alike so unless you are the type of person who inspects every person you encounter you have no CLUE if the person you are running with is sporting level 251 or 277 gear.

Now I AM a girl so I enjoy having my outfits "match" as much as the next person. Wandering around looking like you just raided the rag bag or were blessed with someone's hand me downs isn't appealing to say the least. At the same time, looking back the set of Pvp gear I had in Vanilla Wow it meant A LOT more to me than ANY of my tier 10 has. (And this isn't just due to the Leaper look of tier 10 either.) I knew I had EARNED that gear by spending 4+ hours a day running battlegrounds. Even my DROP epics meant more....to this day I STILL have fond memories of Vis'kag the Bloodletter and the Bloodfang Hood some of the few PvE epics I had at that point.

Then we entered Burning Crusade. All those pieces I had used for about a year or more were suddenly being replaced with GREENS!?!? OH THE HORROR!! I would cringe inside as I was forced to DESTROY those pieces that had almost become extensions of myself. Once more I looked like a walking rag bag, even worse since it seemed every upgrade pair of pants I got was sporting holes in the knees. At that time we all couldn't fathom it, were epics loosing their luster? By the time Burning Crusade ended many saw the writing on the wall, it really wasn't that difficult for the most CASUAL player to be sporting gear almost equivalent to the highest levels and most dedicated play.

As time has progressed full sets of epics are now being replaced every few months. We don't have time to get attached to any one piece, at most we just complain about how each new set looks or peruse the stats with sheets of Best in Slot gear. As this expansion winds down Blizzard has told us that the gear we get from ICC should last us for a while into Cataclysm. I am going to assume they mean like Tier 6 lasted into Wrath, meaning no one was really replacing any of it until they level capped again.

A part of me is rather pleased that at least THIS set of gear MAY last me for a few MONTHS rather than weeks (even if I don't care for the look of it) another part of me wonders if with this explosion of epics, we all lost sight of what it means to truly ACCOMPLISH something. To feel like we really EARNED a piece. Yeah, every piece of gear gotten from running heroic randoms WAS earned, and yeah, people are pleased with each new piece acquired, but the over all thrill of the achievement seems gone.

I know the elitist jerks have been spouting for a while that all these epics lessens THEIR accomplishments, but it is more than that. By lowering the playing field so much they have lessened ALL of our accomplishments. Sometimes the shiny things handed out so freely are not what people really NEED even if they say they do. Sometimes it is the knowledge that they worked HARD to get what they have acquired.