You hate the LFR!? You hate dailies!? Shut it!

This post was written prior to patch 5.1 release, but was published after!

So many raiders and podcasters and bloggers and forum trolls and guildies and... **********... complain about gearing up in Mists. Whether it is by grinding rep or if it's through the LFR very few players are content with the current situation. And as more raids are being released it will become even more obvious that this "problem" is related to the first months of the expansion and nothing else.

Want to know how to clear content in a WoW or Gold fashion? Reach the required ilevel to enter the raid, know everything there is to know about the encounters and choose players that fit or that can think while doing their thing, on the move, rather than the highest ilevel junkies. Finally, learn from every single wipe and have the courage to try new things, especially if your setup is different due to the lack of available classes.

There's much more walls of text after the jump and i'm really fed up with ALL of the cry babies!


Being undergeared is being overgeared, if you make sure every single player in the raid does their job. No, i'm not pro, i'm not even good, but with the new mindset i'll become so much better than I ever was. If my hunter can do more dps with lower ilevel than a certain caster class that is overpowered in a certain fiery specc, then it comes down to player skill level and knowledge rather than the gear. If people spend the same time they do to obtain the LFR or dailies gear, the increase in the players value for their raid grows so much larger than if they just went for pure stats. That's why the best raiders in the world clear content faster.

The question is why do people feel forced to grind dailies or do the LFR for epics? Here's some answers that I can think of without putting a lot of effort into answering the question.

• It's epic. You'd be suprised how many players that exist that are addicted to the epic color, even if it does nothing to help your character progress @ raids.
• It exists, therefore I have to do it. Many MMO players are completionists and if you're the kind of player that enjoys the competitive side of things this might turn your 'completionitism' (yes, the Cow made that up) into an addiction that can't be controlled at all.
• They removed the daily cap, so now I have to do them all. This was more true in the past and as the hosts said @ the Horde for life podcast it is what Blizzard has taught us to do. You can do them all, but you don't have to. The "you don't have to" part is very important! In Mists you have multiple choices compared to any earlier expansion. Know what you want to do with your toon/toons and stick to that plan. If you get bored, do something else or take a break. Do not burn out doing dailies or the LFR because you "have to".
• My guild forces every raider to do them. If you're guild forces you to, it's YOU not taking responsiblity for how YOU play the game that YOU are subscribing too. Change guild or burn out while pleasing your guild master. I'd discuss it and depending on how I felt about the guild after that, i'd agree or leave. Also, if it's below a top 400 guild (a kind value), drop the enforcing. Some things are pretty black and white and my guess is that this is one of those topics. If my Guild mom was unreasonable on this i'd consider moving my main.
  
• I need the gear, so that I can clear the content faster. So you spend time gearing up elsewhere rather than smashing your head against the wall (the progression boss for your level) and making sure you improve your skills and teamwork? No wonder you keep on wiping, even after getting all those upgrades! I laugh at this mentality and i'll be honest, some of my guildies have it too. 

There's tons of more answers, but I won't spend more time dwelling on them. Here's how I look at the situation, simple and plain.

• Take responsibility for your own play time and say no if someone tries to force you to do the LFR or dailies.
• Run heroics non stop (if you can stand it). And only run specifics to begin with to maximize the chance of getting drops. If you can run hc's with multiple gear drops for your class/specc that's even better. The Valor won't matter unless you want to grind dailies and factions.
• Have a plan and stick to it. Only change your plan when you get bored or have enough reasons to. In Mists this is more important than anything else you do in-game since this expansion can be the worst time sink if you just act like a "dog chasing cars" (The Joker!)
• Focus on gearing up the lowest pieces first. They usually hurt you the most when it comes to ilevels.
• Grab what you can for whatever Justice points you have. They add up and are kind of useless unless you need tons of gear or heirlooms for alts.
  
• Even if you Valor cap weekly, you need the rep to use that gear. If you hate dailies don't set Valor capping as a goal. Pray that they nerf it down the road or use the Valor to upgrade the gear drops you get (will be introduced in patch 5.1).
• Realize that WoW has changed and that you can do multiple things at max level. You can CHOOSE between doing dailies, LFR, pet battles, PvP, raiding, Tillers and much more. This is something new to WoW. Adapt to it!
• Ding level 89 and quest in the Dread Wastes for higher ilevel gear and Klaxxi rep (yes, a faction for dailies since you care about them so much). If you enjoy dungeons run some every now and then to speed things up and have a chance to get some gear with higher ilevel.
• At level 90 you can buy PvP upgrades with Honor or Gold to boost your ilevel to replace your worst pieces. The stats will work for PvE as well and the PvP stats that are added are simply extra stats. An example is http://www.wowhead.com/item=84407 (PvP) which is similar to http://www.wowhead.com/item=81252 (PvE).
• The epic PvP gear can be competitive with the PvE gear, so if you PvP actively look into the possibility of grinding PvP related content rather than PvE.
• If you have a lot of gold to spend, buy what you think is worth buying and see your ilevel increase by small increments. I bought the DMF trinket for my Hunter. Later on I sold a crafted version that I had made for less than I bought it for, simply to make some "gold in return". But having that trinket was much more important to me than having the gold. This expansion is all about experiences rather than hoarding golden pixels and that will be noticable with the content I put out whether it's on this blog or through other means.
  
• Make a list of upgrades and keep track of the gear somewhere. I used a Word file for this until I reached LFR level. After that I no longer cared for more upgrades. Except for when I wanted 470 for the Heart of Fear (LFR), which I decided to stay away from til we've cleared Mogu'shan Vaults. This plan might change depending on how the guild chooses to do things. I'll make sure to get better at playing my hunter rather than go hunting for upgrades just to have a "cooler looking" ilevel or flashy epics.
• Just shut up and adapt already!
• Are you playing to become better or are you playing to show off pixels or ilevel numbers? The difference in how you approach the endgame varies a lot depending on where you are on the scale. With the encounters being so involving thus far i'll choose to get better over any other option. And when I really begin lagging behind my raid in DPS that's when i'll look into if it's gear that is the problem. Currently i've been able to be a solid member of the raid, even if my ilevels been lower and by getting used to using World of logs I expect things to stay this way for a while. 
• Good night!

So when the Mists walk all over you, cry babies, listen to this and weep! Kobra Kai style! Show no mercy!