Back in the good old days of Burning Crusade I began to get discouraged when I hit 70 on Paravel, my resto druid. Why? Because I would look to join a group doing a heroic or raid and they would demand that you had a magically determined bonus healing stat. Often time this stat was pulled out of the “wow forums floating cloud of trolls”. No real science or crunching of numbers determined what made an effective player. And more times then not it would be a number that could only be reached by already being one of the few who have cleared the highest content at the time.
I mean really, does it make sense to demand gear from Sunwell for a Kara run? Does it? O.o
Fast forward to Wrath. We no longer rate a player on spell power, healing power or AP but instead on something even MORE mystical, Gear Score. It started with sites back at the close of BC that would guess at an items gear score and create a data base to try and rate your characters place on a progression bar. Site like https://be.imba.hu/ were tools where you could look up your level 70 toon, see missing enchants, gems, get suggestions for your class and build. All and all a very helpful tool if you used it to work on your progression. However things changed
The problem started when competing sites raised up on the net using different formulas for coming up with their base score. Remember, the scores at this time where a mystery, and value that enhancements, set bonuses, mixing and matching for stats, were all guess work. With this arose no standard of a “gear score”. One group would ask for a GS of 1000 when another would ask for 750. The issue being that depending on what site they used the 750 could be a better geared player than the site that provided the 1000. Talk about a headache.
Enter a mod author who, more than likely had good intentions, that released an in game mod that would make a GS based on a math of his own. His statement was that it was not the end all to be all, but DOWNLOAD AND USE MY MOD! Drama can be so fun to watch in the mod community at times, especially when someone wrote a mod to break this mod and the rumors and flame wars flared.
But, I digress, so what else is new. Issue is back. If you don’t have a GS of XXXX you cant come and you get kicked out. This problem and mod leaves out some important information, like player skill. I have said this before, but I would take an under geared skilled player over a noob or jerk in gear any day on a run. The argument that you must have a high GS to clear the highest content is negated by projects like clearing ICC 10 in all blues!
If you know how to play your class and work with others you can and will be successful. If however you expect to be carried through a run to get better gear but have not a clue how to play then you are more than likely the one who stands in the fire, misdirects onto a clothie, or taunts the boss off the tank at enrage. It does not matter if you have the highest gear in the game at that point, you still fail at the game and cause issues within your group.
I know you are probably wondering where the bulling part comes into this argument, and well you should. If you have a slightly lower GS than the “floating cloud of trolls” have determined for that hour, and you end up in a random LFG group, you could be exposed to behavior you would never see in a face to face social environment. Just stop it people, treat others with respect please. How much more enjoyable our gaming life would be if we could just learn to get along and not be jerkwads.
GearScore is a tool, and measuring stick, not the end all. What we really need is a mod that will take gear score provided by Blizzard, enchants, gems, set bonus and all into account, along with rating and notes into account so its not about a bottom line number but more. Oh wait, their is *smile*
Enter Elitist Group (used to be Sexy Group, from the same author who did Sexy Map and Sexy Cooldown)
Again, EG is just a tool. I will write a review and tutorial soon covering its usage and how to maximize the information gained from it without being a jerk.
Just remember that we play World of Warcraft for fun. So does the person on the other side of that avatar, treat them as you would face to face.