1701

the GS is only relevant for the one of the ICC instance hall of reflection, I don’t think anyone really give a crap about rest of the instance even if you have a super low GS.

1702

It is my understanding that in Cataclysm classes with both healing and DPS caster specs can share gear (resto druid and boomkin, for instance) between specs via spirit-to-hit conversion from talents, but that non-hybrid casters (warlocks and mages) don’t get such a conversion, so they will have to use hit cloth, and will get no benefit from spirit cloth.

It is true that reforging will help, but on the other hand the new bonuses for using the “right” type of armor mean that there will be less sharing between armor types.

1703

I sat stunned when I came across that gallery of 122 pet/armor matching portraits. Imagien the time and effort it took to collect that crap… AND to make those pics =)

1704

WotLK normal dungeons weren’t “worthless in an endgame sense” upon release, though. They did what they were supposed to: gear you to move up to heroics and (then) raids. It’s just that, after a while enough people get geared to the level that scrubs can be carried through content and people take advantage of it. Then that becomes the norm. It’s not going to turn out any different in Cataclysm. If they make Heroics harder it’s just going to delay things.

1705

Not if you’re the only one, but you are being carried nonetheless. I don’t mind tiers of heroics, I think it’s a good idea.

I also like gearing up quickly and easily, so I’m a hypocrite :)

1706

Gear inflation should be less insane in Cataclysm due to the merging of 10 and 25 man gear, which will mean that old content will becomes useless at a slower pace.

1707

That’s a good point. I hadn’t looked at it from that angle before.

1708

Disagree. You’ve always been able to bypass the normals in Lich King.

1709

When the expansion first came out, it was difficult to bypass the level 79-80 normals; everybody I knew had to run the low level heroics (e.g. Nexus) or Naxx for a bit before they were ready for Heroic Halls of Stone or Heroic Halls of Lightning. (Heroic Culling of Stratholme has always been pretty easy though.)

1710

Oculus.

1711

I was wearing mostly T5 and 6 gear and completely bypassed all of the “end” normals (Oculus/Halls of Stone/Lightning/CoS, etc,) and went straight to heroics on my main. I don’t think I’ve ever done some of them on normal.

The only one of them that was remotely difficult was the last boss of Halls of Lightning, but that’s because I’m a holy paladin and it was a pain to heal. The first time I killed him we did get the achievement for killing him quickly though.

I also don’t remember replacing much of my gear until 25 man raid either. That’s definitely going to change in Cataclysm.

1712

Some classes might have been able to get by running heroics in T5 and T6 gear, but it certainly wasn’t the case for all of them. Tanks would get splattered from having that low armor and hp and I’m pretty sure a full team of t6’d dps wouldn’t be able to get that quick Loken kill. :) I don’t doubt it worked out fine for you since you probably had a well-geared team backing you up, but the level 80 dungeons were no walk in the park for most appropriately-geared folks. Saying they weren’t “remotely difficult” is a bit of a stretch for a great majority of the WoW population.

1713

The group I did it with were all similarly geared. It was myself, Loupana, Staragon, with. Warrior tank and a rogue. We wiped several times figuring the encounter out, but got the quick kill achievement in the same night.

The fact that I’ve grouped with that group of people for a long time probably has something to do with it.

And just so you don’t think I’m running my mouth, I double checked my achievements, and the dates for all 3 achievements (Halls of Lightning, Heroic Halls of Lightning and Timely Death all happened on 12/4/08. I hit Level 80 on 11/28/08.

My point isn’t to epeen stroke here, I didn’t have super duper gear or anything, my 25 man raiding guild didn’t down Kael or Illidan until 3.0. My point was that, compared to BC where there were still challenging heroic bosses, there weren’t many to speak of in Wrath.

1714

That’s definitely true. My friends & I did Halls of Lightning expecting it to be another Shattered Halls, and when we finished, we were like “That was it?”

1715

You guys are super missing the point. Doing the normal dungeons doesn’t make running out of lightning nova any easier, or make the Oculus drakes (which are a special case) any more intuitive. The tier 5/6 gear you’re all making a big deal out of is basically equivalent to stuff you can pick up as quest rewards from Storm Peaks and Icecrown, or get crafted easily, or pick up for honored reputation from the factions. The BC tier gear was better itemized, yes, but the poorer itemization didn’t represent a meaningful barrier to completing LK heroics. In general the LK heroics were about as difficult as the BC normals were.

1716

That’s what I was saying. T5 and T6 was good, but it wasn’t Naxx raid gear, which was what Robotpants (and others) were implying you needed to bypass normals.

I started doing heroics the moment I dinged 80, and the only real challenge in them was (and still is, sometimes,) if you did them in a pug.

1717

Yeah, sorry, if it wasn’t clear I was meaning to speak in support of your points (and I misread what RobotPants was saying).

1718

Just resubbed and was planning on powerleveling Inscription on an alt. Any word on whether to wait for 4.01 (probably this tues) or try to bang it out before?

1719

It’s not clear.

1720

Oooh, gotta have the Rhinestone Sunglasses!