Itemization Changes and Re-gearing

I still browse RIFT forums mostly to see what is going on. Not to mention that a lot of good topics from that game and WoW can be applicable to other games in the genre.


One of the bigger topics going on recently are changes to how stats work for warriors. For those unfamiliar to RIFT, warriors are currently stacking Dexterity rather than Strength (supposedly their primary stat) simply because Dexterity scales better. Most warrior abilities work so much better with higher critical strike chance than higher attack power and, while I won't go into specifics, it is certainly understandable when a lot of abilities/talents give extra benefit with critical strikes.

The downside is that warriors are preferring leather items or things with high dexterity over plate or anything with high strength. Trion attempted to stem this behaviour by providing a lot of critical strike chance to plate gear but the leather counterparts were still simply supperior. Trion's latest attempt on the test shard was to half the effectiveness of Dexterity for warriors. It has since been reverted due to, as Trion said, not being the right time to make such changes, but the furor on the forums was hard to ignore.

The same thing was done with clerics and Intelligence/Wisdom and the response and result were the same.

What interested me was not the actual changes, but the reaction. The main complaint I've seen was that people are forced to take time to re-gear. I'm not saying that that is not the case, I'm just saying wondering why it is a problem.

If you are a raider, hardcore or otherwise, you would be doing this anyway. Gearing has never been really static. Everytime a patch introduces changes, raiders will always see how it affects them and make changes appropriately to maximize their effectiveness. This is the same reason raiders will endure the grinds to get best in slot enchants or patterns no matter how long it takes. Recent memory in RIFT brought dual-weilding warriors to the top of the DPS charts and had them scrambling to get two good weapons to the chagrin of rogues. Changing the stat weights won't be any different, and you'll end up doing it no matter how much you complain.

If you are not a raider, it's not like they would be removing the stat's usefulness. There is no need to min/max stats if the extent of your play is solo or the occassional dungeon run. With this kind of pace, re-gearing will come naturally in the process of your daily routine and, like I mentioned, your current gear would be far from useless.

There are no MMOs that promise nothing will change from launch. In fact, the changes are what helps keep the game fresh, even if it does get inconvenient for players. When there is nothing new to learn, or no new goal to reach, games will get stale and players will move on. Change will happen, no matter how loud you complain. Best options are to deal with it or move on.