Its a very interesting effect. I’m sure if I were to go out there right now, I could find dozens…. nay hundreds of angst ridden folks sitting there going.. “Crap… I just got to 70. There’s a new expansion coming out. I barely got a chance to see Kara or any of the 5 mans…” I should know. I was that guy before BC came out. I got to level 60 about two months before Burning Crusade came out.
Over the weekend we had someone calling out in guild to set up an Onyxia run. I was forced to tell them I couldn’t help out because I was not attuned for Onyxia. Half the guild looked up and went, “What the hell? How can you not be attuned for Onyxia?” Reality was, that when I got to 60, there wasn’t any point in doing the quest chain. I was able to attend a single Molten Core run and I hated it SOOOO much that I just decided the quest chain wasn’t worth the pain for an instance I would never see.
Fast forward to the expansion coming out. Prior to this point I’d be considered a noob. Everyone else had multiple level 60s. I’m the newbie, but the expansion gave me a unique opportunity that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. It gave me the opportunity to rise. For those who had ground for months/years in Molten Core I really did feel for them. Some people had worked so hard to obtain their full 8 piece set from Molten Core only to have it rendered near useless by the expansion. The gear level jump between T1 and just walking into the expansion was amazing. People who had been behind the curve on raiding were now quickly equal to the people who had been raiding in T1 for ages. For those with T2 and T3 gear they had the advantage of speed. For them the start of Burning Crusade was easy for them. They still got to be the front runners. Their gear gave them the advantage of making the initial content easy, but at the end of the day… by the start of T4 (aka Karazhan/Gruul/Mags) their gear was obsolete. Expansions are a chance for Blizzard to level set the player base. Its an opportunity to really give newer players a chance.
If you are in that position where today you feel behind the curve take hope. I was the noob not that long ago really. But as I sit here today, I’m raiding in T4/T5. I’m going to have the advantage of speed on some people. I’m going to have the advantage of gear for a while, but that comes as a disadvantage too. Many people I watched come into Burning Crusade held onto the T1 gear far too long. They felt their set bonuses were so powerful it was worth holding onto.
My gear today gets me through just fine… in the expansion though gear and itemization (as in all expasions to date) changes. For some classes they aren’t likely to see much change. Mages are probably going to stay mostly the same. However for other classes we have to rethink everything we know. For Druids, we always relied heavily on strength, agility and stamina. In the expansion we have to retrain ourselves for heavy use of Agility, Attack power, and haste. For those who are newer to the game, they’ll be using this new gear day one. They will have the advantage of seeing the impact of the gear early.
At the end of the day even if you were behind the curve before, when Wrath of the Lich King comes out, you’ll have the opportunity to progress and carve a new niche. You won’t have to worry about being ages behind. You’ll have the chance to create a new world for yourself. Some people will cling to the old ways of playing classes and some of the new people will learn ways of playing that the old guard haven’t ever dreamed of. Its not what you can’t do…. its what you can do with what you have. If you’ve felt behind the curve in Burning Crusade, rise in Wrath of the Lich King as the new dawn rises.
Just remember…. when someone askes you to tag along for Magtheridon to three man him…. you don’t need an attunement anymore…. so go make some history.
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