GEAR: The Burning Crusade of Trauma

I've been noticing a few changes while playing the expansion that I don't think have anything to do with the new server I'm on. Rather, it's caused by the billion people online, heading to Outland, and experiencing shell-shock. I see druids running around in complete Cenarion Gear, looking at quests and then bouncing angrily because the quest rewards are better than their epics. Well, okay. Maybe I'm projecting. But I know at least some people are tweaking out when they see the gear they can get just by killing 12 mobs and running 500 feet to turn it in.

But it's not just the fact that their gear is becoming obsolete. These set pieces aren't just a status symbol, or something we cling to out of habit. They are a manifestation of time spent and drama dealt with. Anyone in Cenarion, or even Wildheart like me, has spent a large chunk of time in a party with other people killing things over. And over. And over. And there's a good chance at least one of those people drove them absolutely insane.

Let's not forget about the ninjas, or the guild drama over dkp. I may not have dealt with that, but I certainly spent two weeks simply trying to get my Wildheart Kilt. (In fact, I have a post about it in the PVE section.) When you really think about it, Blizzard has made days of game time useless. So people who have been smug because their guild has taken down Nefarion will see a level 61 run by in better gear than they could get on a 40-man. How can than not be a little disheartening?

Also, enchanters are now looking at their gear and seeing not endgame stats, but little glistening shards, and that often hurts on a very fundamental level. I had to disenchant my Wildheart Gloves last night, and I am going to be very honest and say it took three tries for me to do it, and now I want to keep the shard forever and ever. If I'm acting this irrational over my Tier One gear, what could everyone from the end game guilds possibly be going through? I'm sitting here glad I got out of the end game scene when I did, and they're sitting there with their inner children on suicide watch.

All of this has resulted in what I feel is a change of attitude among most of my fellow players. Some of it is negative, such as a scorn for any of the former endgame instances (but that will pass in time), but the vast majority of it is positive. Horde and Alliance in Outland have absolutely no interest in ganking each other, and I certainly blame the shell-shock for that. Though we may miss our old gear, that doesn't mean we're going to hang on to it, oh no. Because the fact that there is stuff out there that is ridiculously better than our epics makes our greedy little eyes light up. So we want to get our quests done, get our gear, and log.

Not to mention most of us are utterly saddened by the thought of yet another ten-level grind.

Players are also more willing to help each other out. I had a druid send me a tell the other day and offer me a set of gloves he had made that he didn't want to vendor. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that everyone has now had their feet cut out from under them. We're all at the same level again, and the knowledge that there are other people out there just as overwhelmed is probably pretty comforting.

It won't last forever, obviously, and I highly doubt this will be as noticeable when the second expansion comes out. But this is something new, and as a result people's attitudes have gotten a lot less elitist in many ways. It's refreshing.