by Tugela » Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:12 am
If they were do do what some are suggesting, and degrade weapon performance after the player exceeded a particular level, it would only be fair to do the same thing with spells, ie your current spells would do less as you leveled. Also, to be fair, spells would have to drop in the same places weapons currently do. It is interesting that all of the people that suggest these things for melee surprising do not suggest similar things for themselves. In fact, if they were to do such a thing it would generate a howl of protest since leveling up would make a character weaker - and they will not do that.
The bottom line is that itemization is done differently for melee classes compared to caster classes, because of the way in which they play. When a new expansion comes out part of the upgrades a class recieves comes up front through immediate or easily obtained means, and some comes later through itemization in one form or another. And this is where all these foci arguments totally miss the point, since this basic rule applies to all classes. When playing my warrior in a new level increase expansion, sure, I can hit a bit harder, and take hits a bit better, but the plain fact is that the bulk of new power comes from played content, in my case directly from raids. If I don't raid the new conent my power increase is minimal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that not exactly the case with a raiding caster? Here is the issue - you think that melee should LOSE power as they level up, because you dont get your initial power increase up front is modest.
The melee equivalent of a spell is their weapons. Where do you get your new spells? Where do melee get there new weapons? Are these of equivalent difficulty? The answer of course is no, as you all are well aware. Because of that obvious disparity, the "focus" effects on respective armor are treated differently. In both cases an element of power improvement comes through itemisation, in one case through weapon drops, and in the other case through focus effects. Now, they could make caster foci like melee effects, and not have them degrade, but that would mean that spell upgrades would be much more modest than they are now, and you would have to raid to get gear with bigger focus effects to increase your power (and in some cases, some foci types would not improve at all).
There is only a "disparity" between the classes, because people who make arguments about foci degradtion only look at a small part of the picture rather than the picture as a whole.
Prexus