Gemming: Flamebate or a Necessary Evil?
by DrkAdonis on Sep.14, 2009, under Uncategorized
<Warning: This is a bit of a whine post. Kinda. Just something that’s been bothering me lately. I wanted to give you fair warning ahead of time!>
Gems. Jewlcrafters cut them. You pay for them. They give you stats. The end? I’m not so sure…
This week I will start doing 3v3 Arena with a couple of my friends. While we were doing some battlegrounds last week (which I was rocking, by the way - top 3 in AV in five battles!), I was pleased with our performances. As a Mage, Priest, Hunter trio we have a lot of burst damage, some decent crowd control, and healing. Really, we have it all except for a meatshield, and I can pretend to fill that roll. Deterrence ftw?
So after these battlegrounds that really pumped me up about our chances, the priest decides to take a look at my gear.
“Wow. Look at all of those empty sockets.”
Well, yeah. I really only started getting my PvP gear two weeks ago. Hitting the honor cap, I decided to buy up a set for when we did the arena. However, that’s not a full excuse, as my normal PvE gear also had unfilled sockets. Why? Personally, I’m of the mentality that if I can craft something for (nearly) free, why the heck am I going to pay 300g+ for it on the AH? I mean, really?
So I explain this and we move on. We rock more PvP. We’re having a great time.
This week rolls around and I find out that I will not be able to participate in the Arena team if my sockets are still empty. Wait… what? I’m already rocking it out my own way, and you’re going to kick me off of the team because of a couple gemless pieces of gear that I bought specifically to do Arena with you? Umm…
This is the time when I ask you, the few and faithful readers, what your thoughts are. I know that gems can help a lot, but is it enough to make or break a team thatbadly? I know for a fact that I’m geared up better than some of the other people on the team (you can have more than 3 on your 3v3 team… kind of like subs on a bench), and yet I’m not going to get to participate because I got the better gear, but they’re not socketed?
“You can’t Arena with us with empty sockets. I don’t care if you have the crappiest gems available, socket your gear.”
Oooookay, then. So that’s what I did. I popped over to my oft-forgotten mage (who’s a 359ish JC) and made the cheapest, lowest, crappiest Outland green gems I could. +12 AP here, +3 Crit there… it’s pretty sad. I’m actually kind of embarrassed of my gear now, where as unsocketed they looked just fine.
The kicker - now that I have those crappy gems in, I’ll be allowed to Arena.
Wow, really? Glad that extra 30 AP and 6 Crit really is going to swing our team around. Um… okay.
Am I overreacting, or do you think I’m justified in my gripe here?
September 14th, 2009 on 11:46 am
Gemming and Enchanting your gear is a sign of how committed you are to the activity. As a raid leader, I wouldn’t want you on my team if you hadn’t gemmed or enchanted your gear. It shows you don’t care enough about the team to spend a little gold (and let’s be honest gold is easy to come by) and time to get them “fixed” properly.
Battlegrounds /= arena
BGs are mass hysteria with few real strats. Especially AV, which is more PVE with some pvp maybe tossed in. I mean you can go an entire match and not fire on a PC.
In short, gem your stuff and do it properly, don’t put crappy gems in there.
September 14th, 2009 on 11:55 am
“Gemming and Enchanting your gear is a sign of how committed you are to the activity.”
Point. However, being as it’s a very secondary activity to me that we might do once a week… yeah.
“As a raid leader…”
We raid? When did this start?
“Battlegrounds /= arena”
Agreed, but not every arena team is going to be good.
“BGs are mass hysteria with few real strats. Especially AV, which is more PVE with some pvp maybe tossed in. I mean you can go an entire match and not fire on a PC.”
Again, agreed. However, this was not the case that night. I mean, I got Wrecking Ball and some others that night. We were doing a lot of PvPing, usually 3 of us against 5+… and we were coming out on top without dying.
September 14th, 2009 on 1:51 pm
We don’t raid, which is why I have not even looked at your setup. When I was in a raiding guild, as hunter class lead, it was my responsibility to help the other hunters get prepared for raids. Had the raid leader noticed a hunter wearing gear not completely ready, unless that gear was won that night on a drop, I would have got a tell, which would have been a tell to the hunter in question. A repeated event would have them cut from the raid group. /shrug was just passing on my experience.
It’s a few gold to gem right. Do some dailies to recoup the costs. Or don’t. It might make a small difference but that difference may get you 1 more win a week.
In the end, this is your call. Apparently the comment struck a nerve. Decide now if you want to put up with that mentality. Because it’s not changing.
PvP at the top level makes me into angry man and I don’t enjoy it. I do what little I do to accomplish goals. Either more gear for my lowbies or gather honor to allow me to stay alive longer, so i can get more gear for my alts.
1 season of arena was enough for me to realize 1) i suck at it 2) it makes me even more frustrated than normal.
September 14th, 2009 on 1:55 pm
I understand what you’re saying, and I agree for the most part. I was hunter lead when Molten Core was the hot shit (lol).
My questions in the post were more along the lines of why someone would rather me have stupid, worthless gems in than no gems at all. It’s more petty than anything.
I really don’t care about PvP at all. I’d rather use my gold for other things. I earned the PvP gear to help be better for my team. I’ve already gone above-and-beyond because most of my gearing has been without said priest along to even offer to help.
If you want your team to do well, you should gear up together. Not run around acting like you’re the best and everyone else sucks because PvP isn’t the whole game to them.
September 14th, 2009 on 4:18 pm
You know … what you do with your PvE gear is up to you. I don’t care. In my personal opinion, however, I don’t think anyone’s gear should ever go without gems, even if they’re ones from the vendor in Shattrath, but I’m not going to get on their case if they think differently.
I’m more concerned with the statement of “I really don’t care about PvP at all.” Really? Then … why do you want to do arena? Or even, DO you want to do arena? Fiak and I are fine with just doing 2’s if no one is going to take it at least semi-seriously … after all, there are two other people on the team counting on you.
September 14th, 2009 on 6:25 pm
Its an odd question really. “When is enough, enough?”
If I come to a raid without flasks, will I be kicked from the group? What about reagents? Enchants? Better enchants? The best enchants?
What about if I come to a raid without a cloak? Without weapons? Without any gear? Without any talents?
Obviously I’m being absurd but the question remains. How much time/effort/money/gold should I be expected to put into something before I’m ‘good enough’?
It seems quite clear that the expectation is there that you be gemmed. It occurs to me that this is one of those cases where your arena team mates are fighting for gems “on principle” and that they really would prefer you to have better gems.
Are they in the right? I dunno, how badly do you want to do arenas with them? Is that extra 12 AP or extra 18 AP or extra 100 AP going to do you that much good? Are those uncommon/rare/epic gems going to cost you that much money? Further, think in PvE terms. How much time do you spend grinding heroics for that one great piece of gear? How much of a stat boost is it really?
You have to define your expectations you know, before you know what’s good enough for yourself. Do you want to dominate 1v1 duels, 3v3 1500’s bracket or do you want to be the BG Juggernaut. All of these will help you define what *you* want. The hard part comes in when your expectations don’t line up with the expectations of those around you.
As to the stated question: I do think that gems are important enough to spend your time on. I’ve found that a few hundred gold can go a long way in making your character markedly better. I also think the perception, right or not, is that lack of gems = nub. In general, it’s an easy sign of a player who isn’t prepared. With as many bad pugs as you find out there, people aren’t going to take the time to find out what other things you bring to the table, they’re just going to boot first and ask questions..never.
Don’t forget, they depend on you to bring the best you can bring to any fight. It’s their time/money/gold invested too.
@pie You run heroics in dresses and Outlands with no pants, you aren’t qualified to be in this discussion.
September 14th, 2009 on 8:36 pm
Gems are item enhancements. Plain and simple. Enchants are item enhancements. Just because you got better gear, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t improve it as much as possible. Even if you feel you’re doing just fine. In arenas, a match can come down to the last few hundred hitpoints on the last two players standing. Having a little extra stam to survive or a little extra crit or AP to kill stuff can mean the difference between rating increases or decreases.
The final point. When I did arenas in BC, the three of us on the team decided before we started that it wasn’t going to be about winning, it was going to be about farming honor gear. So it didn’t matter to our team. For the team that you joined, they do care about their rating. It can mean that they can get the newer season gear, which are upgrades, because they have the rating for it.
If you don’t care, you really should look for a team that doesn’t as well, otherwise you’re doing a disservice to your teammates.
Just my two copper.
Fik
September 15th, 2009 on 7:46 am
There’s a big difference between not caring and not trying. As I said before, if they wanted me to improve my gear is some way, they could have:
1. Said so before this last week.
2. Offered to help in achieving said goals.
That’s a pretty large flaw that seems to be guild-wide in AoT. People want to do stuff, but they don’t really want to do them together, necessarily. Maybe it’s just a big difference in playstyles, but I’ve always been one to try and help my guildies as much as possible.
Go with with Pie’s reference to being Hunter raid leader: I too was Hunter lead. I spent a lot, and I mean a *lot* of my time helping the other hunters out. We’d go farm materials to craft gear, we’d go practice strategies on mobs around Azeroth. We’d spend time getting to know each other’s playstyles.
This whole “mightier than thou” mentality is kind of disheartening. I really do appreciate the advice you all have, and I am taking it to heart… but you all seem to forget that this *is* just a game. “How committed are you?” Really? Umm… about $15 a month and a few spare hours between work and school. Not good enough? Too bad.
(Note: this isn’t written with any malice. Just throwing in my thoughts this morning before classes start. Thank you all for commenting! This is the most activity my blog’s ever seen! ^^)