Gear hoarding is the very essence of what makes nerds learn new zone in this game. that will always be a thing... but honestly if you ask me, the worst and most painful change i have witnessed arctic go through, is the pure RAPE, the pure hatef$%@#ing of every single nice item in this game.... The items in this game that people have learned to covet over the years have all at the same time, almost overnight been "indiana jonesed" crystal skull style, i mean just looking back, group size changes sure sucked, maybe was necessary to equal out what was apparently making the game easier across the board in other ways...
sorry i begin to ramble and divert from what i was attempting to get at...
THE worst idea amongst all new changes, which i would place money down on as my bet for what is driving the most players to quit, is changing the weapon stats, being able to go into a little zone like pigmies for that bone sword offy which was honestly pure garbage BUT at the same time a "3d5" option.... was awesome, or the 3d5 +2 hitroll trainer offy in deepmines on bours was awesome for sharpen and mend, or the nv fang from tot for a druid/mage was... AWESOME.
I could sit here all night thinking of awesome items, that are now pure garbage with a +crapsmear for stats
I personally believe that is one thing that certainly contributes to seeing fewer on the wholist.
the mass "generalization" of all weapons sucks... so sit down whoever is in charge of changing the stats, smoke a huge joint... read the lore and look at the weapon names, and decide... should an item named fang of the shadow beast be 2d4 +1 hitroll... or should i actually be creative instead of just severing all that is good and holy from this sweet item name... (not JUST that item...)
If for some reason its too much work to restat all of the items that really need some fixing, why cant we just go back to previous item stats? is there really THAT much of a difference that its worth pissing in ALL OF OUR cheerios?
wouldnt it just be easier for both the people doing the item raping and those feeling the wrath of the mass item whifflebatting to just forget it ever happened... and restore previous weapon stats? i for one am TOTALLY willing to let heals be stupid strong again even on mobs, in exchange for the bone sword being turned into a 3d5 offy from pigmies again... knibb high football rules.
I dont actually know if any of that is even related to this thread at this point.. but if you ask me what i think, its the weapon stats changes that did the largest amount of hemorrhaging to our average # of players online for this wipe. This might be the first wipe ive actually seen game changes, do more damage than warring clans raping neutrals to the playerbase.
That is probably a bastard thing to say, but I am drunk and allknowing and powerful right now, so uhh fix the stats eh.
Or I will douse you in maple syrup and set the wild beavers loose upon ye. If you fix it... they will come....! If you dont fix it.. they will dota2 instead.... and dota sucks, so we really shouldnt be contributing to their playerbase so just fix it gods!