why staggering gear isn't very good and how to fix it.

[wvhills]

imo staggering gear was a good idea but a complete bust the way it was implemented. We are less than a week into the expansion and there's nothing worthwhile to farm. Here's why:

1) the new legendary gear sucks stat wise. At the end of last season I was giving away all the level 35 and 36 elite pinks I looted (architect and noble gear). I did this because their value was so low I didn't want to bother listing them in auction only to make a few hundred gold. By the end of the season everyone could afford the elite pinks so they bought them. The level 35 and 36 elite pinks are better stat wise than the level 40 regular pinks. So, no one wants to buy the level 40 pinks. This keeps the prices of chests down as well. Today gold dragon chests are selling for 12500. Gold puzzleboxes were twice that for most of last season. With the cost of pots I do good to make gold.

Solution: Next time make the new regular legendary gear a little better than the previous elite legendary gear. This will keep their values up.

2) dragon teeth aren't worth farming. Unless you plan on spending $$$ opening crates to get a shard, you don't need a recipe as it's not tradeable. You can buy weapons with the teeth but the daggers are "of tactics". In the past, tactics versions were less powerful than potency and brutality. I think there's a strong possibility the potency and brutality versions will drop in elites. This makes me hesitate to spend all this gold and time farming teeth for an item that will be third best in the near future. (As a side note, be prepared to see many rage posts from people who bought the of tactics daggers if they do turn out to be 3rd best after elites come out).

Solution: Keep the recipe untradeable but make either potency and brutality versions available in the shop. Making the tactics versions tradeable still wouldn't solve the problem because their value will always remain lower than the potency and brutality versions.

Also, I personally don't like staggering gear because, in previous seasons, if you rushed to cap you could get in elites faster than everyone and make some serious gold buy elite farming. That opportunity won't happen this season because you've given everyone two weeks to make it to cap so they'll be that many more elite farmers when elites first open.

my 2 cents