The Double-Fix Problem

Earlier in Beta design, concerns over block-capping for tanks (particularly Paladins, who could achieve this far more easily) led Blizzard to fundamentally change the way that the block mechanic works. I wrote an article about this before, but the solution they proposed was a two-part plan.

One was that block was separated from the normal combat roll. An attack would either crit, hit, be dodged, parried, or missed. If it was a hit or crit (unlikely given that it's on a tank) there would then be a separate roll to determine if it was going to be a blocked hit or an unblocked one.

The other was that Mastery for Paladins and Warriors would be put on diminishing returns - a limiting factor exclusive to shield tanks.

As far as I know, they got rid of the second part, and in fact made Paladin mastery more complex (affecting Shield of the Righteous and Bastion of Glory.) The one change was enough to fix the problem of block-capping without overcompensating.

This is not, however, an article about tanking. It's about reputation gear.

It's my contention that the reason people are so pissed off about the daily grind is that Blizzard tried to fix a problem with two solutions at once.

They didn't like that Rep tabards meant that you didn't have to do anything really associated with a faction in order to raise your rep. I sincerely doubt that the Ramkahen really care much about you fighting the Defias or Lord Godrey, for example (other than a general "oh, yeah. Those guys seem pretty bad, I guess.")

Reasoning that getting both rep gear from running dungeons and Valor gear for running dungeons allowed you to sort of double-dip, they chose to divorce reputation from dungeons - making it a different thing centered around daily quests that were specific to the given faction.

If that had been it, there would be nothing wrong with it.

However, they also effectively got rid of Valor point rewards. Really, they merged reputation rewards with Valor rewards, so that in order to buy reputation rewards, you have to spend Valor points and in order to buy Valor gear, there's a reputation threshold.

They've shrunk the number of vendor-based gear options.

So, I realize that it's a little too late to change this, and indeed, there might be people at Blizzard who are philosophically dedicated to this system (though given the response, I imagine they'll try to change it next expansion.) But the root of all of this is that they applied two solutions to the same problem that created a much bigger one.

Here's my suggestion for the next go-around, whether it is a future patch or a future expansion:

JP/VP: This is the consolation-prize drop from bosses - you may have not gotten your drop, but at least you've made progress to something that could fill its place. This is for people who run lots of dungeons, and want a way to soften the impact of cruel RNG gods.

Reputation: Keep it a daily quest grind, with an evolving story and lots of "out in the world" content, but make the rewards cost gold (or a reputation-specific currency.)

The point: VP and Rep gear should be separate things. By making perfectly attractive gear options available for Rep, people will still do it if they want to see the story. Meanwhile, VP gear is going to serve the purpose it has served in its past incarnations - filling in gaps due to unlucky drops and helping people catch up if they're undergeared.