Have you ever found a green drop that you equipped right away? Perhaps…maybe once. Now think back to how many greens you have dropped in your wow career. By “greens” I mean an Uncommon drop that has some properties to it but is usually an “of the” type item. Sure sometimes you may drop an “of the Eagle” or “of the Bear” that you mail off to an alt for when the can equip it in five levels or so but still, when have you ever landed a green drop you can use yourself right away as an upgrade.
My wife asked me why this is a few days back and to my surprise I never really thought of it before. One of the problems with this is that the drops are always too small for your current level. Take a spin on Wowhead.com and do some searches. All the green items drop off of mobs that are a good 5-6 levels higher then the min level required to equip the item. So my Lunar Vest may drop but it requires level 42 and drops off of mobs ranging from 39-48. Odds are you aren’t going to see it on that level 39 Southsea Pirate but rather off of an elite 46 Primordial Behemoth and it’ll be a Lunar Vest of the Suck. Awesome.
Well maybe it’ll drop when your in a group or maybe you’ll find it off the Auction House. Maybe. But do you even bother listing most green items on the Auction House? I don’t. I disenchant them, send the dust to an Alt bank and move on. I’m sure many people just vendor them. Still some sell on the AH because they are listed there but I have a hard time believing that the majority don’t end up getting trashed in some way and never equipped. I can recall a forum post a looooooooooong time ago with a player asking why he just looted “Crappy wooden shield of Shadow Wrath”. O.o? Shadow wrath? On a shield? Who can use a shield and use shadow damage? Obviously the answer was Blizzard just assigned a pool of prefixes and suffixes to the game for the random loot generator to pull from and at the time they never put limits on what loot type was limited to what suffix. It has now been fixed but things like that make one believe that the system might still be in need of an overhaul. Blizzard has learned a lot over the years and I think its time they tighten the range on green drops so that they become useful again.
Call me out if I’m wrong here but to me unless its a Quest green, Blizzard hasn’t put much thought into the itemization and its probably worthless junk.
gnomeaggedon January 20, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Back in TBC I made some good use of the "of Fiery Wrath" items. Assuming the tank was doing their job I had no need of stamina, it was just about pumping out the damage.
I still make a pretty penny out of overpricing these items and Eagle items etc, assuming they are around the rightlevel bracket for pvp twinks
Esdras January 21, 2009 at 9:35 am
No, but i do still want the water breathing staff ftom Gnomeregon.
isheepthings January 21, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Technically, Hydrocane is a blue
But not every class can equip that staff so other gear options would be
Deepdive helmet – Requires Engineering (230)
Hook of the Master Angler – Requires you to win the Booty Bay Fishing tourney
Band of Icy Depths – Quest reward for part of the Ahn'Qiraj questline
Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole – Requires Fishing (300) and Exalted with the Kalu'ak faction.
But I don't see what that has to do with random green drops
Prelimar January 21, 2009 at 8:24 pm
i got my hydrocane on my first run through gnomer in my 20s, and i'm now in my 70s and i still find that staff damn useful. i carry it in my pack everywhere i go. i call it my scuba mask, and i toss it on for every deep water quest.
Peter T January 27, 2009 at 1:46 am
Whenever I level low level characters I always seem to find a use for some of the greens that drop. Not tons, but often enough to where I don't feel they're worthless.
isheepthings February 2, 2009 at 11:15 pm
My wife I believe lists things maybe 2 times tops and then pawns the stuff off to a DE or vendor…she is way morewealthythen I
Rhii February 2, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Yessss, she may have been my inspiration. Just possibly. =P
Rhii February 2, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I wear greens all the time. >_< But I'm often doing content above my level and I love to muck around in AH buying things I don't need and selling everything that's worth more than a few silver.
There's nothing I won't sell.