But adding epics at lower levels will give gear that should stick with the players a little longer. With the increased xp and leveling changes in 2.3 a player will be going through gear much quicker than they currently are.

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Chad pretty much nailed it. Since the leveling curves are going to be lowered, gear churn will be bigger than ever. Tossing in a high-powered item or two into each instance will help keep the re-equip costs in line.

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As long as the epics don't have a .01% to drop, this helps the express lane they are putting in for the

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What I was trying to say before being so rudely cut off... It will help the under-60 grind. If these items have a poor drop rate then a player will quickly out level the instance before even seeing the item drop since they tightened up the level range.

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This will certainly change things for twinks, eh?

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This is mid-level content.

I approve.

More please.

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I sense alot of me getting frozen in 20-29 bgz :( lol

Kinda funny that they made it 29...perfect twink level...either way, I'd be happy to see more epixx get in those mid-level ranges. I just finished 1-60 on a warrior I've been leveling for about the last 1.5mo's, and the gear was...questionable...at best. I ended up buying a Fiery War Axe because it was the only thing that would last more than 3-5 levels.

Hopefully Blizz might also tweak drop rates on items like Ironfoe, and other epixx to make them worth farming for characters. Or maybe make bosses drop two loots more often, instead of waiting for one.

Who knows.

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An interesting aspect of this is, it might help them with BG gear matching in the twink brackets.

I mean, after a while, most twinks would be dripping with epics, no? It's going to be easier to algorithmically differentiate them from the people in random greens with a few blues.

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@7 - I agree with you that more epics should drop in the mid-levels, but I would hate to see more purples drop in end-game. Epics will hopefully make leveling easier, with less gear grinding, but I think that end-game epics should be just that - epic. If they're powerful, they should be difficult to get.

This is coming from a guy who has crafted Robe of the Archmage and a Spellfire set.And now I'm working on the Spellstrike.

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I like the implementation of "baby epics," but my understanding (possibly wrong) is that quest reward gear will be improved in line with low/mid-level dungeon drops.

Levelling in Azeroth right now, it is rare for most quest rewards to be worth equipping. Buff those rewards, and the new XP requirements won't have people out-levelling their grear as fast.

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Great, now I'll be pestered to run lowbies though SM even more. *sigh*

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You guys do realize "baby epics" have been in the game since the beginning? I still have these (largely useless) level 37 epic gloves in my bank: http://thottbot.com/?i=5376

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Actually, I hope they can implement in some way that if you are not in the level range of the dungeon, that the epic item does not drop.

This game barely has anyone that runs low level instances on their own. There needs to be a way to encourage that.

Getting level 70's to run you through for the item will not help at all for endgame.

I say add the epic's, but make it at a cost. Let people that actually run the instance with the right group level achieve something, not the one's with a friend.

This would also make the twinks actually have to run the instance for the item, not stand at the entrance while someone else barrels though.

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Epic items are just a color, so chill.

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I've said all along that in order to keep the old content relevant, Blizzard needs to sprinkle twink items in every lower level instance, and make sure that there's plenty of twink enchants and recipes along with required materials that can be farmed from the old questing locations and/or instances.

Without twinks (love them or hate them) there's no reason at all to repeat lower level content.

...
Krick
http://www.tankadin.com

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I did a quick run to Doan yesterday and he dropped Illusionary Rod with slightly different stats. Also his previously green-level cloth shoulders are now blue.

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*on test server*

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"14. Epic items are just a color, so chill." - If epic items are just a colour, why isn't every single item in the game epic? since afterall..it's just a colour..

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Epics are no longer 'Epic' In vanila wow it was thrilling to get your hands on an epic item and although it was mainly the lucky few who had them often through contless hours of dungeon trolling and or being lucky with getting into a good guild it feels wrong for everyone to have them (not sure why really)..

I know theres the whole we all pay the same so we should get the same... well invest enough time and effort and we all do. I just dont like the fact that every man woman and child is now coated in epics, it's just taken something out of the game imo.

Anyhow i see the point of placing more epics into the mid content area but as #1 Chad points out they need to make sure these will last longer than a few levels at least and i hope they implement something which means you need to group with people of your level to get them otherwise people will hire a L70 to clear the place for easy loot but no improvement for the other people leveling that content.

I think it would have been better to have items (low % drop) that have quests or something tied to them as you level which can be improved as you level, just a though.

Also if they really needed to spark interest in doing the 1 - 70 slog again or just keeping the old world alive, why not have some sort of budy system where mobs or players even loot are scaled for an instance (make of that what you will).

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