World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Welfare Epics--Not the Same as Food Stamps

In the Beginning... Blizzard created Epic items, and life was good. Well, for raiders anyway. You see, in the beginning of the World of  Warcraft, there were very few epic items outside of raids. Sure, they existed, but if you wanted epics, you needed to raid. And we're not talking the nambie pambie 10 man, or even 25 man raids of today. We're talking about epic 40 man raids-- raids that required huge amounts of coordination, teamwork and skill. The raids of today, especially the 10 mans, do not require the same level of coordination as the old 40 man raids, they still require player skill though.

Time went by, though. More and more players got into epic gear, but even more were locked out of epics due to various reasons. Blizzard did several things to address this: they added 20 man raids; epic reputation and
turn-in rewards; and PvP epic items.

This brings us to the topic of today's editorial by Byron "Messiah" Mudry. From the time they were introduced, PvP epics inherited the term "Welfare Epics." At the time, they were called this for several reasons, but is the term still valid today?

• WoW Editorial - Welfare Epics: Does the Term Still Apply?
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