Should Tier Sets Be Needed To "Make" Your Spec?

Have you ever had that feeling where you said, "As soon as I get the 2 piece tier set my numbers will shoot up."?  I am sure each and every one of us have said that.  Tier sets are supposed to be a boost to what we do, be it as a damage dealer, a healer or a tank.  They are supposed to make us better, make us feel stronger.

But have you ever had the feeling of "As soon as I get the tier set the rotation will be smooth."?

When I first saw the four piece set for the marksman hunter where it makes your aimed shot instant little images of wrath's MM ArP build started to come to mind.  Sure armor penetration is gone from the game but one of the other big things back then also happened to be that aimed shot was an instant cast spell.  It helped make for a very rapid fire always hitting buttons class and I loved the ever living crap out of it.  Spamming keys like the heart breaker and life taker that I am.  That is how a hunter should feel.

When they redesigned marksman for this expansion one of my complains, my main complaint actually, was the lack of an instant ability.  MM really needed one.  Now we are getting one, but only if you happen to get the four piece tier set which is not exactly as easy as it should be to get for those of us that apparently the random number generator hates.

Let me give a little side story as to what bought this post to mind before I continue with it.

I have a total of 35 kills on tier dropping bosses so for this tier and I have used a coin on each and every one of them at least 90% of the time.  Maybe it was even 100% but I do not want to say that as I am not completely certain.  I might have not used coins on all of them but I sure as hell used it on most of them and sure as hell used them on every one in recent weeks being I sit at or near 10 at all times anyway.

But the point of all that babble is this.  I have absolutely no heroic tier pieces.  Not a single one.  Never won a roll for one, never got one with personal loot, never got one on a coin.  As I said, not one single tier piece all expansion, which is only matched with not one single weapon all expansion and the fact I am still wearing a 655 trinket because I can't seem to get them either.

If you ever think RNG is bad to you, please reread that and understand what it is really like to have the random number generator hate you.  It hates me so much that I am sure when I die and am buried six feet under the random number generator will make routine trips to my grave site just to piss on it so it can rub it in.

Now that I have gotten past all that self pity and woe is me moaning that the random number generator doesn't love me I will get back to the point at hand.  I just told that story so it would explain the premise for this post as a whole.

I am looking forward to the four piece set for marksman, I am looking forward to maybe being able to use focusing shot with it instead of lone wolf depending on what the theory crafters come up with numbers wise. If it is close, as in less than 1% close, then I will once again be running around with my trusty companion fang at my side and using focusing shot.

The combination of focusing shot and an instant aimed shot is just so exciting, the most exciting thing I can think about for me come 6.2.  But the funny part, or the sad part if you look at it that way, is that none of this can happen for me until I get the four piece set.

That is the entire question of the post.  Should you need a tier set to make a spec feel smooth?  Should you need a tier set to make a spec feel fluid?  Should you need a tier set to make a spec feel complete?

All MM needed, as I mentioned early on, even during the beta, was an instant shot and now we get it.  Now the flow of the spec becomes so much nicer, less clunky, more fluid.  But only if you have the four piece set.

My personal opinion is that this is bad design.  Extremely bad design.  A tier set should make you stronger, but it should not be required to make your spec feel natural.  You should not need a tier set for aimed shot to be instant.  That is how it should have been since beta when I first said it.  It is how it should have been all expansion.  It is how it should be next tier before I even get the four piece, and looking at my history I should say, if I ever get the four piece.

I don't believe that tier sets should be required to "fix" a broken spec so it feels smooth.  Specs should be designed to be smooth from the get go and tier sets should make you feel stronger.

In a long series of bad design choices by blizzard this one has to be near the top of their list.  They purposely left MM broken, in terms of feeling as it was doing good numbers so we can not call that broken at all, all expansion long, just so they could fix it with a tier set bonus to make the bonus feel awesome.

Well, you are right blizzard, it will feel awesome.  For the people that get it.

I can't believe they are stooping so low as to using a tier set to fix a class instead of just fixing the class to begin with.  I don't like that design.  Maybe you do, but I do not believe that we should ever "need" a tier set for our class to play smooth.  It should play smooth to begin with.  That would be good design.