This flamebait of a cherrypicked thread shows exactly the problems that always plagued XP-off in WoW. People end up being right for all the wrong reasons. Bonus points to
@Druiddroid for showing how that works in politics (folks, if you thought that was a pro-Trump post, read it again, because you missed the point).
You want to talk about intelligence in XP-off? Let's take this bracket by bracket.
10: One of the most creative subcommunities of XP-off players in the history of twinking, leveraging gear stats in a way no other bracket has or could, with the possible exception of the 80-84 bracket in MoP. ...Except most 10s never truly understood how to leverage their stats, and most of the leadership of the bracket decided to demonstrate their creativity by exploiting XP-on queues and reinforcing the worst stereotypes the XP-off community has to offer.
19: Arguably one of the most dedicated and skilled XP-off subcommunities in WoW. ...Except only in premades. Most 19s don't play in premades and never did, and 19 PuGs historically constitute some of the worst XP-off play outside of expansion-capped brackets. The Summer of 19s remains the one time the bracket successfully bridged this gap via battletag/RealID PuGmades.
20: Some of the most dedicated, hardgrinding XP-off players in the game, spending more time on a single achievement or piece of gear than some players do building an entire BiS XP-off character. ...Except those particular 20s constitute less than 1% of a playerbase full of people for whom "starter accounts" are very appropriately named.
29: By and large, the most community-minded xp-off players ever seen in the game. ...Except they barely play anymore. So the vast majority of current 29s are leveled 24s who still struggle against decent f2ps.
39/49/59: Historically brought the highest expectations to PuGs, and not by coincidence, saw the highest level of PuG performance. ...Except they barely play anymore, and haven't played consistently for years.
60: One of the tightest-knit and supportive casual XP-off communities in WoW. ...Except that was half a decade ago, before Cata destroyed them.
70: Garnered more attention from official outlets with their arena scene (yes, even with the tazik shocker) than any other bracket, exceeded only by the Twink Cup. ...Except less than 1% of 70s played in that arena scene. A statistically significant number of 70s struggled to field a reasonable set of PvP vendor gear, one of the easiest grinds in the game.
89/99: Brackets that continue to offer tremendously interesting gearing opportunities thanks to gear scaling. ...Except most players don't understand gear scaling in any bracket, let alone the upper brackets where it matters the most.
You want to talk about intelligence in a bracket? Let's talk about how the better players often played in more than one bracket. Making generalizations about a bracket is about as skewed as making generalizations about XP-off. So here's a skewed generalization that should stick in the craw of the XP-off community:
The vast majority of XP-off players aren't any more skilled than XP-on players. Not today, and not in XP-off history. Most XP-off players were more interested in gearing up than stepping up.
And you know what? People still had a great time, made great friends, and retain great memories. Enough with intelligence bashing. Get back to the community building that made XP-off not just worthwhile, but memorable. Because threads like this are utterly forgettable.
