In the center of the Runeweaver Square stood Kaelen, a Paladin whose armor shone with the polish of Tier 9 heroics. He felt ready. He had faced the Trial of the Crusader; he had stared down Onyxia. But as he looked at the General Chat, he realized the rules of engagement in Azeroth had changed forever.
Determined, Kaelen spent his afternoon in a frantic hunt for "bloated" stats. He replaced a perfectly optimized Blue trinket—one that gave him much-needed Hit Rating—with a high-level Epic that had stats he didn't even use. His DPS would actually drop, but the number in the little box climbed. Gearscore Addon 3.3 5
“LF3M DPS ICC 10 – Link achievement and GearScore. 5.2k+ GS required.” In the center of the Runeweaver Square stood
The year was 2010, and the gates of Icecrown Citadel had just swung wide. In the bustling streets of Dalaran, the air wasn't filled with the sound of arcane spells, but with the constant, rhythmic clicking of players inspecting one another. But as he looked at the General Chat,
Kaelen opened his character pane. There, in the corner, a small box from the newly installed hovered like an impartial judge. 4,950. He was fifty points short of "existence."