Shiny Shoulders

With the new PvP system, players are able to earn honor and tokens and spend them on whatever items are available.

They do not have to earn a certain rank to get items, as was the case in the past. For example you would have had to hit Lt. Commander to purchase any Lt. Commander items, Field Marshal to get any Field Marshal items, and so on.

Now with the new system, if you have enough token/honor to buy a Grand Marshal weapon, you don't have to rank up to do so. You can go straight for it.

This has lead to some "pointing-and-laughing" that seems to be occurring a lot lately.

Field Marshal shoulders are one of the cheapest epic pieces in the reward system. As a result many players have chosen that to be the first piece they purchase. (And since you don't know if Blizzard will hit honor with a nerf bat yet again, its best to grab whatever you can while you can!)

I think several classes' Field Marshal shoulders have some type of a glow to them, so you hear a lot of cracks about "the warlock in glowing shoulders wearing greens and the priest in shiny shoulders still wearing devout".

This is a put-down of course, because it comes from players who earned their shoulders in the old system. They are understandably miffed at how easy anyone can get them now.

On a side note, I don't know why Blizzard didn't implement a transparent rank system, where you had to purchase a Private item before you would be able to earn a Sergeant item, then Master Sergeant and so on. This would put the time sink in that Blizzard wants the game to have. Then, if you ever see anyone in shiny shoulders, you'd know they invested a decent amount of time to get them.

But as it stands, the system works as it does and I'm happy for the players who otherwise may have never had a chance to get an epic before now. I, for one, congratulate you on your shiny shoulders. ;)