The Raid Finder, the Dungeon Finder, point caps and you

I have a theory that either our various caps for justice and valor points are too low, or the amount we get per activity is too high. I'll relate my thinking. I have several level 85 characters I'm running through the Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder tools. Clearing both halves of the Raid Finder Dragon Soul gets me 500 valor; I then run four random heroics, and I'm capped. This means that playing my main any further that week is effectively a waste of time. (I usually cap my valors out before I even raid for a week, which makes raiding just about the gear, but I'm OK with that.)

My problem is, I like my main. I'd play him more if there was anything to do. As it is, I tend to cap out on justice points rather than run on one of my alts, and even then, they usually cap on valors as well. (At least two of them do.) I even sometimes cap on honor, and with the new conquest point gains for Random BGs, I could cap on conquest if I really set my mind to it. And while I understand why we have both weekly and total caps on points, it often feels like I'm being penalized for liking the game and wanting to play it.

Now, is the solution to jack up the amount of points we can gain in a week? Potentially not. The weekly cap exists to keep people from just running heroics until their eyes bleed, blowing all those points on gear immediately, and then complaining that there's no candy left (like a certain someone writing this post used to do with his Halloween candy). I get that. But it has me contemplating other alterations to the point system.

Doffing the cap to flexibility

For starters, there's really no benefit to the total JP cap. All it does is force you to spend JPs when you're near it. That's fine -- but aside from either converting them to honor or just plain blowing them on gear or trade goods, what purpose does it serve? I'd say remove it. Same for the total honor cap, especially when the items most people want from honor (weapons) cost nearly as much as the total cap and have a seasonal honor cost already. These total caps don't work as a brake. They don't prevent anyone from grinding for as much as they can get. They just force mindless busy work and napkin math.

Secondly, valor points capping at 1,000 a week still seems excessively low when the only item that could possibly be purchased in a week is the relic slot item or throwing weapon. Frankly, perhaps the recourse here isn't to raise that cap but to drop some prices. BoE items I can understand costing 1,650, but capes, rings and necks should be accessible with a week's efforts. Making people wait two weeks between valor purchases means that the stated goal of valor points as a consolation prize isn't working. Who feels consoled by two weeks of grinding? I don't send people a Sorry about the Xlyens card with two weeks of stamp collecting enclosed.

Finally, we could lower how many valors we get for a random heroic. I'm not saying slash it to the bone, but 150 points ends up in that strange situation where you're running a heroic for the last 50 points. If they rewarded 100 per run, you'd have to run one more heroic a week to cap, but that one more heroic would reward full points and not feel like a weird appendix to your other runs that week.

Of course, you may have other ideas, and they may be better. So hit me with them. Are you perfectly satisfied with the current point systems? Would you make changes, and if so, what would they be?

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.