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Currency Changes coming for Patch 6.0
We mentioned already that item upgrades would become purchasable with Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. Now, Blizzard has clarified a host of changes to how currency will work in Patch 6.0 and beyond. In addition to being used to upgrade items, Lesser Charms will now be directly tradeable for Warforged Seals, and there's no longer a restriction on how many you can get in a week - You can dump literally all of your Lesser Charms to Seals if you so desire. Other changes include the utter removal of Valor and Justice points (not Honor/Conquest, those remain), the removal of the Test of Valor component of the legendary cloak quest (you can still get the cloak, you just don't need to get the Valor points first), and the switching of all honor/justice items over to costing gold to purchase, including heirloom items. You can read the post here.
You'll still be able to buy item upgrades and heirlooms in 6.0
There are lots of changes headed to WoW in patch 6.0, but perhaps the scariest change is the removal of valor and justice points, which have served as a primary form of in-game currency for quite a while. However, Blizzard staff have been working to reassure people that the loss of these currencies isn't the end of the world (or even the end of World of Warcraft). Almost everything you'd currently buy with valor or justice you'll be able to buy with gold moving forward, so heirlooms will have a gold cost. The one exception is with item upgrades, which you'll be able to purchase with Lesser Charms of Good Fortune (for Mists gear only; Warlords gear won't be upgradable) after patch 6.0 lands. Though the number may change before release, currently the cost is 50 charms per upgrade, with no cap on the amount of charms or how many upgrades you can do a week. Additionally, with valor being gone, the Test of Valor phase of the legendary quest chain is being removed. For those of you trying to level and gear alts before Warlords of Draenor arrives, this will be a big help -- provided patch 6.0's arrival date leaves enough time to make use of them.
Will we see a valor cap change?
Recently on twitter, Bashiok raised my hopes with a simple tweet. .@Itaku Agree a cap increase buff could be cool, but increasing the Valor cap is non-trivial. Would require a client-side patch. - Bashiok (@Bashiok) July 11, 2014 Because frankly, this late into the expansion, getting an alt fully geared up should be something we can do at whatever pace we want. I get Bashiok's point about how it's not as easy as just flipping a switch, but frankly, I don't think the current valor cap serves much of a purpose. The weekly/total caps of 1000/3000 serve a gatekeeping role that was much more important back in Mists of Pandaria's salad days, when the content was new and we were concerned about getting metaphoric tummyaches. Now, it's the equivalent of leftovers, and if people want to just pile on those leftovers, we should be applauding their efforts and letting them. I say, remove the weekly cap entirely, raise the total cap to 4000 and let people run wild if they so desire. Treat valor as a buffet. (I may have been hungry when I started thinking about this issue.) We'll see a complete redesign to Valor in Warlords anyway, so might as well just relax the gateway for now.
Heart of the Valorous now live
So, in case you were wondering where that Heart of the Valorous buff was, here it is. From today (May 30th) till Tuesday, June 10th at 9:00 AM PDT, the Heart of the Valorous buff will be active. It increases all valor points gained by 100%, meaning that (as an example) a daily quest that grants five valor points will now grant ten - it's essentially double your normal valor point acquisition. All you have to do to earn valor at this rate is log on and do what you would normally do to gain it - there's no special item or requirement. So if you're trying to gear up a series of alts, now's basically the time to get on and play them. You have until June 10th, so get started.
Patch 5.4.8 and the wait for Patch 6.0
With patch 5.4.8 we're seeing a new way to achieve an old goal - allow players to get further in established content while it remains the most recent content available. In essence, with this patch, we will be able to buy slightly increased ability to progress with valor points. This isn't new - it's what the item upgrade system has always been. I've been thinking about the new item upgrades and the Deeds of Valor since they were announced. I haven't been able to play WoW as I'd like lately (health reasons) but one of the things that immediately came to mind when they announced Deeds of Valor was that this was an entirely new way to nerf raid content at the end of an expansion. Instead of a progressive buff to the players, or a progressive nerf to the bosses, we're seeing a mechanical way to spend valor points to gain the same ultimate aim. Making it possible to trade in your Timeless Coins for valor points is a good way for players who are flush from constant Timeless Isle grinding to convert them to something useful, and allowing players to upgrade items an additional 2 times (for a total of four upgrades) serves to nerf content without nerfing it. Everyone will be stronger, will hit harder, will have more mana for heals. I have some opinions about this, of course. Others have already expressed theirs - and to be fair I accept the basic premise that these are quality of life changes that will cease to matter in patch 6.0. And I'm okay with that, because again, I see this primarily as a way to nerf Siege of Orgrimmar without actually doing so. It gives us another valor dump, of course. But with changes like Heart of the Valorous (which won't be live when 5.4.8 drops) it feels as if valor itself is being made into a progression mechanic.
Item upgrading disabled in Patch 6.0
If you have items you haven't upgraded yet, you should know that item upgrading is going away as of patch 6.0 - any items you have already upgraded will remain so, but you won't be able to upgrade any new items once the patch drops. So if you've been lax, like I have lately, it's time to get serious about your valor points and get everything upgraded before that time. Honestly, I'm not really all that sad about losing valor upgrading - it lately felt like that was all you could do with the points anyway. So I won't miss it that much. It would be nice if they added something to do with valor points once 6.0 drops - I'm always a sucker for cosmetic items, hint hint.
The struggle between gear disparity and good play
Okay, truth time - I can solo any five player heroic dungeon in Mists of Pandaria, as long as it doesn't have mechanics that prevent me. If I'm even concerned that I'll take too much damage and die, I'll pop on my tank set and go prot, but many times it isn't even a concern. Blow all my DPS cooldowns, blow my defensive cooldowns when I'm at about half health, boss falls over. Done it in Mogu'shan Palace and Scarlet Monastery. And I'm hardly the exception here - the fact is, the Mists of Pandaria dungeons were introduced at the beginning of the expansion and tuned so that players in ilevel 450 gear could complete them. I'm at around ilevel 576. Even players who are just in flex or LFR gear out gear these instances immensely. If a DPS player in full SoO LFR gear goes into Mogu'shan Palace and decides to pull more mobs than the tank was ready or waiting for, he or she can probably DPS them all down before dying themselves, especially if they get a few heals. Meanwhile, even the tanks can often put out enough damage (while taking so very little and having various means to heal it up) that they can basically solo the whole place if they want to, leaving absolutely everyone in the group feeling very little need to actually play as a group. As many, many people point out to me on twitter, it's just assumed that everyone is going to pull like crazy, so even undergeared players in a specific role often assume it's going to happen and react. Maybe your tank doesn't want to pull like a fiend, but they saw your gear and thought they had to in order to keep control of the dungeon. The lines of group communication have broken down into a silence that masks intent - runs are zoned into and pulled with grim efficiency. Into this veil of silence enters you, the player. So what can be done about it?
Blizzard "planning on simplifying our currency structure" in Warlords
I've talked before about the need to simplify currency going forward, and I'm far from the only one. Now it appears Blizzard agrees - Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas' made that very clear on twitter recently. @Glommerwort We'll have more info soon. We do want to streamline our currency system overall, though. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) February 25, 2014 Clearly this topic came up during this interview with PC Games N, which emphasized a bit more the idea of the complexity of current currency systems. The bonus roll system currently in play in Mists of Pandaria was mentioned as an alternative to valor. "We think we can take the bonus rolls system and make it a little bit more intelligent, so that it tries to avoid giving you duplicate loots - and allow that to be the way players counteract bad RNG. It removes a little bit of the grind and a little bit of the awkwardness of the current valor system." While no announcement has been made yet about how Blizzard will streamline its currency, it's good to know they're aware of and focused on the issue.
Why do we still have separate PvP and PvE gear?
While seeking out questions to a Queue I wrote, I was asked by a Twitter follower why we had separate PvE and PvP gear in the first place. A question I love, and that I wouldn't be able to respond to briefly enough for The Queue. I'm not going to go into a complete, exhaustive history of PvP gear. For starters, I didn't play in Classic, so I can't really comment on the gear then, but I gather that there was a lot more overlap between the two. Then, with Burning Crusade, back in 2006, the combat rating system and Resilience were both introduced, along with arenas. PvP gear was born. It's been through many different iterations since then -- too easy to get, too hard to get, too bad for PvE, too good for PvE, different effects, stat budgets, you name it. But history, while it merits repetition, shouldn't have too much bearing on this question in today's game.
Patch 5.4: Answers to Frequently Re-Asked Questions
We here at WoW Insider see a few questions pretty much every time a new patch is announced. Often, we see these same questions asked repeatedly, many times after we've answered them. So, out of a desire to be helpful (and to have a place to point folks) here are a few of those questions, answered for you here. Q: What is happening to my Valor/Conquest points in patch 5.4? A: Your Conquest points will be converted to Honor. If you have 4000 honor already, or will be pushed over the 4000 honor mark by the conversion, they will be converted to gold. All other points, be they Valor, Justice, or Honor points will not be converted. Q: What new gear can I get for Valor points? A: None. There is no new Valor gear. Shado-Pan Assault gear will still cost Valor, but will be discounted by 34%. All other current Valor gear (from the original reputation gear to the Patch 5.1 items) will now cost Justice Points instead. More questions answered following the jump.
Patch 5.4 will not reset valor points
The good news about patch 5.4 just keeps on coming! Not only are we getting a plethora of new content and exciting changes, as well as a new raid which also comes in a whole new difficulty, but on top of all of that there is no valor reset coming! That's right, just like in patch 5.2, you will get to keep hold of your hard-earned valor despite the fact that there is a new raid coming. While there's no valor gear coming in patch 5.4 as such, you can use the valor to upgrade existing or new gear drops, so as Ghostcrawler said in his recent interview with Twizzcast, "Players who want to stockpile their 3,000 Valor before Patch 5.4 hits will be able to do that, and probably should start thinking about that". It will be interesting to see how the absence of valor gear works out. Of course, there was a time when badge gear didn't exist at all, and players were at the mercy of the RNG gods, but we have become accustomed to it, and it's all well and good being able to upgrade gear, as long as you can get that gear in the first place.
Valor-capping a realm's worth of 90s every single week
And you thought the guy with 50 level 85+ characters was crazy. Last week, we met a player who's packed his entire account (five realms and 50 character slots, all told) with level 85+ characters. This week, we visit yet another plane of insanity: a player who's valor-capped every character on a realm (11 level 90 characters) in a single week -– more specifically, every single week, because Bluespartan of Lightbringer (US) has been valor-capping his entire crew like clockwork every week for the last four weeks in a row. "Didn't really set out to do it, but with the changes to patch 5.3, it became viable despite working full time," he muses. "Under the pre-5.3 options for capping valor on the first toon, I would have run one heroic dungeon and one normal scenario for 80 + 50 valor. But now, a single heroic scenario gives about the same valor as both of those, plus better gear rewards." Is this the dawning of the Age of the Altaholic? Maybe it's the fact that both of these altaholic players play characters named with forms of the word "blue." Or maybe it's just that Bluespartan is a college math teacher and enjoys figuring out a formula for success. Whatever it is, let's take a look inside the week of the player who just might be WoW's reigning King of Valor.
Patch 5.2: Getting ready for release day
Earlier today, we mentioned Bashiok's patch 5.2 release date estimate of late February. However, the blog post in which this tentative release date was mentioned contains a lot of great information on preparing for the patch which should not be missed. Some of the topics covered include: How to reach the Isle of the Thunder King and entering the new raid instance. Throne of Thunder normal difficulty available in the first week, Heroic difficulty opens the week after Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder opens the same week as Heroic raids (Week 2) with a new section each week after that 480 item level needed to enter Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder All Valor points will be reset and converted down to Justice points Current Valor items will have their costs reduced (25-50% reduction) Valor item upgrades won't be available in patch 5.2 Recapping the Legendary meta gem and what will happen to your Sha-Touched weapons Ability to champion select reputations for the first Heroic and Scenario queue of the day The Tillers can also help your reputation by issuing you work orders from the various factions. 5.2 Valor items are tied to raid reputation from boss kills and not dailies (which can be earned via Raid Finder) If you're still looking for ways to prepare for patch 5.2, our very own Kristin wrote up some excellent points to get yourself ahead of the pack.
Patch 5.2: Valor and Conquest Points will be reset
Given that patch 5.2 includes a new raid and a new PvP season, it is no great surprise that Valor and Conquest points are being reset. However, one element of said reset is not proceeding quite how recent arrivals to Azeroth might expect. Blizzard PvE Valor -> Justice All Valor is converted to Justice Justice -> Gold Justice above the 4000 cap is converted to gold at a rate of 47 silver per point So let's say the realms go down for the 5.2 patch and you have 450 Valor and 3800 Justice. Because of the 4000 Justice cap, you'd log back in after the patch is released with 0 Valor, 4000 Justice, and be 117 gold and 50 silver richer after the conversion. With 5.2 we won't be changing current Valor items to cost Justice, but they will be much cheaper (discounts from 50-75% off their current costs). You'll need to acquire Valor after the patch is released to buy pieces for their discounted rate, or to buy the new 5.2 Valor items, but we're also introducing new items to spend your Justice on, including heirlooms and Pet Battle stones. source This seems to follow the logic of Blizzard's raid nerf strategy, where players' prior efforts are not wholly negated, but will doubtless ruffle a few feathers. There is also further information provided about Charms, and PvP points.
Patch 5.2 Prep: Get ahead of the game
Patch 5.2 will bring new dailies, new factions, another raid, and a kitchen sink. It's pretty much a super patch. With so many additions, you may start to feel overwhelmed at the thought of class changes on top of new grinds -- and you know, pets and stuff. Never fear, we're here to help you prepare! Before we get too deep into this, remember that everything we've learned about patch 5.2 is from the PTR. Things can change! Farm (or buy) Ghost Iron. Both blacksmithing and engineering will see new unique crafting materials similar to the scribe's Scroll of Wisdom -- Lightning Steel Ingot and Stabilized Lightning Source, respectively. Both require 10 Ghost Iron bars, so snag some Ghost Iron now, and use some of it to transmute into Living Steel. Many new crafted items will require it. Get ahead in your Wrathion quests. In 5.2, Wrathion will ask for 40 Trillium Bars in a quest on the way to the legendary meta gems, so start gathering the ore now to get a head start. Get your Tillers rep to Exalted and unlock all plots. Although farming may not be appealing to everyone, Tillers rep is one of the easiest to max out. At Exalted, we'll be able to use work orders to gain rep in patch 5.2.
Patch 5.1: Upgrading your gear with valor
What do you do with thousands of Valor points when you already have all the gear that you can buy from the Valor vendors? Coming in with patch 5.1, one of the cool things is the ability to upgrade your own gear. In previous expansions, we'd reach a point where we'd have tons of Valor or Justice points and nothing to buy. Head on over to visit the local ethereals in the major capital cities and look for the item upgrade NPC. The process for upgrading items is simple. Drag the item you wish to upgrade over to the item slot, then hit the upgrade button. Only items that are 458 ilvl or higher can be upgraded. Blue quality items can be upgraded once for an 8 item level increase for 1500 Justice or Honor points. Epic quality items can be upgraded twice with a 4 item level increase per upgrade for 750 Valor or Conquest points. Once an item is upgraded, there's no way to get them refunded. Choose them wisely! If you're not sure what to upgrade first, I would suggest focusing on your weapons and trinkets. For most classes, you should notice a slight increase in your character's performance. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Mists of Pandaria: Valor of the Ancients increases valor points for alts
If you have a lot of alts and often feel like you have a hard time capping valor points on them, the Valor of the Ancients buff is intended to help you out. It will increase the valor points gained by every character you have on a realm after one of your characters maxes out their valor points for the week. In addition, MMO-Champion reports that a new maximum valor point cap is being introduced for Mists, so after you've gotten up to 3,000 valor points, you might as well spend some. This is probably going to push me even further toward consolidating my alts onto as few realms as possible. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Earning valor points via daily quests
When they said there were hundreds of new daily quests in Mists of Pandaria, they were not kidding. And some of those quests reward valor points. Granted, they don't reward a lot of valor points -- five per daily -- but with so many available, it's feasible that you could come fairly close to capping your 1,000 valor points a week just through daily quests. I found four in the Towlong Steppes alone, and I wasn't really looking all that hard. In fact, I stumbled across one on a remote island to the north of the Steppes while flying around after dinging 90 and ended up doing that one first. The quests range from simple "collect X of Y" quests to slightly more complicated exercises, and they tend to fill in gaps in the lore as well, if you're interested in that. Anne Stickney and I did one of the quests together, and there were some odd issues with looting quest items that we worked out. In general, the quest didn't take very long once we got into the swing of it, and it was a fairly painless way to farm up five valor points overall. While dungeons still offer points as well, it's a nice supplement. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Item upgrade strings surface
Two interesting new client strings were unearthed early this morning on MMO-Champion related to the elusive item upgrade system that Blizzard has yet to completely flesh out for players. Valor points are changing their focus in Mists of Pandaria, to be used as a way to upgrade existing gear rather than being used to buy all-new pieces. This new system has yet be comprehensively explained, and these new client strings are our first hint at the system's actual implementation. The basic understanding of the item upgrade system is that justice points will be used to purchase the first pieces of gear from vendors, and valor points will be used to turn that gear into better gear. What this hopefully means is that rather than having two vendors selling the same items with different stats, we can have a justice vendor who sells you items and then upgrades them via some interface dealie with valor points. Hopefully, the number of vendors decreases, because right now it's sort of a pain. ITEM ITEM_UPGRADE - Item Upgrade ITEM_UPGRADE ITEM_UPGRADE_DESCRIPTION - Use your valor points to upgrade a weapon or piece of armor that is level 375 or higher. Honestly, I've been under the impression that Blizzard itself still had the system in flux, so anything being said about just wasn't set in stone. Now, with new client strings and references to upgrading your raid items, it looks like the system is closer to completion. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
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.
