badge-loot
Latest
Dress yourself completely in Badge loot
Our awesome friends over at MMO Champion have discovered more about the new loot that have been previously uncovered, revealing the prices of Badge of Justice loot from the much-awaited Patch 2.4. Prices start at 45 Badges for off-hand frills, a moderate price jump from the 25 Badges of the original loot and 35 for the two new items from Patch 2.3. The as-of-yet-unnamed rings (creatively named "Sunwell Badge Loot - <insert class archetype here> Ring") cost 60 Badges while it takes 75 Badges to purchase belts or gloves. The high prices are a precedent set by Patch 2.3 with such items as the Amani Mask of Death or the Battlemaster trinkets (75 Badges).Of course, with better gear comes a higher price, and some armor pieces go for a whopping 100 Badges. What's truly cool about the new Badge loot, however, is the availability of Main Hand (and Two-Handed) weapons, which top the price list at a staggering 150 Badges! The good news is, Badges of Justice are dropping everywhere now, with the patch notes stating that all raid bosses now drop Badges of Justice, including the 25-man ones, who drop 2.More Badge loot-y goodness after the jump.
New badge gear vendor unlocked on PTR
We've already discussed the loot, but we now have official confirmation: It is badge gear, and the vendor is unlocked with the "Make Ready" quest from the smith herself after the Armory phase of the daily chain is unlocked. You're going to want to start saving up the badges now, though. the prices are as follows: -150 badges for the two-handers, the crossbow and the one-handed caster weapons.-105 badges for the main hand melee weapons.-45 badges for the off-hand melee weapons.-100 badges for chest and leg armor.-75 badges for waist, belt, and foot armor.-60 badges for the rings.This is the PTR of course, so these totals could easily change, but if you want to get yourself some of this phat loot the moment the vendor gets unlocked on your server, you'll probably want to start planning those Karazhan runs and Heroic sessions now.If you want to go check it out yourself, by the way, the portal to Quel'danas from Shattrath has been opened on test server as well, so you can just head to the center of Shattrath city and teleport directly there. Thanks to our various tipsters for the heads up.
Officers' Quarters: Kicking and screaming
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.The past 12 months have been some of the toughest for raiding guilds since WoW went live. When The Burning Crusade launched, the PvE path was riddled with speed bumps: lengthy, complex attunements; massive consumables requirements; subpar loot rewards; fast, punishing trash respawns; luck-based encounters . . . I could go on and on. In comparison, the PvP path was smooth sailing: get your 10 Arena games in and you'll eventually get all the loot you want with no additional farming to cover consumables or repair costs. Run the battlegrounds for the other slots at your leisure and convenience. As a result, raiding guilds have taken a beating as more and more players have thrown in the towel. Gradually, Blizzard has undone most of those speed bumps (while making some of the top-end PvP a little more exclusive). Now, in patch 2.4, it looks like they're really getting serious about bringing guilds back into the 25-player dungeons. They're increasing the amount of gold and loot tokens bosses drop and lifting the attunements for Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. If that wasn't enough, they're also bringing Heroic badge rewards up to par with Black Temple/Season 3 Arena gear. I've got a backlog of e-mails, so I thought this week I'd address two. Both officers are having problems motivating their guilds to give raiding a try. It seems like they have to drag their guildmates into Karazhan kicking and screaming. So maybe the changes in 2.4 will help them out. Let's see if we can, too.
Badges of Justice topple the Black Temple
According to Drysc, the Sunwell Plateau will bring new badge loot to a vendor near you. Its too early to say what these items will be, but Drysc says the items are going to be Black Temple quality.This definitely has ups and downs. In my opinion, it really seems like the devs are eager to make their past dungeons obsolete. Dumping the old world raids with the launch of the Burning Crusade made a lot of sense, but rendering most of the pre-Sunwell content obsolete with badge gear within the same chapter of the game seems a little strange to me. Even if the vendor was in the raid zone itself, giving a wider selection of gear to those who have cleared Black Temple and Mount Hyjal, that would only lead to those with a plethora of badges paying for a raid ID for vendor access.Of course, this could be a very good thing for people sitting on many, many badges from Karazhan and are trying to gear up for Wrath of the Lich King levelling. Black Temple loot in exchange for a few Kara runs? Sure, I'll take that!
