Ghostcrawler Developer Blog: Raid Progress
If you missed it earlier today, make sure you read Ghostcrawler Developer Blog: Raid Progress!


New Valor Points and Daily Dungeons gains in Patch 4.1
We finally have a blue posts about the changes to daily quests!
Originally Posted by Lylirra (Blue Tracker)
Right now, you receive 70 VP for the first random Cataclysm Heroic dungeon you complete each day. In 4.1, you'll receive 70 VP for the first seven random Cataclysm Heroic dungeons you complete each week. Similarly, you'll receive 140 VP for the first seven random Rise of the Zandalari Heroic dungeons (the new Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub instances) you complete in the week, too. Collectively, you'll be able to earn up to 980 VP exclusively from Heroic dungeons, which in turn will count towards your weekly 1250 VP cap.

By transitioning random Heroic dungeon rewards from a daily format to a weekly one, we'll be able to give players more control and flexibility over how they can earn VP -- which is cool! -- but this also means that we've a lot more bookkeeping to do in terms of where those points are coming from. To help with that, we're adding a "Valor Point bar" (similar to an XP bar) to the top of Dungeon Finder UI that will track your weekly cap, as well as how many Heroics you can still run for VP during the week.

We're going to be writing up a pretty big blog about that system since it's somewhat complicated, but here's what you can take away right now:


  • In 4.1, running random Heroic dungeons for VP is now something you can do on your own schedule. Feel like spending your entire Saturday queuing up as random? No problem!

  • The first seven random Rise of the Zandalari Heroics you run for the week will award 140 VP each. This is double the VP that you’ll receive from your first seven random "tier 1" Cataclysm Heroics, since the dungeons are considered a "step up" in difficulty.

  • You'll be able to randomly queue for the Rise of the Zandalari Heroics separately from the tier 1 Cataclysm Heroic dungeons.

  • Each week you can earn up to 980 VP just by running random Heroic dungeons. If you want to maximize your VP gains, you can still reach the overall weekly cap of 1250 by defeating raid level content.

This isn't yet on the PTR for testing. We'll let you know when it is, though, and will continue to provide more information as the development of 4.1 progresses.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
RSA Vulnerability and Blizzard Authenticators
The Blizzard Authenticators are based off modified Vasco tokens. I'm sorry to hear about RSA's troubles, but it will not affect the Blizzard Authenticator. (Source)


People blocking mailboxes with flying mounts
You may have noticed that a number of mailboxes were added to the capital cities so that, if you happen to find one blocked, it should be relatively easy to walk a few steps and find another one that remains unobstructed. Most vendors are located inside buildings where mounts aren't allowed too.

Having the option to use one's flying mounts within the capital cities is ultimately more convenient than removing them to ensure access to services which should be reasonably accessible to begin with. (Source)


Heroic Instance Tiers
But, yes. The Rise of the Zandalari Heroics are considered a tier above the current Cataclysm Heroics. You can randomly queue for them separately, but you'll still only be able to earn at most 980 VP per week from running Heroics, period (no matter what tier they are). (Source)


Reasons behind the change to daily dungeon
Some people don't have time to log in every day, but have, for instance, a lot of time on the weekend to play.
We hear you, and we agree that asking players log in every day (or night) just to keep pace with their VP is a bit unreasonable and can sometimes lead to World of Warcraft feeling less like a game and more like a job. That's ultimately why we're making these changes. We want you to log in because you enjoy raiding, or questing, or -- in this case -- running dungeons, not because you feel like you need to complete a specific chore every day in order to stay viable/competitive. (Source)


Amount of instances in a week
It sounds like you meant that you could do 7 total heroics; not 7 tier 1 AND 7 ZG/ZA... so its possible to get a TOTAL of 980 VP (Source)


Hitting the cap with the new dungeon dailies
Even with only doing the dungeons (both types), you'll hit the cap before the week is over, without stepping foot into a raid.
Nah, you won't. You'll only be able to earn up to 980 VP per week from running random Heroics, not 1470 VP (we're purposefully placing a soft cap on VP from Heroics). If you want to reach the 1250 weekly cap, you'll still need to run raid content.

Again, I know it's a bit complicated, so let me give you some examples:

Example 1:
Player A has a blast on a Friday with his friends and runs seven Rise of the Zandalari Heroics, earning 980 VP (7 x 140 VP). The next day, he helps a friend with a random tier 1 Cataclysm Heroic -- let's say Heroic Deadmines. Because player A has already earned 980 VP from random Heroics, he won't receive any VP from the Saturday's Deadmines run.

Example 2:
Player B kills 25-man Argaloth, Council of Wind, and Halfus Wyrmbreaker, earning 270 VP on Tuesday night. She then runs three random tier 1 Cataclysm Heroics during the workweek for 210 VP. Come Saturday, player B wants to kill LOTS of trolls and decides to chain-run a few random Rise of the Zandalari Heroics. At this point, player B has 770 VP available to be earned from Heroic dungeons (980 VP - 210 VP). This means she can run six of those dungeons -- for the first five, she'll get 140 VP; for the sixth, only 70 VP.

Example 3:
Player C raids a lot of bosses, killing 10 of them with 24 of his peers on Tuesday/Wednesday, earning 900 VP. He can still earn 350 VP before hitting the weekly cap. The 980 VP Heroic dungeon cap won't affect him at this point. He can do five tier 1 Heroics -- or three Rise of the Zandalari Heroics, or two Rise of the Zandalari Heroic + one tier 1 Heroic -- to earn those 350 VP.

This is all much easier to understand with pictures (which we'll be sure include in spades in the blog post), but I hope the above makes sense for now. (Source)

Fan Arts
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with nine new pieces of fan artwork set within the Warcraft universe.




The Daily Blink - Okay, One More Movie Poster
I guess this is very relevant today.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.1 Valor Points and Daily Dungeon Explained, Blue Posts, The Daily Blink started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 141 Comments
  1. Eleveneleven's Avatar
    I'm sure the players who are only farming heroics to get their gear would rather be raiding but since they don't have the time they shouldn't be punished. Why do people gripe so much less when a new PvP season brings better PvP gear for honor points? It's very hypocritical.
  1. Spl4sh3r's Avatar
    The only people who don't like the Valor Point change are those people who have a complete core group of raiders and don't need to recruit more people ever (or atleast they hope they don't need to). People who need more people for their raiding team will like this change since it means it will be quicker to get a pre-raid set complete so that a guild can accept them.

    If you are truly raiding you won't need much Valor Points at all. The only thing you need Valor for is those off pieces that are proven to be better from vendor than from drops and then the few pieces you actually want of tier that the vendor offers, unless you wanna try your luck in Baradin's Hold.
  1. Stopdotnrol's Avatar
    What i like is all these casuals crying on the forums that content is too hard and they dont have time to do heroics so they cant get raid ready gear lol well here you go. i wonder how many of you put knee pads on and slob the blizz knob. i think this valor point change is wrong i had to grind for gear and so should these whinny emo nerds.
  1. videotape's Avatar
    Successful fan art makes me want a Worgen warlock. I hate Worgen.

    Also: I motion to cease the incessant bickering about the subject of CASUALZ VS HC that arises any time any change is made to anything in the game. You feel one way, they feel the other way. In any case, life goes on.

    Let's talk about ponies or something magical.
  1. mmocb0adb8877a's Avatar
    Dungeon change is good imo! People saying wtf at getting just as good gear as the raiders are wrong.. how many items can you buy from valor points? Clearly not a full set. Also, sure, people can get the gear, i dont care, i rather have the progress then the gear.
  1. Huntingbear_grimbatol's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by tyden49 View Post
    im a bit confused, so the weekly VP cap is 1250 is that including raids. Because that would suck if it did.
    allways been that way.
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Essenji View Post
    That's a horrible change! I don't want to do ZG/ZA 7 times every week! Usually Random HC consists of about 10 dungeons... But having to alternate between 2 of them all the time is insane. It's going to be quite boring and tedious after a while. I do hope they change it so that the ZG/ZA and random heroics award the same... or at least set it so that it gives less than 100 VP per run.

    And on the topic of gear: We're back to the frost emblems of late wotlk. We're all gonna get shiiiiny shiiiiny purples before 4.1 is over.

    This is honestly the worst piece of news about the new patch I've seen so far. And I didn't even like the idea of bringing ZG and ZA back in the first place.
    You won´t have to do that. Because of the valor cap, you will only have to do 3 or 4 troll dungeons per week, and the rest can be the other dungeons.

    ---------- Post added 2011-03-19 at 05:53 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by K0tY View Post
    Well you can get nearly full epic from it so :/

    It feels like /slap for the ones that were tring to aquire the gear not just farm HCs :/
    So you are really insulted because other people playing a game can get some of the same items you can get from playing a game. Items that don´t even really exist. This is the type of thing that insults you??

    Blizzard is much smarter than you guys. The vast majority of their players do not raid extensively. If you turn off their ´progression´because they don´t raid, then you will lose a whole bunch of subscribers. The reason WOW has grown so much over the past 4 years is because there is ´progression´available for everyone. Get over yourself.. even with this change, people doing only heroics will only be able to buy 1 piece of gear every two weeks.

    I laugh at all the hardcore raiders who act like they are tough because they raid, but then cry on the forums like 2 year olds because someone else might have the same toy they have.... that they ´worked´so hard for. My guild is first in progression on our server, and we are happy about this change because it allows us to gear up alts so that we have more flexibility. It also makes it so that we won´t have to do old content for weeks in order to gear up a new member. The practical implications of this system benefit raiders. The only people who are crying are the ones who raid so they feel ´special´.
  1. merex760's Avatar
    Flexibility and choice = casual, apparently.
  1. Moneybagz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by K0tY View Post
    Well you can get nearly full epic from it so :/

    It feels like /slap for the ones that were tring to aquire the gear not just farm HCs :/
    boo-fucking-hoo.

    Blizzard does this to bridge the gap a little to keep people from being too far behind to join anything.
    this is great for those who picked up wow or just wanna get some alts caught up after lvl 85. This doe not effect YOUR game.
  1. grexly75's Avatar
    Can someone explain in old fogy language what the new VP change means I have been trying to figure out how and what Blizz have planned but brain going into meltdown trying to work out what they mean that and being on the booze dont help lol
  1. mmoccf1711fd43's Avatar
    Pfff, up to 1k valor of the total 1,25k you can get in a week. More welfare epics inc for ppl that are not raiding. Ah well, to keep the crows happy ^^
  1. grexly75's Avatar
    Well there are people who have a real life and then there are those who don"t....
  1. Notos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by grexly75 View Post
    Can someone explain in old fogy language what the new VP change means I have been trying to figure out how and what Blizz have planned but brain going into meltdown trying to work out what they mean that and being on the booze dont help lol
    Basically, instead of having to do one heroic a day for valor points, you can do them all in one day. Or in two days, or over whatever period of time you want, as long as it's in the same week. So for example if you have a really busy day of work on Wednesday and don't have time to play WoW, you don't lose those 70 VP; you can just get them later in the week.

    The troll heroics will also give more VP for completing them because they are harder than the original Cata heroics. The maximum number of VP you can get from doing heroics is now 980 instead of 490.
  1. Stopdotnrol's Avatar
    it has nothing to do with having no life and having a life i have a main also and alts to gear up but to release free epics to baddies that cant get over the gear grind or go through progression like all the other people raiding, they shouldn't get crap. call it whining or what ever its the truth if you ask anyone that's raiding in this tier they will say the same thing quit being lazy and cry to blizz because your too dumb to progress or i have to work i don't have time to grind heroics blah blah blah then go and play counter strike or how about black ops gtfo and stop playing a game you don't have time for, and then cry about not having gear to do anything with.
  1. Not A Cat's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Stopdotnrol View Post
    it has nothing to do with having no life and having a life i have a main also and alts to gear up but to release free epics to baddies that cant get over the gear grind or go through progression like all the other people raiding, they shouldn't get crap. call it whining or what ever its the truth if you ask anyone that's raiding in this tier they will say the same thing quit being lazy and cry to blizz because your too dumb to progress or i have to work i don't have time to grind heroics blah blah blah then go and play counter strike or how about black ops gtfo and stop playing a game you don't have time for, and then cry about not having gear to do anything with.
    Too bad the people you're telling to quit make up a good majority of the playerbase, so why should Blizzard, as a business, not make changes that would make the majority happy? You could call it selling out or whatever, but they're a business, and if a business isn't there to make money then they're doing it wrong.
  1. videotape's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Stopdotnrol View Post
    it has nothing to do with having no life and having a life i have a main also and alts to gear up but to release free epics to baddies that cant get over the gear grind or go through progression like all the other people raiding, they shouldn't get crap. call it whining or what ever its the truth if you ask anyone that's raiding in this tier they will say the same thing quit being lazy and cry to blizz because your too dumb to progress or i have to work i don't have time to grind heroics blah blah blah then go and play counter strike or how about black ops gtfo and stop playing a game you don't have time for, and then cry about not having gear to do anything with.
    I recommend taking a break from raiding and posting here to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-on_sentence.

    I have been playing WoW for 6 years now. I used to raid all the time. I work 70-hour weeks because I like having lots of money IRL more than I like having lots of purples in WoW. There is no conceivable reason why I should feel compelled to play a new game simply because I "don't have time for" it (as in, I don't have as much time as you, the self-proclaimed model citizen of WoW). If you are unable to comprehend how these changes do not actually make epics any "easier" to obtain despite the fact that they do add a level of convenience for those of us with actual lives and schedules and obligations outside of a box of rasterized polygons, then there is no sense in carrying an argument any further. I would sooner argue with a bag of rocks or a jar of mayonnaise.
  1. Wocdercas's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by K0tY View Post
    Problem, Casual player ?

    They are implenting theyre "Hey look it will be hard for casuals to try Firelands, so we implent something that will give em free points and epics so they can try it NICE IS IT ?!" thing that they were doing whole WOTLK and we know what it was like back then :X
    Yup... the perfect storm of ungemmed casuals poorly facerolling through heroics because of the arrogant elitist raiders doing their daily point-farming chores.

    As a gemmed casual non-raiding player who studies how to play the game and is quite good at it for all my lack of raiding, in Wrath I found the latter to be far, far, FAR more annoying than the former, who at least kept their mouths shut for the most part. A crappy DPS who wasn't carrying their weight meant for challenge (and therefore fun) for me in otherwise challengeless content; the stupid whiney raider constantly insulting and insisting everyone "pull their weight" when the fire mage could have AoE dps'd the whole thing solo behind the T12 overgeared tank killed my buzz more than anything.

    Here's a thought that's way, way out there:
    A corporation is going to make decisions that attempt to guarantee its continued success. If you feel like Blizzard is constantly changing the game deliberately in such a way it is making you consider leaving, they probably are.... if you want them to stop, then try not behaving in a manner which makes them think you are risking their profit.
  1. Ohmnia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chaossammy View Post
    nioe with vos youll get t12 without going into raids so dont talk when you dont have facts
    You better don't talk as long you don't have the facts too. T12 is far away and you don't know how many T12 parts one get get for VP. You talk as if 5 parts are buyable....

    This QQ is getting on everybodys nerves already!

    You could get t9/t10/t11 without doing raids since about 2 years now.

    You get 3 pieces of T11 for VP, for the 4 piece bonus you still need to kill nefarian or cho'gall. That'll be just same with T12!

    Some of you elistists act as if you pay 50$ a month for exclusive content.

    Everyone pays the same monthly fee and everyone has the same rights to wear T11 or to buy stuff for VP.

    Be honest, is a casual gamer full 359 equiped if he buys all that's available for VP? No he isn't, you as raider "can be" are. So stop to act as if WoW is made only for you...
  1. Explosion_Rex's Avatar
    I've been playing on and off since Vanilla. The amount of whiny completely idiotic assholes that play this game still somehow amazes me. There is nothing wrong with any of these changes. If you have any problem with this you are either an idiot or a douchebag and most probably both. There is no counter argument. Get over it. Play the game and enjoy it. Get a real fucking life.
  1. Immamoonkin's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Chaoyll View Post
    I totally agree with you. Warcraft + Anime = One massive no no. It ruins the epic feel of it for me and every Warcraft character drawn in that style just ends up looking stupid. Plus I don't like anime enough as it is. (Most of the time, there can be exceptions, I really enjoyed Fullmetal Alchemist and I read some manga.)
    People who say like this make me laugh so hard.

    I went to BlizzCon last year, and sat at the artist panel for almost the entire time there. The artists there talked about how anime/manga is a HUGE INFLUENCE. So next time you talk about it doesn't fit, remember how Blizzard themselves are LOOKING for that kind of art.

    :|

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