Patch 4.3 Valor Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
With the 4.3 patch we'll be introducing some changes to the way Valor Points (VP) are obtained, as well as the items that they can purchase.

Changes coming in 4.3:


  • Looking for Dungeon — 150 VP per run, with a cap of seven runs per week. All Cataclysm heroic dungeons introduced in 4.0, 4.1, and 4.3, will provide 150 Valor per run.
  • Looking for Raid — 250 VP per run, with a cap of 500 per week. The 4.3 raid, Dragon Soul, will be split into two separate raids for the Raid Finder. While individual bosses do not drop Valor when using the Raid Finder, you will receive 250 Valor for completing each Dragon Soul raid. Each boss will only drop loot for you once per week, but you will continue to get the 250 Valor for completing each Raid Finder raid, up to the 500 cap.
  • 10 player raid boss — 115 VP. There are nine bosses per week, counting Baradin Hold.
  • 25 player raid boss — 135 VP. There are nine bosses per week, counting Baradin Hold.
  • Valor Points cap at 1000 per week.

As you acquire Valor you'll want to spend it, and vendors will be offering a wide range of items to equip you to take on the Dragon Soul raid encounters, including cloaks, rings, ranged weapons, necklaces, trinkets, chest pieces, helms, gloves, bracers, boots, and belts, all of which are ilvl 397.

Our goal with these changes is to move Valor back to the original intent of currency rewards as a consolation prize, for two main reasons: to make it less frustrating when you keep having bad luck getting an item you want from a particular boss, and to help encourage you to keep fighting bosses (and helping out the rest of your group) even if that particular boss didn’t drop anything for your character in particular. Over time we have also offered Valor as a reward for doing other activities (such as participating in Heroic 5-player dungeons) to provide players something to do on an off night or when they couldn’t raid.

In the past we have offered some tier pieces on the Valor vendor for players that just couldn’t justify the time or logistics necessary to participate in raids, but we’re hoping that the introduction of the Raid Finder tool helps remove that barrier. We think most players would agree that killing a giant monster and looting its corpse is more exciting than slowly farming a currency to purchase a reward. Currencies have their place, but we want them to be a secondary avenue of progression to boss killing.

While the Raid Finder will provide a lower difficulty for the Dragon Soul raids, and thus a lower ilvl of gear, the normal 10 and 25 raids will drop ilvl 397, with the final Deathwing encounters dropping ilvl 403. For the Heroic version, 10 and 25 will drop ilvl 410, and the Heroic Deathwing encounters will drop ilvl 416 loot.

As we near the release of 4.3 we’ll be posting everything you need to know about the Valor to Justice down-conversion process, so stay tuned.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.3 Valor Changes started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 194 Comments
  1. mmoc9aa38bccdb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bullarkie View Post
    I'm curious to find out if raids completed using /LFR will give achievements.
    They wont. atleast they said that they wont. that might change ofc...
  1. Bullarkie's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by wakarimas View Post
    They wont. atleast they said that they wont. that might change ofc...
    Bah that's too bad a separate set of achieves would be nice to have as proof of downing raid bosses for pugging.
  1. Nedle's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gurbz View Post
    Except that it says that the tier pieces will not be available from a vendor in the blue post. Blizzard has been saying the same thing since they began talking about 4.3. If you want T13, you have to raid.
    I am really ok with the "if you want T13 you have to raid" concept. But this is just a broken way to fix the problem. Its a decent chance even raiders won't have T13 bonuses anytime soon.

    Current loot drops half the time don't drop items for individuals within the group. I really don't mind losing rolls, but not to ghosts. Take away the set bonuses at the vendor, alright sweet, now make it so at least one thing drops that someone can use within the raid.
  1. Toggol's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bullarkie View Post
    I'm curious to find out if raids completed using /LFR will give achievements.
    Blizzard stated that there would probably be some basic achievements for LFR groups. Something simlpe, along the lines of "Complete wing #1". You will not be able to complete the actual raid achievements in LFR mode.
  1. Tragan's Avatar
    "We think most players would agree that killing a giant monster and looting its corpse is more exciting than slowly farming a currency to purchase a reward. Currencies have their place, but we want them to be a secondary avenue of progression to boss killing." It is about time Blizz. Thank you!!!
  1. Kalmah's Avatar
    In wotlk you had to run the daily heroic every single day for weeks when new content came out even if you were a raider (at least if you were in a serious guild).

    3.0 heroics dropped 200ilvl gear and rewarded currency for 264 gear when ICC came out. There's actually a smaller gear difference between 4.0 heroics (346) and 4.3 valor gear (397).
  1. Zekarus's Avatar
    I'm happy with these changes. Finally I can run some old cata heroics and not feel like I'm wasting time...they were really fun!
  1. Rokzum's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tragan View Post
    "We think most players would agree that killing a giant monster and looting its corpse is more exciting than slowly farming a currency to purchase a reward. Currencies have their place, but we want them to be a secondary avenue of progression to boss killing." It is about time Blizz. Thank you!!!
    I agree, but.... With the Random Raid, can you imagine how long it will take to get your set items?
  1. Kragragh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bullarkie View Post
    I'm curious to find out if raids completed using /LFR will give achievements.
    I'm 99% sure they've already said no.

    ---------- Post added 2011-10-05 at 05:30 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Thestalos View Post
    Stop putting caps on things... If people want to farm currency, let them.
    That makes no sense. The caps exist so people can't blow through content/loot/etc. Hence the Sunwell gating, ICC gating...the caps are always going to be there.
  1. Rokzum's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bullarkie View Post
    I'm curious to find out if raids completed using /LFR will give achievements.
    They said they would have separate achievements
  1. Tragan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rokzum View Post
    I agree, but.... With the Random Raid, can you imagine how long it will take to get your set items?
    LFR would be too much of a time sink for me - The potential frustration that would come from playing with idiots will not be worth my time. This is one guy who will not be using the LFR tool -- I'll stick to my guild. However, it is a great addition for those who do not have the luxury of being able to devote to a set raiding schedule.. finally a tool to separate the 'casual' from the 'raider'.. and hopefully a medium that will make both crowds happy!

    -also if I am not mistaken, the LFR gear will be recolored (think I read that somewhere)
  1. Stoobs's Avatar
    AHH YEAH! 416 ilvl, got 3 minutes. *Coughs*
  1. huldu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tragan View Post
    LFR would be too much of a time sink for me - The potential frustration that would come from playing with idiots will not be worth my time.
    Nobody cares what you do with your time... You're wasting it on a stupid game, hope it'll make you happy when you're older.
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kalmah View Post
    In wotlk you had to run the daily heroic every single day for weeks when new content came out even if you were a raider (at least if you were in a serious guild).

    3.0 heroics dropped 200ilvl gear and rewarded currency for 264 gear when ICC came out. There's actually a smaller gear difference between 4.0 heroics (346) and 4.3 valor gear (397).
    Yes, congratulations to Blizzard for releasing one less tier of raid content in this expansion. this is the only reason the gap is smaller.
  1. ganush's Avatar
    I think they pretty much nailed it.

    Valor cap seems fair to me. I don't care if you raid to get your 397's, but they shouldn't be handed out overnight. If they do this, everyone who power farmed all the VP gear would be whining the next week that they were bored and where's the new content.

    Having to raid to get your tier gear is also fair. My guess is the RF runs will actually turn out to be easier than ZA/ZG have been, so their won't be many fail groups. If you want higher levels of tier gear, then you have to raid regulars or heroics. Very fair.

    iLevels seem to be pretty much perfect. You can run the new dungeons and RF to get to 378 (maybe 384 as the lack of a statement on that indicates to me they haven't decided on RF gear lvl), which is what regular heroics will be tuned to. New players can get to a current content gear level fairly easily and quickly if they want.

    Having VP drop from all the heroics is good. As a raider, if I have to fill in my last few VP with a random, I don't necessarily want to spend a lot of time doing it. Quite frankly, some of my most enjoyable times in Wrath were rofl-stomping heroic dailies with a group of overgeared guildies. Sometimes it's fun to just roll through stuff, not have to pay attention and joke around with friends. I welcome this back.

    This system seems fair to all types of players, and may just put the fun back into my guild. I say they may have finally hit the sweet spot.
  1. tehdef's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Thestalos View Post
    Stop putting caps on things... If people want to farm currency, let them.
    Blahahhaha... What? Really? Stop putting caps on things so everyone feels forced to run stuff until they are blue in the face? How in what world is that fair? It's why they got rid of 10 and 25 being on separate locks. They felt like people were pressured or forced to do things that may not have been in their best interests. In this case, if you allow VP to be farmable, all you do now is make it to where people again feel pressured that they have to farm something.

    "Guild Leader says: Hey guys, I know this is going to suck, but I need you guys to farm VP all day. We need about 12,000 VP each to gear out all of our slots to make the content easier. Soooo, if you dont do it, you may not be invited. Thanks."

    Yeah, F that noise. You have a terrible idea.
  1. Zoneseek's Avatar
    So no more tier gear, even low ilvl tier gear, that can be gradually obtained over months of doing heroics here and there when you feel like it? Weak. WOTLK was so much more fun for casual players.
  1. i2ich13's Avatar
    There was a time when you had to raid to get gear.... so I don't understand why casuals are complaining about not being able to get tier. Overall I think its pretty fair, I like the cap as otherwise I would have to farm. The LFR finder gives casuals a friendlier option to see content (and hopefully raises the probability that a pug will know the mechanics XD).

    Just wanted to discuss people saying things like "Just because I can't make times to be in a guild that raids, why should I get punished?". Now how should I start this... perhaps with why should people who CAN make times not get rewarded? But more so, you have to make choices in life. Your time is scarce, and you have to decide how to best use it. If you can't make raids, then you are probably doing something that you would rather do, so it's no way blizzards fault. E.g. I have a test today, so I chose to study instead of raid last night.
  1. ganush's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zoneseek View Post
    So no more tier gear, even low ilvl tier gear, that can be gradually obtained over months of doing heroics here and there when you feel like it? Weak. WOTLK was so much more fun for casual players.
    Well, why not queue up for LFR then. I'm guessing difficulty level will be on par with heroics, and you could conceivably get your tier gear faster.
  1. twelvedogs's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ganush View Post
    Well, why not queue up for LFR then. I'm guessing difficulty level will be on par with heroics, and you could conceivably get your tier gear faster.
    pretty much this, if you're worried you don't have time to raid you can also just queue up and conceivably just do 2 bosses or something, people worry too much.

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