Tyrael Pumpkin, Season 4 Discussion

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Artanis Now Available, All About Shields, Brightwing Phase Shield Guide and More

Patch 6.2.3 - Earning Valor
Blizzard released some more details on the Valor coming in Patch 6.2.3 today. It looks like players will be able to earn up to 4875 Valor per week.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’ve just updated our Patch 6.2.3 preview blog post with the following details:

  • Upgrading an item costs 250 Valor for +5 item levels.
  • Hellfire Citadel items, Dungeon loot, Baleful items, and crafted items can each be upgraded twice, costing a total of 500 Valor for +10 item levels.
  • There is no hard weekly cap on Valor, but the sources of Valor are inherently not infinitely repeatable.
  • Valor can be earned in the following ways:
    • Mythic Dungeon (Valor awarded with dungeon completion, once per dungeon per week) – 300 Valor Points
    • Complete the weekly Event quest from Seer Kazal (Pet Battle Event excluded) – 500 Valor Points
    • Heroic Dungeon (complete your first random Heroic of the day) – 100 Valor Points
    • Raid Finder wing (once per week per wing) – 150 Valor Points for Hellfire Citadel wings, 75 Valor Points for Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry wings

If you have any further questions on this, feel free to ask them here.

Please note: On the current PTR, Mythic Dungeons are awarding only 150 Valor Points. This will be fixed to the intended value of 300.

Does this include the PvP events? So you win 10 skirmishes and get 500 CP and 500 VP?
Yes.

Why is the Pet Battle event excluded, but not the PvP events?
The Pet Battle challenge is excluded because it and pet battling are account-wide.

A hard cap on earning Valor (or any currency) essentially sets a weekly benchmark, and falling short of that benchmark leaves you feeling like you've left something on the table. If we artificially cap earning at 1000/week, then we're saying it takes ~8 weeks to fully upgrade your gear, assuming "maximum" effort each week. If you miss a week, then you're a week "behind." If you're busy, or sick, or just don't feel like it, and you fall a bit short of the cap one week, then you are delaying completion by precisely that amount. The existence of the cap makes the whole thing feel more mandatory in a sense, with motivation level then plummeting the moment you hit that weekly cap. Despite all these reasons, sometimes we do need caps as a pacing mechanism, particularly early in an expansion or where the impact on player power is massive (e.g. buying Conquest gear in a new arena season).

Without a cap, there's an inherent diminishing return curve at play. You can start off doing the most efficient and engaging activities first, until you've exhausted those, leaving you with activities that are progressively less efficient and/or less suited to your playstyle preferences, combined with the fact that you also inherently are exhausting your free time as you go, with your remaining time presumably becoming more valuable as it dwindles. At some point, you generally hit a threshold where the reward for the next incremental activity no longer seems worth the time investment required, and you're done for the week. For many people, that threshold will be reached at lower than 1000 VP per week, and their experience is no different whether or not there's a cap. For others, that threshold will be reached at a point above 1000 VP, and the lack of a cap gives them the freedom to decide when they're done rather than having it dictated to them. Some will benefit from the fact that they're allowed to convert a weekend of free time into a bunch of Valor to make up for that week when they were busy or traveling, coming out even or ahead rather than being permanently "behind" due to a cap.

(The particular nature of Valor upgrades also adds another element of diminishing returns - your first 2k Valor will likely go into your weapons and trinkets. After that, every additional point of Valor you earn is progressively less impactful as you work your way down from chest/helm, to gloves, to bracers.)

In this case, we opted for the design that offers more freedom to select the sources of Valor that most suit your preferred playstyle, goals, and available time. If you're into Mythic dungeons, then Mythic dungeons are going to be by far the most lucrative source of Valor, and should let you cover your needs quickly. But for players who don't want to run Mythic dungeons, queued alternatives (such as Heroics and Raid Finder) allow for a way to still earn Valor.

I understand the sense of obligation to maximize performance in a competitive raid environment, but the game asks competitive raiders to make those choices constantly: do you craft every upgrade at the first opportunity, use the best gems in items you might replace soon, use the best food or Augment Runes on every pull, keep running lower difficulties on the off-chance of a Warforged/socketed perfect drop that could be an upgrade, keep up with multiple specs or alts to allow you to optimize for specific encounters, and so forth?

Virtually everyone draws a line somehow and compromises in most of these areas, making a judgment about the point at which further expense (whether of gold, or time, or effort) is no longer worth the benefit. This system presents another one of those choices. The need to "save players from themselves" is a familiar refrain - but past experience has shown that people are better at managing their schedules and gameplay choices than many of the comments in this thread would suggest.

And what about people like me whos preferred playstyle is to do organized Raiding? Why did you ignore the one question that's plastered all over this thread: why does Normal/Heroic/Mythic HFC not reward Valor?
The focus of the patch is on dungeon content. Raid Finder was included as a source to add a few more options for Group Finder queuing, and if getting a few well-geared tanks and healers to hop back into Raid Finder improves queues a bit for the core Raid Finder audience, that's not the worst thing in the world. But if you hate Raid Finder, there are literally thousands of Valor available weekly without setting foot in Raid Finder.

Part of the point is to provide a reason to revisit content that you may not have had much reason to do in a while, rather than just providing an extra reward for continuing your existing routine.

Patch 6.2.2a Hotfixes - October 21
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Creatures and NPCs
Shadowmoon Valley
  • Captain Bonerender is now immune to Death Knight's Control Undead ability.

Garrison
Naval Missions
  • Ghostly Naval missions should now appear for all characters on an account if one of the characters have unlocked the Ghostly Spyglass.

Items

WoW Panel Q&A: Your Questions Wanted!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
During BlizzCon 2015, we’ll be hosting another World of Warcraft Q&A panel on Saturday, November 7 where we’ll be answering as many Legion questions as we can. This year we’ll be not only collecting questions from those attending the show, but we also want to have questions from those of you who will be watching from home. To do this, we need your help and your questions.

To submit your own question, simply post in this thread beginning today (Tuesday, October 20) through Thursday, October 22. We’ll compile these questions and present them again shortly after for you to vote on the ones you most want answered. Once the voting has ended, we’ll pull the top questions to present during the panel.

Some things to consider when submitting a question:

  • Please keep your question brief and to the point. These will need to fit on a large index card.
  • With so many questions, we won’t be able to ask them all, but we’ll be doing the best we can.
  • Make sure you’re asking a question versus making a statement.
  • Please make sure the question is Legion specific. We won’t be asking general questions.

Thank you to everyone who takes time to submit.

2015 Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The Halloween season has finally arrived, and we’re ready to cut straight to the heart of the holiday. If you're dying to pick up a knife and hack, gash, slash, and jab at something, then you might be excited to hear that as of October 19, Blizzard's 2015 Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest has officially begun! Unleash your magical axes, psi blades, chitinous claws, and other creative cutlery to carve up Blizzard-themed jack-o''-lanterns of epic awesomeness. If you're unclear as to what epic awesomeness looks like in the flesh, you can check out previous pumpkins for some inspiration..

We’ll choose five of the grandest Cucurbita to earn one Stiches Plush with In-Game skin. Don’t delay; start carving right away! The thirteenth annual pumpkin carving contest ends on October 29, so be sure to check out the contest page for rules and eligibility and get straight to slicing.

Poll - Valor Activities
Please check the box for all of the Valor activities you plan on doing for the first few weeks.



Heroes of the Storm - Artanis
Artanis is now available and a small patch went out with some fixes. Check out all of the details on Heroes Nexus.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 6.2.3 - Earning Valor, Oct 21 Hotfixes, WoW Panel Q&A, Contest, Poll, Artanis started by chaud View original post
Comments 90 Comments
  1. Fawkess's Avatar
    Lets hope this Q&A is actrually good this time unlike the Last "Q&A"

    Also incoming 20 page + lfr Discussion
  1. Shefu's Avatar
    Wow, so they took away Valor, only to add it back with the same retarded restrictions. They never learn.
  1. Tentonaxe's Avatar
    Where's the option for none of the above in the poll?
  1. Torm's Avatar
    Did they go completely mental?! Is forcing you to do cancer LFR really that smart idea? I'm a raider, I progress mythic bosses but to min max, to do best dps, I must go back to all LFR wings and relive all the pain and horrors of wiping on Butcher or whatever boss people still cant do. Forcing raiders there is seriously retarded idea. Thanks Blizz!
  1. Grimalkin of Old's Avatar
    Missing option "I don't care about valor"
  1. Archmage Alodi's Avatar
    That's like 4.5k valor each week? awesome 9 items fully upgraded per week
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    very good change should shut up all mythic crybabies about "we have to do lfr" - 2 weeks of full spam of all sources and they never have to go back there again.
  1. mmoc17dca7fbbd's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Torm View Post
    Did they go completely mental?! Is forcing you to do cancer LFR really that smart idea? I'm a raider, I progress mythic bosses but to min max, to do best dps, I must go back to all LFR wings and relive all the pain and horrors of wiping on Butcher or whatever boss people still cant do. Forcing raiders there is seriously retarded idea. Thanks Blizz!
    no you dont have to do LFR, thats like worst idea ever but if you think its the best and fastest way for you - then i guess you deserve this punishment
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Torm View Post
    Did they go completely mental?! Is forcing you to do cancer LFR really that smart idea? I'm a raider, I progress mythic bosses but to min max, to do best dps, I must go back to all LFR wings and relive all the pain and horrors of wiping on Butcher or whatever boss people still cant do. Forcing raiders there is seriously retarded idea. Thanks Blizz!
    omg your so hardcore to push valor for 2 weeks and then forget about it - so hardcore indeed.

    i just sometimes wish blizzard would bring back resistance gear and all the farm required for it just for 1 tier to shut voices liek this forever.
  1. Zyranthian's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Torm View Post
    Did they go completely mental?! Is forcing you to do cancer LFR really that smart idea? I'm a raider, I progress mythic bosses but to min max, to do best dps, I must go back to all LFR wings and relive all the pain and horrors of wiping on Butcher or whatever boss people still cant do. Forcing raiders there is seriously retarded idea. Thanks Blizz!
    They're not forcing you at all, they're giving you choices and options for how you want to progress your character. If you want to go hard and min/max the hell out of it, then thats your choice.

    I raid mythic too, but I wont be setting foot in LFR. Plenty of other avenues for getting valor, plenty of opportunity to get my important pieces upgraded ASAP by doing mythic dungeons and such, the time spent doing LFR isn't worth the reward for me. I mean, its not like anyone is racing for firsts anymore, is waiting an extra week to upgrade a few pieces of your gear really going to make or break things for you?
  1. Spotnick's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Torm View Post
    Did they go completely mental?! Is forcing you to do cancer LFR really that smart idea? I'm a raider, I progress mythic bosses but to min max, to do best dps, I must go back to all LFR wings and relive all the pain and horrors of wiping on Butcher or whatever boss people still cant do. Forcing raiders there is seriously retarded idea. Thanks Blizz!
    You act like the 20 raiders from your guild will all queue solo to do this.

    Come on, LFR with a full guild group won't be THAT bad, a waste of time, sure, but still.
  1. cface's Avatar
    I did LFR hfc once, for a tome I missed. The horrors are still pissing me off, people did 18k, and most where dead on soc.

    However I am mostly pissed about the leg.ring. Such a shitty thing, I will never catch up to people cause of this shit, maybe when its like 1 month left of this shit expansion.
  1. mmoc2ab8106c06's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    omg your so hardcore to push valor for 2 weeks and then forget about it - so hardcore indeed.

    i just sometimes wish blizzard would bring back resistance gear and all the farm required for it just for 1 tier to shut voices liek this forever.
    What an absolutely clueless comment.

    You have no idea how Mythic raiding works so don't comment on it.
  1. Assumi's Avatar
    So they claim there won't be a valour cap every week, but then add caps to all the reward systems effectively just making a weekly cap?
  1. mmoc63c331f4e8's Avatar
    I liked the weekly cap, it made me feel like I was done and I didn't have to stress over it.

    I don't get why they can't just add that "seasonal" cap they have with conquest? So if your valor caps at 1k/week and you only get 700 valor the first week, the second one you can get 1300 instead, going back to 1000 on week 3.

    I think it's an excellent system that holds people back like intended while at the same time not punishing them for maybe taking a break or not having enough time one week.
  1. Assumi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by moffin View Post
    I liked the weekly cap, it made me feel like I was done and I didn't have to stress over it.

    I don't get why they can't just add that "seasonal" cap they have with conquest? So if your valor caps at 1k/week and you only get 700 valor the first week, the second one you can get 1300 instead, going back to 1000 on week 3.

    I think it's an excellent system that holds people back like intended while at the same time not punishing them for maybe taking a break or not having enough time one week.
    Or you can learn some self control and stop holding everyone who wants more back.

    Didn't see much crying when you could get a thousand badges in a week if you wanted in WotLK.
  1. papajohn4's Avatar
    The poll needs a "none" option...
  1. mmoc2c76a5889b's Avatar
    I miss the option called "All".

    Any serious raiding guild (as in, people who think it's fun to raid, but don't want to waste their time with slackers) will demand that their players get all the upgrades done at week 2, since you can have all 16 slots upgraded twice the week after this patch launches with 1800 valor to spare.

    Even if my raid group didn't demand it I'd do it anyway, because I'm a raider. It's what I do.
  1. papajohn4's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Torm View Post
    Did they go completely mental?! Is forcing you to do cancer LFR really that smart idea? I'm a raider, I progress mythic bosses but to min max, to do best dps, I must go back to all LFR wings and relive all the pain and horrors of wiping on Butcher or whatever boss people still cant do. Forcing raiders there is seriously retarded idea. Thanks Blizz!
    I am a dungeon player, but in order to progress further i am forced to do the cancer raiding...

    All the problems in this game start with the mentality that raider is something special and should be able to ignore the rest of the game, so blizz must make the rest of the game pointless and unrewarding..

    This isnt a raiding lobby game (but is very close to be, unless they wake up and turn around)
  1. mmoc2c76a5889b's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Assumi View Post
    So they claim there won't be a valour cap every week, but then add caps to all the reward systems effectively just making a weekly cap?
    Yes, but it will only be a single week lock if you do all.

    It cost 8k valor to fully upgrade all your slots, and you can get 4,9k valor a week.

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