My idea of appropriate reward system for running Scaled Dungeons and Raids

[Rielthas]

I have seen a number of debates regarding what sort of reward system would be appropriate to allow scaled dungeons and raids to become part of WoW, and I feel that my ideas incorporate most of what it should be, and eliminate all of what it can't be!

First off, I see no reason why valor can be obtained, as long as it is not a 'better' source of valor then heroic end-game dungeons. Why not allow players who prefer this content to get their valor that way? Its just valor, and Blizzard's stand has always been that if a player puts in the effort on cutting edge content, regardless of how hard it is, valor capping would eventually be the resulting reward. Well, even though scaled older dungeons and raids may not be cutting edge, the feature allowing players to run them in a scaled form would be!

Secondly, for the more casual player, rep hounds, or grind lovers, I propose there should be a dedicated "faction" associated with the scaled raids and dungeons (e.g. some derivative of the guardians of time, or perhaps historical like "Lorewalker Cho's Special Azarothian History Society". The faction would offer mostly cosmetic gear rewards (and a pet and/or a mount?) (perhaps a cool looking luxury looking gear set - gold with jewels perhaps??? ), although there could be an item available at exalted that could be purchased periodically with a cooldown that could give players a small chance at a high level piece of gear, to reward the diligent harder-core players who still run the content, and to give the casual player a chance to say "cool, nice piece of gear". In addition, things like rarer mounts and pets could be an item that could be rewarded extremely rarely from the same item that gives players a random chance at high-level loot. Finally, scaled dungeons and raids could drop a collectable currency type item, like the timeless coins, dinosaur bones, tokens from the Dominance offensive, etc., that could be collected in large quantity and could be used to purchase fun and cool items from a vendor. If Blizzard went with the LoreWalker Cho route, they could even use Lorewalker Cho to teach the relevant lore behind each successfully cleared instance for any players who wished to learn each dungeon and raids historical significance to Azaroth and WoW.

One other item is to have a scaled-old-raid of-the-month quest for players to run for a reward, and perhaps a scaled dungeon quest of the day or weekly quest, just some other ideas to get players at least running scaled content regularily and periodically.

The most important thing is that scaled content can't in any real way feel mandatory, because that wouldn't be fair to hard-core players who have no desire to run the content (i.e. who perhaps would not find it fun). That is why no real consistent end-game gear rewards can be obtained from this content. It has to remain optional and fun.

Here is my latest vlog post on the topic. Enjoy, and let me know what you're thoughts are on the topic!

http://youtu.be/5t6-LaF4meo

[Deleted]

I agree, valor would make perfect sense. It scales into the new patches, it can be tuned to not be quicker than current content for capping, and from a developer standpoint, it is the easy option.

[Reckles]

First off, thank you for putting the time into this. I think I like the idea, although WoW is the only MMO I've ever played so it's very new and frightening. So, you're proposing that Blizzard introduce a dungeon or raid that wherein the mobs levels, damage, health, and difficulty increases as your level does? Sounds fun. Would have to be epic, because I'm bored to tears of temple of the jade serpent. Can you imagine if Molten Core or BRS was still current content? The game is remarkably malleable and bosses have become so much more difficult. Curious how visionary someone would have to be to make a "timeless" dungeon. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you meant.

[Rielthas]

Hmm, not sure what you mean by "Timeless" dungeon either. I made reference to Timeless Coins that we collect in patch 5.4. Actually, the idea of scaled dungeons technically is to scale either the dungeon up, or the player down, so that the levels roughly match. I think Blizzard is leaning towards scaleing players down to lower levels to match the skill requirements of the dungeon or raid. This makes the most sense, as then, the majority of the dungeon or raid can be left relatively intact, and only the abilities of the players in it changes. Its much easier, one feature could do it all for any situation, and the technology already exists in WoW to do this.