Before we go anywhere, let me catch you guys up to speed for the sake of impact. About a month ago now, I wrote an article on this topic when we all assumed it was going to be an implemented buff to help expedite the Legendary Questline.
Now, as of May 30th, we see this is no longer the case.
Instead, we were granted a “limited time” game-wide buff to valor gains by 100 percent. The window this is offered in is today, May 30th, and will last until June 10th.
Now the point of me making an article on this is simple. This is utterly pointless. So much so, it HAS to be leading to something else, or some elaboration on the concept past this.
Besides being implemented, its use is further degraded by its timing, especially given the patch we just had released. Why on God’s green earth would you release this NOW, and for 12 days. Even worse, its first day is on the weekend!?
I’ve been capped on valor since 1EST on Tuesday, and spent all the valor I received minutes later. Maybe if it was introduced on a Tuesday, and lasted multiple weeks, it could remotely be considered worth its salt. But instead, we get it for essentially 1 week, as anyone who isn’t capped already by this point in the week just isn’t trying.
More so, the fact that it just speeds up a process that takes barely any time in the first place is laughable. It takes like 2 hours max to get the 8 or so Heroic Scenarios done, and now with the timeless coins, it can even all be completed the previous week. I have simply prepared the 30k coins I need for the upcoming week, log on, do the weekly to get even more coins and valor, and then turn in what I need after that.
What really confuses me is this lonely post that accompanied it. Here, have a read via the official website. Its such a short and brittle thing that it makes me wonder if this is the same Blizzard I have come to know over the years. Usually, their announcements are over the top and obtuse, so much so that you think its about some grandiose implementation that everyone will talk about for the rest of the week. And it works, which is the funny part! Usually it DOES have people, including myself, talking about it for the rest of the week, as well as making articles and videos on each.
But instead, we have this. A glorified rant about nothing. Not nothing in the case of my lack of inspiration. Don’t get it twisted! The “nothing” here refers to the fact that this is such a silly and wasteful concept that its essentially nothing. But as Arya would say, Nothing isn’t better or worse than anything. Nothing is just nothing.
And in this case, she would be very correct.
So I know what you are thinking about now. Something along the lines of “Well if you are so smart, what should they have done bigshot?”
There are two ways to implement this, that would actually make sense.
1. Make it permanent. Facts are, a lot of people are growing more bored with this patch by the day. I am NOT one of them, as I recognize the insane amount of content MoP has introduced and realize I have done very little of it successfully, but we can’t ignore this just because I have my eyes actually open.
By making it permanent, it helps players who want to raid and compete still get enough valor to cap without further repetition and burn out. It won’t get better either, because now that its 4/4 upgrade, an entire week needs to be accrued and then spent to upgrade any single piece you get from here on out. This means, that unless you are FULL BIS or simply don’t care to get any more gear, the only way the Heroic Warforged piece you received is an actual upgrade over the Heroic non-war4 piece is with that 1k worth of effort. This means doing Blood in the Snow another 8 times to get it there as well.
It also helps those that are only mildly serious about getting the valor they need, or even people who have time constraints. Now they can easily get their cap in no time at all. And as mentioned earlier, this wont change, so why would the buff go away?
2. Increase the cap either instead of this, or in tandem with this.
Obviously in tandem is optimal, but regardless, if you increase the cap, it will further the reward players have who put the time in getting it, but keep valor rolling in for those who are active mildly. This leverages the problem in the other direction that number 1, and honestly is better in my mind. This allows us to now get all the gear we still have yet to finish completely upgraded, and makes the process back to what it once was. If it takes 1k to upgrade a full piece now, then if the cap was 2k, and we receive 100x more, literally nothing is different. The math equals out, and we are now in the exact same situation as we once were, only we have much strong gear and the nerf to SoO is completed.
Either of these is totally fine by me. Of course, maybe they have their reasons, and maybe this is just some type of trial run before they ultimately include it permanently, or increase the cap as well. Now that these ideas are on paper, when they go ahead and implement one of them, I can now say it was my idea! 😀
If I got this, THEN it would be worth it…