An End to Emblems?

Occasionally, something strikes me as odd.

This Achievement, for instance. Emblematic. Not announced as a Feat of Strength, which is what it is, it dropped into everyone's list after 3.3.3. I initially assumed it was to clean up the 'I'm at 80, what now?' process which included the mail everyone got telling them there's an Emblem vendor in Dalaran, in case they didn't know. However, why a Feat of Strength? That's reserved for items you can no longer achieve in game, or special one offs. Emblems aren't one-offs... so does this mean...

Are Blizzard planning to change the token reward system for PvE armour?

It's possible, I suppose. People have been asking for some time for a way to transfer emblems between alts on the same account, Blizzard have said that we should concentrate on gearing each one seperately. However, if you want to PvP gear an alt, certain honor tokens are BoE. That seems a bit unfair, that you can transfer honor between toons but not Emblems: what if this move is the first stage of phasing out that system  altogether? If so, what would they replace them with?

Simple. Points make Prizes.

The new flat honor system for PvP is simple to understand: Honor for some items, Honor + Arena points for others. Move your honor around For Great Justice, if you want the extra gear you need an Arena team. Simple. None of that awkward swapping up and down of Emblems when you want to buy an epic gem either. A simple, constant cost, meaning lower 'tier' content is still purchasable. If you introduce a similar system for PvE items it would remove a lot of the problems associated with the system currently. For instance, there's a total lack of decent OH items, and to buy then with Triumph emblems means an exchange system that works ok if you're a) awake and b) your server doesn't lag. If you change too many emblems down by accident, there's no way to change them back up again. If we had points for everything, all lower tier items are easily accessible. No faffing.

Rewards for random dailies become easier too. As well as Dungeon Points (I bet they'll have a catchier name) you'll be given a smaller, second tier of 'points' like the Arena points. This buys you a better set of gear above the base Dungeon Points rewards. It's also used for patterns, for crafting materials. One random daily completed would earn you enough to buy a basic crafting reagent (like a Frozen Orb), I'd guess, looking at the way things currently pan out. It would standardise the entire loot reward system in one swell foop.

Of course it could just be that there'll be no more Emblems any more. They were called Badges in TBC, in Cataclysm they could just have another name. The fact remains however that the current system for gear has some major shortfalls, especially for those coming to L80 now and finding that to gear is considerably more complicated in PvE than it has now been made in PvP. Is it possible that we could simply have one system that would allow you to accumulate a large stack of interchangeable 'points' and be able to swap between the two? Or is that all just too easy?

So, the question now has to be, has Blizzard inadvertantly clued me into one of the biggest potential changes to the game since they introduced the tokens in TBC? Or is it simply the lack of sleep this week because of sick kids that's causing me to hallucinate?

Watch this space :D

30 Toons, No Waiting!

One of the most frustrating parts of being a GM is the organisation. The phrase 'herding cats' has often been used in this household to describe the pastime of attempting to get X people off their collective behinds and prepare themselves to raid. On consideration I'm grateful for the introduction of the ingame Calender by Blizzard: getting people to sign online makes it considerably easier to start the process of co-ordination. It meant that this evening I was able to run one 10 man through the Obsidan Sanctum for the Weekly Raid Quest, co-ordinate a second en route and prepare people to be ready as soon as we'd done (and I was able to swap to an alt) and have enough people ready to do a third in the same way. Thirty toons gained Five Frosties and 30 gold. That's not bad going.

I'm glad that Blizzard picked the Raid Bosses the way they did. It's clear that they're meant to be a relatively simple dispatch, but require you to find some competent help in order to do so. Frankly it's perfect for our Guild: many people own multiple alts, so it's a simple task to mix and match and come up with a ten that's capable of carrying a couple of lower-geared people. Everybody wins. Plus it's a welcome change from running a five man for the chance at decent lewts. OS gives four Triumph, the chance at a bag upgrade and loot that although may be useless to most, is likely to be helpful to one of those lower-geared acolytes.

I hope that come Cataclysm Blizzard use this system again. It's a great way to get elbows and have some fun :D

[EDIT: I'm not sure if it's a Bug, and I'm sure at some point someone will come up with an explanation, but as of Wednesday this quest had reset again... which means thirty people have another go at the instance and another 5 Elbows. Result!]

Busy Doing Nothing...

There is a fair deal of Nothing going on at the moment. There's still ICC of course (after a hard night of wiping on Putricide, we managed to get him into the 60%'s on Sunday and will be changing wings tonight I suspect) but until the Ruby Sanctum appears (and we get 3.3.3 and BG changes) it's pretty much the same old same old stuff. however there are now ample opportunities to gear the family without the need to worry about Guild runs or indeed having anyone on the FL to help out. As a quick reminder:

You should be running VoA WEEKLY. 10 and 25 man both give Two Elbows of Frosty. 25 man has the chance to drop 2 of the best bits of gear currently available in game: Top Tier 10 from 25 man, Normal Tier 10 from 10 man. That's 155 Elbow's worth of FREE goodness you have a chance of scooping, every week! Thus far I've been lucky on the Lock with the Sanctified Dark Covern Leggings. It's not just Tier either, there's the top level of Arena Gears too. Staggeringly I was the only Druid in a 25 man when the Wrathful Gladiator's Wyrmhide Legguards dropped: now I could have been a snob and turned them down because they're PvP but really... L270 gear! The Crit and Spell Power alone made them a huge upgrade. I've learnt over the years to take the items where I can find them, and these are likely to last me into Cataclysm and beyond. Remember that it's going to be either legs or gloves you get a chance at, so it is also the opportunity of a two set bonus to boot. The Mage's Wrathful Gladiator's Silk Handguards of course come with the added bonus of a PvP-style ability... pity I never need to CC in dungeons any more...

You really should be running the Daily Dungeon too for Two Elbows of Frosty. There's a seperate post coming about the heroics, suffice it to say the sooner Blizzard make killing each boss in every instance mandatory to get your frosties the better. There are some quite spectacular liberties being taken in the name of a 'quick run gogogogo'. My husband suggested that every time someone says 'gogogo' in an Instance we should all lie down for 10 seconds and shout 'DEAD ANTS!' as a reactionary gesture. If I thought it might do any good at all, I'd be doing it nearly every instance I enter...

Finally, if you're lucky enough to have a decently-populated server, the Weekly Raid Quest for FIVE Elbows of Frosty is a must-complete. I've been lucky the last three weeks, the Council of Six spending all their time in Naxx knocking off the lesser bosses, and no-one in their right mind is daring to ask for an achievement for an instance that takes less than 10 minutes to complete. That's meant 18 Frosties per Toon across the Family \o/ It means that next week, once VoA resets, everyone will get a L264 upgrade. The Hunter and the Druid were ahead of the curve (as they have achievements to flash for the more complex raid weeklies) so yesterday saw two major upgrades: the T10 Hunter chest (and 2 set bonus :D) and a quite spectacuarly gorgeous Druid belt upgrade. Looking at the 264 gear I suspect I'll be aiming to get belts for everybody (especially as you can add a third slot, thus allowing gem upgrades as we run through Cataclysm)

So, by doing very little (in relative terms) you can add an extra SEVEN Elbows per week to your two per day standard operating total. With Cataclysm still a long way away the numbers will soon add up...

Spend, Spend, Spend

So, thanks to that lovely Pally over at Banana Shoulders it seems that I should be considering doing summat useful with the Elbows of Heroism currently stacking up in P and M's Currency window. As there's a new level of Elbow (extra pointy?) available once you start raiding in Ulduar (blue post here) it seems logical to focus on the 25 man raiding tokens and use my other stuffs for PvP Gears (dumbass here didn't realise you could use badges for gear until yesterday, boy am I ever behind the curve) So, some actual research may be needed.

For now I'm dreading logging on and the inevitable assult on my senses that will result from That Valentine's Event...