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

Random!

I finally have a glimpse at Blizz's new LFG tool... and it's looking interesting :D

Introducing two random factors into this could be a stroke of genius: people you don't know AND a random dungeon? It's ok, I think by this Blizzard just means any of the locations you have specified from a list, as now you have access to a FAR better selection screen for selecting Le Dungeon de Choix...

This lists also extends down to Classic Dungeons (though at the moment those list's rewards are empty) I would expect to see something there that might give a % increase to XP as a reward, as badges and emblems at lower levels are actually pretty much useless. I see that WoW.com have tipped us off about a +5% to Heirloom XP spell that's appeared in the game files with this push. I think offering XP for an hour or maybe even 24 hours would be far more beneficial than any number of physical rewards considering the current speeds of levelling to 70. We shall see. Normal Dungeon randomness rewards the following:

As you can see there's new symbols for healing, dps and tanking: the Crown means you're willing to lead :D Taking more randoms increases the money you'll have for repair bills you'll recieve for each sucessful completion...

Decisions, Decisions

This may be news to some of you so I'm repeating it here: as of 3.3 there will be a Raid Quest available from the guys who currently give out the Dailies. The reward is a rather nice 33+ glods and... TEN Emblems of Frost. All you need is to take down a raid boss. The current datamined list (thanks to MMO) on the PTR is as follows:

• Lord Marrowgar Must Die!
• Lord Jaraxxus Must Die!
• XT-002 Deconstructor Must Die!
• Ignis the Furnace Master Must Die!
• Razorscale Must Die!
• Flame Leviathan Must Die!
• Malygos Must Die!
• Patchwerk Must Die!
• Instructor Razuvious Must Die!
• Noth the Plaguebringer Must Die!
• Anub'Rekhan Must Die!
• Sartharion Must Die!
  

It's an interesting selection, considering it can be completed in either 10 or 25 man 'flavours'. That's the easiest parts of Ulduar, the first 4 bosses in each wing of Naxx, what I assume will be the first boss in Icecrown (Marrowgar), OS  and... er... Malygos. I suspect as a Guild when that one pops up it will be a good opportunity to get a load of people their Achievement and the Champion of the Frozen Wastes title, and for the better geared to try the six minute achievement. Needless to say ten elbows is going to be a pretty big incentive to go do the bosses in question...

This of course answers the question 'what happens to Emblems of Conquest in 3.3?' They will be useless, in effect. Everything moves up a slot: Triumph becomes the emblem that drops in Heroics, Frost replaces Triumph. Much QQ'ing results as people realise that you can again gear quickly without ever stepping into a 10 man.

I look forward to seeing the rewards when they pop up on the PTR.