Oh god, so much news!
First off, relevant now, MMO-C tells us that the ICC zone buff was extended again. 11 wasn’t enough louder than 10, evidently. Hear that? That’s the sound of progression without any change in skill or gear!
Next up, it looks like there’s been a preview of the way progression tokens will work in cataclysm. Picture what we have now, only with much less trading down 2 tiers to get something you want.
Overall, excellent news, in my opinion! Now if they’d just tell us without weasel words that they want to keep 25 man raiding more attractive than 10 man despite the fact that they drop the same quality gear, I’d be thrilled.
Whats up with the podcast? I need my fix!
“Valor Points — High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids.”
I’m pretty sure it works like this: if you run 25-mans you can cap out your Valor Points in one or two days per week just by raiding. If you run 10-mans you’ll have to hit your daily LFD random in addition to raiding.
I’m so bored of running H HoS YET AGAIN that I’ll jump into the drama of a 25-man guild just to avoid the daily random.
I like the change to emblems. The per-week cap sounds like more evidence that Blizzard wants to cut down on the volume of current-tier grinding.
It seems like it is in line with their reasoning for limiting attempts on bosses. They don’t want a system that disproportionately favors people who can afford to spend enormous amounts of time playing one part of the game.
I also suspect that hard caps to pve attainment are intended to get people playing other parts of the game and to avoid having badge acquisition become a time-consuming, chore-like activity (as it can seem to be now for Frosts).
They *don’t* want to make 25-man raiding more attractive, that’s the whole point.
25 raiding will be better for those that like it because it will drop more loot (badges, points etc), provide 25 man achievements and likely provide larger scale abilities under the new guild leveling system.
Personally, I’m thrilled that I won’t need to do 25s anymore, I hate them. I hate having to deal with 24 other people, I hate the lag and I hate the drama. 10s on the other hand I thoroughly enjoy.