valor points

All posts tagged valor points

The Isle of Giants

Posted by Peter (Devee) on March 13, 2013
Posted in: Devee, Journal, Videos, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

After checking out the Isle of Thunder, I decided to pay the Isle of Giants a visit. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew that a bunch of dinosaurs sounded like fun. The Isle of Giants is an island off the northern coast of Pandaria. Unlike almost everything else in World of Warcraft, there are no quests or hints telling you visit the island. You can’t fly on the island, but you can fly to it, and there’s a flight path on the island. What else is on the island? Dinosaurs, of course.

The dinosaurs are all large. The hatchlings look to be normal size, and the adults are huge. To take an adult dinosaur, you’ll likely need a group. I can solo the hatchlings, but I wouldn’t want to take on a group. I spent most of my time there with Mooglegem, which made it easier.

There are Zandalari on the island who have a chance to drop new raptor pets. They don’t drop them every time, but they do drop them regularly. If you spend the evening farming the Isle of Giants, you’ll probably end up with all four. In addition to pets, enemies drop Giant Dinosaur Bones. Zandalari drop one each, and dinosaurs drop multiple. The bigger the dinosaur, the more bones they drop.

You can turn the bones in to Ku’ma on the island for some neat rewards. For 10, he’ll give you a Mote of Harmony, and for 100, he’ll give you a Spirit of Harmony. You’re probably wondering why I said “neat rewards” but then talked about boring motes and spirits. There’s more. If you turn in 999 Giant Dinosaur Bones, you can get the Spectral Porcupette pet. It’s adorable, and I want it. Unfortunately, I won’t be saving for it; I’ll be saving 9999 Giant Dinosaur Bones so I can purchase the Reins of the Bone-White Primal Raptor. I want it!

Normally I’m against grinds, but I love the Isle of Giants. Consider Valor Point capping, my most hated grind. It has quests, story, and varying situations. That all sounds good, but it’s also needed. If I’m not Valor capping, I’m letting my raid team down. There are weeks during which I don’t quite cap, but I get close. Valor Points are tied directly to rewards that help me excel in raiding. In addition, a weekly cap gives me a set goal I have to make lest I don’t reach my full potential. If there was no cap, I wouldn’t feel the need to cap it. Yes, some people would get thousands in a week. I would probably say “I can always get more next week” and do less overall. Back to the Isle of Giants. No required PVE reward is tied to the grind, so it’s a grind I can do whenever I want. There’s no feeling of obligation. There’s just slaying enemies on a lost island filled with dinosaurs – a fun fantasy trope that fits well in World of Warcraft. I love it, and I hope Blizzard puts more content like the Isle of Giants into the game.

Suggested Reading: Of moms, 5.2, dailies, babies, Varian, Garrosh, Linken, and more

Posted by Peter (Devee) on February 7, 2013
Posted in: Other MMOs or Related Games, Suggested Reading, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

A Gift of a Fish, Arioch, clearcasting, 2/6/13.

Arioch tries his hardest to give his mom a new pet.

Patch 5.2 Prep: Get ahead of the game, Kristin Marshall, WoW Insider, 1/28/13.

Ensure you’re ready for the patch!

How to get green fire for your Warlock in Patch 5.2, Megan O’Neill, WoW Insider, 2/7/13.

Spoilers abound, but Megan gives us a look at what warlocks will do to get their fel fire.

We don’t need daily quests anymore, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 1/25/13.

I’m all for unlockable content, but I’m not sure I like the daily system tied to reputation. Maybe I should post about this later…

Patch 5.2 honors El’s Anglin’, adds sea monster and new battle pets to fishing, Alex Ziebart, WoW Insider, 1/24/13.

It looks like a new NPC, El, joins the Anglers. Great!

Around Labor and Delivery: Pride and joy, Elizabeth Wachowski, WoW Insider, 1/31/13.

They named their kid Jaina. Seriously.

Around Azeroth: Sweet dreams?, Elizabeth Wachowski, WoW Insider, 1/24/13.

I wish I knew who lived there.

Know Your Lore: The evolution of Varian Wrynn, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 2/3/13.

If you’ve noticed that Varian has changed quite a bit and want to know more about why, give this a read.

Know Your Lore: The genesis of Garrosh Hellscream, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 1/27/13.

If you’re interested in the history of Varian, you’re probably interested in the history of Garrosh as well.

WoW Archivist: It’s a secret to everybody — the Linken quest line, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 2/1/13.

This was a fun quest line, and I enjoyed reading about it even though I completed it.

Roleplaying the mundane side of the Alliance, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 1/26/13.

Even if you don’t roleplay, Anne gives a nice summary of how the Alliance races are feeling.

Funcom wants to feature your music in The Secret World, MJ Guthrie, Massively, 1/29/13.

If only I had musical talent.

Will Patch 5.2 kill PvP twinking?, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 1/24/13.

I’m not sure how it would kill twinking, but I think scaling players levels to the highest level of their PvP bracket is pretty cool! (And scaling in PvP works well in TOR.)

Patch 5.2: Valor and Conquest Points will be reset, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 2/6/13.

Valor converts to Justice, and Conquest converts to Honor. That’s normal. What’s different is that current Valor gear will still cost Valor. Rewards from 5.0 factions will be at a 75% discount and rewards from 5.1 factions will be at a 50% discount. That’s great, but then why take all of our Valor away? I understand the predicament in wanting to ensure people don’t get ahead, but that sucks a little.

Direhorn mounts coming to patch 5.2 as reputation rewards, Elizabeth Harper, WoW Insider, 2/5/13.

Yes, yes, yes!

Suggested Reading: Of time management, the Sin’dorei, tier 15, and 5.2

Posted by Peter (Devee) on January 17, 2013
Posted in: Suggested Reading, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Realization, Anna, Too Many Annas, 1/9/13.

I should have posted this last week. I’m in agreement with a lot of this. I don’t have time to do everything Blizzard wants me to do, and I miss the idea of finishing everything I needed to do for the week and just being done.

Know Your Lore: Hands drenched in blood, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 1/13/13.

A fantastic look at the lore behind the Blood elves and Lor’themar Theron. I’ve been really fascinated with the Blood elves recently, so I was very excited to see that Anne wrote this!

Stormwind and Orgrimmar get repaired, somewhat, on the patch 5.2 PTR, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 1/10/13

Title says it all. I’m excited about this!

Examining the tier 15 priest set bonuses, Dawn Moore, WoW Insider, 1/16/13.

Good to know for priests!

Patch 5.2 valor gear not tied to dailies, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 1/14/13.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Patch 5.2 PTR: New notes from Ghostcrawler on tier 15 bonuses, other balance concerns, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 1/15/13.

Might be good info. Then again, things might change.

Patch 5.2: No flying mounts in the new zone, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 1/16/13.

Flying does feel like skipping content, so I’m glad about this.

Direhorn hunter pet in patch 5.2 is the triceratops we’ve been wanting, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 1/16/13.

I need a hunter. Now.

Suggested Reading: Of dailies, distractions, pets, and huge EVE kills

Posted by Peter (Devee) on October 25, 2012
Posted in: Suggested Reading, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

A break from dailies, Arioch, clearcasting, 10/24/12.

Arioch recounts The Boon of A’dal, the quest in Icecrown about a dying crusader and the help of A’dal. It’s a great quest, and I liked reading Arioch’s response.

A Disconnect on Valor Gear, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 10/21/12.

Rohan wonders if Blizzard views Valor gear as completely optional because the best route for PvE is from dungeons and raids while players don’t trust RNG and feel faction Valor gear is required. Interesting idea.

EVE Online player loses tiny ship worth over $6,000, Brendan Drain, Massively, 10/22/12.

This is why you don’t transport a huge amount of valuable goods in a small, ill-armed ship.

MoP: Mists of “Preoccupation”, Chris Pearson, Confessions of a Grown-Up Gamer, 10/19/12.

Pet Battles! Farming! So much to do! Read about how Chris gets distracted with the many great activities in WoW currently.

12 new pets added to vanilla raids in 5.1, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 10/23/12.

More reasons to do old raids!

Suggested Reading: Of content, mounts, lore, and more

Posted by Peter (Devee) on August 9, 2012
Posted in: Suggested Reading, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

Spacing Out Content, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 8/7/12.

Rohan discusses Blizzard’s plans to delay the first raid of the next tier by a week and the final two raids of the tier by a month. He wonders why they don’t space it out further, with the first raid releasing two months later. I’m in agreement with him. Wouldn’t it be better for Blizzard also so that there isn’t such a long dry spell at the end?

Mists of Pandaria Beta: Raising your very own cloud serpent, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/3/12.

Another little pet we get to raise into a mount? Yes, please!

Know Your Lore: A requiem for Staghelm, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/5/12.

An examination of Fandral Staghelm and discussion of how Blizzard let the character down.

Know Your Lore: The long game of the naaru, part 1, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/8/12.

Another interesting Know Your Lore piece, this time discussing the naaru and what they might be.

Mists of Pandaria: Valor of the Ancients increases valor points for alts, Matthew Rossi, 8/6/12.

When you cap your VP on one character, your alts get 50% additional VP for the week.

Aqua Jewel, Cymre, Bubbles of Mischief, 8/8/12.

Cymre shows off the Aqua Jewel, a new item that gives you increased swim speed, underwater breathing, and a watery effect.

Coffee with the Devs — Mists of Pandaria Looting Explained – World of Warcraft

Posted by Peter (Devee) on March 28, 2012
Posted in: Game Mechanics, Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Coffee with the Devs — Mists of Pandaria Looting Explained – World of Warcraft via WoW Insider.

I’m excited about the new loot updates! Some of this was announced before, but some more details were given.

  • Players no longer compete with other players for loot from world bosses or the raid finder.
  • You can purchase bonus loot chances
  • AOE looting
  • Valor can upgrade equipment but not purchase equipment

Loot Rule Changes

The loot changes for the raid finder are huge. Currently you have to roll need on everything because everyone else will too. Then at the end, there’s an additional boss – convince someone to trade with you.

In the new system, after a boss dies you have a chance to get loot. This chance has nothing to do with other players. If the game determines that you win loot, you get a random piece of loot from the loot table that the game considers appropriate for your class and spec.

This will make the raid finder much, much better. The only real problem is that you can’t use it to get gear that’s not appropriate. If I want DPS gear, I’ll have to run as shitty DPS rather than good healer. (Although this seems to be a much deeper design flaw in the game.) They mentioned the possibility of a toggle allowing you to designate that you’re willing to accept any usable equipment. While not being able to receive non-spec appropriate gear could be seen as a negative, I really like this new system.

Bonus Roll

There will be Charms of Good Fortune that are purchasable with tokens from dailies that can be used for an additional chance at loot in the new loot system. If you use it, you’ll always get something – some gold, a flask, or possibly loot. My guess is that it’ll use the same probability as a normal roll except you’ll get gold or a flask in place of nothing.

I don’t know how often I’ll use these. I believe they only work in the Raid Finder, so they don’t really matter that much. I don’t think they hurt the game any though, so they should be fine.

AOE Looting

Finally. “Some recent games have incorporated a similar feature.” Yes, we noticed.

Valor Points

Blizzard has gone back and forth on this, and it seems that you’ll need to raid for the top quality gear. No gear will be available for Valor Points. Instead, VP can be used to upgrade your gear by roughly eight points. Raid Finder gear can be made better but not as good as normal mode gear, normal mode gear can be made better but not as good as heroic mode gear, and heroic mode gear can be made better but not as good as the next tier’s gear.

I’m optimistically excited about this change. The best gear should come from raiding, because that makes the gear seem more important than gear that’s sitting around the city. When the gear’s in the city, it brings up the question that I always have in RPGs: if I’m trying to save the world, can’t you just give me some gear, jerk? However, isn’t the system we already have? Valor Points can be used to fill some holes, but it’s very good. There are some pieces are in Raid Finder BiS for me, but come on, I’m using Raid Finder best-in-slot! The actual aspect of using VP to improve gear is very exciting. It’ll add an additional choice to the game – should I improve my gear or wait for the next drop I want?

I’m looking forward to the changes.

Breakfast Topic: What parts of gameplay do you consider a chore?

Posted by Peter (Devee) on February 5, 2012
Posted in: Game Mechanics, WoW Insider Breakfast Topic. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

What do you consider a chore in WoW? What are the not-that-fun-but-necessary parts of the game? What are things that you just won’t do because they’re too tiresome?

via Breakfast Topic: What parts of gameplay do you consider a chore?.

Saturday’s Breakfast Topic on WoW Insider was on parts of WoW that are chores or grinds. I don’t think the chores are separate than the parts I enjoy. That isn’t to say that I enjoy the chores. It’s just that WoW requires players to do the same things again and again until fun things become terrible.

I was going to write about this anyways, but it fits in well here:

LFR was fun. LFR is a chore.

Grinding normal mode has a reason. Usually, unless you’re heroically geared from the previous tier, you don’t clear normal mode right away. You work at it, and as you do, you get better gear. Eventually the gear (along with skill) allows you progress further in normal mode.

LFR allows any group to immediately succeed and finish. Why bother gearing then? I suppose for normal mode, but it’s just so, so, so boring at this point. I still do it because I want to get better gear. And luckily, I’m almost done. There’s a ring from LFR that’s an upgrade, and then I’ll be done with both Valor Points and LFR drops. However, it’s been boring for a while now.

How do we fix this chore?

I suppose we get rid of LFR loot. Valor Point I understand and like. Yeah, the three 5-mans seem like chores now too, but at least I get some choices. I can raid the current tier, I can do random heroics, I can do LFR, and I can do Baradin Hold. All of these things give Valor Points. However, if you need LFR loot, you have to do LFR. This should be fixed!

But what’s next? No more drops from raids at all? Stupid!

That’s not exactly what I mean. In normal or heroic raids, at least you’re making progress (in theory). It’s never ridiculously easy. If it was, you’d plow through until you got to the boss on which you were working.

LFR doesn’t help in LFR, because you’re able to plow right through LFR. I don’t think you should have to grind the same boring thing over and over for a single piece of loot. I’m happy to have normal and heroic raid bosses drop real loot, but things that are purely for grinding should award Valor Points, allowing people to choose from a variety of things to grind.

Here’s my solution: Leave tier tokens in LFR. Have more VP gear. Done!

As an aside, how about giving Valor Points for completing specific heroics, but not as much as a random? Just a thought.

Patch 4.3 PTR: New valor point weekly caps, dungeon point rewards

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 28, 2011
Posted in: Game Mechanics. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

The new 5-man instances, End Time, Well of Eternity, and Hour of Twilight, now award 150 valor points for each random completed, up to seven per week.

via Patch 4.3 PTR: New valor point weekly caps, dungeon point rewards, WoW Insider.

The new instances reward Valor Points, and the cap has been changed. You’ll get the reward seven times. Okay, no news there really. What’s interesting to me is the mention that that the first heroic, End Time, took 20 to 25 minutes to complete. The author hadn’t yet tried the other two, but seven half hour heroics per week is a welcome change. Yes, it means I’ll still have to go through content I’ve already completed each week, but now it’ll be less painful. It’s hard to fit in seven heroics every week currently. I’m doing it, but I’m doing nothing but heroics and Firelands. I’d like to have some free time!

Edit: Rise of the Zandalari heroics  will no longer have their own tier in the Dungeon Finder, and all heroics will now award 150 Valor Points. Hooray!