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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsHeroic badges in Kara and Zul'Aman
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 2nd 2007 at 4:00PM
Dan mentioned it in a quick note earlier this morning, but this is such a big piece of news, to my mind, that it deserves an even bigger mention: in patch 2.3, Heroic badges will drop from bosses in Karazhan and Zul'Aman.That's a gigantic change. We can only guess that it'll work the same way that Heroic instance bosses do now-- every member of the raid will get to grab their own Badge of Honor for each and every boss kill. And that is big-- currently, the badges are only available from bosses in Heroic mode dungeons, which means the only way to get them is to run Heroics.
Of course, whether Heroics or Karazhan are harder for you depends on your experience and your raid, but my sense of the general consensus is that most guilds are already farming Karazhan, while Heroics are only being run by small groups of really experienced players just to get the badges. And when you don't need to get the badges from Heroics any more, what reason is there to go in there?
There is the Primal Nether (one drops from the last boss of every Heroic), and there is the extra Heroic loot (although as far as I know, Zul'Aman and Kara loot are usually better than dropped loot in Heroics), as well as the fun of running a challenging instance with four of your closest friends.
But the badges were what made Heroic instances really important and necessary to run, and when badges are dropping like candy in the 10 man raids, my guess is that it'll be a lot harder to find a worthwhile party for the Heroic instances. Blizzard still has a chance to balance it-- there will be, apparently, a lot more items for badges in 2.3, so the bigger supply could be matched by a bigger demand. But when you can run Karazhan with 10 people, get a bunch of epic loot, and pick up 10 badges for each person (or 12 or 13, depending on if the animal bosses, Midnight, or the Chess Event drop a badge), I'm guessing that a lot of people won't be as willing to suffer the trials of Heroic Shadow Labs or Heroic Arcatraz.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
rick gregory Oct 2nd 2007 5:50PM
this will be nice, but unless they add heroic loot it won't matter. There really isn't that much loot at the heroic vendor that you need after the first couple of items if you're running Kara and heroics.
Now, if they made my T4 chest or a rough equivalent available... that would rock. But once you're easily clearing Kara and can clear most or all of ZA I wonder whether people will farm those for badges or just go to SSC/TK for more loot.
darian Oct 2nd 2007 5:50PM
The epic loot in the Heroics is most often useful for "off-specs"; Fury Warriors, Elemental Shaman and the like. There aren't a lot of clear upgrades for these specs in Karazhan without downgrading armor classes.
Unfortunately, these are also the classes that can be the hardest to get into these encounters due to a perceived need for CC to complete them.
jaded Oct 2nd 2007 9:58PM
They are adding a bunch of new items you can purchase with badges from the vendor in 2.3....time to stockpile!
Angelus Oct 2nd 2007 6:34PM
@4 and 20
There was a post today about the new PvP trinks requiring heroic badges to buy.
http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/10/02/more-info-on-the-patch-2-3-pvp-trinkets/
I agree with you, they should add more vendors with more loot. More loot is never a bad thing, imo.
J0ust Oct 3rd 2007 4:15AM
Nether Vortexes purchasable with badges, or at least having a small chance to drop from heroic end bosses (like Primal Nethers have a small chance to drop off normal 5 man end bosses).
Epic armour sets and weapons for each class (Curator still hasn't dropped Wrynn Dynasty for me after 4 months). This is what's been missing from badge rewards since they were introduced, IMO.
P1_P2 Oct 3rd 2007 4:15AM
The really problem is how the current Heroics are shitty drop and designed.
Nearly all of them need 3 CC class + 1 healer.
which means 1 tank 1 healer 3 mages will be the easiest way to farm most of them.
What comes to hybird class which lack of CC skill? LOL and Reroll Noobs?
i always doubt the reason of putting so much useless item drops in heroics and CC spell requirement while most raid means a gear check for healing.
Who the hell design these pointless heroics?