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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsVaneras clarifies Ulduar emblems
by Eliah Hecht 
Apr 9th 2009 at 6:00PM
There has been a certain amount of confusion about what exactly is going on with emblems in Ulduar. We've known for a while that Emblems of Valor, which currently drop from 25-man Naxxramas, are going to drop in 10-man Ulduar, and that Ulduar-25 is going to drop a new badge: Emblem of Conquest. However, there were some rumors that the EoVs from Uld-10 would be a different "color" than the EoVs from Naxx-25, enabling purchase of some gear for the new EoVs that would not be buyable with the Naxx-25 EoVs. There have also been various theories about whether Tier 8 tokens would be buyable with emblems, like some of the T7 tokens are now.
Vaneras has gone and clarified these questions and more, in a FAQ post on the European forums. I'll try to distill the information that I found useful into a few bullet points.
- The EoVs in Uld-10 are the same as the ones from Naxx-25, and let you buy the same rewards.
- Relics from Naxx-25 are being added to the EoV quartermasters; nothing else is being added to them at this time.
- Tier 8.5 gear tokens (chest and helm) will be buyable with EoCs (from Uld-25). Tier 8.0 gear tokens will not be buyable in any way.
- There will be a new EoC quartermaster with the two 8.5 tokens and additional ilvl 226 gear for purchase.
The justification for T8.0 not being buyable for tokens is that they didn't want current Naxx-25 raiders stockpiling huge numbers of EoVs to buy stuff on the 3.1 release. This does make some sense, although there are other routes they could have gone with it. Anyway, it's good to have clarification.
Filed under: Items, News items, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Braundo Apr 9th 2009 7:06PM
Head and chest pieces purchasable with badges? Wha-wha-what?
Braundo Apr 9th 2009 7:07PM
Tier 8.5, that is.
Kay Apr 9th 2009 7:18PM
I'm just...stunned. Truly. The circular logic is just astounding.
"The justification for T8.0 not being buyable for tokens is that they didn't want current Naxx-25 raiders stockpiling huge numbers of EoVs to buy stuff on the 3.1 release."
...so, are we supposed to believe that the fact that Ulduar 10 shares a badge type with Naxx25 was handed down by god, leaving Blizzard to hang their heads and go "Awww, man. Now how are we going to prevent naxx25 raiders from stockpiling badges and going on a tier 8 buying spree?" That creating a new badge type for Ulduar 10 and a new badge type for Ulduar 25 both was just strategically impossible if not, yea, handed down unto them as a decree from the heavens as verboten?
I just...
Wow.
Just...just wow.
Fail.
Grubba Apr 9th 2009 7:49PM
^ This.
Cirillo Apr 9th 2009 9:17PM
Using fancy language does not help :)
I'm guessing their logic was similar to:
"Uld10 gear is only a slight improvement to Naxx25... So why bother making new badges, ofcourse people are going to want to stock up on uld10 gear and not the badges..."
Also i think making a new badge for every next tier of raiding would get pretty... messy...
Kay Apr 10th 2009 2:18AM
@Cirillo
"Also i think making a new badge for every next tier of raiding would get pretty... messy..."
...really?
One badge type per raid instance (treating 10- and 25- as separate raid instances) is too complicated?
I...don't know what to say to that, really.
sephirah Apr 10th 2009 4:40AM
@Cirillo
I don't think there's a Blizzard employer that carve emblems one by one and it's too busy preparing the conquest ones...
Angus Apr 10th 2009 8:37AM
"Let's make badges that people can use in heroics to get naxx 10 level gear!"
"But then they'll stockpile heroic badges and buy tier 7 gear before they ever step into the raid!"
"Oh, that's fine, we want them to have that gear available in case they don't get drops and it allows them to have good stuff even if they aren't lucky. Plus it isn't like they weren't working for the gear."
4 months later...
"Let's make badges that people can use from Heroic Naxx to get uldar 10 level gear!"
"But then they'll stockpile heroic naxx badges to buy tier 8 gear before they ever step into Ulduar!"
"Oh, we can't do that. Not like they will not get drops, they won't suffer because they will get lucky. They didn't work for the gear."
nice disconnect, isn't it?
Emoroan Apr 9th 2009 7:23PM
Considering 10 man ulduar hard mode items are better then the 25 man normal items there's plenty of reasons to run it.
kabshiel Apr 9th 2009 7:42PM
Blizzard should have just created a new emblem type for 10-man Ulduar.
Teni Apr 9th 2009 11:22PM
Eliah (or your copy edit0r):
"Buyable" is not a real word. The repeated use of this made-up word makes your otherwise very interesting blog entry look less than professional. Consider changing the sentences: "Tier 8.5 gear tokens (chest and helm) will be buyable with EoCs (from Uld-25). Tier 8.0 gear tokens will not be buyable in any way." to:
"You will be able to purchase Tier 8.5 gear tokens (chest and helm) with EoCs (from Uld-25), but there will be no way to purchase Tier 8.0 gear tokens."
Thanks.
Eliah Hecht Apr 9th 2009 10:01PM
I'm sorry that you do not find language change acceptable. Please be advised that most of the English language was made up at some point or other, and consider using another form of communication in the future.
Eliah Hecht Apr 9th 2009 10:02PM
Also, OED has citations for "buyable" going back six centuries, so I'm not sure what your definition of "real word" is.
Tom Apr 10th 2009 6:05AM
The purpose of badges has always been to allow people to gear up faster and more consistently rather than waiting for just the drop they want.
Implementing a badge system where the badge gear is a lower quality than the stuff you are waiting for just means you spend badges and then replace the stuff again within a few weeks. You'll buy some Naxx 25 level item with badges, and still have to run the instance 50 more times to get the item you actually want in that slot.
Frankly I'm amazed Blizzard has the guts to come out and admitt "Yeah, the reason you 10 man raiders can't buy tier 8, or iLevel 219 gear is because we don't want 25 man raiders abusing it"
Frankly, it's utterly hypocritical when 25 man raiders can already waltz through 10 man content.
Given that the instances have 2 seperate lockouts 25 man raiders are going to be doing both, and gearing up from 10 man ulduar + 25 man ulduar + EoC. Meanwhile 10 man raiders have only Ulduar drops and EoV to upgrade with. And for many not even that because it's been so easy to pug Naxx that most 10 man raiders have Naxx 25 level gear.
The result is you still let 25 man raiders gear up amazingly quickly, but you stop 10 man raiders being able to gear up at a nice rate (by being able to buy 219 gear, and tier 8). It doesn't solve the problem, and it's at the expense of 10 man raiders. Nobody is made happy, lots of people are annoyed.
Marveen Apr 10th 2009 6:15AM
They should just've kept one kind of badge for Northrend, let's call them Emblems of Frost, and changed the droprate for them according to dungeon/raid hardness. So if you wanted 20 EoF you could do 8 heroics (2-3 nights of farming), or a full Naxx10 clear (2+ hours), or 2 wings of Naxx25 (1 hour or less).* If you can't get a 25-man raid going, you'd accept the slower rate of badge gain that 10-man raiding affords - you'd get your stuff later, but you'd get it.
For Ulduar, each boss would drop far more EoF than the current Naxx ones drop. For example, an extra 5 per boss (for the 10-man version). So for 20 badges you can choose to do a full Naxx clear (2 hours or more) or do 1-2 bosses in Ulduar. And so on.
Alternatively, they could greatly increase the EoF cost of vendorsold items. Say you've got 250+ EoF stored - you could buy 5 T7-equivalents, 3 T7.5 equivalents, 2 T8 equivalents and 1 T8.5 equivalent. A bit like how Honor works...
Both these solutions would've got around the issue - but I guess it's much easier to code "no loot for Ulduar10"... :(
---
*That's assuming the progression is real and a harder instance really is harder - not the case with Naxx25/10.
Munny Apr 10th 2009 9:54AM
This is retarded. If Ulduar 10-man Hard mode is going to drop better gear than Naxx25, then it should also drop the EoC badges. I can see dropping EoV in Uld 10man reg, but hard mode should drop EoC's.
Pedro F2 Apr 15th 2009 11:15AM
One thing i'm sure, i spent all the EoV I had left on PVP gear, because i had nothing else to buy, it's good thing (for me at least), that they can't be used to get T8 gear.