Patch 3.2 brings universal tier armor tokens
by Michael Sacco 
Jun 29th 2009 at 10:00PM
I had concerns when Blizzard first announced the way bosses would be unlocked in Patch 3.2's new raid instance, the Argent Coliseum. Blizzard has announced that while the first boss is available immediately, other bosses will be unlocked week-by-week. It's not the first time an artificial barrier has been put up for raid progression -- hello Sunwell -- so I guess I'm not shocked by it, but progression wasn't really what I was concerned about.
In our current raiding system, each boss drops a pre-determined set of loot. Some bosses drop a token which can be turned in for a piece of armor matching that particular slot, and the boss will always drop this same slot token. Thorim will always drop a shoulder token in Ulduar 10, for example.
So the issue is, with the Coliseum officially being our new tier of raiding, with gear that far outclasses Ulduar gear, and with the Coliseum bosses being unlocked each week, it means that players could get screwed out of upgrades. Your chestpiece might not be the greatest, so if you were looking forward to upgrading it, you'd be pretty crushed to find out that the T9 chest token only drops off of the final Coliseum boss -- which will only be available (at best) a month or (at worst) several weeks more than that due to RNG.
It turns out that Blizzard was thinking the same thing I was. That's why, with 3.2, Coliseum bosses all drop one of three universal armor tokens -- the Regalia of the Grand Protector, Vanquisher, or Conqueror.
But how do I know that? Well, I looked on the PTR, and each tier armor piece was purchaseable with the same type of token. To verify that I wasn't just seeing things, I checked the game files and, sure enough, only three types of tokens total.
This is a pretty big step forward for raiding in general, not just for this tier. While there's no guarantee that it'll stick around for subsequent raids, the effects of this change are many:
- You can build your set at your own pace, picking and choosing the best upgrades.
If you're like me, while building your Tier 8 set, you may have gotten some pieces that weren't strictly upgrades because the stats on them didn't shine unless couple with another piece of armor from the same tier. My shaman, for example, was way over hit cap for a while due to not getting my T8 shoulders yet but having my T8 helm. What this change allows you to do is find the most direct upgrade path -- if upgrading your gloves first gives you the biggest bonus, you can grab those first with your Regalia instead of skipping out on wearing your perfectly good legs because you don't have your helm yet.
- You won't "waste" loot by getting identical tokens in 25-man soon after 10-man.
You rolled on that helm token on your no-DKP 10-man and used the helm for a day before getting the 25-man helm token. This way you can use the 25-man Regalia to get your shoulders instead for your two- or four-piece.
- Doesn't matter which bosses you kill, you'll still get your four-piece eventually.
Hey there, priest! Is Yogg-Saron being a total cad and only dropping Vanquisher shoulders? Sucks to be you! With this new system, though, you won't run into this issue. So long as somebody's dropping Conqueror tokens, you'll get your set bonus eventually, just by being there for bosses in general.
- YES BUT WHAT ABOUT LOOTING, MIKE SACCO, WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW
Hey, good question, guy! At least in my guild, this'll certainly mess up offspec sets, which we start collecting once people start passing on mainspec tokens. And yeah, maybe if you use DKP, someone could hoard a bunch of tokens immediately. That's for your guild to work out, though. I'm sure you can figure it out. The benefits tend to outweigh the negatives here.
As with anything on the PTR, this could change at any time, but everything I've seen from datamined info to the text on the Tier 9 vendors on the PTR indicates that this change is a go, and I'm pretty happy about it.
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!Filed under: Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
OneSound Jun 29th 2009 10:09PM
Thank the Baby jesus...no more waiting for a week AGAIN
jam Jun 29th 2009 10:08PM
Great news, if true.
klink-o Jun 29th 2009 10:09PM
Yogg has yet to drop even a single pair of conq shoulders for us. Meanwhile, vanq shoulders are a few kills away from rotting. Good change.
jam Jun 29th 2009 10:14PM
They really should occasionally change the classes that share the tier tokens.
I'm really tired of being in the DK, Mage, Rogue, Druid group, my two main characters belong in it, and the competition is always tough both in guild raids and pugs. In my experience Hunters, Shamans etc tend to get their pieces soooo easily compared to that group.
noelkytty Jun 30th 2009 12:51AM
You DO know that Vanquisher Tokens have a higher drop rate than other tokens, correct?
LilBanshee Jun 30th 2009 8:20AM
I think he means he plays with more than 40% of the raid being DKs, mages, rogues, or druids. The tokens may drop in perfect proportions so every class is equally represented - but in practice not all classes are equally present in raids.
Or maybe hes just been unlucky and the wrong tokens have dropped at a higher percent than average.
oaclo Jun 30th 2009 11:18AM
I have to agree with jam. Even with 10% higher droprate for the vanquisher tokens it can be pretty tough to actually get them when you have upwards of half a 25 man raid trying for them. Plus, these token groups have been in place since T6 and i think 4 tiers of raid content across 2 expansions is enough.
Valensword Jun 29th 2009 10:17PM
This will certainly be interesting in my guild where a few members always have hundreds (literally) more points of dkp than anyone else.. Looks like there will be no more hoping for the shoulders that the other guildies already have to drop. Now those with less dkp wont even be able to get lucky on a drop. They will have to wait until those few "hardcore" raiders have filled every single slot. Although at least this way they will fill their slots very quickly.
Not altogether bad, it's definately an interesting idea.
/cry
jam Jun 29th 2009 10:19PM
Sounds like a problem in your guild's loot system.
Valensword Jun 29th 2009 10:30PM
Some people just have the time to be on every single run in every single raid thats all :)
I guess that's why they deserve the gear though eh.. Logic ftw
vazhkatsi Jun 29th 2009 11:32PM
thats what i have, i have the 2nd most dkp of any caster by at least 2k, but i never need anything. the only gear i need is the other 2 pieces of 8.5 and i'm usually pretty generous, i don't try to win things for 10 dkp, if i want something i bid 500 to let people know. hav
pietrex Jun 30th 2009 4:19AM
In my guild there is a set, maximum amount of DKP you can have. This means you can't accumulate as many as you want. What is more, the DKP is halved every reset. I think it's a great system which lets people who raid less bid on items.
PeeWee Jun 30th 2009 5:55AM
And that's why you use a decaying/capped DKP system, to prevent this thing from happening, while keeping the top raiders at the top.
Flash Aug 4th 2009 7:40PM
Shroud - http://www.wowwiki.com/Shroud_Loot_System
Eberron Jun 29th 2009 10:17PM
Sweet, freaking, eh.
Most curiously tho is this: If you can buy your tier tokens with Triumph badges, which you can get from doing heroic dailies..
It'll take awhile, but this means you could get t9 5p without ever setting foot in a raid... o.o;
*NEAT*
Myyth Jun 29th 2009 10:23PM
It's not the Triumph badges that drop from heroics, was pretty sure it's going to be the Conquest badges.
Aldheim Jun 29th 2009 10:27PM
You can get Triumphs from the dailies. So theoretically... At 3x EoTriumph a day... Assuming (cheaply) that a regalia token is 60 EoTs... You could get 5/5 T9 in a mere 100 days.
And every one of those days, the daily will be Occulus. SUCKA!
Eberron Jun 29th 2009 10:33PM
Hehe.. wouldn't put it past'em.
But yeah, it would take some time, but it's still pretty cool. Considering you can pick up two piece T8 while doing it, some alts or new players are shaping up to be quickly geared up. :)
Zach Jun 30th 2009 3:38AM
I still don't understand why they're having the dailies drop Emblems of Triumph. It makes absolutely no sense progression-wise. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the Emblem of Conquest changes (alleviate that gear gap, baby!). But the fact that these dailies now drop current-tier badges will result in raiders going back to heroics and even lvl 78 instances. Is that really what Blizzard wants? Horrendously overgeared people mowing through those dungeons for a few badges every day? I'm certainly not condemning it; it'll allow me to gear up faster. :) It just doesn't make sense from a progression standpoint; it's "backwards progression", if you will.
With that said, the fact that they're doing away with the individual tokens (since now there's 1 universal token for your class) also probably means that they're doing away with the "purchasable through badges" concept for tier gear. Sorry, if you want that shiny T9 you're going to have to come to the Coliseum.
Zach Jun 30th 2009 4:32AM
Mmo-Champion just got updated and apparently you can buy all the 232 and 245 ilvl tier gear with Badges of Triumph.
/facepalm