Posts with tag justice-points

The problem with valor points in Pandaria

by Alex Ziebart Feb 14th 2013 at 8:00PM

Valor points, a once-elegant solution to gearing woes that arose in prior expansions, has become something of a thorn in players' sides in Mists of Pandaria. Considering how far this expansion has gone to advance the elements of player choice and freedom, it's strange that a something that was once so simple is more of a grind than ever. Why is that, exactly? In my opinion, it's an issue of double-dipping. Valor isn't a currency with a simple acquire-and-spend flow anymore. Instead, there are additional barriers that stand in your way, effectively doubling (at least) how much work must be done to spend what you put in the time to earn.

Looking back on the launch of Cataclysm, the barrier to entry for high-end content was fairly high. Heroics, as they were released at launch, were fairly difficult for groups assembled via the dungeon finder. The launch raid zones were also considered quite difficult for players that were new to raiding, and the raid finder tool hadn't yet launched. What wasn't difficult, however, was acquiring the gear to participate in that content. Justice points were used to bring you up to the current tier of content, and valor points were a supplement to your boss drops within the current tier. As soon as you earned enough points to purchase your gear, you could go and do it. No reputation barriers, no requirement to participate in content that didn't interest you, nothing like that. So why, in Mists of Pandaria, has that changed?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Mists of Pandaria

Patch 5.2: Valor points to convert to Justice after cap

by Matthew Rossi Dec 17th 2012 at 8:00PM

One of the things that kind of saddens me is when I'm capped on Valor for the week and I get no rewards for scenarios or dungeons or LFR. Now, it doesn't ruin these activities for me, but now that I really can't upgrade my gear on my main via them and my alts have run them into the ground without seeing any rewards, I'd at least like to feel like I was getting something.

Yes, I know, I'm greedy.

Taepsilum over on the EU forums just posted that Patch 5.2 is going to fix that problem.

Taepsilum - Need a better way to get justice points

There are some changes planned for 5.2, for example, we would like to make Valor points convert to Justice as long as you're Valor capped.

source

It's one of those small quality of life changes that doesn't really alter the game, but will make farming up Justice Points when I want to pick up an old vendor item for transmog or trade in Justice for Honor more convenient.

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Mists of Pandaria

Developer Q&A with Wowjuju

by Olivia Grace Nov 8th 2012 at 3:00PM

Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym emailed WoW Insider yesterday to give us a heads up about a lengthy developer Q&A which was published over at Wowjuju. This is a hugely in-depth interview, so let's dive right in with our synopsis.

Classes

A couple of questions came up regarding the Monk ability, Zen Pilgrimage. This ability allows monks to travel to the Peak of Serenity in Pandaria, and on re-use, returns the player to their previous location. Death Knights, understandably, were asking for the same to apply to their Death Gate, which takes them to the Ebon Hold, and unceremoniously abandons them there. Monks, conversely, were bemoaning the confusing effect of the ability if they don't use it a second time, and hearthstone back instead. The devs said that both concerns were reasonable, and that they would look into rectifying the issues. WoW Insider thinks that Monks are missing a trick with what could essentially be a second hearthstone!

Hunters queried whether the increase in available pets might lead to more stable space, which, to the consternation of sentimental beast masters everywhere, was met with a resounding "No." There was also some discussion of the hunter ability Scatter Shot being dodgeable, while a rogue Blind wasn't. Rogues and hunters work very differently, rogues are reliant on expertise and positioning to avoid being dodged or parried on a plethora of other abilities, so the devs didn't really feel this was a valid comparison.

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

Patch 5.1 PTR: Upgrading items with justice and valor

by Matthew Rossi Nov 6th 2012 at 8:00PM

One of the most interesting features of Patch 5.1 is the ability to upgrade your items with justice and valor points (as well as upgrading PvP items with honor and conquest points) and in order to give you a sense of what the current state of this feature is on the PTR, I went looking for the upgrade vendor. They're not hard to find -- look for the ethereals who do transmogrification and reforging, and you'll find them standing in the same areas. I confirmed this by going to Orgrimmar and the Shrine of Seven Stars, and there they were.

Since I was on a premade character with no honor or conquest gear and no epics, I could only test the justice point interface. Still, it's worth taking a look at how the process will work. As you can see from the above screenshot, the current interface will look familiar if you've reforged your gear at any point. But there are some differences.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Mists of Pandaria

Blood Pact: Reputable gear and more for raiding

by Megan O'Neill Oct 15th 2012 at 8:00PM

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill opens up Shado-Pan dailies and then promptly decides that things like having 4-slot farms for all her alts and leveling her shockadin are more important. What a slacker.

Three weeks ago, I wrote briefly about the rewards from having reputation with Pandaria's factions. Three weeks ago, all I had was beta to go on, and on beta all the factions had dailies open to me independently of each other.

When Mists of Pandaria went live, we found out that it really should have been named the Golden Gate Lotus faction, complete with "You Shall Not Pass into August Celestial reputation" signs. Then we had a hotfix of the Justice Points and Honor Points gear to bring them in line with each other ilvl-wise, a hotfix that removed reputation requirements for justice point gear, and some more hotfixes opened up some of the valor gear behind faction reputation lines.

While your heading was spinning with all the faction-made gear changes going on, I was writing it all down to figure out which pieces I should be questing for.

Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact, Mists of Pandaria

Encrypted Text: Mists of Pandaria guide to a raid-ready rogue

by Chase Christian Oct 3rd 2012 at 9:00AM

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here.

I'm not a fan of gearing up. I hate watching my gear fade into obsolescence. I hate swapping out my legendary Fangs of the Father for a set of blue weapons that were given to me after I washed a few yaks and played the role of a pre-employment drug screener for some amped-up goats.

Bill Gates infamously picks lazy people to do difficult jobs, because they'll find the easiest way to do it. I am that lazy person. I am always looking for the quickest way to get my rogue into raid-ready shape. The quicker that my rogue is geared up, the quicker I can get back to Eviscerating leveling players of the opposing faction. With a couple of weeks of grinding daily quests and some heroic dungeons mixed in, your rogue can be ready for the first tier of MoP raiding.

Filed under: Rogue, (Rogue) Encrypted Text

Incoming hotfix buffs JP gear, nerfs honor point gear

by Michael Sacco Oct 2nd 2012 at 5:00PM

If you thought the item level of endgame PVE gear purchasable with justice points was a little low, Blizzard apparently agrees with you. Bashiok just let the official forums know that a hotfix is incoming, bumping the ilvl 450 PVE rares to 458. Additionally, the hotfix brings down the item level (and rarity color!) of the ilvl 464 epic PVP gear available for honor to 458 and rare.

In conjunction with the hotfix removing the reputation requirements to access the JP gear, it should be considerably less of a hassle -- and involve a lot less PVPing -- to gear up for heroics. The downside is that the PVP gear you probably bought just to cheat the queueing system is a little worse. I can live with that.

The full post from Blizzard is after the cut.

Filed under: Hotfixes, Mists of Pandaria

Hotfix removes reputation requirements for justice point gear

by Daniel Whitcomb Oct 1st 2012 at 9:10PM

One of the most controversial decisions in Mists of Pandaria was the idea of putting JP and VP gear behind reputation gates, making you grind to honored with specific factions depending on what you wanted to buy. Blizzard has just put a hotfix in place that removes this requirement for justice point gear. You can now visit quartermasters as soon as you like and buy whatever JP gear you can afford, regardless of your reputation. This should allow new level 90 characters to hop into heroic dungeons much more readily.

The full announcement is behind the break, along with a quick guide to finding the reputation quartermasters to grab your gear. You can also visit Commander Lo Ping at Niuzao Temple to buy all JP gear at once.

Filed under: News items, Hotfixes, Mists of Pandaria

Patch 5.0.4 currency conversion clarified

by Anne Stickney Aug 21st 2012 at 9:00AM

Mists of Pandaria Currency conversion clarified

While we put together a comprehensive guide on what to expect with patch 5.0.4, there was something missing from the list. Currency conversion had yet to be explained on the current patch notes -- while we knew it was coming on Aug. 28, we didn't know the exact details. Blizzard has finally clarified the conversion rates, going one step farther by outlining what currency conversion will look like all the way up to patch 5.1.

Valor points will be disappearing, converted to justice points, and conquest will be converted to honor. There will be no gold conversion for excess points, because the cap for justice and honor points will be removed until Mists of Pandaria launches.

Blizzard Entertainment

The currency conversion coming with Mists of Pandaria is going to happen in three stages, and this is how we plan for it to progress:

With Patch 5.0.4 on August 28

Valor points will be converted to Justice points, and Conquest points will be converted to Honor points.
- Neither of the resultant currencies (Justice and Honor) will have an enforced hard-cap at this time.
The current Arena season will end. Players will no longer be able to earn Valor or Conquest points (bosses will drop Justice, Arenas will be closed).
Items formerly purchasable for Valor/Conquest will be available for Justice/Honor.

With Mists of Pandaria on September 25

Valor can be earned again.
- Characters can earn up to 1000 Valor per week, and carry a maximum of 3000 Valor.
- Daily quests, random Scenarios, random Heroic dungeons, and all levels of raiding will reward Valor.
- Valor will be used to purchase ilvl 489 gear in Mists of Pandaria.
  - The Klaxxi, Golden Lotus, Shado-Pan, and August Celestials factions will sell this gear.
  - Revered reputation with each faction will be required.
Conquest will become earnable.
- There is a cap of 4000 Conquest points.
- Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds reward Conquest.
- It will be used to purchase ilvl 483 gear from Pandaren battlemasters on the Great Wall.

With Mists of Pandaria, Patch 5.1

We currently plan to upgrade the Valor system as Ghostcrawler described in Mists of Pandaria Looting Explained in the 5.1 patch, allowing you to upgrade your gear using Valor points. We'll have additional information once Mists of Pandaria launches and we get closer to the 5.1 patch release.

Do you have questions or comments about currencies in World of Warcraft? Please let us know in this discussion thread.

source

Hopefully this clears up everyone's questions about this process. If not, you can always check out the discussion thread on the official forums and ask away!

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

The Raid Finder, the Dungeon Finder, point caps and you

by Matthew Rossi Dec 30th 2011 at 10:00PM

I have a theory that either our various caps for justice and valor points are too low, or the amount we get per activity is too high. I'll relate my thinking. I have several level 85 characters I'm running through the Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder tools. Clearing both halves of the Raid Finder Dragon Soul gets me 500 valor; I then run four random heroics, and I'm capped. This means that playing my main any further that week is effectively a waste of time. (I usually cap my valors out before I even raid for a week, which makes raiding just about the gear, but I'm OK with that.)

My problem is, I like my main. I'd play him more if there was anything to do. As it is, I tend to cap out on justice points rather than run on one of my alts, and even then, they usually cap on valors as well. (At least two of them do.) I even sometimes cap on honor, and with the new conquest point gains for Random BGs, I could cap on conquest if I really set my mind to it. And while I understand why we have both weekly and total caps on points, it often feels like I'm being penalized for liking the game and wanting to play it.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding

Patch 4.3: Point conversion sell-back policy

by Mathew McCurley Nov 9th 2011 at 7:20PM

When patch 4.3 releases in the near future, you will not be able to sell items that you purchase with valor points back to a vendor for a short period of time once the patch launches and the valor-to-justice point conversion happens. This restriction is being put in place to curb the practice of buying valor point gear, waiting for the conversion from valor points to justice points, and then selling back the items for valor points. The last time the point conversion happened in patch 4.2, Blizzard ran into this problem and players got around the valor point conversion.

One of the criticisms of the point conversion last patch was that Blizzard had not given ample notice to players detailing issues with the new PVP set gear and some botched conversions that happened early. It appears that this time, Blizzard is getting ahead of the patch by a wide margin, letting players know about these new policies and procedures much earlier, so no one should be surprised when it happens. Early information is always welcome information. Check out the full item sell-back policy for the patch 4.3 point conversion in the blue post after the jump.

Filed under: Cataclysm

Ol' Grumpy's guide to outdated content and you

by Matthew Rossi May 25th 2011 at 7:00PM

Hey again, boys and girls. In case you don't know (and why would you?), I'm Ol' Grumpy, that permanently irascible old codger who brought you fun times like player reeducation and instance protocols. Today, I'm here to pour the soothing balm of my words over the troubled waters stirred up by the recent news that in patch 4.2, all current non-heroic raid content is getting a 20% nerf. What exactly does this mean?

Well, it means several things.

Current heroic raid content will remain unchanged. Heroic Cho'gall, heroic Atramedes, heroic Nefarian will all be as difficult as they are now. So you won't see guilds that are 9/12 normal mode waltzing into heroic BoT and killing Sinestra the day 4.2 goes live. She's still going to be ludicrously hard.
The raids we currently have will become outdated content the day Firelands becomes available, the same way Naxx became outdated when Ulduar came out and Trial of the Crusader became outdated when ICC came out. They will no longer even reward you with valor points, and all current valor point gear will switch to being purchasable with justice points (the same points one can get for running normal 85 dungeons). This means that entry-level raiding will be obsolete, and the only people doing it will be people just starting out or a few completists.
Therefore, it is in the interest of the game to let people see this content once it becomes obsolete and move on as quickly as possible.
You can return your seat to its normal, upright position now. If anyone is telling you that this is an outrage, a slap in the face, a nod to the casuals, the ruination of the game, or the horns of the dread Armagedillo poking forth, they're wrong. And possibly a hysterical maniac who overreacts to a simple armadillo pet.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Cataclysm

The Queue: Firelands questing and more

by Alex Ziebart May 25th 2011 at 11:00AM

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

I was going to yell at Adam for making me wade through Game of Thrones spoilers in the comments of yesterday's Queue, but the first book has been out for what, 15 years now? Frankly, I have nobody to blame but myself at this point.

Many readers asked:

How far into Hyjal questing do I need to be to unlock the ability to do the new daily quest hubs in patch 4.2?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue

Patch 4.1 PTR: New PvE-to-PvP currency conversion

by Matthew Rossi Apr 7th 2011 at 8:00PM

If you've seen the patch 4.1 PTR patch notes recently, one thing will probably jump out at you immediately. Namely, you can now buy honor points for justice points and vice versa, and you can also buy conquest points for valor points.

Updated 4.1 patch notes for April 7, 2011

General

Honor is now purchasable from the Justice Commodities Vendor at 250 Honor per 375 Justice.
Justice is now purchasable from the Honor Commodities Vendor at 250 Justice per 375 Honor.
Conquest is now purchasable from the Valor vendor at 250 Conquest per 250 Valor.

source

Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

Gold Capped: Patch 4.1 and Maelstrom Crystals

by Basil Berntsen Mar 28th 2011 at 5:00PM

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail!

Is the sky falling? Will patch 4.1 herald the end of the high price for Maelstrom Crystals? The informal communication channels between auctioneers (sharing market analyses with each other in IRC and custom channels or tells in game and on gold blogs) have been abuzz with the frantic analysis that patch 4.1 will drive the price of Maelstroms down to ridiculously low amounts. Personally, I'm not sure I'd blindly buy that.

Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped

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