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At present, we are sitting on more than 90 of WoW's Emblems of Heroism. In principle we should have a good idea of what to spend these on. Let's get down to it in depth.
There's a spell hit belt, the Plush Sash of Guzbah, which would make a good side-grade (up to 69 hit rating if buckled and socketed with a pair of yellow gems) for spell hit set. There's the token that gets us the Heroes' Frostfire Robe, though we remain reluctant to pay 80 emblems for an item we could win outright off Archavon. If we really don't want either, there are some shiny heirloom items we could pick up.
So why are we sitting on that many banked badges? For us, there is a patch coming soon.
Before the expansion's launch, the discussion was that 10-man raid gear would lag 25-man gear by a tier. Presuming they've stuck with that plan, here's what we already know
Via a lengthy thread on arena itemization, we have a few more tidbits:
There will be an Emblem of Conquest from Ulduar-25. I think I heard that Ulduar-10 will drop Emblems of Valor, but I don't have a source for that on hand.
Kel'Thuzad is on a higher reward tier in part because Blizzard underestimated how easy he would be to get to.
There are no plans to allow trades of 10-man Emblems of Heroism for 25-man emblems of valor (which makes sense in the context of Ulduar-10 dropping Valor emblems).
Ulduar will be balanced assuming Naxx loot.
We don't think there is any way that non-raid content will see level 213 epics in this patch cycle and it is highly unlikely that there will be new 5-man content in patch 3.1. Though I have finished the current heroics, the expansion launched with a dozen of them, compared to only three raids. Heroics already have their "hard mode" reward for bosses in the form of a meta achievement and it would not make sense to add optional, tougher bosses to existing heroic dungeons unless Blizzard had the time to cover all twelve dungeons otherwise, players would overwhelmingly prefer the dungeons with the good loot.
Likewise, we also do not think we will see rare-quality level 213 items this patch, or ever this expansion cycle. As you can see in a comparison of PVP robes, the difference between rare and epic items of the same tier is about identical to the difference between epics of different tiers.
It is possible that Blizzard may expand either access or variety in the Emblem vendors. We could see more cosmetic rewards such as pets or mounts and possibly a wider selection of gear as well. As we noted when we did a roundup of pre-raid Mage gear, there are a number of slots where the pickings at the heroic level are very scarce. New rewards would help convince people to continue using the existing non-raid content while Blizzard works on the raid game.
Blizzard will have to consider some means of making level 213 loot available to the non-raid populace. This is more likely to happen somewhere further down the line, such as patch 3.3, when even the 10-man raiders have moved beyond that tier. At that point we might see Emblems of Valor in 5-man content and solo daily quests with some chance of rewarding Emblems of Heroism. The comparatively low cost per item is an obstacle there, but these items will be well behind the gear curve at that point in the expansion cycle, and heirloom items may be the most attractive rewards as a new gear reset looms. With heirlooms involved, players might be willing to continue using that content for the heirlooms after the next expansion hits, which is about as good a return on the dev time as anything in Blizzard's toolbox at the moment.
In principle the 10-man raids are puggable and/or will become more so as players have more time to outgear them. For our part, we have a hard enough time pugging heroics. Apparently the high numbers they were able to rack up as a result of not moving outweighed even the possibility of loot for doing the fight properly.
Perhaps this patch is too early to expect any changes, but I find it hard to believe that Blizzard would fail to offer any further non-raid progression for the rest of the expansion cycle.
Are we feeling disappointed when the PTR's happen? Perhaps the emblems aren't taking up bagspace anymore.
There's a spell hit belt, the Plush Sash of Guzbah, which would make a good side-grade (up to 69 hit rating if buckled and socketed with a pair of yellow gems) for spell hit set. There's the token that gets us the Heroes' Frostfire Robe, though we remain reluctant to pay 80 emblems for an item we could win outright off Archavon. If we really don't want either, there are some shiny heirloom items we could pick up.
So why are we sitting on that many banked badges? For us, there is a patch coming soon.
Before the expansion's launch, the discussion was that 10-man raid gear would lag 25-man gear by a tier. Presuming they've stuck with that plan, here's what we already know
Via a lengthy thread on arena itemization, we have a few more tidbits:
There will be an Emblem of Conquest from Ulduar-25. I think I heard that Ulduar-10 will drop Emblems of Valor, but I don't have a source for that on hand.
Kel'Thuzad is on a higher reward tier in part because Blizzard underestimated how easy he would be to get to.
There are no plans to allow trades of 10-man Emblems of Heroism for 25-man emblems of valor (which makes sense in the context of Ulduar-10 dropping Valor emblems).
Ulduar will be balanced assuming Naxx loot.
We don't think there is any way that non-raid content will see level 213 epics in this patch cycle and it is highly unlikely that there will be new 5-man content in patch 3.1. Though I have finished the current heroics, the expansion launched with a dozen of them, compared to only three raids. Heroics already have their "hard mode" reward for bosses in the form of a meta achievement and it would not make sense to add optional, tougher bosses to existing heroic dungeons unless Blizzard had the time to cover all twelve dungeons otherwise, players would overwhelmingly prefer the dungeons with the good loot.
Likewise, we also do not think we will see rare-quality level 213 items this patch, or ever this expansion cycle. As you can see in a comparison of PVP robes, the difference between rare and epic items of the same tier is about identical to the difference between epics of different tiers.
It is possible that Blizzard may expand either access or variety in the Emblem vendors. We could see more cosmetic rewards such as pets or mounts and possibly a wider selection of gear as well. As we noted when we did a roundup of pre-raid Mage gear, there are a number of slots where the pickings at the heroic level are very scarce. New rewards would help convince people to continue using the existing non-raid content while Blizzard works on the raid game.
Blizzard will have to consider some means of making level 213 loot available to the non-raid populace. This is more likely to happen somewhere further down the line, such as patch 3.3, when even the 10-man raiders have moved beyond that tier. At that point we might see Emblems of Valor in 5-man content and solo daily quests with some chance of rewarding Emblems of Heroism. The comparatively low cost per item is an obstacle there, but these items will be well behind the gear curve at that point in the expansion cycle, and heirloom items may be the most attractive rewards as a new gear reset looms. With heirlooms involved, players might be willing to continue using that content for the heirlooms after the next expansion hits, which is about as good a return on the dev time as anything in Blizzard's toolbox at the moment.
In principle the 10-man raids are puggable and/or will become more so as players have more time to outgear them. For our part, we have a hard enough time pugging heroics. Apparently the high numbers they were able to rack up as a result of not moving outweighed even the possibility of loot for doing the fight properly.
Perhaps this patch is too early to expect any changes, but I find it hard to believe that Blizzard would fail to offer any further non-raid progression for the rest of the expansion cycle.
Are we feeling disappointed when the PTR's happen? Perhaps the emblems aren't taking up bagspace anymore.
