World of Warcraft Patch 5.2 Valor Conversion Canceled, Release Pushed Back
Written by:
Olivia Grace (
@oliviadgrace) | February 13, 2013 7:18 am
Blizzard Senior Community Rep Zarhym posted and
tweeted late last night, saying that the proposed Patch 5.2 Valor conversion has been canceled. Thanks to player feedback, Blizzard decided that converting the currency down to Justice, and Justice to gold over the cap of 4,000 was a bad move.
Patch 5.2 Valor gear is purchaseable from the new faction, the Shado-Pan Assault, from a neutral reputation upwards, so in a change to our previous piece on
preparing for patch 5.2, Valor should now be saved rather than spent. The patch 5.2 valor gear from the Shado-Pan Assault begins at item level 522, so the better option is to wait until then to purchase gear, as even upgrading the best gear at this point will not allow you to reach this item level.
The new Patch 5.2 Valor gear can also be obtained from the two new daily factions, in another update provided by Zarhym in his post last night. The Blizzard team felt that limiting reputation gear to raiding alone was too restrictive, so have added some pieces, yet unspecified, to the new factions.
Blizzard has also pushed back the estimated release of the patch to around three weeks from now, meaning that the predicted release date is more likely to be March 6th, giving players more time to cap valor and recoup any they’d spent.
I
t should be noted that PvP points will continue to proceed just as they always do, with Conquest being converted to Honor, and any resultant Honor above the cap of 4,000 converted to gold. So, do continue spending Conquest, and upgrading your Conquest gear, as the Upgrade vendor is still on hiatus come patch 5.2.
Zarhym’s full post is below, but the message here is loud and clear: STOP SPENDING VALOR!
After reading your feedback and locking ourselves in dim, fluorescent-lit rooms for much deliberation, we have decided that we are NOT going to convert Valor to Justice and Justice to gold when 5.2 ships. Current Valor items will continue to require Valor in 5.2, and will be offered at a discount as listed in the PTR patch notes. Given that PvE and PvP currencies function quite a bit differently, Conquest will still convert to Honor and Honor to gold as previously discussed.
We’re making the Valor change for a couple of reasons, but primarily because we think a down-conversion under the new Mists endgame progression model just feels mean. We traditionally viewed this conversion process with each patch as a necessary evil to discourage hoarding—it’s not fun to feel like you can’t spend your Valor in the weeks before a new patch because you have to be ready to buy everything up. However, we have a Valor cap now to prevent excessive hoarding, many of the Valor rewards in 5.2 require raiding to acquire (for example, many of the ilevel-522 rewards are tied to Shado-Pan Assault reputation, which you’ll only gain rep with by raiding in the Throne of Thunder), and the LFR version has an ilvl-480 requirement, meaning you can’t hoard Valor on a brand new 90 and jump straight to the best stuff. All of these factors being considered, it doesn’t make good sense to take Valor away from players in this context. Down-conversions may occur for future patch releases depending on the circumstances, but for 5.2 it’s safe and snuggly where it is.
In addition, we’re making a change to ensure that there are some gear rewards available via the Kirin Tor Offensive and Sunreaver Onslaught, the two new factions with which players can earn reputation in 5.2 without raiding. The patch was shaping up to be a real challenge for players who don’t like raiding (including LFR), as our original design meant that no new Valor rewards would be available to them without needing to run Throne of Thunder. You can expect to see the Valor rewards on the Kirin Tor Offensive and Sunreaver Onslaught quartermasters updated on the 5.2 public test realms in the near future. These rewards are ilevel 496 and will only accommodate a few slots, as they aren’t intended to be very attractive to raiders (including those running LFR), but should give non-raiders something to shoot for in 5.2.
If you’ve already made plans and sank your Valor, don’t fret! As of this announcement, and even if you have 0 Valor currently, you still have enough time to cap out at 3000 Valor before patch 5.2 goes live. (It’s math!)
We’d love to hear your feedback about this change, and how you’re planning to earn, save, and spend Valor before the patch releases.
