VP and Tier armour sets and a reason to play!

[Banhammer72]

First off let me explain why this subject is important to me. I am, what some people would call "the enemy" or more commonly "a casual player" I dislike PvP and I do not have the time to commit to raiding (add to that I never had any luck what so ever the few times I tried the LFR and by that I mean wipe after wipe after wipe, quit never return.

I won't give you the TL;DR version of why I became a casual player but when I was playing (I am currently un-subbed waiting for MoP) I put up with all the nutters and great people you meet in the 5 man random queues as I had a goal and that was to get the badges, or as it stands now VP/JP so I could buy my characters a set of amour from the vendor. Before Cataclysm releas​ed I could buy for my characters a full 5 piece set of the 10 man version of tier 9 armour set/s.

For me that was great, I got a set of armour that allowed me to a good Paladin tank in normals and heroics, I looked quite snazzy (imho) I was happy and quite contented to pay my subs, play the game, level characters and get them their tier 9. I never asked for anything more, no special mounts or titles just an armour set for my characters.

Cataclysm put an end to that, I could buy 3/5 of the items but had to raid for the rest (uggh) so each time Blizzard released a new tier of raiding, I could buy 3/5 pieces but never a full set. The end result was I found it gave me less and less reason to run 5 man (normal or heroic), so I logged in less and less and eventually un-subbed a few weeks ago.

I have been looking forward to MoP, new areas, new talents and all that jazz, but no Pandadins! boo Blizzard poor show! But at the start of Lore's most recent Weekly Marmot - How MoP's New Legendary Just Might Work, I heard something quite disturbing at the beginning. No more VP gear?

So for you guys who are more in the know than I am does this mean at max level there is no gear that I can farm points for?, no set items (even if it is 3/5) that I can buy. Of this is the case MoP is pretty much a bust for me from the start and I doubt I would even bother the buy the expansion. Please tell me this isn't so

[Quinafoi]

They are changing valor points from a means of obtaining gear to a means of upgrading gear. Rather than using valor points to buy a piece of gear that replaces a piece of gear you already have, you'll instead use the valor points to make that gear better (like an enchant or gemming, except altering the base stats of the item). You will obtain gear from your other sources and then use valor to upgrade it. For example you run a heroic dungeon and get a new trinket. Then with valor points you aquire you can make that item slightly better than it is, instead of using the points once you have enough to buy something that completely replaces it.

In your case as you have defined your play style this will likely result in the following. You will run your non-raid / non-pvp content for gear (solo questing, dungeons, heroic dungeons, or any other context you will play in that provides gearing opportunity). While you are doing that you will aquire valor points which can then be in turn used to upgrade that gear (more than once likely, this system isn't flushed out yet). So valor points will continue to progress your character until you reach the cap where you have all the best stuff you will obtain in the current patch, and it is all upgraded as far as the system will allow. This is basically the same thing as what happens once you run out of stuff to buy with valor, you have no real need for it anymore (until the next patch).

[Banhammer72]

In that case I have another question for you, will there be item sets (with two and four item set bonuses) available through running 5 man norm/heroic or will items like that just be available to raiders?

[Theotherone]

You can't get item sets with VP now and I have not heard that they are going to change that.

[Quinafoi]

There is one key different in Mists of Pandaria from Cataclysm which I feel is one of the core reasons why the change to Valor Points.

Raid Finder

The function of Valor Points and even more so Justice Points was to serve as a means of getting appropriately prepared for the current patch context. So if you just hit level cap and Firelands was out, in order to allow you to catch up so that you could potentially experience this content was to allow you to purchase gear slightly weaker than that content with Justice Points (tier prior) and equivalent gear with Valor Points. It served the purpose of closing gaps in gearing so that more people could experience current content. This is one goal Blizzard always seems to have, they want people to be able to experience content if they want to and put in some effort.

What the addition of Raid Finder results in people being able to get "raid-quality" gear from a significantly easier context than a Normal or Heroic raid. Note that none of the items that actually drop in T13 can be bought with Valor. So people who don't raid at all wouldn't even be able to get 3/5 today. My thought is the design intent is that Raid Finder itself actually replaces the need to be able to buy raid-quality items from a currency. And now we see in Mists of Pandaria you not only can't buy tier pieces with Valor, but you can't buy any raid-quality gear with Valor.

[Banhammer72]

That I totally understand. I guess what I am asking for is for a new version of Dungeon set armour like we had in Classic and Burning Crusade.

There has to be something for me to aim for, even if I cannot buy Raid tier gear or the new "enhancements" as long as I can get a set like I could in Classic, TBC and even Wrath from some source I'd be happy. As it seems to stand right now I'm not seeing anything.

I guess it's going to be a case of suck it and see!

[Quinafoi]

You would be able to buy the enhancements, you'd still earn valor points and the gear that you earn in Mists of Pandaria could be enhanced by it.

In classic there was tier 0 and tier 0.5 dungeon sets. In none of the expansions was there ever dungeon sets. All there was was gear that cosmetically matched. For example, pieces of Leather Agility gear match cosmetically and pieces of Leather Intellect gear match cosmetically. Assuming no transmografication, you would get a matching set of gear if you have all slots with properly itemized gear from the same content. In Mists of Pandaria they are actually adding more means of aquiring cosmetically matching gear for transmografication (such as challenge modes).

[Tengenstein]

Cross quoting becuase it myreply just didn't seem on topic for legendary thread

As for the game itself I was quite looking forward to MoP but as the days go on I hear more and more information that leaves me thinking this game is no longer for me, unless I suddenly change to being either a raider or go pvp neither of which I enjoy to any extent!

The BMAH deal sounds like only the rich can afford to buy from it, I've never been a rich player, I used to login, do my dailies, run a few dungeons and then the few hundred gold I had ear't would be then ploughed into over priced AH goods for gems and enchants that we have been made to be dependent on in this game, Blizzard made us all junkies and the dealers are the JC's and Enchanters (Cataclysm having broken the crack dens of the Scribes)

There's still dungeons and and dailies (oh so many dailies)

[Dreador]

There were dungeon sets in BC.

[Tengenstein]

The problem with armour sets in dungeons is that you are at best going to have half the classes missing, so if say the warrior set drops theres at best a 50% chance that theatbit will get used, this is why we have have tokens in raids, they could jsut use the same for dungeons i suppose.

But why bother? I never really saw the point of having set bonuses, they either are kinda meh, or powerful to the point that if you don't ahve them you're scrubbed.

[Dreador]

The problem with armour sets in dungeons is that you are at best going to have half the classes missing, so if say the warrior set drops theres at best a 50% chance that theatbit will get used, this is why we have have tokens in raids, they could jsut use the same for dungeons i suppose.

But why bother? I never really saw the point of having set bonuses, they either are kinda meh, or powerful to the point that if you don't ahve them you're scrubbed.

I agree. I think set bonuses are kind of a pain, they way legendaries are currently, EG you're no good unless you have your warrior 4pc shield wall bonus or your legendary fangs on a rogue. They need to make them useful but not so powerful that they're required. You shouldn't need to wear 4pcs to have BIS. 2 should be enough or 3. Make the 2pc bonus worth taking but not game breaking, and make the 4pc bonus something that is along those lines, it's neat to pick up but you won't be punished for not taking it.

[Tengenstein]

Or alternatively are used as a band aid fix like warrior's T13 2pc or T8 4pc