Project Lore

There once was a time when earning a badge meant slogging through a 5-man dungeon over the span of a couple hours, or spending an entire night on downing two or three bosses in a raid. And it was a really long haul towards the next piece of gear. Not to mention that there was only one type of badge, so you knew exactly where to spend it and how many you would need when you got there. In an effort to equalize the playerbase, Blizzard has expanded on this idea several times in Wrath of the Lich King, first introducing a new set of badges for each tier of content, and then, in 3.2, making their acquisition even easier by handing them for just about anything remotely dungeon-related.

BlizzCon Entry Pass: the hardest badge to earn of all!

What once took weeks could take a matter of days, especially if you've got a group of people capable of running Trial of the Crusader in all its forms. Some in the community have cried foul, myself included, but even I can admit that its only because I've been around the block a few times. I've seen the gear grind at its worst, and it's all too tempting to look down my nose at the people who've only picked up the game more recently, and yell at them in my shrill old man voice, "Why, back in my day...!"

And also like a confused geriatric, keeping all the different badges (and how you can get them) straight sometimes makes my head spin. It's bad enough that (excluding Badges of Justice from Burning Crusade) we have four different kinds, but to obtain Tier 9.5 equipment, you need to pair them up with trophies you can only get from 25-man ToC.

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Like you guys and gals, I have been poring over all the exciting info coming out of the PTR right now. New gear, dungeons, and battlegrounds are so much fun and what keep this game exciting. But I can't help feel that the most significant change in this patch is something we found out about a while ago, and will change the way we play this game more than you might realize. The change I am referring to is the changes that Blizzard is making to the emblem system. In case you missed the blue post, here is the section I am referring to.

• Emblem System Changes
• Both the 10 and 25-player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
• Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
• The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
• The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
• New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.

So what does this mean for our daily play style? Simply that we now have lots of reason to run heroics. Currently there is virtually no reason for me to step into a heroic. I don't need heroism emblems, gear, or rep. I, like many others, have progressed past this. But now things are different. With every boss dropping Conquest Badges the first few weeks of 3.2 are going to be full of heroic runs. This will let us get all the T8 tier gear, runed orbs, and deadly gear that we could possibly want in a very short period of time. Eventually we will all get all the conquest gear we can handle, but for a short time heroics will be very important. What is even more exciting is the details regarding daily quest rewards. Both the daily and heroic dailies will no give us Emblems of Triumph, which will purchase the next highest level of gear and, presumably, T9 tokens. To me this means I will be doing both of those dungeons every day that I can. It will certainly be an adjustment, but I must say I am sort of looking forward to it. I have always been a big fan of 5-mans, something about that groups size lends itself to a fun relaxed atmosphere. It is something I have missed. With this news I know I have lots of heroic dungeons ahead of me, and more importantly heroic dungeons worth doing! How do you feel about this change? Looking forward to getting back in those 5-mans? Or would you just as well leave them behind?

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