Forum Buzz: Badge Loot
There’s an interesting discussion over at the forums today talking about the role that badges will play when Wrath of the Lich King hits the shelves. Essentially a Blizzard CM, Bornakk, confirmed that they’ll be changing the way that badges are distributed and used. Rather than a system where all badges are created equal, they’ll have different instances drop different badge types, which will then be traded in for different quality items.
Needless to say, this has caused a bit of a stir among the playerbase given that badge rewards were seen as a way for casual players to progress their characters without being pigeonholed into doing content they don’t have the time or inclination to see. On other hand we have no idea how the badges are going to be dispersed, gear quality between badge types, or if you’ll be able to exchange badges for another quality type. I actually read a great suggestion over at WoWInsider as to an exchange rate that players could utilize to trade in their badges for different rewards:
“BitterCupOJoe and darian, in comments on the Blizzcast post, neatly addressed this issue through a simple mechanism: exchange rates. Let’s say there are four types of badges; we’ll call them A, B, C, and D for simplicity. We know (from this same Blizzcast interview) that they want the 10-man and the 25-man versions of the same raids to be separated by about a tier in terms of item quality. Therefore, it would make sense if:
* Naxxramas, the tier 7 raid, drops A-Badges on 10-man and B-Badges on 25-man.
* Ulduar, the t8 raid, drops B-Badges on 10-man and C-Badges on 25-man.
* Whatever the t9 raid turns out to be drops C-Badges on 10-man and D-Badges on 25-man.”
Ultimately I think different badge rewards from different areas could be a boon to raiders and 10 man warriors alike. I’m not so sure that this new system will be an artificial barrier for players, but unfortunately that is a possibility. Only time will tell of course, despite the usual widespread speculation on the forums.
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