Patch 6.2.3 for World of Warcraft will bring back the currency Valor Points. Today the development team outlined exactly how players can earn this currency and what they'll spend it on.
Valor Points can be spent on upgrading gear, just like in Mists of Pandaria. You can spend 250 Valor to boost a piece of gear by 5 levels. You can do this twice for each item. Baleful items, crafted items and loot from dungeons or Hellfire Citadel are all eligible for these upgrades.
Past expansions also allowed players to spend Valor Points on buying new gear entirely. However, that won't be the case with Patch 6.2.3. Blizzard decided against a Valor Point gear vendor because "because item upgrades offer power that complements items from other sources rather than competing with them."
Valor Points can be earned through the following activities:
- Mythic Dungeon (Valor awarded with dungeon completion, once per dungeon per week) – 300 Valor Points
- Complete the weekly Event quest from Seer Kazal (Pet Battle Event excluded) – 500 Valor Points
- Heroic Dungeon (complete your first random Heroic of the day) – 100 Valor Points
- Raid Finder wing (once per week per wing) – 150 Valor Points for Hellfire Citadel wings, 75 Valor Points for Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry wings
There's no actual hard cap on the amount of Valor Points you can earn per week. On the Battle.net forums, Blizzard explained that they felt a cap would make players feel like they needed to earn that exact amount each week. They want players to earn the amount of VP that they're comfortable with based on their free time and enjoyment:
For many people, that threshold will be reached at lower than 1000 VP per week, and their experience is no different whether or not there's a cap. For others, that threshold will be reached at a point above 1000 VP, and the lack of a cap gives them the freedom to decide when they're done rather than having it dictated to them. Some will benefit from the fact that they're allowed to convert a weekend of free time into a bunch of Valor to make up for that week when they were busy or traveling, coming out even or ahead rather than being permanently "behind" due to a cap.
One complaint among players is that Valor Points aren't awarded by difficulty levels higher than Raid Finder. It does seem a bit backward; considering the general rule of thumb that more difficult activities bring greater rewards in WoW. However, Blizzard says that the intent of the patch is to get players to revisit dungeons and other content they haven't done in a while. Raiding guilds probably wouldn't have bothered with dungeons if they could just get more Valor Points from their usual raids.
Personally I never missed the daily grind for Valor Points. It always felt like a bit of a chore, even in expansions like Cataclysm where the currency wasn't particularly hard to get. The upsides to these grinds, though, is that they ensure you'll get some kind of reward for your regular effort even if you're having bad luck with random loot drops.
Valor Points are one of many features in Patch 6.2.3. The update also adds several older dungeons to Timewalking events and ups the rewards for Mythic dungeons and Tanaan Jungle. Players will also have two new mounts to earn.
