No trash, gimmicky and easy encounters than can be done with 2 people (on the normal version at least). You shouldnt be able to swop horses if like me you forget to keep your shield up, although bouncing from saddle to saddle whilst being chased by a troll was the best part of the instance. I might be in a minority but I actually like having to work for my shinies and this just felt like opening one of those chests you find littering Azeroth whilst leveling, yet instead of being full of light leather and other random junk, its full of epics.

I guess I’m looking at it more from a “running a guild” perspective than anything else. And it does certainly make parts of that job much easier the further progressed your guild becomes. I some ways because it “evens” the playing field.

I don’t know that I necessarily agree that it invalidates the old content as much as it just makes it…well, old content. It’s somewhat the nature of the MMO, I suppose.

I don’t disagree that they perhaps should have done valor badges first, but I think it is likely that part of their thinking was that “anyone” can pug Naxx 25, and a lot of people have. So a good number of people were already at the “valor” level, if you were. So the next step up would have been Conquerer level loots (which, if you look at them, really aren’t that huge of a step from their predecessors).

I 100% agree that the term “welfare epics” is misleading. Those that do farm badges for their items are still working to get them. I merely used it as a “term of art” if you will

I think overall, there are probably both pros and cons to the changes that were made.

Yes, I’ve benefited from the changes. You can benefit from something without agreeing with it. With this system in place, I would hurt myself by not taking advantage of it. Even with that knowledge, I don’t really like it. I think the jump was too huge, from heroism to conq, when something like heroism to valor and valor to conq would have been more appropriate, in my opinion.

I’ve never liked the term “welfare” because it implies you’re doing nothing for something, when in fact you’re working for it. I’ve never subscribed to that philosophy, not when it applied to PvP gear, and not now.

I do still think that this change was too much of a jump and definitely unwarranted.

@Rivs – Everyone is entitled to their opinions

@Bell – With regards to farming Naxx, I’m not entirely sure why? I purchased all the gear/items I may have needed and/or wanted with conquerer’s badges months ago. I was using the ones I earned from our 10/25 man raids to purchase Orbs to sell on the AH before the patch hit and the prices plummeted…and I still entered 3.2 with almost 200, I think.

There is no “new” purchasable gear for conquerer’s badges, only what was there was before. So if you already had all the items pre-3.2, then there is no reason to continue to farm excess badges. If you are having to farm old content for badges to purchase gear upgrades, then aren’t you one of those benefitting from the changes?

As for skipping content, what bothers you so much about that? Are you offended that others are able to see the coliseum without having to go through the learning pains of Malygos? I guess for me, I feel that whether people skipped content or not has no effect on the experiences I had while I was raiding that content. It just doesn’t bother me, I still have my war stories

As well, it encourages new people to skip content. How often do people run Malygos? There’s no point, when the few really nice items there can be bypassed with ease. I barely see OS run anymore, either.