So, there's a backlash against the new badge rewards by certain elements of the WOW community, claiming they make life too easy and that people will, like the battlegrounds, be able to sleepwalk though the grind.
Tosh. Complete and utter.
The *cheapest* of the new rewards is 60 badges, with 75 for a few items but 100 for most. A complete Kara run nets (I believe) 22 badges and can be done once a week, and heroic provides 3-5 (+2 if its a daily), none of which can be said to be "easy mode". At best, running 2 heroics a day and complete clear of Kara you're looking at circa 60 badges a week but that implies a level of gear and commitment that suggests you'd already be in a raid guild of sorts - I know that realistically I'd only be looking at 20 or so badges a week (assuming the guild does heroics that week and can muster enough people for a raid) - so between 2 and 4 weeks for a bit of kit (the mage stuff needs about 550 badges, which is 3-6 months work).
Now, the complaints I could understand to a degree, but the exagerations used to decry the badge rewards are, to my mind, undermining the credibility of the opposition. "I can get 100-200 badges a week so this is OP" says one guy (really? How? You run 35-40 heroics a week?) "Its ez mode because we can clear Kara in 3 hours" (in T5/T6 gear, maybe, but in that case these rewards probably won't interest you ... and you can only do Kara once a week).
Then again, there are some valid points "These are better than MH/BT drops so why do MH/BT" (if these really are better - and I don't know enough to say - then might it not prompt some people to switch away from the raids. I don't know what the relative incidence of 25-man raid loot is, or the comparative quality of the items.)
That being said, I still think of lot of a "disagreement" is more in lines with toys being thrown out of prams - I mean, how dare the "casuals" be able to get loot similar to the "hardcore"? In actual fact, a number of "casuals" I know but in more time and effort than supposedly "hardcore" raiders, so to my mind why shouldn't that pay off with decent loot. It's a lot of work (certainly moreso that Arenas and BGs and this kit is the same itemlevel as the Season 3 rewards), but looks to reward "time invested" (in badge awarding instances at least) rather than "raids attended."
YMMV, obviously.
Tosh. Complete and utter.
The *cheapest* of the new rewards is 60 badges, with 75 for a few items but 100 for most. A complete Kara run nets (I believe) 22 badges and can be done once a week, and heroic provides 3-5 (+2 if its a daily), none of which can be said to be "easy mode". At best, running 2 heroics a day and complete clear of Kara you're looking at circa 60 badges a week but that implies a level of gear and commitment that suggests you'd already be in a raid guild of sorts - I know that realistically I'd only be looking at 20 or so badges a week (assuming the guild does heroics that week and can muster enough people for a raid) - so between 2 and 4 weeks for a bit of kit (the mage stuff needs about 550 badges, which is 3-6 months work).
Now, the complaints I could understand to a degree, but the exagerations used to decry the badge rewards are, to my mind, undermining the credibility of the opposition. "I can get 100-200 badges a week so this is OP" says one guy (really? How? You run 35-40 heroics a week?) "Its ez mode because we can clear Kara in 3 hours" (in T5/T6 gear, maybe, but in that case these rewards probably won't interest you ... and you can only do Kara once a week).
Then again, there are some valid points "These are better than MH/BT drops so why do MH/BT" (if these really are better - and I don't know enough to say - then might it not prompt some people to switch away from the raids. I don't know what the relative incidence of 25-man raid loot is, or the comparative quality of the items.)
That being said, I still think of lot of a "disagreement" is more in lines with toys being thrown out of prams - I mean, how dare the "casuals" be able to get loot similar to the "hardcore"? In actual fact, a number of "casuals" I know but in more time and effort than supposedly "hardcore" raiders, so to my mind why shouldn't that pay off with decent loot. It's a lot of work (certainly moreso that Arenas and BGs and this kit is the same itemlevel as the Season 3 rewards), but looks to reward "time invested" (in badge awarding instances at least) rather than "raids attended."
YMMV, obviously.
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