Valor Point Pittances and LFR Lockouts
‘I am a poor, poor hunter.’
One thing I’ve never liked is the LFR system and Valor point cap. Both seem unnecessarily restricted to me.
Now the following words below may seem rather QQ-ish; that’s because they are. Read on only if you can resist the urge to break out the flamethrower.
The Looking For Raid’s system of ‘one raid a week, per raid instance, take what you get and like it’ is something I find annoying at best and infuriating at worst. I have a history of being unlucky with raid gear; since I started using LFR, in the countless times I used it before Mists only twice has it given gear to me (Vishanka and a bracer token which was useless). Now, I give it its due, even when you don’t get any gear, you still get some gold and some Valor points, right? Right?
Which leads me to my second gripe, which is with the slightly absurd valor point cap. The weekly cap was (and is) 1000. Now consider that nearly all valor point gear costs at least 1750 points, and doing the math leaves you with the figure of two weeks per piece, three for the more expensive pieces, or around five and a half months for a full set. Now, before Mists, reaching the cap with two LFRs and a few dungeons takes about two or three days at the most. So what do you do for the remaining four? You can’t go on normal/heroic raids because your item level is too low. Yet, all the gear you get from dungeons and quests is obsolete, and you have no more chances to use LFR because the items are locked out to you after beating each boss the first time.
My argument is that the valor point system is too slow to give players the means to progress. People reach the cap far too fast, and unless they’re stupendously lucky in LFR, they’re stuck in limbo until they get enough gear to be raid worthy outside of it.. The game is balanced, sure, but at the cost of incorporating a slow, boring drag right at the point where it’s not wanted or needed.
I’m not saying the cap needs to be removed completely, as it’s a good idea. All it needs is either a smidgen more leniency, or a revamp of the loot system of LFR.
Increase the cap to 1500, and people don’t have to wait a month to buy one piece of armor. Give players a few chances to get their loot, rather than just the once. Or maybe add a system to LFR that denies an item to a player if they have an equal or better item- because they shouldn’t need it anyway. All simple, effective ways to help people gear at a steady rate whilst still keeping the balance and equality (and most importantly, fun) in the endgame.
Draenic Zodiac 