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Epic gems are 15 Badges after all

Remember a few weeks ago when it was discovered that the Armory was listing the new Badge of Justice-reward epic gems at 10 badges each? Yeah, turns out that was just an Armory bug (which we knew was a possibility). They're 15 Badges after all, as they were on the PTR. The way we know this now is that Proudmoore-US, first in all things Shattered Sun, has done Discovering Your Roots enough times to unlock Shaani, the vendor who sells you the gems. Thanks, Proudmoore! Grinding for knowledge. And everyone else, get on that quest. It's a fun one -- everyone gets a pet so they can pretend they're a hunter for a little while -- and you'll help your server along.

Assuming the epic gems sell for around 500 gold, which seems reasonable given the order-of-magnitude increase in price between uncommon and rare gems, this yields a 33 gold per Badge conversion rate (if you buy gems with your Badges and sell the gems; they're not bind-on-pickup). That's right on target in terms of gold per hour. I figure it takes about 20 minutes on average to earn a Badge, which means 100 gold per hour -- pretty much the same rate I make through dailies or grinding. And given that any activity that earns you Badges (i.e. raiding or heroics) gives you a chance at gear as well, it looks like the PvE endgame is fairly rewarding right now.

Epic gems dropped to 10 Badges?


Among the many fine things that can be bought with Badges of Justice in this post-2.4 world of ours are epic gems, the same kind that drop in the Black Temple and the Sunwell Plateau. They are sold by Shaani, who appears once your realm reaches phase four, and the uncut, un-BoP gems sell for 15 Badges of Justice each. Or at least, that's what we thought. Sharp-eyed tipster Herid noticed that according to the Armory (screenshot above), the price of the gems is 10 Badges of Justice -- a 33% reduction in price before they even go on sale yet!

Of course, this could just be an Armory bug, so I did my level best to check it out for myself, by logging on to Proudmoore, the only server yet to have reached phase four. However, I learned that although Shaani spawns when phase four is activated, she doesn't sell gems until the Alchemy Lab is completed, much like Smith Hauthaa and the Anvil. So I can't confirm this with anything more than the Armory data at the moment. Proudmooreans, get going on Discovering your Roots, so we can uncover the truth of this gem-price-drop rumor.

If it's true, Badges of Justice might be worth more gold than we thought, depending on what the price of these epic gems stabilizes at.

Where's the badge vendor, and other IoQD questions

It is now day two of patch 2.4, and the madness is still well underway. The Isle of Quel'Denas is swarming with aggressive players (most of them seem to be mages for some reason) racing each other to the Wretched and the Sentries, not to mention people desperately seeking tanks, healers, and CC for MrT runs. (Alright, not many people are calling it MrT yet, but we're trying to make it happen.) And the Shattered Sun Offensive is progressing; my server is now 59% of the way through phase one.

What's all this about phases, you ask? Well, as people do the daily quests on IoQD, the Shattered Sun Offensive begins to retake the island building-by-building, in four phases. When that percentage progress (which you can see on your own server by talking to the NPCs who give the daily quests) goes up to 100%, we enter phase two, unlocking a trade supplies vendor and more quests. Repair vendors and the coveted badge vendors (and T4 -> PvP vendors) are not available until phase three, which Vaneras estimates should take a month or so to get to. This phase also brings ammo vendors, and still more quests.

And phase four will supply the island with a proper inn, complete with mailbox, and reagent vendors, as well as even more quests. So: there is no repair, ammo, or reagent vendor, no badge vendor, no inn, and no mailbox -- yet. If you want to hasten their coming, bring in any level 70 characters you might have and do the daily quests that are currently available. Oh, and the portal for that one quest is at 48,44 or so. I have now dealt with 95% of the questions I see in IoQD General (ah, memories of Hellfire Peninsula in the first week of BC).

Badges for dailies

Originally, there was only one way to obtain Badges of Justice: Heroic bosses. Now there are a couple more: Heroic daily quests as well as raids. Still, there hasn't been a way for the die-hard solo player to get their hands on some badges -- until now. The Shattered Sun Offensive (SSO), the new faction associated with patch 2.4, assigns many daily quests (to help you fill the new 25-dailies-a-day limit). Several of these quests reward you with Shattered Sun Supplies, a box which contains a high-level green item, and also -- coming to my point -- has a chance to contain a Badge of Justice.

According to Wowhead, there are seven dailies that reward Shattered Sun Supplies. Some of them are apparently only available during certain phases of the SSO effort, so let's say you can do five of these per day. I don't have numbers on how often the supplies contain a Badge, but let's say it's a 50% chance, based on one comment that Badges are contained "more often than not." So on average, you could get 2.5 Badges per day just by doing these daily quests, which means 60 days to get one of those snazzy new 150-badge weapons. That's a long time, but arguably justified by the fact that these quests are probably pretty easy. Overall, this is, in my opinion, an excellent enhancement to the Badge system. Your thoughts?

Update: Suzaku questions my hypothetical 50% drop rate in a comment. Obviously, the impact of these badges will depend on how frequent they are, and we just don't have solid numbers on that yet. Not to mention it may change during testing.

Dress yourself completely in Badge loot

Our awesome friends over at MMO Champion have discovered more about the new loot that have been previously uncovered, revealing the prices of Badge of Justice loot from the much-awaited Patch 2.4. Prices start at 45 Badges for off-hand frills, a moderate price jump from the 25 Badges of the original loot and 35 for the two new items from Patch 2.3. The as-of-yet-unnamed rings (creatively named "Sunwell Badge Loot - <insert class archetype here> Ring") cost 60 Badges while it takes 75 Badges to purchase belts or gloves. The high prices are a precedent set by Patch 2.3 with such items as the Amani Mask of Death or the Battlemaster trinkets (75 Badges).

Of course, with better gear comes a higher price, and some armor pieces go for a whopping 100 Badges. What's truly cool about the new Badge loot, however, is the availability of Main Hand (and Two-Handed) weapons, which top the price list at a staggering 150 Badges! The good news is, Badges of Justice are dropping everywhere now, with the patch notes stating that all raid bosses now drop Badges of Justice, including the 25-man ones, who drop 2.

More Badge loot-y goodness after the jump.

Continue reading Dress yourself completely in Badge loot

BlizzCon: Tales of ticket pick up


It's the day before BlizzCon, and the WoW Insider team got the chance to stand amongst the throngs to get our badges. The challenge was, of course, that the lines themselves were crazy, wondering out the door without much organization. The mood in the convention center can be described as calm expectancy. I expected more excitement, but I think the ordeal of waiting in such long lines wore the excitement right out of us. Tomorrow we'll be out there in line, looking for more shining faces, and bringing you all the latest. For now we sit waiting for the meet up to begin.


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