MoP: Valor, Rep, and Daily questing.

So, I haven't had much to post here in some time, but today is the big 5.0.4 patch for World of Warcraft which will bring many of the Mists of Pandaria expansion changes to the game. While the servers are down, I just thought I'd like to talk about somthing that I'm afraid will keep many players from really enjoying the new expansion: The intersection of Reputations, Daily quests, and Valor rewards.

Let me first start by saying I personally don't have a problem with the way Blizzard chose to design these systems in Mists of Pandaria, but having talked to a lot of people, some people are clearly not going to be happy if I am understanding correctly how these systems will work. So, let's start with Valor point. Valor is your basic currency for buying epic-quality gear that will generally be equal in power to normal mode tier 14 raid gear. One of the big selling points for the Valor system in MoP is that there are many different ways to earn Valor points. You can do any combination of raids, dungeons, daily quests, scenarios, and perhaps other things that all reward valor and contribute to a weekly cap on how much Valor you can earn - just like today. That's pretty good news for people who like to do certain things, but not others.

Now, allow me to change gears and look at what MoP has in store for players via various factions which players will be able to earn reputation with. The biggest change is that using tabards as a means for earning reputation is going away. This is where it gets somewhat muddy for me because I don't think anyone really knows yet how players will get reputation with these factions. One possibility is that they will work like they did in The Burning Crusade. Back then, players earned rep in dungeons and each dungeon was affiliated with a faction. So, if you wanted Honor Hold rep for example, you needed to run the Hellfire Citadel dungeons. However, it doesn't appear this will be the case for Mists of Pandaria. The primary means for players to earn reputation in MoP will be via daily quests, and there-in lies the problem.

Most people really don't like doing daily quests. Now, granted I didn't do any scientific polling, or focus group testing to support that claim, and so it's entirely based on the conversations I have with guild mates, other people I know who play, and a vast majority of topics on the subject in various WoW forums. That being said, I personally think daily quests are great. I look back on places like the Argent Tournament, Sons of Hodir, Sholazar Basin, Tol Barad, and (especially) the Molten Front with fondness. I really like having something to do that I can do on my own or with friends, that I don't have to wait in a queue for, and where I get a feeling of making progress toward some big reward (especially mounts!) For others, daily quests feel like a job. Instead of daily quests being something extra to do when logging in every day it becomes the sole reason for logging in on days when you otherwise wouldn't for fear of falling behind. Now you might be thinking, "Maybe you're right and maybe not, but what does ignoring doing daily quests and not getting rep have to do with Valor points?" 

Answer: The valor gear will be spread amongst several different factions and will only be available for purchase by players who are revered or higher with each faction. There was a blue post recently where Ghostcrawler sort-of addressed this issue, as it really seems to conflict with some of their self-declared design philosophy. He basically says that by making daily questing less optional, it will in effect lessen the degree to which players feel like there's not enough things to do in the game. He goes on to say that daily quests are still optional and that since similar gear can obtained from other sources, the valor gear itself is optional too. Personally, I think that's absurd. If Valor gear were really supposed to be optional, then you wouldn't play up all the different ways players can earn Valor points. It seems rather disingenuous to say you're giving players the freedom to earn Valor however they wish, when access to the vendors needed to spend those points has to be unlocked via several daily-quest-based reputation grinds.

Personally, I think Valor rewards and Rep rewards should be separate beasts. That's what real options are. I would still probably grind the rep and farm the valor for the rewards I really want, but I know other players who are going to be really disappointed when they realize that the value of the Valor points they've earned is entirely dependent on whether or not they choose to do daily quests to unlock the vendors.