World of Warcraft's 11.1.5 patch debuts next week, and players were dismayed to learn that it would launch without details on "Dinar," a currency and vendor that attempt to give a long-term solution for players' bad luck with loot drops.
Blizzard has flirted with ways to make up for bad loot luck in the game over the years, usually in the last patch or two of an expansion. Those solutions have been particularly popular if that last patch has a rotating series of raids, since 4-6 weeks of gameplay usually isn't enough to farm the desirable trinkets, rings, weapons or rare items that people really want.
In Shadowlands, for example, players could earn tokens called Puzzling Cartel Dinar by killing raid bosses, and turn in those very limited coins at vendors to buy a few coveted raid items they were missing. Players have called that type of currency Dinar ever since.
The system returned for the final season of Dragonflight. This season's version of Dinar will be called Puzzling Cartel Chips.
The return of Dinar, and a better way
Blizzard promised that a Dinar-like system would return to WoW as early as patch 11.1.5, and briefly put Puzzling Cartel Chips into the rewards track for the new raid-based reputation grind that launched for the Liberation of Undermine raid with 11.1.
But the Chips were removed from those spots and replaced with mounts instead. Blizzard promised to come up with an as-yet unannounced, different way to earn them. Players waited with anticipation to hear the announcement of how the new system would work, sure that it would be part of the patch notes for the new launch.
But alas, it was not to be. Not to fret: I have a suggestion for how to fix bad luck for raiders and dungeon-runners once and for all.
A better way to beat bad luck
I can't take credit for this idea; it's been discussed in multiple places, but I most recently heard about it from Clandon, a guildie and the discipline priest guide writer for Icy Veins. I liked it so much I immediately abused my once-a-decade ability to directly email game leadership at Blizzard some weeks ago to tell them about it, so if it goes in… you're welcome, fam.
First, a bit of context: Players who complete dungeons and raids in Warcraft earn "slots" in a weekly vault of goodies. Each Tuesday, they open this Box of Disappointment (not the official name) to search for something, anything, they really would like to wear.
For players who only do dungeons, the weekly Great Vault (the official name) is a very special place, as it's the only location where they can find gear at the Mythic raid-difficulty item level. They are presented with 1-3 items from a pool of literally a hundred possibilities, which makes the odds of bad luck and disappointment high—hence the unofficial name.
Here's a suggestion for Dinar-like bad luck protection that would assist BOTH raiders and Mythic Plus dungeon runners—and people who run single-player Delves, and really anyone who uses the Vault for a weekly shot at terrific loot.
Right now, there is a vendor who stands next to the Vault. If the Vault really is a Box of Disappointment in a given week, you can opt to get up to six tokens instead, and turn in those tokens at the vendor to buy supplies, gold, or sockets for your gear to hold power-boosting gems. Those particular sockets are only available from this vendor, so they're quite coveted.
The proposal
The idea I support: Add an item to this vendor, purchasable with a very large amount of those tokens—let's say 18, for example, three weeks' worth—that allows you to upgrade one item from one difficulty level to the next.
You'd still have to farm the base item—a raid drop from Looking for Raid, Normal or Heroic difficulty, for example, or the original Mythic Plus dungeon item from running those dungeons. But once you did, you could elevate it to the next power level up by using one of these items.
So if you wanted That Special Thing from the raid that all your guild members are fighting over, you could loot the lower-level item and upgrade it, instead. Or if you wanted a particular thing from Mythic Plus on the very-rare-to-get Mythic item level (only available if you're lucky enough to loot that one thing from a hundred different items possible in the Vault), you could farm it it from infinitely repeatable dungeons and then upgrade it.
Get that trinket you love from Delves but not on Heroic item level? Upgrade it. Or get it on Heroic and upgrade it to Mythic.
Build it once, bask in it forever
Voila. Bad luck protection that includes a number of benefits:
- It still requires you to do the content and kill the things (Blizzard is all about players doing the content, it's very strange).
- It applies to everyone who's doing anything that leads to the Vault, including raiders and dungeoneers and delvers.
- It uses an existing vendor and a tweak of an existing system: The ability to upgrade items is already in the game.
- It doesn't have to be re-programmed every patch with a new system or loot list.
I consulted privately with Warcraft developers, who told me that this system is possible with the existing tech built into WoW. Will it become our next Dinar? We can hope. For now, I merely propose that it should.
