The return of valor in World of Warcraft was mostly seen as a positive change, since it was one of the things that helped reward activities that you've otherwise outgrown such as dungeons. With it returning in 6.2.3, many have mixed feelings about it but it's been mostly seen more positive than negative.

What it should be used for has been more mixed. With no gear or vanity items to buy with it, it has a sole purpose of item upgrades. As a currency this seems a bit bland, and yet because gear is one of the central focus points of an MMO, of course everyone is going to grind out valor and make their gear more powerful.

What activities give Valor? So far it's been said 1 heroic dungeon a day, 8 mythic dungeons weekly, the weekly event, and Raid Finder wings. This has upset more than a few raiders because it means they are now forced to grind content that is otherwise completely irrelevant to them. Some would call this a success since it seems to be what the entire point of re-adding it was. To get people to do otherwise forgotten content such as dungeons you no longer have upgrades from. Is this a good thing though? Creating mandatory activity for players who feel they need to do this or they feel like they are letting their raid team down, whether they want to or not. Me personally, I'm ok with this as long as it is done in moderation and not excess. I also feel the omission of challenge modes is a mistake. They are by far the red headed step child of dungeons that get ignored the most. They more than anything should award Valor.

If Mists of Pandaria taught us anything at all, it's not the activities that were the failure, it's being allowed to do it all every week. Herein lies the problem with Valor in 6.2.3. Blizzard has announced that this time around there will be no weekly cap on total valor earned. This means if you want to earn the maximum potential valor per week you have to do everything. You have to do one heroic dungeon every day, all 8 mythic dungeons once each, raid finder, and whatever the weekend event is. It's as if they have completely forgotten about Mists of Pandaria already.

The return of valor is one thing. If it has a weekly cap, you pick and choose the preferred activities that gets you to cap in most desirable way and call it a week. However, this? For those who are working on progression content, this is going to feel like an overwhelming burden to grind out as much as humanly possible to the point of burnout. You will want to collect as many gear upgrades as possible as fast as possible. This is no short list of activities by any means. It's a lot of stuff to do. This is not something players may want to do, it's something they will feel they have to do.

Blizzard will of course argue that you don't have to do this, you choose to. To me though, this very argument is flawed. In a game with competitive play that's centrally focused on not letting your team down. People won't feel like there is a choice here. They either perform to their full potential or they are holding back their team. I fully believe it's Blizzard's job to create the boundaries that prevent such excessive behavior. There is a reason raids have weekly lockouts, for example. There is also a reason you'll find very few raiders that didn't have complaints about 5.0. Moderation is Blizzard's job here, not the player. The player will take one for the team, even if it makes them hate the game. Sense of duty can be overwhelming in an MMO and it's up to Blizzard to consider that when making design decisions.

It's not too late for Blizzard to change this, and I feel they better or they are going to burn a few players. They need to learn from the mistakes of the past and not repeat them. Not only should Valor retain it's weekly cap, they need to ensure that the requirement to reach cap is something that can be done in a respectable amount of time. I want the system to work long term. I have a feeling, this is what Blizzard wants too. So lets keep that cap to serve exactly that. Act as a barrier to excessive play/burnout of the system, as well as a gate to draw the relevance out longer.

Content isn't good all consumed at once then back to nothing to do. Content pacing is more important than anything to get the system just right for both content endurance and player stamina. This is what I believe is the right thing for system all around. They don't need to reduce the activities that award Valor. In fact I think they should add more, such as challenge mode medals and what not, like MoP had. Then, let users do what they do to reach the weekly cap. In addition, Valor should be for more than gear upgrades. Make it more interesting. After you run out of gear to upgrade, let you exchange it for other resources such as rep tokens or garrison resources/oil. Add a valorous mount purchasable somewhere, etc.

It is said, if you do go full sprint on this, you'll be completely done with the system after a mere 3-4 2-3 weeks. Some justify this as making it ok it's ultra grueling. However, that to me further outlines it's biggest flaw. Valor is an exhausting 1 mile full on sprint. It should be a 50 mile casual jog.

UPDATE: Blizzard has revised valor amounts, shortening the grind a little bit. I do believe it's a positive change to buff valor points from mythic dungeons considering they are harder content than other sources. However, I still feel they've done nothing to address the concerns of players feeling pushed to grind out valor really hard for 2-3 weeks then going back to have nothing to do. There is no content pacing in that, making it highly stressful then back to meaningless, both of which are bad for the game.

UPDATE 2: Blizzard has made additinal posts (1, 2) on their philosophy behind the changes. Again, they don't really address the blunt of user concerns and the thread posts continue to grow with even more upset posts toward blizzard.