by Medeor on Aug 12, 2009
In
I
First
of all, I won’t assume everyone reading is familiar
with Item Levels. iLevels are the ranking of how one item in the game
compares
with another. A mace with an iLevel of 200 will generally be inferior
to a mace
with an iLevel of 245. Please note though, the iLevels do not rank per
class,
just against the general items in the game. These numbers used to
remain behind
the curtain, but Blizzard has become more open to announcing gear
iLevels
recently.
Old
We’ll
tackle these one at a time and start from the lowest
iLevels. Heroic dungeons that came out with
style="">Wrath
of the Lich King will no longer
reward boss kills with Emblems of Heroism,
the new reward will be an Emblem of Conquest. Likewise, Naxxramas at
both
difficulties (10 and 25 Man) will also reward successful boss defeats
with an
Emblem of Conquest. Emblems of Conquest are now the baseline reward for
all but
a few areas of the game.
style="width: 640px; height: 208px;" alt="Emblems of Triumph"
src="/image/view/77707/preview" />
The
new end-game Emblem currency is Emblem of Triumph. These
will only be rewards for completing the daily heroic dungeon and
successfully
defeating the bosses in the Crusader’s Coliseum.
style="width: 640px; height: 264px;" alt="Emblems of Triumph"
src="/image/view/77706/preview"
v:shapes="Picture_x0020_3">
Now
that we know how the Emblems stack up, what kind of loot
can we get and how does it compare with other loot rewards? Well,
Blizzard has
added a few more layers of iLevel gear to the top of the food chain.
Whereas the
highest level of gear in the game prior to patch 3.2 was iLevel 232
from Heroic
Ulduar (Val’anyr excepted), there are now two more levels of
gear above this.
Following shows the progression of gear now available in the game:
style="width: 640px; height: 180px;" alt="Loot Progression"
src="/image/view/77705/preview"
v:shapes="Picture_x0020_4">
The
changes aren’t difficult to understand but determining
the relevance between the new Emblems and how they fit into the new
dungeon
loot system helps players better pick out their path to progress.