In the upcoming expansion of World of Warcraft, you will need more gold. Because you need it for item upgrades.
Since Dragonflight, there is a new loot and gear system in World of Warcraft. Items belong to different “paths”, such as “Adventurer” or “Hero” and can then be upgraded multiple times. Previously, you needed 2 different currencies, namely badges and special stones. The stones will be removed – but now you will have to pay with gold.
What changes in the upgrade system? Again in Midnight, there will be badges again, but the special stones (valor stones or flight stones) will be removed. These were already a thorn in the community’s side, as there were essentially only two states:
- You are either permanently at the cap of 2,000 valor stones.
- Or you never have enough valor stones to upgrade anything.
This is because you received varying amounts depending on your play style. Especially fans of “Mythic+” generally got too little rather than too much.
As Blizzard previously announced, the valor stones (or any other version of stones) will disappear from the item upgrade system. At this point, gold will take their place.
Small gold costs or new hurdle?
How expensive will it be in the future? As it stands, the prices seem to be quite bearable. The cost for a single upgrade ranges from 10 to 50 gold, depending on the path the item is on:
| Path | Gold cost per upgrade |
|---|---|
| Adventurer | 10 gold |
| Veteran | 20 gold |
| Champion | 30 gold |
| Hero | 40 gold |
| Mythic | 50 gold |
- If you want to upgrade an Adventurer item from Adventurer (1/6) to Adventurer (6/6), it will cost you 50 gold.
- If you want to upgrade a Mythic item from Mythic (1/6) to Mythic (6/6), the cost will be 250 gold.
If you upgrade a complete set of items, i.e. all the gear your character is wearing, from Mythic (1/6) to Mythic (6/6), the price will be 4,000 gold (or 3,750 gold if you are wielding a two-handed weapon).
Of course, you will still need the corresponding badges.
Keep in mind that this is still information from the beta of Midnight. On the one hand, it is possible that this is just a test, but on the other hand, it is also possible that the values are merely placeholders and could increase.
What does Blizzard want to achieve with this? Gold has increasingly lost significance in World of Warcraft in recent years. Previously, you needed gold for just about everything in the game, but now this has been replaced by various currencies in many cases. With such adjustments and also new features like the housing system, gold is regaining relevance in the game and has more varied uses.
Cortyn says: Even though there is a big outcry in some forums or the comments, for example on wowhead, I cannot understand that. The costs are extremely low in the current version. A weekly quest with a reward chest currently gives about 1,600 gold coins, while individual world quests often grant between 700 and 900 gold. Thus, the costs for item upgrades are virtually non-existent and almost a symbolic amount.
No character in World of Warcraft will become poor because they only have to complete a maximum of a dozen world quests throughout the entire expansions. This system is certainly better than valor stones. Whether gold actually needed to be a cost is a completely different question…
What do you think about the fact that gold will be used for upgrades in the future? Is it a good idea to give gold more relevance again? Or is it just making the game more expensive, leading players to perhaps resort to WoW tokens for item upgrades?
You can spend real money in a new shop – because housing in WoW now has a real money shop.
