The first “World First” race in World of Warcraft Dragonflight will likely not be decided by purchased items – because the loot is being changed.
In World of Warcraft Dragonflight, many players are still in the leveling phase, but the professionals are slowly mentally preparing for the “World First” race, which will start next week.
However, a method that professionals have always used to gain a small advantage will likely be absent this time. Blizzard is turning many “Bind on Equip” items into items that are “Bind on Pickup” instead.
What has Blizzard announced? In raids, it is common for some epic items to drop not only from bosses but also from trash mobs. These items are usually bind on equip. This means that if no one in the group needs them, they can be sold for gold in the auction house.
However, in the first raid, “Vault of the Incarnations,” this will not be the case. The loot from the mythic variant of the raid will – at least for a while – be fully bind on pickup and thus cannot be traded to players outside of the raid group or in the auction house. Blizzard wrote about this in the official WoW forum:
One of our goals with rewards has always been that primarily the best loot in the game comes from gameplay and not from spending gold. Items from raids that are bind on equip [BoE] have long been an exception to this, but they also provide raid players with something unique: When a raid group no longer needs certain BoEs for progress, they can be sold to cover repair and consumable costs.
In season 1 of Dragonflight, the mythic difficulty opens at the same time as all others, a full week before players have even opened their weekly chest. The mythic BoE items provide a stronger power increase for gold than we would like to see.
Note that this restriction only applies to mythic difficulty. At all other difficulty levels, these items remain bind on equip, so they can be sold and purchased.
Why is Blizzard doing this? Even though Blizzard does not explicitly say so, another reason is likely the “World First” race. It is common for professional guilds to buy the best items for millions of gold from the auction house to secure that last bit of power and perhaps gain a decisive edge.
There are entire guilds specializing in repeatedly defeating the trash in mythic raids to sell the resulting items to professional guilds. That will likely not be the case this time.
Why is this Pay2Win? The fact that one can buy particularly powerful items for gold in World of Warcraft is seen by some as “Pay2Win.” This is because the necessary gold can be purchased – either from illegal sources or completely legally from selling WoW tokens. Therefore, some argue that any purchasable item with significant power has a certain “Pay2Win” aspect.
However, the fact remains that strong items that are bind on equip have always been part of World of Warcraft and the game’s economy, long before the WoW token. Whether this constitutes Pay2Win is disputed within the community.
Will this remain as it is? No, only for a few weeks. Blizzard has not yet specified a precise duration, but it is assumed that they will be guided by the progress of the professionals in the new raid.
Later, Blizzard plans to change this back and return the bind on equip items from the mythic raid to their original, tradable state. However, this will only affect items that drop “new” afterwards. Items already received will remain bind on pickup, so storing these items early will not be worthwhile.
What do you think of this decision? A good step to make progress a bit fairer? Or does this decision change nothing?
