Proposal: Tiered “Nightmare Reals” System for Legacy Raid Loot Incentives
To enhance player engagement and extend the lifecycle of Season of Discovery, I propose a revamped reward system that introduces a new currency—Nightmare Reals—as a replacement for standard Tarnished Reels from raid bosses.
Concept Overview:
All raid bosses will now drop Nightmare Reals instead of standard Tarnished Reals. These reels can be accumulated and exchanged for high-value trinkets and weapons from earlier raid tiers, providing meaningful progression for players who enjoy pursuing best-in-slot (BiS) gear outside the current phase.
- Non-current phase raid bosses drop: 1 Nightmare Real per boss
- Current phase raid bosses drop: 2 Nightmare Reals per boss
Redemption Tiers:
- Tier 1 Chase Gear
- Cost: 150 Nightmare Reals
- Rewards: Player’s choice of Tier 1 trinket or weapon (excluding bindings)
- Tier 2 / 2.5 Chase Gear
- Cost: 300 Nightmare Reals
- Rewards: Player’s choice of Tier 2 or 2.5 trinket or weapon
- Includes non-reputation versions of Cenarion Circle exalted pieces
- Tier 3 & Legendary Bindings
- Cost: 600 Nightmare Reals
- Rewards: Player’s choice of one Legendary binding, trinket, or weapon from Tier 3
Benefits:
This system would:
- Revitalize older raid content by incentivizing players to engage with all raid tiers
- Provide a clear, grind-based path to obtaining rare or BiS gear from previous phases
- Encourage sustained play across alts and main characters, increasing long-term player retention
- Avoid “cheesy” or overpowered shortcuts by requiring significant effort and investment
By offering players agency and long-term goals, the Nightmare Real system promotes a healthy, rewarding gameplay loop while maintaining balance and integrity within the game’s progression. Also these Reals would be Bind on Account but cap at 600 per character.
3 Likes
I like the intent but maybe I am missing something.
what is the difference between this and just making really expensive Reals gear?
Implementing two distinct types of currency would serve multiple design purposes. First, it would prevent dungeons from becoming obsolete by maintaining their relevance as a consistent source of one type of real. Second, it would establish a clear progression path that incentivizes raiding by requiring the second type of real, obtainable exclusively through raid content, to acquire high-tier “raiding gear.” This system encourages continued engagement with both dungeons and raids, promoting a more dynamic and sustainable endgame experience.
so you believe dungeons are obsolete because of reals being in raid? I don’t know if I agree. I regularly see scholo and Strat runs, and a decent amount of blackrock runs
second bit, I feel like the progression of doing MC runs for reals is actually a nice part of the current pathway
I was going to suggest another tier of reals for completing a slightly overtuned revisited mc h3 or bwl full trial or aq hm a la Fated/Awakened from SL/DF Raids but I feel that might limit the number of geared players helping under geared players gear… hard to say
No I’m saying that having two separate types of reals would allow for both types of content to never feel obsolete, but also allow you to have two different currencies you could bank and not feeling forced to spend from one pocket, allowing you to save those reals for raid mats and rare materials found around the world by turning in normal reals, and saving your nightmare reals for an upgrade.
oh I see, I could see that working. also would love heroic/nightmare dungeons
Neat idea.
But I feel like SoD is being abandoned so 
I like this more than pushing more raiding. A lot of opportunity to do something fun with dungeons and it wouldn’t have a lockout like raids do. An “empowered” rotation of weekly dungeons would be cool for cosmetics/mounts etc.
At the very least, make Undermine Reals BoA