When it comes to running old dungeons, MoP, WoD, Legion, and BfA all have something special – extra loot coins. For this post, I will place the TLDR up front: Please remove total currency caps for legacy currencies due to wasted time in travel. I will go into detail why below, but first I want to list specifically what I am discussing:
Mists of Pandaria
Elder Charm of Good Fortune (Cap = 20)
Warforged Seal (Cap = 20)
Mogu Rune of Fate (Cap = 20)Warlords of Draenor
Seal of Inevitable Fate (Cap = 20)
Seal of Tempered Fate (Cap = 20)Legion
Seal of Broken Fate (Cap = 6)Battle for Azeroth
Seal of Wartorn Fate (Cap = 5)
What is and Which Legacy Currencies?
For those unaware, loot coins are specifically the legacy currencies I listed above. The idea of these currencies is to give players a chance at more loot from a boss during current content and for now legacy content. For many of these currencies there is a weekly limit to how many you can pick up – let’s just call that the Weekly Cap. Then there is the total amount of how much you can hold, the Total Cap, which we may also call the Currency Cap. So, two caps; one for the week and one for total. Again, this discussion is for the removal of the Total Cap.
Example of Current System.
Let’s take Mist of Pandaria loot coins as an example. In this example, I want to start running old raids for transmogs. As of now, if I want to collect some loot coins first, then I will go to Timeless Isle and farm up some Lesser Charm of Fates and Timeless Coins. Fine. No problem them. If a player wants a chance at extra loot, then they will need to put in a little extra effort up front. No issue there. So, let’s say I farm up 10,000 Lesser Charm of Fates and 100,000 Timeless Coins.
Well, now, I am ready to start farming Throne of Thunder. It’s the weekend, I am feeling ambitious, and I plan to knock out Heroic and LFR as well as use Loot Coins on all the bosses! I make my way over to the vendor on Timeless Isle and give him 20,000 Timeless Coins and he gives me 20 Mogu Ruin of Fates. Well, wait, Heroic Throne of Thunder has 13 bosses and LFR Throne of Thunder has 12 bosses for a total of 25 bosses. I am 5 short. So, despite having enough Timeless Coins to purchase 100 Mogu Ruin of Fates, I can only buy 20 because of this archaic cap that is still in the game. This means I will need purchase my 20 Mogu Ruin of Fates, travel to Throne of Thunder, spend some, return to Timeless Isle, buy more, then go back to Throne of Thunder (or at least to the LFR NPC).
This is just for 1 week’s lockout. If you remember, we farmed up 100,000 Timeless Coins, so the next week, we will still need to fly out to Timeless Isle before going back to Throne of Thunder. Compound this again (we also farmed up 10,000 Lesser Charm of Fates), if you dare add Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, or Siege of Orgrimmar to your transmog runs. Compound this again with different raid difficulties. Remember, all this compounding travel time is for access to an item that you have already farmed the requirements for – all to simply spend 15 seconds at the vendor.
So, maybe said in a more concise manner: Allowing players to increase their chances at more loot in these legacy raids via extra active gameplay effort is completely fine. However, the currency cap increases the amount of travel time needed to a point where there is no actual gameplay value. It is simply hours of watching your character bounce around on a mount in front of a movie frame of landscapes.
Additionally, I understand why some of the currencies have a weekly cap, and theoretically if you have a weekly cap then you also have a total cap (albeit a running total). So, the total cap is not only unnecessary, but also redundant for legacy content. Also, it is just more fun to randomly farm a ton of something when the mood hits you or you have some free time. Having the freedom to farm up a ton of a certain currency and use it at will is so much more enjoyable / fun than having to pay a travel tax every time you want partial access to it. Travel time can be an immersive part of gameplay, but it can just as easily be a demotivating factor for doing certain content. And I believe in this case, the traveling back and forth to an NPC for a currency in which you have already farmed the requirements adds nothing for the average player.
So, I would like to recommend removing the legacy currency cap entirely. Allow players to have the freedom to spend some or all of their currency at a given time for their extra loot coins. At the end of the day, it just so much more fun to sit down, farm out a ton of a currency, and say,
‘OK, I have put in enough effort to give me extra loot chances for my next 10 runs. Now, I just need to play the game!”
instead of,
“Alright, cool, just finished my run, gonna AFK fly to Timeless Isle or town, click on the NPC for 15 seconds to top off my coins, then AFK fly back. Once I am done with my next run, I will need to AFK fly back to Timeless Isle or town so that I can click on the NPC for 15 seconds to get my coins for next week. I hope I don’t forget to stop by the vendor on my alt.”
Just typing that out sounds like a chore.