Since release, players of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands have felt that loot is extremely scarce through the game. This is true for both Mythic+ and Castle Nathria, but Mythic+ feels like it hits the hardest.
Being endlessly repeatable, players can theoretically get much more loot from Mythics than from the raid, where the bosses can only be looted once per week per difficulty. However, it doesn’t seem to have translated into much more loot.
If a group fails to time a key, a single item will drop at the end of the dungeon for one player at random. This doesn’t include anima drops, conduit drops, or legendary drops.
Successfully completing the key will double the loot, but two drops for five people is still a painfully low drop chance. The most unlucky of characters will run a high number of keys with no loot to show for it.
Blizzard has come back with a way to hopefully fix this issue, leaning into something that fans have been suggesting for quite a while. Starting with patch 9.0.5, Valor will be returning.
Long-time players may remember Valor as a currency used to purchase end-game gear. Taken out a few years ago, Valor serves as a way to guarantee loot by making the items purchasable from a Valor vendor rather than waiting for drops.
There are a few caveats to the new Valor system, though. For starters, the only way to get Valor will be from running Mythic+ dungeons and daily Callings from a player’s covenant. Players will not obtain Valor from dailies, world quests, Torghast, or raid tiers.
Valor points will be capped weekly at an amount that hasn’t been released yet. The price of purchasing/upgrading an item from a vendor with Valor points has yet to be released as well, so it’s unknown how long using Valor points will take.
Items that are obtained before 9.0.5 drops – everything that players have obtained thus far and up to the release – will be unupgradable using Valor points. To upgrade a piece, players will need something dropped after the patch went live.
Players will have ilvl 200 gear unlocked when they’ve completed all dungeons on Mythic difficulty, with the cap increasing to 207 by completing all dungeons on +5 or higher. Earning Keystone Conqueror for completing everything on +10 will raise the ceiling to 213.
If one wants to start upgrading drops to ilvl 220 – on par with Heroic Denathrius – they’ll need to first earn Keystone Master. This is done by timing every dungeon on a +15 difficulty, the highest difficulty available as far as loot scale drops go, though players can push higher if they so choose.
