World of Warcraft is finally getting rid of Valorstones in Midnight. Once the new World of Warcraft expansion arrives, players will no longer need to collect this unpopular currency in order to upgrade their endgame gear, which will now solely require Crests.
Originally called Flightstones in Dragonflight, Valorstones are a currency in World of Warcraft: The War Within that is required to upgrade equipment to max level. While the gear progression overhauls from these expansions have largely been successful, Valorstones have been the least-popular part of an otherwise functional system.
Valorstones are Gone in World of Warcraft: Midnight
Luckily, fans will never have to worry about Valorstones again once Midnight arrives. World of Warcraft recently held a live Q&A about Midnight, during which game director Ion Hazzikostas spoke on endgame gear progression. Around the 59-minute mark, Hazzikostas admitted the system had “one too many moving pieces,” and that Valorstones would be retired as a currency starting in Midnight. Once players hit endgame, they will upgrade their gear purely with Crests in World of Warcraft, without needing to obtain a second currency.
What’s more, the Crest system itself is going to be streamlined as well. Hazzikostas confirmed plans to simplify Crests to pair each tier of currency with their matching gear power track. This ostensibly means that, instead of certain Crests being used by multiple tiers, Champion track gear will use one type of Crest, Hero track gear another, and so on.
This is a change gamers have been hoping to see in World of Warcraft for years. Valorstones are often sparse at the beginning of an expansion season, but abundant towards the end. This leads to frustrating bottlenecks early, and wasted currency later, as fans often cannot spend enough Valorstones to prevent hitting the cap of 2000. Though WoW letting players keep their Valorstones between The War Within Seasons 2 and 3 was a great first step, many were hoping Blizzard would pull the plug on the unpopular currency, and are overjoyed to see that wish come true in Midnight.
Before they leave, Valorstones are getting a big change in World of Warcraft: The War Within Season 3’s Turbo-Boost. The currency will be made Warbound starting October 21, after which they can be freely traded between characters, presumably with the 25% penalty that was present during Season 2. With Season 3 expected to last until the launch of Midnight, this means Valorstones will be account-wide for the remainder of the currency’s lifespan once the Turbo-Boost begins.