World of Warcraft finally brings back popular Valor Points system in Feb 9 update

Valor Points have returned to World of Warcraft in the latest Shadowlands patch, giving players more consistent endgame content to work towards besides the items locked in the Great Vault.

If you’ve been playing Shadowlands since release and are primarily focused on running dungeons and raids for gear, you’ve probably reached a point where the only things you want/need is in the weekly Great Vaults — the weekly reward players get for completing up to nine activities across Raid, Mythic+, and PvP.

The problem with the Great Vaults is that there’s still an element of randomness there, so you’re not guaranteed to get the high-level gear you want.

This has made the Shadowlands endgame a bit of grind, which is no problem for hardcore WoW players, but was leading to a bit of burnout among the more casual player base and those who don’t get a Vault each week.

What are Valor Points, and how to use them in Shadowlands

To keep things interesting, Blizzard announced along with the February 9 patch that the Valor Points (VP) currency system would be returning to provide “a more consistent reward for the effort for players who do not receive an item at all” after participating in Raids and other activities.

VP itself is an upper-level currency that’s awarded for PvE encounters, typically raids and heroic dungeons. It was introduced during the Cataclysm expansion (2010) before being removed in Warlords of Draenor (2014).

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There is a weekly cap on the amount of Valor you can obtain from completing Mythic+ Dungeons and from Callings. Once you have enough, VP can be used to upgrade any item’s level that drops from Mythic+ Dungeons, depending on your progress.

Like we said, with your Valor Points, you can upgrade gear from Mythic Keystone Dungeons, initially with a cap of item level 200, which players can raise to item level 207 by completing all eight Shadowlands dungeons at Mythic 5 difficulty or higher.

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After this, you’ll be awarded a new “Keystone Explorer” achievement, while the existing “Keystone Conqueror” achievement (for all +10s or higher) will increase the cap to item level 213, and then to item level 220 by completing the “Keystone Master” achievement for all +15s in time.

So, while you might still be rolling for that last bit of gear to complete your set, or just trying to get a certain weapon, Valor Points should allow you to at least get some sort of progression and upgrades as you continue the endgame grind.