Cataclysm: Emblem Conversion explained

Update

Blizzard changed the conversion rates, read the update at the end of the post.

Blizzards announced a while back that they were in the process of redesigning the currency system. The idea is to make things much easier by having only 2 PvE and 2 PvP currencies in the game. A lower, easier to obtain currency – Justice Points – and a higher valued currency that is similar to the current Emblem of Frost – Valor Points.

Once a new tier of gear becomes available Valor Points would be merged into Justice Points. Basically this is what will happen when Patch 4.0.1 goes life.

Older emblems and badges will be converted into gold.

 

Justice Points and Valor Points

Hero Points (now Justice Points)

Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph)

Valor Points

High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids. (most like the current Emblem of Frost)

Coming patch 4.0.1 ALL Frost and Triumph Emblems will be converted into Justice Points. There will be a soft cap of 4000 Justice Points, if you have more you will be able to keep them up to patch 4.0.3 but you will not be able to acquire more.

Justice Points conversion

Your Justice Points total will be equal to (Emblems of Triumph + Emblems of Frost ) * 2.75

Also all lower level emblems will immediately be converted to gold at this rate:

Gold Conversion for Lower Emblems

• Emblem of Heroism = 5.5 gold each
• Emblem of Valor = 5.5 gold each
• Emblem of Conquest = 5.5 gold each
• Badge of Justice = 1.833 gold each

Patch 4.0.3 will enforce the soft cap and all Justice Points above 4000 will be converted into gold.

Justice Points Gold Conversion

Justice points above 4,000 are converted to gold at a rate of 2 gold per point of Justice.

What? give Numbers!

1455 Emblems of Frost and Enblems of Triumph are needed to reach the soft cap. Further emblems will be stored to patch 4.0.3 and then converted to gold for 5.50 gold each.

As you can guess, this will not be a good idea since you will not gain more Justice Points. It depends on your realm economy if you can sell

• a multicolored gem for at least 55 gold
• a single color gem for at least 110 gold
• or a primordial saronite for at least 126.5 gold

then you are better off converting your emblems into gems or primordial saronite. Otherwise you should convert your emblems into Emblems of Conquest so you can get the gold as soon as patch 4.0.1 goes live.

Most likely – until further numbers are availbale – I will keep about 700 Emblems worth ~2000 Justice Points. Then I’ll be able to get some gold, will be able to gain more Justice Points and may be at the cap again when cataclysm launches.

What about items?

The item cost has risen dramatically if you look at plain emblem conversion. Let us look at some items:

[table id=5 /]

The last column shows the Justice Point cost divided by 2.75 – the above mentioned conversion rate. I added it jsut to illustrate the worth of your emblems before patch 4.0.1 goes live.

Right now a T10 Head costs 90 Emblems of Frost and due to conversion it will cost you Justice Points worth 400(!!) Emblems of Frost.

Blizzard will hardly make Loot more difficult to acquire and I guess we will gain Justice Points at similar speed then current emblems. They simply want to deflate the stockpiles. Hopefully some more information will  be released the next days.

Conversion Calculator

Mmo-champion published an online calculator, where you can enter the amount of emblems in your possession and compute the amount of gold you would receive from ingame conversion.

These were my numbers before raid today 😀

Seems I’ll end up with 7800 Justice Points, way above cap, or with nearly 18000 gold if I convert all my emblems into Emblems of Conquest. In this case it seems best to keep around 800 Emblems of Frost. This will leave enough room to acquire new Justice Points and I might end up capped by the launch of cataclysm anyhow and 12000 gold richer.

Gem and primordial Saronite prices

These items are pretty much useless with the launch of cataclysm. You should look out for gem and primordial saronite prices the next days, usually the auction market will react quite fast to this kind of changes. Players tend to drop their stocks as long as it is still worth something, especially towards the end of an expansion.

Blue Posts used for this guide

• Cataclysm Badge and PvP Point Changes, 27/04/2010
• Cataclysm Currency Changes Explained, 14/09/2010
• Cataclysm Currency Changes Explained (updated), 15/09/2010

Update

Blizzard changed the conversion rates, here is the blue post:

We’ve revised the Justice Points conversion rate for Emblems of Triumph and Emblems of Frost. When the upcoming 4.0.1 patch goes live, these emblems will be converted into 11.58 Justice Points (up from the previously planned 2.75 Justice Points per emblem). Justice Points accrued above the soft cap of 4,000 will be converted to gold at a rate of 47.5 silver per point (down from 2 gold per point) when patch 4.0.3 goes live.

There aren’t many changes to the numbers posted above. The key value is still 5 Gold 50 Silver per Emblem. Meaning the math above still holds, however the cap is now at 345 Emblems. This also doesn’t seem to make existing purchasable items so much more expensive from one day to the next, since the inflation of old emblems wil not be as strong as previously announced. All other numbers stay the same.