Fewer Tier Drops in Opening Weeks of Dragonflgiht Season 3

It looks like we'll be getting fewer tier drops in Season 3 of Dragonflight, at least at first.

When Blizzard giveth, they taketh away. Sadly, that means they're coming for our lovely tier drops in Season 3. So, what's the situation, and what does it mean for all you lovely raiders?

Fewer Tier Drops early in Season 3

The Good

Obviously, there is one sort of good side to all of this. While we will get fewer drops from bosses during the raid, we will be getting the Revival Catalyst a lot sooner. However, we will only gain one charge every two weeks, so at worst it will take you nearly two months to get a full set without drops.

Now, this does come with the (we hope at least) benefit of more normal loot dropping to make up for it, which, honestly, we don't hate. As someone who deals with loot in my guild, I find distributing tier tokens a pain at the best of times. According to Blizzard: “we expect that players will complete their set bonuses at the same rate or faster than Season 2. While raiders will still enjoy an edge as the season begins, players who prefer not to raid will be far closer behind them than previously.”

The Bad

We're losing about 50% of total tier drops, and raid sizes under 20 are not even guaranteed a drop. Only a 20-person raid team is guaranteed at least 1 tier token, with 30-person at around 1.5. So while Blizzard is claiming it will be faster, on paper it looks like a bad deal.

While we understand the Catalyst is a pretty simple feature, I know from experience that some people just like to log in, do a raid, and be done. Many times I've had to explain how such a feature works, because Blizzard sure doesn't do it. So it's possible some players won't even be aware that the feature is a thing, and they'll be stuck without tier for months.

Conclusion

With Blizzard announcing this change so late, it's unlikely that they plan to change it back. Sadly, given how late it is, they probably knew it was going to cause problems, hence the late announcement from Blizzard.

Sadly, we'll have to see how it plays out in the opening weeks, maybe it's a way to slow down Mythic progress, or just progress in general. Because it's fair to say the 10.1 raid was over with almost as soon it as it came out.