Mists of Pandaria: Remix is so much fun, but as I pointed out last week, it's also a prison of optimization that has really upset some people very much. Some changes of culprits were made to the cloak before the endless potential launch, Gulp Frog caused a huge balance problem between players, and now Bronze Lotus Sha is eating good.

In a recent post to Blizzard forums by Community Manager Kaivax, the MoP:Remix team announced that they have no plans to change the event's end-game upgrade costs.This caused a lot of boos.

"Look forward to and let us know that we have no plans to change the bronze cost to upgrade the gear. A lot of players have already decided to upgrade their items so that they can comfortably receive a heroic raid (and hopefully, "

If you're wondering why that's the problem, there's no difference between the transmog items in the event and the cost of upgrading mounts and gear."). A whopping 577,950 bronze runs when you upgrade the full set of characters with a pretty big difference (thanks for putting these numbers together, WoWHead). If you take a look at it, the reins of the thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent, the most expensive mount in the event, will cost 50,000 bronze.

So why is Blizzard refusing to ease""The increase in power that comes with increasing item levels is exponential, not linear, and we don't want to second guess the decision that everyone will be much more powerful."For many players, this reasoning is not tracked at all. MoP Remix is a temporary event, so all these power increases are pretty temporary anyway. 

It feels, in part, like an artificial grind tuck into an otherwise antics romp through an old extension. "I have a character that is going to be done with getting a full 556," one player replies — item level 556 is the endgame goal: "Believe me, it's okay. We don't mind that the cost of upgrading is reduced. Do it for everyone else.

I'm trying to wrap my head around philosophy here, and I think this is a bad move overall, but I'm finding some answers. This means that higher levels of content will be completely trampled as the event progresses. The team in charge of the balance is obviously hesitant to let players skip to that level of divinity, especially since the whole pantheon of endgame Geared Monsters with endless potential will remove everything in a month or two.

But also, like—who actually cares' MoP: Remix isn't like Season of Discovery, it exists for 90 days and then for a very long time, potentially disappearing forever. In particular, as they point out later in the same announcement, if you want to get all the cosmetics, you can level the alt to get cash with that juicy 70k winnings from hitting level 40. 

I think, most of all, the day-to-day design mistakes of mop:Remix were connecting cosmetic rewards and gear upgrades in the same currency. It just spoils the whole atmosphere: while you're leveling, the event works as intended. 

You're getting alt to the maximum level, growing stronger with extra Tinker gems and unlocking cosmetic rewards along the way. It all feels good. Then hit the end of the event, and suddenly you have to choose between strength and cosmetics. You get lifted from a rewarding experience and thrust unconsciously, into a retail-style grind-and for what, player retention?

I'm not sure yet whether the MoP:Remix team will keep digging their heels for 81 days until the timey-wimey Pandaria door closes, even though the weirdest thing about this whole fiasco was that the event tuning improvements were otherwise pretty sensible. . I somehow doubt it, but something more stubborn happened.