Looks like Blizzard think they didn't lose enough players lately. Removing set pieces for non-raiders is an utterly silly decision, specially just before other games are released (SW:TOR and GW2). We all know the raid finder is a joke.We've made slight adjustments to the Valor Point (VP) drops on the 4.3 PTR which testers can now see. In both 10- and 25-player raids, bosses will now drop 100 VP each (down from 115 and 135 respectively). We’ll also be changing Firelands raid bosses to drop 50 VP per kill upon release of the patch.
This change is being made to further emphasize the desire to kill bosses for the items they drop. In the 4.3 raid, tier sets can only be earned from boss drops, and as Raid Finder will allow for just about anyone to get a chance to kill bosses, we think there will be less need for Valor overall. We want to try to match the lower desire for VP with a slightly slower acquisition rate.
We appreciate your thoughts and constructive discussion on how these changes may affect you and your guild once 4.3 is released.
Oh, I don't speak for myself, if I want epics, I'd just start raiding again. You can see on my char that I have heroic pieces too, before I stopped last summer. But I don't think that it's a good moment to negatively affect casuals/non-raiders this way. Casuals are the blood of a game, the ones that bring money, without them there would be no raids, no WoW. They should therefore have access to set pieces, even if limited, at least the first set bonus.
Very bad move. Specially now. Don't be surprised if 2 more millions (or more) are soon wielding Lightsabers while Bioware laughs at those decisions.