Early in the afternoon the official Patch 5.3 PTR Notes were updated with a number of changes aimed at shortening the grind required in various aspects of the game.

Just hours later, a post from Community Manager Bashiok indicated that one of these changes would be effective immediately following this week’s maintenance.

We’re deploying a hotfix late tonight that will reduce the number of Lesser Charms of Good Fortune required to purchase 3 Mogu Runes of Fate from 90 down to 50. Meaning when you log in Tuesday and purchase your 3 Mogu Runes of Fate, which are used for 5.2 raid boss bonus rolls, it will only cost you 50 Lesser Charms.

We recommend waiting until after the scheduled Tuesday maintenance to ensure this change has gone through before purchasing your Runes. Maintenance is currently scheduled to begin Tuesday, April 23, at 5:00 a.m. PDT. (source)

Players have been asking for help with the grind associated with gearing not only their first character, but whatever alts may follow after it. This quick update should make altaholics with multiple level 90 characters rejoice.

Personally I won’t be as affected by the change. My warlock has over 700 Lesser Charms, so basically this change means instead of being set for the next seven weeks, I’m good for twice as long. Funny thing is I’ll likely earn far more than 50 Lesser Charms a week just from what few dailies and pet battles I do.

That brings me to an interesting question. With Lesser Charms planned to drop off of level 90 and higher creatures in 5.3, is there even a need for the charm system the way it’s designed currently? It almost seems unnecessary to me to have this currency in the game when its almost effortless to obtain.

Regardless of my opinion, the change is a step in the right direction for a great number of players and further proof the Blizzard continues to experiment with how they approach endgame.