Blizzard Poons Me, RE: Occulus

To oversimplify, Occulus is riskier than other heroics. And one way to balance that risk (which I was going to suggest in my series of posts on the dungeon, which may or may not see the light of day now) is to offer better rewards.

Blizzard is incentivizing Occulus, and doing it pretty well:

To encourage players not to shy away from the many invigorating adventures to be had in The Oculus, we have applied a change to enhance the rewards players are provided when selected for this dungeon via the Random Heroic option in the Dungeon Finder. Once Ley-Guardian Eregos is defeated, one loot bag per character will be provided in his chest in addition to the current rewards. Each loot bag will offer players rare gems, two additional Emblems of Triumph, and a chance of being rewarded the Reins of the Blue Drake. These fine treasures could be yours should you honor your fellow party members by besting the challenges contained within The Oculus! Keep in mind, however, that these extra loot bags will only be awarded to each party member if Oculus is selected by the Dungeon Finder when players choose the Random Heroic option.

In light of this change, the Reins of the Azure Drake will now have a chance of dropping in both 10- and 25-player versions of The Eye of Eternity.

So clearing Occulus will now give you extra emblems, gems (hopefully epic rather than blue, remains to be seen) and a chance at a rare mount. Neat!