Adventures in Beta: How fast will you replace your gear?
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Jan 2nd 2007 at 9:00AM
It's one of the big questions of the expansion. Many people have worked for a long time to get their epic weapons and armor, whether they got it from grueling raiding, hardcore PVP or annoying reputation grinding. Then Burning Crusade comes along, and suddenly the slate is wiped clean. Or is it?
When I arrived in the beta, my rogue had two blues (Blackhand's Breadth and some horrible blue leggings I had grown attached to,) with the rest a mix of MC, BWL and AQ40 gear. Two levels later, I've replaced a bunch of that gear -- both blues, my Mandokir's Sting, my Cloak of Veiled Shadows, my Don Julio's Band and my Nightslayer Chestpiece are gone, and my Boots of the Shadow Flame and Taut Dragonhide Belt have received equal sidegrades.
From what I've seen, Tier 1 items will be replaced almost immediately, Tier 2 will last until the mid 60s, and Tier 3 will take you into the upper 60s and 70. At 70, Tier 4 (which largely drops in Karazhan) makes it a whole new ballgame again. In a Hellfire Citadel group today, the Tier 3 level 64 warlock was wearing nearly all of his old gear, while the 66 mage was mostly decked out in new stuff. (The druid also had Tier 3, but he was tanking for us, so he was wearing an odd mix anyway.)
If I had to recommend one high-level item to bring to BC, I would recommend that you bring weapons -- at least for melee, the High Warlord/Grand Marshal weapons will last you a long time, since weapon DPS doesn't jump up quite as fast as stats on armor. For example, a one-handed rogue sword that drops in Hellfire Peninsula will net you 52.5 DPS, as opposed to the 59 and change on the High Warlord gear.
Filed under: Rogue, Items, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Orin Jan 2nd 2007 9:14AM
There have been many discussions regarding this in the official beta forums. Dig around there and I'm sure you will all find useful information that pertains to each specific class. I know for Druids (my main) there is a ton of Feral gear that will make for quick upgrades early on. Healing gear on the other hand may not be as wide-spread if you already have your T2 and better.
I'm curious though, does anyone have any comments regarding saving Honor points for use later in the expansion, vs. using them now for level 60 PvP epics?
Deam Jan 2nd 2007 9:16AM
By lvl 63 I have replaced Helmet twice (both quest) Breastplate twice (both quest) Greaves with Fel Iron pants, boots with Fel Iron boots, 1 Trinket (blade hands breadth quest) 1 Ring green world drop, and Shoulders (quest). Most tradeskill items like Fel Iron BP or Adamantite BP/ Earthforged BP are making me wait until lvl 64-66 and I'm not really leveling.. just Mining and killing what's in my way = lvl 63 with a few quests alongside.
Seper Jan 2nd 2007 9:32AM
Sooo what does someone who doesn't have a 60 do? I'm into my 5th week and i'm lvl 41 (sooo close to 42). The new endgame guild i just joined said dont bother getting all the pvp gear. By the time i hit 60 it will be past BC launch. I figure by the time i hit 70 it will be mid summer (due to RL complications now fun time is over :p)
So since i'm looking forward to a long grind is it worth it to get that "not so epic gear" ? I'm a druid with less then 1k armor now and i only upgrade when the new armor is quite beneficial. (i still have lvl 2* gear :p)
Thx.
Jason Jan 2nd 2007 11:29AM
For those leveling up, PvP is still well worth it strictly for weapons. They're nowhere near as easily replaced as armor is. I picked up the honored axes from Thrall-mart at 61, and have been using them since; I'm now halfway to 66.
As to how fast you'll be replacing the rest of your gear, as mentioned, it really does depend on what you come into outland with. Those of you who run an off-spec, Enhance Shaman, Feral Druids and yes, even DPS warriors, I expect you'll find replacements for a few pieces of your gear in Hellfire Citadel, regardless of what you're wearing. I did a run with one warrior sporting Conqueror's Spaulders; they were replaced with a blue drop from Blood Furnace. I've seen T2 chests replaced with gear from Slave Pens in Coilfang Resevoir, another low 60s instance. However, full sets of T2 and up that apply to your classes *main* focus, those are quite a bit harder to replace. The bonuses from the sets generally make it more than worthwhile to hold on to for a few levels; I've found this to be true even in the case of T1 for some classes. As a resto shaman on live, I've yet to see anything worth replacing Earthfury with for pure healing ability.
Vulerya Jan 2nd 2007 10:03AM
Very nice to read, allbeit confusing. I asked this same question on the World of Raids-forum, where I was told not to bother getting the PvP gear. (I'm 56 atm, no time to join a raiding guild, so grinding out the required honor at 59,8 seemed the best idea).
Will check the beta forums, too. Thanks for the advice :)
Flit Jan 2nd 2007 10:18AM
Good Info. Thanks. I just got my High warlord bow (i'm 59 1/2) and can't wait to use it. Good to hear that it's gonna be useful for a while.
rulyblue Jan 2nd 2007 10:52AM
My Mage's purples are either crafted or MC gear and these rest of my gear is the best blues I can find. It totals +250-+300 damage depending on which element/spell I cast. Each new drop for me will be exciting because it is a chance to upgrade pretty much everything. I'm not in a 20-40 man raiding guild, but a 5-10 man. My guild loves them and so we have the best from those instances. The great thing about the expansion is that they are smaller dungeons so we can get together in smaller packs and run 2 5 mans; tandum on teamspeak and learn from each other quickly.
My guild is full of mothers who have the time to sit for a couple of spaces out hours to play, but no large blocks of time. So 5 and 10 man dungeons work best.
Kaharazan, a 10 man dungeon will see our guild with better gear hopefully. So long as Blizzard produces enough copies of the game by Jan 16.
Gog Jan 2nd 2007 11:48AM
I've had endless discussions about this same topic and have had some very different opinions on the subject. I'm inclined to listen to my friends who played the Beta and told me "don't bother, you'll replace everything," but I don't see anything wrong with replacing a few crappy items with the PVP gear.
I'm a frost mage with a mix of Tier O and ZG gear. Not bad gear all in all, I have +215 damage and a decent mana pool. I've already replaced my shoulders and plan to replace my pants with PVP ones, but that's it for gear. The rest I can deal with. My weapons, however, are just amazingly humiliating so I'll be going for some better stuff over the next few weeks before the expansion.
I think the best way to look at it is, if you look at a piece of gear and you're just ashamed of it, do a weekend of AV and pickup a few new epics. If you just turned 60 over the past few months, this wouldn't be a bad way to kill some time.
If you're below 60, don't bother, just grind your way up so you can be level enough to head into the dark portal with the rest of us.
Memnoch Jan 2nd 2007 11:55AM
Well for me it was more class specific. I have a 60 Mage, Hunter and Rogue. The added stamina made it an easy choice to upgrade gear that was essentially the same for my Hunter and Rogue. Not so for my mage. With enchants the gear that was relatively better only had higher stamina. I raid with my mage and hunter. My mage has T2,2.5,3 gear and my hunter is in T1 and T2. Most of the caster gear will last you awhile IMO. Where as melee or multi specced classes will find better gear faster. More gear with off-spec stats will benefit the shammies, pallies, and feral/balance druids. As said before most of your weapons will last you the longest.
Orcsbane Jan 2nd 2007 11:59AM
The Priest Level 70 Tier 4 nuker set has less stamina, less intellect, and less damage/healing than the level 60 pvp set. Now the Tier 4 nuker set does have alot of spirit, which the pvp set doesn't have, but come on, simple thinking lets me know that I'm going to be wearing almost all of the pvp set all the way to level 70. So, this means for priests, the best leveling gear to get is going to be the pvp set which u can get now. On weapons, there are mid/high 60 staves and blades that are better than the Grand marshal/high warlord weapons/off-hand as far as damage/healing are concerned, but you better believe I already have the GM/HW weapons and will be ready to blow the doors off on grinding with them Jan. 16th.
Guilds need to be encouraging thier priests to get the pvp gear, and if they expect thier priests to level to 70 specced for holy wearing ANY of the Tier sets, they need to be prepared to wait a long time for them to get to 70.
@1 - Orin
You can save your honor points for the level 70 pvp gear, but you cannot save anymore than 90,000. If you reach 90k you will not recieve any more honor until u dump some of it on something.
Argent Jan 2nd 2007 12:42PM
T1 is pretty much a goner by about level 62. greens will replace it.
T2 *CAN* in some circumstances last all the way up to 70, but for the most part, you start replacing it with quest reward/instance blues at around 63-64.
T3 is pretty situational in respect to T4. there's a lot of my T3 stuff i wouldn't use the T4 equivalent over, regardless of the sever itemlevel difference.
btw, only 2 pieces of T4 drop in karazhan (gloves and hats, i think). 2 more pieces (shoulders and legs) drop in gruul's lair. the chestpieces are seemingly unaccounted for (read: they most likely drop from magtheridon.)
as for all the shiney GM weapons people are spending their honor on: good until you get past nagrand (ca. lvl 65) and after that you'll start seeing better. in nag, you'll get a nice fast 1h (60 dps) and can get a so-so fast polearm (doomsaw 2.0; 75 dps, 3.0 speed) with nice stats and all. my guess is BoEs will also come into the mix at that time.
once you start doing instances of the 68+ variety, you'll replace all those weapons fast (and at 70, you can just make the smithing specialization stuff.)
Argent Jan 2nd 2007 12:49PM
@5: compare:
quest reward in nagrand from a mderately easy chain (a 5 man group can plow right through it in 1-2 hours):
http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=86
vs.
http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=8097
personally, i'm saving my honor for the lvl 70 pvp gear, which is all pretty keen.
hamsammich Jan 2nd 2007 1:23PM
I believe I'm going to approach the gear/weapons conundrum in the following way: if it's better than what I have on (barring it killing a good stat bonus), I'll probably roll for it and use it.
I'm working on getting the two GM Dirks, and I imagine I'll have those for a good, long time. The PvP grind is long and arduous, so I'm not sure how much more of that I can take. Needless to say, I'm probably going to rely on drops to fulfill my gear and weapon needs.
I will be busy checking out all that the BC has to offer, along with trying to stomach all the bugs until they're fixed, so it will be a busy time to be a WoW gamer...
qoa Jan 6th 2007 11:33PM
My guess is this will be just like when you're level 30. You get a nice new blue from some crap instance. It's level 31. You hit 31, you wear the gear and are proud of it. You don't INSTANTLY go, CRAP FIND ME A GREEN IN THE AH THAT IS BETTAR. I realize some good gear drops in BC. So you'll be replacing blues and purples when better drop. In the meantime, you have some nice gear to use to get there.
:) Jan 3rd 2007 9:09AM
I’m wondering? You all don’t seem that upset that Blizzard Is giving you one up the A……
Seriously to all you who have played 12-18 months grinding gear at 60. All that work you have done is for nothing. I would be pissed of if I hadn’t quit over 12 months ago. When I heard that the level cap was going to be raised I quit the next day. Why? Cause I didn’t feel motivated to waste my time grinding for stuff that in about a year wouldn’t be worth shit. Now I can reactivate my account and start fresh on a newer server and grind up to 60 and then 70 and we will all be on the same footing again. And for you who think if I start from level 1 I be left behind I can reach 60 in 2 weeks of real time. I think many of you won’t be level 63 when I hit 60.
Now back to the point of this post. I don’t think this seems fair at all. What about all of you that have worked hard week after week to get your gear. Now here I and many other people can play in outland same as you, and we can get better green drops than you have if you are not sitting on tire 3 gear. I feel sad for you it must feel like you been F….Up the A….. by Blizzard who as I see it don’t care one bit about all the time you have invested in this game.
This is only my observation of what will happen but I understand Blizzard wants to keep the casual player playing the game. But what they don’t realise is that the casual player often is the one that gets bored fast and would quit anyway cause they have no stamina playing these kind of games. WoW is the easiest MMO I have ever played and I have played a lot of them over the years. And when I read that people are paying reel money to buy gold I rolled on the floor laughing, shit this game is so to easy and whit Bops on items WHY the Hell do people buy gold, the saying one sucker born every minute comes true here. Blizzards has made a solid system to support the players. But they have not yet made an endgame that is worth doing. I say this to al you WoW players here go out and test sum of the other games out their and try the Korean ones( who have a much larger player base in Asia than WoW has in the west). After that you will never ever buy gold in WoW again and you will realise that the game is lacking a functioning endgame.
umamasyean Jan 3rd 2007 3:50PM
What about jewelcrafting and socketing items?
When BC comes out and a "trade economy" revovling arround socketing items evolves immediately, won't this drive the current end-game epics into obsoletion much faster? Perhaps in your beta playing, everyone is really focused on questing and leveling, etc. and the crafting and trade element of the game probably has been de-empasized in the testing. So hence, your teir-3 may last to upper 60's in this situation, but how would the customizable crafting of new outland drops fare with the current teir-3 / warlord epics and such?
In your article (as well as most of the posts here) there isn't really a mention about how jewelcrafting effects the game. Surely socketed items change the game and you can't really look at it in the "old" way anymore where you just count the base loots.
umamasyean Jan 8th 2007 11:55AM
But maybe you get a nice socketed blue from quest/instance/AH, you might also say...
"hmm...now if I buy (or make) these jewels and put it in my new armor", it makes it better than my current tier-3 piece!"