Wrath 101: PvP welfare gear
by Zach Yonzon 
Dec 18th 2008 at 7:00PM
First of all, in the new PvP rewards system there are three tiers of PvP gear. The Savage Gladiator, Hateful Gladiator, and Deadly Gladiator are equivalent to Level 80 dungeon blues, 10-man raid epics, and 25-man raid epics respectively, with a lot of item points thrown in the way of Resilience and sometimes Stamina. These items aren't the best for PvE, so gear accordingly. You'll be wasting a lot of item points by way of Resilience, so keep in mind that all this new gear is best for your Battleground and Arena pursuits.
I mention this because the first tier of PvP gear, the Savage Gladiator items, can possibly be acquired through pure PvE. The items are available through Emblems of Heroism as well as Honor points. The Emblems of Heroism Quartermasters in Dalaran sell the entire five-piece set between 30 and 45 Emblems apiece. The shoulders and gloves cost 30 Emblems while the head, legs, and chest cost 45. If you've been doing Heroics for weeks, it's quite possible that you'll have some Emblems left over considering that most classes will only pick up a few pieces. If you want to wade into PvP after grinding those Heroic runs, you might want to consider gearing up for it. If you want something better than the crafted PvP gear, then the Savage Gladiator items are a pretty good deal.
Savage Gladiator gear is also available for purchase with Honor points, and the cost is substantially equivalent to grinding thirty or forty-five Emblems. The gloves and shoulder pieces, for example, cost 50,000 Honor points while the head, legs, and chest pieces cost 60,000. Although you can't buy them with a combination of both Honor and Emblems of Heroism, you can buy them with a low combination of Honor and Arena points. The most expensive pieces are the chest, legs, and head pieces, which go for 12,000 Honor and 350 Arena points. Savage Gladiator items don't require any personal or team ratings.
Sources:
Blood Guard Zar'shi in the Hall of Legends, sells for Honor (Horde)
Knight-Lieutenant Moonstrike in the Champion's Hall, sells for Honor (Alliance)
Magistrix Lambriesse in Sunreaver Sanctuary in Dalaran, sells for Emblems of Heroism (Horde)
Arcanist Ivrenne in the Silver Enclave in Dalarn, sells for Emblems of Heroism (Alliance)
Zom Bocom in Dalaran's Underbelly, sells for Honor and Arena Points (Neutral)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
crsh Dec 18th 2008 7:10PM
The blue set isn't welfare gear because it's full price (honor wise) and it's blue; once season 6 starts and the middle epic sets/accessories become available for honor, that will be welfare gear.
Manatank Dec 18th 2008 7:28PM
Lol, you judge it only on the color of the item? Tard.
crsh Dec 18th 2008 7:31PM
Newsflash: many, many players do.
Aiderbooze Dec 19th 2008 9:35AM
I never thought PvP gear was welfare...I have a much easier time PUG'ing heroics and raids and getting my stuff than I do griding PVP. I get much more frustrated PVP'ing than doing dungeons, because of all the AFK idiots, or people who can't follow simple instructions. Sure, every now and then I run into a crappy raid/instance group, but that is actually a pretty rare event.
I find it easier to get geared by doing instances/raids.
Naix Dec 19th 2008 9:39AM
There IS no welfare gear period. I would grind BGs for 1 week straight for 1 piece of gear. How is that welfare? In between BGs I would run Kara and get a upgrade here or there. 1 night I got 2 pieces of my T4 on the same run.
So what is more welfare? The 3 hour Kara run I got 2 peices of T4 or the 1 week spent grinding PVP against season 2 and 3 pvpers?
bbrasky Dec 19th 2008 9:55AM
Naix, it's referred to as welfare because anyone can get it, regardless of skill. You could completely fail at every BG you go into, but you're still going to get honor and eventually collect that piece.
If you go into dungeons and never make it past even the first boss, you're probably not going to get much gear, if any at all.
That's pretty much all it boils down to. :)
PeeWee Dec 22nd 2008 10:17PM
One week for one piece? Wow, I gathered all the honour I needed over a weekend in AV, and the marks equally fast in the weekdays after - resulting in a full set of welfare epics, and it took me less than three hours a day on average.
And I didn't land a single Killing Blow. In fact, the last games in WSG, I set up a picnic and danced with a couple of Hordies instead.
And all this while watching Farscape and Firefly.
Nightshifter Dec 18th 2008 7:25PM
fyi that welfare term is probably the biggest reason why Blizzard has done away with spending so much time on high-end raids. I find that welfare term offensive myself. Why should I not get good gear because I have responsibilities like a job and family to take care of. Sure I wish I could play WoW 16 hours a day, but until I win the lottery it isn't going to happen.
Manatank Dec 18th 2008 7:29PM
FYI Naxx is welfare epics. I can't think of anything even remotely hard about it. Getting PvP gear is actually harder now.
mitch Dec 18th 2008 9:43PM
Because you shouldn't get equal rewards for un-equal work. That's called communism.
You say you work and provide for your family yea? Well imagine a colleague of yours who earns the same amount as you, but only works 2 days a week instead of 5. You wouldn't be very happy would you.
Just because you WANT shiny epics it doesn't mean you're entitled to them just because 'you can't commit to this or that'. That's the whole point of the game, if you can commit to a raid, you reap the rewards.
Make do with lesser rewards because you invest lesser time in the game. Everything is in proportion, just like real life.
http://remainsofapaladin.blogspot.com/
twist Dec 18th 2008 10:12PM
yah! take that welfare kid...
except you don't pay your boss so you can work for him, and we all pay the exact same amount / month. other then that you really know what you're talking about.
my2cents Dec 18th 2008 10:17PM
Communism? Oh please... FYI capitalism doesn't mean that equal work offers equal rewards either. That's the concept, but generally not the reality. Anyway...
Other than that little bit, I think mitch is right. The good thing is that now there is a system whereby one can save up emblems, honor, arena points, etc to eventually get geared.
It was kinda screwy in TBC (i.e. only one tier of badges that eventually rewarded T6 quality gear even if you never raided at all...) but they seem to have pretty much gotten it down in Wrath.
So if you can't raid or pvp for hours on end, just do what you can and save up your points/emblems. A lot of heroics now are quite fast, and it shouldn't be too tough to squeeze in 10 arena games in a week if you try.
Will it take you longer to gear up than people who play 60 hours a week? Definitely. But you can still gear up over time. It's a far less demanding system than that of vanilla WoW at least.
Nightshifter Dec 18th 2008 10:50PM
roflmfao @ mitch.
I play a game to have fun, if you are evaluating/working this game and seeing such terms as communism, you might need to take a break. I pay my monthly fee and paid for my game, plus expacs (twice over, because my wife needed copies too =). Why should my game experience be lesser, even though I paid the same money?
Mardoc Dec 18th 2008 11:05PM
Because you are putting less effort into the actual game itself. Paying your subscription fee entitles you to play the game at all. Nothing more, nothing less.
If you want the high end gear, you have to put something called "effort" in to actually playing said game. If you can't do that, no problem. No-one (except the elitist idiots) is judging you for the amount of time you can commit to a game, but expecting equal rewards for playing 2 hours a week compared to those who raid every day is unreasonable.
Hoggersbud Dec 18th 2008 11:28PM
I believe somebody's understanding of communism is deeply flawed. Deeply.
Aeneas Dec 19th 2008 3:43AM
I think that the heart of the problem is not who "deserves" to have epics depending on the amount of time they can play but more: If you can get the best equipment playing just 2 hours a week, what do the people playing more than 2 hours a day do?
Back in vanilla the Dungeon Sets were added after the Raid Sets simply to give a goal and reward to those who couldn't find time to Raid.
Graham Dec 19th 2008 5:07PM
Lol......
I think mitch needs to brush up on his Karl Marx.
Amaxe Dec 18th 2008 7:47PM
Interesting, I had heard the blue set needed Honor and Arena. Still that is a truckload of honor needed to get in on the ground floor...
Procris Dec 18th 2008 8:35PM
Doesn't seem remotely worth it. You might as well just start Arenas and hope you can get the required rating, then use the honor for that gear.
Magus Dec 18th 2008 9:40PM
This article says Savage Gladiator is "Honor only", "Honor + Arena", or "Emblems only", but Wowhead has the price set at 12,000 Honor and 350 Arena Points.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40898
Thottbot shows 45x EoH's and 60,000 Honor (wtf?)
Can someone confirm the true prices and whether they can really be purchased using Honor alone?
I have to wait 'til Saturday to get back in. =(