Blood Pact: How to spend your initial valor points as a warlock
by Tyler Caraway 
Jul 11th 2011 at 2:00PM
With new raids come new items that we can toss away our hard-earned money on. Only in this case, that money is valor points. The sad part about this raiding tier is that Blizzard reduced the valor point cap in order to force a stricter limit on how players gear up in this new raiding tier. The devs don't want players getting the new gear too quickly, and so they limit us by creating a stop-gap in our ability to get the non-dropped items.
In reality, this isn't all that much of a bother. If Blizzard wants to create these types of gearing gateways, then so be it. The one issue that I do take with it is that this really places that much more importance on luck as a factor of early gearing. Tier gear cannot be gained via drops, except for the pieces which drop from Baradin Hold. Further, it isn't token pieces that drop but the specific items themselves -- oh, yes, and there's PVP gear to contend with on the loot table. Getting the drops from inside Baradin Hold saves you 3,850 valor points, which is four weeks' worth of dungeons. That's a big deal.
Regardless, let's talk about the things you should be spending your hard-earned points on.
It's a matter of luck
The first thing that you must always keep in mind when selecting which item to get first using your valor points is the small matter of the item that it would be replacing. Very few people are going to have the exact same gearing, even if they play the same spec in the same guild. Drop RNG can completely change which items you use and which you just can't quite give up yet.
Always upgrade from the lowest ilevel piece first, if you can manage it. Doing this is always going to provide you with the largest overall stat gain in the vast majority of situations, which is always worth it. For most warlocks, this is probably going to be the wand slot. Wands were beyond difficult to get in the last raiding tier, particularly for DPS casters who weren't able to use spirit. While ZA/ZG came out with a nice wand as a substitute, it still was not quite the same as a raiding-quality wand.
After that, your next weakest point is probably going to be one of your ring slots, depending on the level of raiding that you were in before heading into Firelands (with a little bit of luck tossed in). Even if your ring is one of the weaker slots, that is one that I wouldn't really suggest switching off early.
Ilevel is a large factor when choosing which pieces to upgrade first, but it isn't the only factor. The wand is more than likely your best shot simply because it is more than likely going to be far lower than the rest of your gear, but rings may or may not be; most of them may even be on par with your gear.
How to properly juggle hit
Which makes or breaks the case of the ring is how badly you need the hit. Sure, sure, hit is such a trivial stat to have or not have on gear nowadays because we can just choose to reforge whatever stat we don't want into hit and be done with it. ... Totally wrong. Well, okay, it isn't totally wrong -- it is actually right -- but this principle is a doubled-edged sword.
Every spec has its favorite secondary stat, whatever it may be, and hit is always right up there on the list until the cap. In some cases, it may not end up being the best secondary stat, but it is always strong. This means that you always want to have hit alongside your best secondary stat.
Say you favor haste. Let's also so that crit is your worst secondary stat. If an item has haste/crit on it, then it's perfect. Ideally, you would want to get a haste/hit item, so whether you reforge crit off of one or completely replace it via the other doesn't matter. The end result is the same.
The problem comes when you have suboptimal items. Now, the item in question is mastery/crit, which is only so-so for you, but you still need the hit. You would still want to reforge the crit into hit -- but you aren't just giving up crit for hit anymore; you are also giving up mastery for haste. Now, were that a mastery/hit item, you would still have to give up some haste, but you could reforge some of the mastery and get a portion of it back. See?
In an optimal setting, it doesn't matter if you use hit gear or non-hit gear in order to reach the hit cap. In a nonoptimal setting, you want to push for the hit gear as much as possible.
Back to those rings
Why bring this up? This is what will determine whether or not you get the ring first.
Let's face it: All DPS casters still need some hit gear. We've done what we had to do in order to reach the cap, but getting actual, real hit items would be stellar. Right now, unless you happen to be wearing the Soul-Blaze Robes from Nefarian, you won't really have hit on either your chest or your rings. It is possible that Nezir was kind to you and did drop a ring with hit on it, but barring that, there isn't a way to have hit on either of these slots.
Why does that matter? Because it determines which you should get next. Both the new tier chest and the ring are hit items. The chest is haste/hit, which most people really want, while the ring is mastery/hit, which is still top-shelf even if it isn't the best. If you currently have hit from either a ring or your chest and you are reforging any piece that doesn't have your most optimal secondary stat on it for hit, then you go for one of the hit items first.
Using the old tier chest? Get the new chest first.
Neither of your rings have hit on them and you are using the Nef chest? Get the ring first.
Neither of your rings have hit and you are using the old tier chest? Favor the chest first.
Why not rush for tier gear?
The most common thing that I see people do in situation such as this is that they always, always rush off for their tier gear first. The simple matter is this: Everything is an upgrade. You want it all eventually. Get the upgrades that you can get now first, and get the ones that come later, later. The old four-piece set bonus is rather lame; people want to get the new one, but think before you spend. Tier gear generally isn't more of an upgrade than any other item. The only exception is when you break a weak set bonus for a strong set bonus.
First, you really don't want to get your tier gloves, anyway. They can be nice in some situations, but Ragnaros drops a wicked-awesome pair of cloth gloves that are far better than your tier piece. Spending valor points on your tier gloves isn't the wisest choice if you want use them for an extended period of time.
Second, Baradin Hold has a chance of dropping your legs. Unless you already got the gloves to drop, there's very little chance that buying the legs is going to instantly get your four-piece bonus. Remember, we aren't planning on buying the gloves, so that means you need to get the pieces from Staghelm and Ragnaros first. Even if you do buy the gloves, you still need one of those other pieces.
Third, it's all a matter of itemization. Reforging fixes a lot of the itemization "issue," but it doesn't fully remove it. Say you play affliction. An item with haste/mastery on it is going to hold more weight than an item with crit/mastery on it, even after you reforge the crit into haste. You only manage to salvage some of the item, not the entire thing. Intellect levels make a difference, but whether or not that saves you really depends on what ilevels you are changing from.
Your final game plan
I know a talked a bit about the philosophy behind the choices that you should make, but that's because nothing is all that cut and dry. Anyone who ever tells you, "This is the itemization path you need to follow without question" is lying to you. What you should get next is always determined by what you have now. Here's how it should go.
- Wand, if using ZA or lesser wand or in full heroic gear
- Ring, if reforging non-haste gear to hit
- Tier chest, if not reforging non-haste gear to hit
- Tier legs, if you have three other tier pieces
- Wand, if using BOE drop but not in heroic gear
- Ring, if not reforging non-haste gear to hit
- Wrists, if not using an alt to farm valor
- Tier legs
- Tier gloves, if you have three other pieces
- Necklace, assuming RNG hates you
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through encounters such as Blackwing Descent and The Bastion of Twilight.Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kole Jul 11th 2011 2:23PM
I don't think necklace should even be on the list. Assuming you're raiding or will be raiding in the future then you should be doing the FL dailies and as soon as you get your first 20 Marks then you can buy Nightweaver's Amulet http://www.wowhead.com/item=70106
Then worry about upgrading it later while you raid...and if you aren't a raider, then you have a decent piece of jewelry.
Zaphire Jul 11th 2011 4:25PM
Dude, that's why it's last on the list.
Does selling valor bracers to other people go avoid that? If it's an upgrade, and you have everything else, buy it.
rhorle Jul 11th 2011 2:34PM
The best way to spend the valor points is to go for the chest or legs first, as that takes 3 weeks. And you can also get the wand and still afford the 2200 chest or legs. After that its really up to personal choice but you should aim for 2-set. Even though both legs and hands drops from BH two set is still worth risking the random luck.
Unknown Jul 11th 2011 3:14PM
There is a i359 ring with hit/crit, Signet of High Arcanist Savor. I agreed with your wand assessment and replaced my last remaining blue-quality item with the new VP wand.
I did not consider the bit about Ragnaros dropping gloves half a tier higher quality, so I'll certainly forego the tier piece.
Revynn Jul 11th 2011 3:31PM
I was lucky enOugh to get my gloves from BH and my tier helm from Ragz this weekend. I'm grinding heroics on an alt for the BoE bracers. The wand is ubersexy, but I think replacing my t11 legs might be a better choice due to the heavier itemization on the leg slot, despite the smaller ilvl difference.
I just know they'll drop in BH the day after I buy them with VP.
Lockefeller Jul 11th 2011 6:06PM
Going back to the Vault of Archavon days I've always held off on getting the gloves or legs early in the patch. They'll drop in Baradin Hold eventually just like they did in VoA. Sometimes I've lucked out and gotten a piece the first week or 2, sometimes much later on. The point being though, I've always gotten them as drops in these raids going back to T8 or T7. I had my 4p T10 without the gloves, but still had them drop in BH and they've been sitting in my bank for months in case I need to use them to keep my 4piece bonus later on.
As lock you have a much better chance to get your piece to drop than say a pally or sham who even if their item does drop still has a 1 in 3 chance that its the one they really want..
In a month or so after you've traded badges in for every upgrade that vendor has, if you still haven't gotten then gloves or legs then drop those badges on them, but nothing is worse than trading in these points you could have used on other gear and then seeing them drop a week later in BH.
Another tip, if you pug BH alway make sure you're the only lock in raid. If you start and pug the raid yourself this won't be an issue =D.
thebitterfig Jul 11th 2011 7:57PM
"The simple matter is this: Everything is an upgrade. You want it all eventually."
True, but.
Depending on the slot, the stat increase on an equivalent ilvl increase may be larger. A chest/leg/head slot upgrade from 359 to 378 is around 64 int and 64 secondary stats higher, while a ring/amulet/back slot upgrade with the same ilvls is around 37 int/37 secondary stats. That's close to 30 int and 30 secondary stats left on the table.
While you might be desperate, to get rid of that blue wand, upgrading from a 346 blue to a 378 will provide about 33 int and 42 secondary stats, which is a smaller upgrade than a chest piece would be, in terms of raw stat increases, even if it's a huge ilvl difference. The order roughly goes: head/chest/legs -> shoulder/glove/wrist/belt -> ring/cape/amulet -> ranged stat stick. Basically, the items with the highest total amount of stats on them gain the most when making a similar ilvl jump, since each 1 ilvl difference is approximately equal to a 1% increase in stats.
The basic advice "get the biggest upgrade first" applies, just don't be blinded by ilvl: check the stats first.
rufwork Jul 11th 2011 8:14PM
Okay, admittedly, I only read this because I *can* find an RSS for Tyler, but not one just for Balance dr00d Shifting Perspectives articles.
That said, how do you quantitatively factor in tier set bonuses? Contra T12, you say...
"The most common thing that I see people do in situation such as this is that they always, always rush off for their tier gear first. The simple matter is this: Everything is an upgrade. ... Get the upgrades that you can get now first, and get the ones that come later, later."
Though locks apparently have hands alternatives, that's from Rag. You can PUG and get T12 gloves after a little over a week. Tougher to raid in a social guild.
But okay, let's even say you *can* bag raid gear easily. How do you factor in T12 2P bonuses? You know, for laser chicken, how do you measure the worth burning treants? For locks, um, how do you factor in whatever you guys get? Doesn't that make T12 items disproportionally powerful? Or, rather, why *doesn't* that make T12 disproportionally powerful? JP gear is nearly free with 70 points per Heroic boss -- I think for every run, regardless of if the 70 VP bonus has been maxed for the week after 7 runs. If I'm spending 2200+1650 = 3850 VP = a pretty solid month of PUGging, what are the numbers on getting 3850 VPs of random gear before two tiered?
Being a part timer (http://panzerkin.blogspot.com/p/balance-druid-lvl-85-pre-heroic-gearing.html), Valor Points are something I can still earn without raiding. I think I go 2xT12 first, and gloves being only 1650, I think I start there. ?? If I can find 20k, I get valor bracers too. /shrug
Tyler Caraway Jul 12th 2011 8:29AM
Gloves are the cheapest Tier piece option to get with Valor Points, this is true, but that similarly makes them the worst option. Gloves have the lowest "weighted" itemization. Slots are not all created equal, chests, pants, and helms generally have the most stats on them in comparison to gloves, wands, and rings. BH also has a chance to drop gloves for you, so getting your gloves first bars you from benefiting from that option outright.
If you aren't a raider, then does it really matter which pieces you get first? If you want your two piece -- which is all you can get without raiding -- then you would still get the chest and pants over getting the gloves. Further, the gloves, and even the chest to a degree, are rather worthless to non-raiders. They've got a lot of hit on 'em.
As for set bonuses:
All set bonuses are usually pretty decent, and all of them are better than not having them in most cases -- I'm seriously starting to doubt the new balance T11 four-piece does anything -- but what people often overlook is that new set bonuses usually aren't worth more than old set bonuses.
Outliers aside, the paradigam works a little bit like this. Your T11 2-piece is worth, say, 500 DPS and the 4-piece is worth 1,000 DPS (some specs/classes may have that reversed, but generally you have one strong bonus, one weak bonus.) Now, T12 set bonuses aren't actually going to be worth all that much more than T11 bonuses. Set bonuses aren't a scalar thing, they are usually all designed to offer approximately the same level of DPS as before. So, from the above, your T12 2-piece would be worth around 1,000 DPS, maybe 1,100 DPS, and your T12 4-piece would be worth around 500 - 600 DPS.
As long as you retain all set bonuses, you generally don't see a difference in weighting Tier items over other items. The only time you ever want to "rush" Tier first is when you have an exceptionally weak old Tier bonus but an exceptionally strong new Tier bonus. If the old Tier 11 4-piece bonus was the Tier 12 2-piece bonus, then you would absolutely rush for it -- and the reality is that druids probably should be rushing their Tier since the new 4-piece is awful -- but in general set bonuses are fairly well balanced between themselves.
rufwork Jul 16th 2011 12:04AM
@Tyler -- The what amounts to a "price of entry" logic is interesting. There's a sort of T12 price of entry per piece -- 1650 VPs -- and then a price to get that more efficient piece -- 2200 minus 1650 = 550 VPs. 550 VPs gives me a pretty good jump start on VP bracers if I don't have 20-30k gold sitting around, and gives me the T12 2P.
That's why I'm still thinking that I want a set with the most pieces possible with my VP that still includes a 2P bonus, though. I'm assuming you can keep the T11 2P bonus on top of the T12 2P. Now you're one drop in BoT away from having (Chest or Legs+Shoulders) * T11 + (Hands/Legs or Chest) * T12, and you can find a good BoT PURaid relatively easily, all things considered.
That's the way I was leaning, anyhow, and with your "T12 set bonus isn't >>> T11 set bonus" suggestion, gloves for VP seems even more like the cheapest way to get "2P+2P ~ 4P" and your valor bracers more quickly.
I mean, sure, if you could only have 2 T12 pieces, you go legs and chest. But here, I think it comes down to if having valor bracers more quickly offsets having fewer good stats on the T12 gloves. Is [again, on Boomkin; sorry to hijack the thread]...
86 Int
157 Sta
266 Mastery (1.48)
683 Armor
30 Haste (0.23%)
1 Sockets
-177 SPI (so hit, like you say)
... (the diff of T12 chest over T12 hands) worth 550 VPs? I guess you could argue yes. But 44% of 227 INT = 99.88, and 44% is how close you are to valor bracers and their 227 INT with 550 VPs.
Perhaps it largely matters what T11 pieces you already have.
Thanks for the reply. It's really too much for a casual guy to think through and feel confident about. Bring back BC and point-blank wrath-spam! ;^)
Dragis Jul 11th 2011 9:23PM
This may sound harsh, but why would you make a priority list like this? If someone has some heroic raid pieces or the engineering helm, for example, they will almost certainly get a different amount of bang from each item.
The best thing to do is run Simcraft to double-check your stat weights (which can vary a lot depending on haste breakpoints), figure how much DPS you would gain with each possible VP upgrade, then take the one that gives the biggest numerical difference. If you run Simcraft once for each item replacement, so much the better. Factor in things like BH or BOEs if you want.
Also, almost *every VP piece* will be a best in slot item until heroics or *maybe* Rag, and while the 2 set bonus isn't amazing, it is a significant enough of a DPS increase that you may want to consider getting 2 set pieces if you only have 359 gloves/pants/chest.
Unfixed Jul 12th 2011 4:03AM
I am a little confused about affliction stats. It was belief that it went
Intel>hit (until cap)>haste>crit>mastery (this comes from elitist jerks)
but ask mr robot and the above column states mastery > crit.
whats the story?
Unfixed Jul 12th 2011 4:06AM
* it was my belief that...
RavenJet Jul 12th 2011 5:00AM
It depends on rotation mostly. Before the major nerf most afflocks were using Drain Life as a filler - because DL scales with Mastery that made Mastery our primary stat. Since the nerf most have switched to Shadow Bolt fillers - which moves mastery almost to the bottom of the tree.
Now that said - this is not cast in stone, some simulations show DL even after the nerf outperforming SB if you have enough mastery - that's exactly why it got nerfed, with Mastery scaling it can become OP very easily (Tyler did several posts on the topic).
EJ's listing is based on the shadow-bolt rotation, when I was using DL I was stacking mastery above all, among other things I crafted mastery legs early in the expac. I switched after the nerf and I am now using Shadow Bolt rotation again - since then I completely re-statted to put mastery at the bottom of my list.
Now unless Tyler knows something new he hasn't told us -that's my understanding that it still works this way: stack mastery if you're using DL rotation, avoid it like the plague if you're using an SB rotation.
Personal experience: I was among the top DPS'ers in my guild with my DL rotation, now I'm among the top with SB - I still use DL on rare occasions as an emergency self-heal.
The rules for PVP is completely different however, in PVP DL is just about your most important spell for affliction - which means that on my PVP set I stack mastery and haste as my most important targets because mastery boosts DL damage and haste lets me get the most out of my DoTs.
Tyler Caraway Jul 12th 2011 8:34AM
I know of nothing that currently causes mastery to be better than crit for affliction after losing DL as a filler. However, I don't think it is that horrible of a secondary stat. It's the worst to be sure, but it isn't a rock at the bottom of the ocean low.
Zac Griffiths Jul 12th 2011 12:45PM
I literally made a profile so I could commend your inclusion of a Beyonce lyric.
Kudos.
Khijin Jul 13th 2011 11:07PM
so, as of now, let us gear our locks by itemlevel, not stats.
let us reforge crit to hit on a crit/mastery peice, despite the fact mastery is for the most part worse.
I'm starting to like this column less and less.
Janey55 Oct 7th 2011 5:18PM
Yup, it's tough to decide which item to get first with my valor points but I guess it makes sense to go go for the wand slot first, then ring slots and take it from there.
http://okhisto.org/wartrol