Posts with tag pvp gear

Resto4life is reporting on a fairly significant change to the Arena season 3 gear on the PTR with Patch 2.3. Evidently the previous mana regen stat MP5 is being tossed over for Spirit, and this has some players howling. Now, I know there is some debate as to the utility of Spirit for priests in a PvE setting, but as they mention in the article, there appears to be little use for it at all in Arena PvP, at least where Druids are concerned.

The Restoration druids in particular are unhappy about this change, especially when taken in context with the recent change to the game that will allow everyone to see what magical buffs you have placed upon you. What this means is that just about every time a druid casts Innervate -- the spell that would benefit most from the change to Spirit -- there is a high probability it will be immediate dispelled. Now we have heard tell that Spirit as a stat will be changed somewhere down the line, that it will begin affecting spell damage as well as mana regen, so perhaps this is the first step toward that change. It's tough to know for certain.

What we do know, however, is that the change makes the PvP gear more attractive for use in PvE, where Spirit does help with the longer battles. But I have to wonder, exactly why would the developers, who have professed that they want to create two separate gear sets for PvP and PvE, make the Season 3 Arena sets more PvE viable? It may be that they want more people to participate in Arena battles, or it could be for some unknown reason I'm not seeing. Help me out here. Do you think the change from MP5 to Spirit is a buff or a nerf?

Update: Another patch just pushed through on the PTR, and this change to the Druid healing S3 set has been reverted. The gear will retain its MP5 stat bonus.

With the release of the Arena Season 2 gear on the public test realm yesterday the number crunchers went to town. What they quickly found was not good news for Mages. It appears that the +INT on the new Mage armor is actually less than the Season 1 gear even though it costs more to purchase.

But wait, you say, this is the test realm, surely it can be tweaked before it goes live. Blizzard responded that the gear is being looked at, but if any changes were made to its stats, it wouldn't be in time for the content patch. The mage gear is going live in its current state.

When it comes to numbers, I'm easily confused, but in this case my confusion stems from this: why put things on the test server if you can't tweak it based on feedback before it goes live? I mean...isn't that the point of a test server? Can someone with a great understanding of the Testing process enlighten me?

It's been four days since the big patch that was supposed to revitalize PVP, and at least on my server, we can safely say that PVP is alive. Aliiiiiive! With up to 240 Arathi Basins and 110 Warsong Gulchs to choose from, it looks like everyone and their mother are shooting for High Warlord/Grand Marshal weapons for leveling. Even the most uber-leet, overpowered warlock I know, who has 30 pieces of the Staff of Atiesh, wants some PVP gloves -- and judging from the kind of groups Alliance has been putting up in AB, quite a few Naxx guilds have been spending more time chilling around the Lumber Mill than facing the buggy boss encounters inside Kel'Thuzad's citadel.

A lot of healers seem to be trying to pick up the PVP armor sets that will help them level, while DPSers -- and newly dual-wield specced shamans -- are aiming for the weapons they've been unable or unwilling to get in raids. Slightly left out (again) are druids, who have somewhat underwhelming PVP armor and no "plus feral attack power" weapon.

Personally, I'm shooting for the High Warlord's Blade and High Warlord's Quickblade, since swords are much easier to level with when you're a lazy rogue who likes to read while grinding. I also might pick up the PVP legs to replace my last remaining blue item after a year of raiding (damn you, Ragnaros!) What are you grinding for, and how long do you think it will take you to get it?