Priest PvP Gear: 4.0.1 Update

Post soundtrack: “Act of War” by Elton John and Millie Jackson

I’m still easing my way back into the game, but thought it was time to start getting my head around the changes Honor Points have made to buying PvP gear.  My old guide here still covers most of the available gear, but it’s now possible to buy items that previously required an arena rating (namely weapons and accessories).

I’m also expanding the list to include all available caster cloth (I’m not really up with the play as far as the preferred stats for different specs, so the math is up to you).  Basically these lists will tell you what is available, but it’s up to you which pieces you buy.

First, the PvP sets that are now available for purchase.  There’s not really any reason to purchase the older sets (unless you like the aesthetics of a particular set), so you should really save up for the best – however, you’re unable to purchase the Wrathful shoulders which still require an arena or battleground rating of 2000 (which can’t be earned until the next season, at which time this gear will be obsolete).  The difference between the two sets is (now, at least) that the Investiture set has spirit where the Raiment set has crit rating.

	Savage Inv/Rai	Hateful Inv/Rai	Deadly Inv/Rai	Furious Inv/Rai	Relentless Inv/Rai	Wrathful Inv/Rai
Head	550	660	770	935	1100	1650
Shoulder	348	417	487	591	695	n/a
Chest	550	660	770	935	1100	1650
Gloves	348	417	487	591	695	1040
Legs	550	660	770	935	1100	1650
ilvl	200	200	213	232	251	270

You also now have a wide variety of weapons to choose from, as the lower tier of arena weapons are no longer require an arena rating to purchase.

Weapons and Accessories (ilvl264)
Wrathful Gladiator’s War Staff (Haste)	2550
Wrathful Gladiator’s Focus Staff (Hit)	2550
Wrathful Gladiator’s Battle Staff (Crit)	2550
Wrathful Gladiator’s Energy Staff (Spirit)	2550
Wrathful Gladiator’s Spellblade (Crit)	1830
Wrathful Gladiator’s Blade of Alacrity (Haste)	1830
Wrathful Gladiator’s Gavel (Spirit)	1830
Wrathful Gladiator’s Endgame (Crit)	70
Wrathful Gladiator’s Compendium (Haste)	70
Wrathful Gladiator’s Grimoire (Spell Pen)	70
Wrathful Gladiator’s Reprieve (Spirit)	70
Wrathful Gladiator’s Touch of Defeat (Crit)	260
Wrathful Gladiator’s Wand of Alacrity (Haste)	260
Wrathful Gladiator’s Piercing Touch (Spell Pen)	260
Wrathful Gladiator’s Baton of Light (Spirit)	260

And of course there are the accompanying accessories and non-set items available from the usual vendor.

Wrathful Gladiator non-set items
Cord of Dominance (crit)	945
Cord of Alacrity (haste)	945
Cord of Salvation (spirit)	945
Treads of Dominance (crit)	945
Treads of Alacrity (haste)	945
Treads of Salvation (spirit)	945
Cuffs of Dominance (crit)	600
Cuffs of Alacrity (haste)	600
Cuffs of Salvation (spirit)	600
Cloak of Dominance (crit)	725
Cloak of Subjugation (haste)	725
Cloak of Ascendancy (hit)	725
Cloak of Salvation (spirit)	725
Cloak of Deliverance (spirit)	725
Band of Dominance	725
Pendant of Dominance (crit)	725
Pendant of Subjugation (haste)	725
Pendant of Ascendancy (hit)	725
Pendant of Salvation (spirit)	725
Pendant of Deliverance (spirit)	725

It’s still possible to purchase Relentless and Furious non-set items, but for the minimal saving you may as well buy the best you can.  The Battlemaster’s trinkets are still available (along with an updated faction Medallion) and may have some use, along with the PvP shoulder enchant.

Medallion of the Alliance/Horde (ilvl264)	945
Battlemaster’s Ruination (int)	630
Battlemaster’s Fury (crit)	630
Battlemaster’s Vivacity (haste)	630
Battlemaster’s Precision (hit)	630
Greater Inscription of the Gladiator	165

Wintergrasp items now also cost honor points – a change that could be argued is long overdue,especially if your faction has had trouble winning or defending Wintergrasp.  Admittedly at this stage the only pieces worth bothering with would be the shoulderpads (at a stretch - the Relentless set shoulders are the same item level), and possibly trinkets.

	Price	ilvl
Titan-Forged Cloak of Ascendancy	280	245
Titan-Forged Pendant of Ascendancy	280	245
Titan-Forged Shoulderpads of Salvation	490	251
Titan-Forged Shoulderpads of Domination	490	251
Arcanum of Dominance	65
Inscription of Dominance	50
Flow of Knowledge	280	200
Titan-Forged Slippers of Dominance	280	200
Titan-Forged Slippers of Salvation	280	200
Titan-Forged Hood of Dominance	490	200
Titan-Forged Hood of Salvation	490	200
Titan-Forged Raiment of Dominance	490	213
Titan-Forged Raiment of Salvation	490	213
Titan-Forged Cord of Salvation	280	213
Titan-Forged Cord of Determination	280	213
Titan-Forged Rune of Audacity	280	213
Titan-Forged Rune of Cruelty	280	213
Titan-Forged Rune of Accuracy	280	213
Titan-Forged Rune of Alacrity	280	213
Platinum Disks of Sorcery	280	213
Platinum Disks of Swiftness	280	213
Titan-Forged Cloth Trousers of Salvation	490	232
Titan-Forged Cloth Trousers of Domination	490	232
Titan-Forged Cuffs of Salvation	280	226
Titan-Forged Band of Ascendancy	280	226

In any case, it’s now entirely possible to gear up in battlegrounds (now that weapons, off-hands and frills are available).

Hope this is helpful, now it’s not really neccesary.  (Will we have the Shattering next week?  I’m certainly hoping so!)

/wave

Disc Priest PvP Gear – 3.3 Edition

Post soundtrack: “I Put A Spell On You” by Nina Simone

Update: new list for 4.0.1 here

Well, this post has been a long time coming – I blame the distraction of Star Trek and being put off WoW by ICC. (For reference see the old guide, parts 1, 2, 2.5 and 3)

This is simply a list of what’s now available in each slot, where to get it, and how much the items cost. I’m also including 5-man PvE weapons, off-hands and wands for players new to 80 who need to get items from somewhere. For enchants and gems for your gear, my old list here should still be accurate enough.

For reference, don’t forget the good old crafted Frostsavage set when you’re starting out. It may be pretty awful in comparison to the current tiers of gear, but resilience is still pretty much essential for any form of longevity.

The new top tier PvP gear is the Wrathful Gladiator’s Investiture. The introduction of this set means the previous top tier, Relentless Gladiator, is now available for purchase with emblems of frost or honor+arena points. Furious Gladiator, the tier below, can now be purchased with emblems of triumph or honor points. The lower tiers are now effectively obsolete, thanks to the ease of acquiring triumph emblems, and won’t be included in the list.

Also note that, in the interest of brevity, I’ve only listed a single item (usually Salvation) where there are multiple variants (such as wrathful cloaks, which have Ascendancy, Deliverance, Dominance, Salvation and Subjugation variants for casters).

Abbreviations:
AP = Arena Points
AR = Arena Rating Required
CS = Champion's Seal
Frost = Emblem of Frost
HP = Honor Points
Triumph = Emblem of Triumph
WGMoH = Wintergrasp Mark of Honor

Head	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Hood	270	2370AP (1950ARR)
Relentless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Hood	251	95 Frost or 13200HP+770AP
Furious Gladiator’s Mooncloth Hood	232	75 Triumph or 54500HP
Titan-Forged Hood of Salvation	200	40 WGMoH
Frostsavage Cowl	187	Crafted

The Wintergrasp helm isn’t really worth bothering with – save your marks for other Titan-Forged items.

Shoulder	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Mantle	270	1930AP (2000ARR)
Relentless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Mantle	251	60 Frost or 10550HP+600AP
Titan-Forged Shoulderpads of Salvation	251	40WGMoH
Furious Gladiator’s Mooncloth Mantle	232	50 Triumph or 34700HP
Frostsavage Shoulders	187	Crafted

The Wintergrasp item this time is actually well worth the cost. Recommended pick.

Chest	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robe	270	2370 AP (1600ARR)
Relentless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robe	251	95 Frost or 13200HP+770AP
Furious Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robe	232	75 Triumph or 54500HP
Titan-Forged Raiment of Salvation	213	40WGMoH
Frostsavage Robe	187	Crafted

You’re better off missing the Wintergrasp chest this time, unless you have marks to spare.

Hands	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Gloves	270	1430AP (1400ARR)
Relentless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Gloves	251	60 Frost or 8000HP+440AP
Furious Gladiator’s Mooncloth Gloves	232	50 Triumph or 43300HP
Frostsavage Gloves	187	Crafted

No Wintergrasp alternative? What a pity…

Legs	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Leggings	270	2370AP (1500ARR)
Relentless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Leggings	251	95 Frost or 13200HP+770AP
Furious Gladiator’s Mooncloth Leggings	232	75 Triumph or 34700HP
Titan-Forged Cloth Leggings of Salvation	232	40WGMoH
Frostsavage Leggings	187	Crafted

It’s a toss-up – 40 marks is costly, but they are ilvl232…

Back	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Cloak of Salvation	264	52200HP
Relentless Gladiator’s Cloak of Salvation	245	26100HP
Titan-Forged Cloak of Ascendancy	245	25WGMoH
Cloak of Crimson Snow	200	Crafted

Another good purchase.

Wrist	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Cuffs of Salvation	264	43400HP
Relentless Gladiator’s Cuffs of Salvation	245	21700HP
Titan-Forged Cuffs of Salvation	226	15WGMoH
Frostsavage Bracers	187	Crafted

Up to you – 21k honor doesn’t take long to make, but then neither does 15 marks…

Waist	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Cord of Salvation	264	68200HP (1300ARR)
Relentless Gladiator’s Cord of Salvation	245	34100HP
Titan-Forged Cord of Salvation	213	15WGMoH
Frostsavage Belt	187	Crafted

Another one where convenience decides.

Feet	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Treads of Salvation	264	68200HP (1400ARR)
Relentless Gladiator’s Treads of Salvation	245	34100HP
Titan-Forged Slippers of Salvation	200	15WGMoH
Frostsavage Slippers	187	Crafted

15 marks for ilvl 200? If you have marks to spare, go for it. Otherwise spend the honor for the shiny pair of ilvl 245 boots.

Amulet	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Pendant of Salvation	264	52200HP
Relentless Gladiator’s Pendant of Salvation	245	26100HP
Titan-Forged Pendant of Ascendancy	245	25WGMoH
Sky Sapphire Amulet	200	Crafted

Another good WG pick.

Rings	ilvl	Cost
Wrathful Gladiator’s Band of Dominance	264	52200
Relentless Gladiator’s Band of Ascendancy	245	26100
Titan-Forged Band of Ascendancy	226	15WGMoH
Runed Mana Band	200	Crafted
Savage Titanium Band	187	Crafted

As a placeholder, the WG ring is useful until you can afford the Wrathful and Relentless rings.

Trinkets	ilvl	Cost
Battlemaster’s Ruination	245	34100HP
Medallion of the Alliance (horde version)	226	68200HP
Platinum Disks of Sorcery	213	25WGMoH
Titan-Forged Rune of Audacity	213	25WGMoH
Flow of Knowledge	200	25WGMoH
Jouster’s Fury (horde version)	200	10CS

The Rune of Audacity is a great early pick, for the on-use freedom effect, and either Flow of Knowledge or the Platinum Disks are a easy way to pick up extra resilience.

PvE Weapons	ilvl	Source
Surgeon’s Needle	232	Pit of Saron (H)
Spectral Kris	219	Trial of the Champion (H)
Chilled Heart of the Glacier	219	Halls of Reflection (N)
Titansteel Spellblade	200	Crafted
Mariel’s Sorrow	219	Trial of the Champion (H)
Bone Golem Scapula	219	Halls of Reflection (N)
War Mace of Unrequited Love	200	The Nexus (H)
Titansteel Guardian	200	Crafted
Engraved Gargoyle Femur	232	Pit of Saron (H)
Blood Boil Lancet	219	The Forge of Souls (N)
Staff of Draconic Combat	200	The Oculus (H)

The crafted weapons are convenient (and probably a little less expensive, with the changes coming to titansteel creation), but still may be costly for some players. LFD is your friend!

PvE Off-hands	ilvl	Source
Shriveled Heart	232	Halls of Reflection (H)
Iron-bound Tome	200	Crafted
Frostbridge Orb	200	The Oculus BoE
Prison Manifest	200	Violet Hold BoE

A few options, but the Heart is your best bet (provided it wants to drop for you).

PvE Wands	ilvl	Source
Nightmare Ender	264	ICC BoE Drop
Brimstone Igniter	245	25 Triumph
Soulsplinter	232	Halls of Reflection (H)
Coffin Nail	219	FoS/PoS/HoR (N)
Rod of the Fallen Monarch	200	Azjol-Nerub (H)
Wand of Ahn’kahet	200	The Old Kingdom (H)
Incessant Torch	175	Violet Hold BoE
Gwyneth’s Runed Dragonwand	174	World BoE

It’s worth grinding out the emblems to buy the Igniter (and likely won’t take that long).

And there you go. Hopefully it’ll be of use to someone out there.

/wave

[updated to add the Brimstone Igniter – thanks for pointing that out Spiritu!]

Leveling Disc – Once More, From The Top

Post soundtrack:  “Come to me” by Koop.

Guess who’s leveling a new disc priest?  No, I’m not leaving my dwarves high and dry – this is mostly a preparation-for-cataclysm-and-thought-experiment kind of thing.

Meet blood elf Phinglezouse, priest soon-to-be-extraordinaire.  Or semiordinaire, maybe.  Almostordinaire?  Yes, it’s going to be disc all the way (mostly because I just like the playstyle*, but with an added touch of “You’d have to be utterly insane to level another priest to 80”).  Helped along with some bits and pieces from the AH, of course, because I’m lazy like that and have a higher-level alt to help bankroll it.

Phingle is currently sitting at level 19, with Herbalism and Inscription learnt.  Her sugar-daddy is OldDingle, who’s now level 54 (with Enchanting and Skinning).  Total bankroll between the two of them, around 340g when the server went down earlier this evening.

Talents at this stage are pretty minimal – there’s only 10 points to allocate at level 19, and nothing fancy for a few levels yet.  My picks so far:

Level	Talents
10	Spirit Tap (1/3)
11	Spirit Tap (2/3)
12	Spirit Tap (3/3)
13	Twin Disciplines (1/5)
14	Twin Disciplines (2/5)
15	Twin Disciplines (3/5)
16	Twin Disciplines (4/5)
17	Twin Disciplines (5/5)
18	Improved Power Word: Fortitude (1/2)
19	Improved Power Word: Fortitude (2/2)

Her dps rotation right now is pretty much what you’d expect from your average low-level priest:

1. PW:S on herself
2. Smite to pull her target.
3. SW:P on it while it’s running toward her.
4. Mind Blast.
5. Then she just wands it to death.  (Don’t underestimate wands; they’re mana-free dps, and they make for a great way to start regenerating mana before you engage your next target)
6. …
7. Profit!

Old internet memes aside, it’s a pretty straight-forward routine – single-target pulls, and if an additional target blunders in, she uses Psychic Scream where possible, puts SWP on the new target, and finishes off the original target.  Self-buffs at this stage are PW:Fortitude and Inner Fire, along with the inscription-made Intellect scrolls.

Time for another quick list, this time tips for new characters

• It can be worth taking your new characters to the blood elf or draenei starting zones when they’re just getting started, as they zones make for a much less irritating leveling experience than the vanilla starting zones.  (And the gear from Tranquillien rep is a nice bonus on horde side)
• Casters should always buy the best water you can get for your level.  (It helps to actually buy a stack or two when you’re still the level before you can use them, so you don’t forget – and you invariably will).
• If you’re leveling a priest, it’s a lot easier if they have the best wand you can get for their level.  (I might do a quick post on what/where, if I don’t forget or get sidetracked again)
• Bags!  Four netherweave bags for a new toon are the gift that keeps on giving.

That’s probably going to be it for this post – I’ll probably do another one when Phingle has something interesting to talk about (the 20-29 stretch would likely do).

/wave

* – Disclaimer:  My playstyle (and leveling style) aren’t designed for efficiency, or speed, or ease of leveling – indeed, if you want to level a priest fast, shadow is likely your best option (I’ve been told my bloody-mindedness is part of my charm).  So I’m sharing on the off chance someone discerning out there might find something in this to be useful, not because I think it’s fast or easy (or even fun, sometimes).  Offer void where prohibited by law, and probably causes cancer in rats.

Holy Moly!

It looks like I’m going to be expanding my horizons, as I’ve been accepted into one of the few hard-mode guilds, who are currently doing 25-man heroic ToC.

Needless to say, I’m a little nervous.

Or maybe, quite a bit nervous.

You see, I’ve been given a trial as disc/holy despite my having no holy experience.  I’ve done my research, re-gemmed and adjusted my gear to suit holy (and picked up a couple of upgrades to suit), along with changing my much-disliked shadow spec to holy, and setting up Vuhdo and Power Auras for my new holy spec and spells.

Now it’s a matter of getting some hands-on experience to go with my new-found theoretical knowledge.  Might be a little short of time, as first raid is scheduled for tomorrow night.

Yay, me?

Life As A Healer: Week Two

It’s been an odd kind of week; my time has been split roughly between WoW, D&D Online, and catching up on my backlog of Criminal Minds, Warehouse 13 and Eli Stone.

I’ve had my first experience with real raid healing, having spent an evening working on the hard-hard mode of 25-man Iron Council last night (which we didn’t get down in the end, but we were getting close).  Now that’s what I’d call a challenge: being one of the designated healers for the Steelbreaker tank.  Apart from a failed attempt at ToC10 Heroic earlier in the week, it’s just been normal ToC25 and Ulduar25 which, while challenging, didn’t really require me to stretch my abilities.

You see, while I’m a competent healer at this stage (helped by my relatively high-level gear), I’m still working on picking up the little things that I can do to keep a tank alive (and the pressure in hard modes encourage growth – along with the desire to throw things at the screen).  Growth in this sense means picking up things like how to time my cast of PW:S to get Borrowed Time at the right moment to then be able to cast a 1.6 second Greater Heal that lands right after Fusion Punch hits the tank instead of a Flash Heal that lands for maybe 2/3 as much.  (Maybe that’s not the best way to react to it, but it’s proving effective for me to use in that situation, especially if Penance is on cooldown at that moment)

It’s tricky, as I don’t really have anyone in-guild I can get to mentor me; our priests are all either main-specced Holy or Shadow, and our leading healer priest wasn’t able to offer much advice when I did try to get some advice.  Looking at WWS logs for other guilds are only effective in showing what spells they cast; it doesn’t give me tips on how they cast them, such as the Borrowed Time thing I described above.

One thing that has proven effective has been improving my visual alerts with the new version of Power Auras Classic, which now has support for dual-specs and more options that make it more flexible.  I’ve replaced Inner Fire Helper with a simple aura, changed my Flask aura to alert me when I don’t have either Flask of the Frost Wyrm or Flask of Pure Mojo active, and implemented another that displays when Penance is off cooldown and ready to cast.

I’m also having some success having dropped Bartender4 in favour of the default Blizzard action bars, and relocating Vuhdo’s raidframes closer to the centre of the screen so it’s easier to glance up at my toon to check if there’s something happening that I need to react to (such as patches of fire on the ground in which my character may be standing).

Sadly, the downside to being so reliant on mouseover healing is an equally growing reliance on keyboard-turning due to my mouse being unusable for turning while it’s over the raidframes; I think working out some way to get around that will have to be my next move.

Other than my healing, things have been pretty quiet.  I’ve been investing in Eternal Life for darkmoon cards in preparation for the next faire, along with my other usual AH investments.  I’m back down at 50k from my high of 70k, but I’m still ahead considering just how much I’ve invested in card mats (I’ve cards enough for three nobles decks already).

For now, though, I think I might go do some research on the possibilities of Prot Warrior PvP.

/wave

Life As A Healer: Week One

Well, I’ve a week of raid-tank-healing on Mingle under my belt, and I think I’m off to a good start.  (Translated: when the tank died, it wasn’t my fault)

I suspect the situation would be different for someone in a guild that isn’t one of the better-known progression guilds on their server, but it’s fun being able to enjoy fights that left me gritting my teeth as shadow.

In the week past I’ve healed 10-man and 25-man Ulduar, along with 10-man normal, 10-man hard-mode and 25-man normal ToC.  Admittedly the 10-man Ulduar only consisted of doing Razorscale, XT, Kologarn and Auriaya while the main raid did the first three bosses in 25-man ToC (and I was the raidleader for it – talk about stressful).  And on 25-man Ulduar I sat out for Yogg-Saron+3, but I’m proud to have successfully tank-healed up to and including General Vezax.

The way we tank-heal on General, we rotate through three healers who each heal the tank until they’re down to 50% mana, at which the next in the series takes over and continues until they reach half mana.  When the third person in the sequence starts healing, the previous two go stand in a saronite pool to regain their mana and get ready for the first person to take over from #3.  Anyway, I was #3 in the sequence, and was quite surprised when the boss died just after I hit 50%, and before I got to engage the saronite-boss.  Bear in mind that I’m still pretty inexperienced; enough so that I don’t know how much of the time I spent healing (which felt like I was in there for ages) was due to very-well-geared and skilled DPS, how much is due to well-geared and skilled healers, and how much is me not screwing up.

While I was only in for the last 25-man ToC boss, Anub’arak, I was in for the full 10-man normal clear, and the first two 10-man heroic bosses that were downed.  No pretty loot for Mingle, but some other new raiders got some upgrades and one of our priests finished making Val’anyr.  (Why yes, I am just a little jealous)

The Heroic Beasts encounter was pretty full-on to heal; the tweaks between normal and heroic change the substance of the fights quite a bit, especially that change to Icehowl that changed the fight the most, namely removing the speed-buff you gain after everyone is stunned and knocked back to the wall, right before he charges someone.  (The tank wiped us twice by not running out quite fast enough; she’ll probably be very happy to hear that they’ve added an extra half-second before he charges)

The Faction Champions are even harder on heroic than I expected, and they’re such a hard fight on normal that it’s already (sometimes) remarkably difficult – it’s probably the most unpredictably difficult encounter I’ve come across, with the difficulty of the fight being almost completely reliant on their group makeup.

Still, I’ve managed to pick up one piece of nice badge loot (the non-tier badge shoulders, not to be confused with the horde equivalent), and I’ll probably be looking for the badge ring next.

It’s the start of Week #2 though, so hopefully it’s more of the same, but better this time.

Oh, and I’ve managed to reach another personal milestone.

Ding 50k.

/wave

Maybe I’m Not As Burnt-Out As I Thought

Yesterday I officially started raiding on Mingle as a disc priest, and it was pretty enjoyable.  Apart from the Faction Champions.

I’m not saying I dislike that encounter – indeed, it’s very much the opposite.  Healing through the Champions on 10-man was Awesome!  Seriously, that fight alone was the most fun I’ve had playing WoW in quite some time.  And the rest of the night was pretty good as well.

I’ve yet to get some feedback from the Healing Officer about my performance so far (I’ve been told not to expect too much until I’ve several raids worth of WWS for officers to study), but I’m cautiously optimistic.  I think part of that is the fact that healing (at least, Disc-style) plays up one of my strengths (reaction time) whilst avoiding my two biggest weaknesses (targeting mobs at range as a dps class, and hesitation when starting to dps).  But it’s quite a turn-around from the last time I did the Faction Champions on my priest – that left me fuming and probably the angriest I’ve been in a long time, when I last did it as shadow.  (That was the 25-man version though; I’ve yet to see what it’s like to heal)

I was also in for the first guild 10-man run of VoA and the new boss, Koralon, on tank Dingle.  It was easier than Emalon (and probably almost puggable, given decently geared people with at least a little competence), but a fun little fight.  I still haven’t been able to get in there on priest Mingle; missing out on the 25-man VoA run last night was annoying, but considering that we had so many new raiders that we ran a 10-man Ulduar simultaneously with the 25-man ToC run to give people something to do, it’s not really worth getting upset over.  (I guess I’ll have to see if I can get Mingle into a VoA25 pug)

Anyway, I haven’t done any ToC25 so far this week – I’m really hoping I get the chance, as I have enough emblems of triumph saved to be able to buy a t9.5 piece (probably the Shoulders) but need to get my hands on a Trophy of the Crusade.  It’s a pity the tier 9 is such a plain, characterless set – hopefully the tier 10 from Icecrown will make up for this set’s boredom.

But I have been in ToC10, and the guild group managed to clear it all – even Anub’arak (which was more fun than he was in AN).  After the 25-man raid, we went back to do heroic ToC10 and managed to get through both the Beasts encounter and Jarraxus.  (Sadly, the bosses don’t drop the Trophy I need for my shoulders – apparently they only drop from the tribute chests after killing Anub’arak, if you have enough attempts remaining)

Unfortunately we’re stuck on the Faction Champions again, which is even nastier than it was first time around.  Fortunately while it’s irritating to be wiping on the encounter, it’s challenging to heal and not mind-numbingly frustrating the way I found it when specced as shadow.  We’re going back tonight after 25-man, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

For now, though, it’s time to get busy with the little bits and pieces I’ve been putting off – not least of which is grinding Netherwing rep on Fingle, who’s going to be my designated drake-rider.

/wave

Is WoW The Game It Used To Be?

Or it the players who’ve changed?

I never reached the level cap playing vanilla WoW so missed old-school raiding, but managed to raid everything in TBC up to Felmyst in Sunwell.  However, the changes to raiding that Wrath has brought us seem to have changed the raiding experience considerably for a large number of people, myself included, and not necessarily for the better.

Last night our guild was faced with the possibility that a large number of the raiders (including several officers) are so unsatisfied with the quality of our raiding (and the lack of recruitable players on the server) that they’re facing either stopping working on 25-man hard modes (which are pretty much the only remaining measure of progression raiding) or transferring to another server with a more mature raider population in order to continue progression raiding.

Several factors have lead up to this, ranging from experienced players getting burnt-out and leaving the game, to raiders server-transferring to more progressed guilds elsewhere, to unreliable raiding performance of current raiders (myself included) and general dissatisfaction with the progression-raiding model.  While some people are afraid that we may end up disbanding or at least retiring from 25-man raiding, the officers are working on one last recruiting push to try and get enough capable raiders and see if we can still push hard-modes.

Personally I’m beginning to think that if I’m not careful, this might be the feather that broke this particular camel’s back.  WoW (and the people I play it with) is a big part of my life, but the game doesn’t have the thrill that it used to.  Raiding especially has changed, with the challenge level going from “Challenging” in TBC for everything (well, with the exception of Sunwell), to either “Faceroll” for normal fights or “Impossible” for hardmodes in the current raiding tiers.

Apparently (hearsay FTW!) Blizzard’s goal with hard-modes is that only the top 1% of players are skilled enough to complete them.  I reckon this is raising serious issues with raiding guilds, who at a rough guess comprise 5%* of the total player base, but due to the binary nature of current raid difficulty the majority of them will end up either wiping in growing frustration or possibly dropping hardmodes entirely due to their very small reward-to-effort ratio.

* – Numbers may have been completely fabricated in order to support my rant.  Take with a large grain of angry salt.

Gear no longer has any meaning more than being the (occasionally aesthetically pleasing) vessel for your various stat bonuses – some of my guildmates still keep their T6 sets in the bank, because of how much completing the set meant.  However, when they replace their T7 with T8, or T8 with T9, the set it’s replacing will get vendored without a second thought because of how little the old items mean in this age of disposable gear.

The leveling game isn’t all that bad (once you get past the archaic 1-60 grind), and Outland is still quite beautiful (well, apart from Hellfire Peninsula).  But once you hit 80, the remaining game (either self-goals like collecting pets/mounts/reputations/achievements or group goals like raiding) just isn’t that exciting anymore.  Even raiding has gone from feeling elation at having defeated boss X (so you can move onto the next boss), to feeling relief that boss Y is dead (until next week).

I suspect I’m just getting burnt out by the same-ness of the endgame (and the necessity of a month of jousting to open up the latest group of dailies is just salt in an open wound).  To be blunt, I’m running out of things to do.

So it’s time for a change.

I’m going to try something new on my priest; I’ve changed raiding spec from shadow to discipline, and that means trying something very new.  I’ve spend a metric bucket-load of gold picking up some new disc-friendly gear (including the Etched Signet of the Kirin Tor – thank you Inscription), and my talent build has passed the healing officer’s once-over, so now I just need a lot of experience (which I suspect I’ll be getting in short order).

Here’s hoping we’re able to pull the guild back together, and reclaim our place as A Guild That Doesn’t Suck.

/wave

Disc Priest PvP Gear Guide – Part Three

Putting it all together!

Now, with the assortment of gear I’ve listed in the previous parts, you should have some idea of what is available for your priest.  In this part I’m going to give you some suggestions about the easiest order in which to buy PvP items, in general terms what stats you should be aiming for, and what gems and non-PvP enchants are available to help you get there.

Item enhancements – You’re not ready until you’re enchanted
There are a number of different ways to upgrade your items, from Arcanums for your helm, Inscriptions for your shoulders, and enchants for almost everything else.  The head and shoulder enhancements require either rep with certain factions or sufficient Stone Keeper’s Shards (additional rewards from bosses defeated in heroic dungeons while your faction controls Lake Wintergrasp) to purchase the item.

Head enchant:
The two faction enchants are useful for their bonuses until you can get one of the PvP arcanums.  The first Gladiator arcanum is also useful until you can get something better, if you have sufficient rep with the Shattered Sun Offensive from the Burning Crusade expansion.  The Dominance enchant is my recommendation for a new priest (and is easier to get than the Savage Gladiator one).

• Arcanum of the Gladiator (req. Revered with the Shattered Sun Offensive – Burning Crusade faction)
• Arcanum of Blissful Mending (req. Revered with Wyrmrest Accord)
• Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (req. Revered with Kirin Tor)
• Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator (req. Exalted with Alliance Vanguard or Horde Expedition)
• Arcanum of Dominance (40 Stone Keeper’s Shards)

Shoulder enchant:
Not many options here – the Lesser inscription from Sons of Hodir is equivalent to the greater Aldor/Scryer shoulder enchants, which can be used instead if you have rep with one of those faction from TBC and don’t wish to spend time grinding Sons of Hodir rep.  The resilience on the Dominance inscription makes it the preferred enchant for this slot, although the Greater Inscription can also be useful if you want to exchange spellpower for stamina.

• Greater Inscription of Faith (req. Exalted with Aldor)
• Greater Inscription of the Oracle (req. Exalted with Scryers)
• Lesser Inscription of the Crag (req. Honored with Sons of Hodir)
• Greater Inscription of the Crag (req. Exalted with Sons of Hodir)
• Master’s Inscription of the Crag (req. Inscription)
• Inscription of Dominance (30 Stone Keeper’s Shards)
• Greater Inscription of the Gladiator (10,000 honor points)

Cloak enchant:
For non-tailors, there are only really two alternatives, with Spell Piercing being possibly less useful for a dedicated healer.  For a non-tailor, the greater speed enchant is probably the most useful.  If you are a tailor, however, the Darkglow mana regeneration effect makes it easy to recommend instead.

• Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
• Enchant Cloak – Spell Piercing
• Lightweave Embroidery (req. Tailoring)
• Darkglow Embroidery (req. Tailoring)

Chest enchant:
Resilience = good.  An easy choice.

• Enchant Chest – Exceptional Resilience

Wrist enchant:
For a new priest, the spellpower enchant is an easy recommendation.  Once your character is beginning to get geared up (and if you can afford it), the stamina enchant is probably equally useful.

• Enchant Bracers – Major Stamina (expensive)
• Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower

Hands enchant:
For this slot, the recommendation depends on your playstyle.  The hit rating from the precision enchant is wasted on a character who purely heals, yet can be useful if you use offensive spells against your opponents.  I’d suggest using the spellpower enchant, but if you're a more offensive-style player you may find the precision enchant more useful.  I don’t PvP on an character with engineering so I can’t make experienced suggestions on either of the engineering glove enchants, but I suspect that the accelerators would be comparative to the spellpower enchant and the rocket to the precision enchant for playstyle purposes.

• Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
• Enchant Gloves – Precision
• Hand-mounted Pyro Rocket (req. Engineering)
• Hyperspeed Accelerators (req. Engineering)

Legs enchant:
There’s only one spellthread with resilience, so the Earthen leg armor is recommended for this slot.

• Brilliant Spellthread
• Runic Spellthread
• Earthen Leg Armor
• Master’s Spellthread (req. Tailoring)
• Sanctified Spellthread (req. Tailoring)

Feet enchant:
The ability to travel fast is highly recommended for PvP, and the stamina is the cherry on top of some very appealing icing.

• Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality

Weapon enchant:
You won’t have a PvP weapon for quite a while, so I’d recommend getting one of the cheaper weapon enchants when you’re starting out (especially if you don’t have a very good weapon).

• Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower (expensive)
• Enchant Weapon – Exceptional Spellpower
• Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower (expensive)
• Enchant Staff – Spellpower

Belt:
While it’s not an enchant, you still shouldn’t forget to get an eternal belt buckle.  Which leads me to the next section of this guide.

Gems, or Scarlet Rubies are a girls best friend
Now, although the range of gems with resilience is very broad, you only need to worry about a few of them (especially while you’re getting started).

Starter gems:
You only really need to use a small assortment of gems in order to fill your empty slots.  It’s not worth getting epic gems until you’ve picked up some high-level gear, especially with the high price of the raw gems at the time of writing.

• Mystic Dragon’s Eye (req. Jewelcrafting, limit 3 equipped)
• Kharmaa’s Grace (yellow socket, unique-equipped)
• Mystic King’s Amber (yellow socket, epic)
• Mystic Autumn’s Glow (yellow socket)
• Durable Ametrine (red socket, epic)
• Durable Monarch Topaz (red socket)
• Steady Eye of Zul (blue socket, epic)
• Steady Forest Emerald (blue socket)

Meta-gems:
Of the three I’m listing here, I’d recommend the Insightful diamond for starting out; the stun reduction and run-speed increase of the other two, while they can be useful in PvP, don’t have quite the same impact as the mana returned (especially when you’re still in crafted PvP gear)

• Insightful Earthsiege Diamond
• Tireless Skyflare Diamond
• Powerful Earthsiege Diamond

Your Stats and You!
Resilience is your friend
If you want to avoid being one- or two-shotted by every passing dps class, you’ll want to have a decent amount of resilience.  In general terms, resilience works by reducing the effect of damaging abilities against you (and since 3.2 it reduces all damage you take from other players).

Ideally you should be aiming for as much resilience as you can get, although that will take quite a bit of upgrading to get very far (considering that Fingle had only 545 in her crafted PvP gear when she started out).  800 or more is a good place to aim for, and possibly more for arena.

More Stamina = More time not dead
One of the most obvious differences between PvE and PvP gear is the very large stamina bonuses you’ll find on PvP items.  If you can reach 20k health or better, you’re in a good position.  (For comparison, Fingle started with just over 16k)

Mana – Quality instead of quantity
PvE disc priests rarely go OOM (when played correctly), thanks to the inherent mana efficiency in their talents and the mana replenishment effects available when in a raid group.  PvP on a disc priest is quite a different situation, mostly due to greatly reduced mana pools and a lack of replenishment effects (especially in arena, but also very noticeable in busy battlegrounds where you often don’t have time to stop and drink).

You have limited choice in stats in a lot of PvP gear set items, mostly between Spirit or Crit, and for replenishment’s sake I’d suggest getting spirit gear (such as Mooncloth item sets) over crit gear (Satin item sets), at least when you’re initially gearing up.  (Non-set items often have much more variation in stats, which gives you some flexibility when combined with sockets on your gear)

You’ll notice, as you go from crafted to purchased PvP gear, that the size of your mana pool doesn’t grow excessively (indeed, it initially shrinks slightly with your first few pieces of non-crafted gear), so while the situation does improve as your gear improves you’ll still have to get used to having a lot less mana to play with.

Most of all, don’t panic!
You’ll find that your stats will increase in a fairly steady manner, because there isn’t much choice between varied stats in PvP gear the way that you often get with PvE items.  Eventually you will start personalising your stats, when you start choosing between spirit, haste, critical rating and other specific stat items, but while you’re still replacing crafted items with PvP set-items there isn’t really any way in which you can get it badly wrong.  So long as you have lots of resilience (which you will have), lots of stamina (which you will have) and enough mana (which you probably will have), you’re doing it right.

The Shopping List
I’m putting this list together based on the assumption that you’re starting gearing up a completely new level 80 who hasn’t done any instances and will need to be geared up from scratch. 

Crafted items:
Frostsavage Battlegear
Cloak of Crimson Snow
Sky Sapphire Amulet
Savage Titanium Band
Runed Mana Band

BoE items:
Titansteel Guardian (or Titansteel Spellblade)
Prison Manifest
Gwyneth’s Runed Dragonwand

That covers most of your gear slots, with the exception of trinkets.  Any spellpower or MP5 trinket will do for the time being, with probably the best easily accessible non-PvP ones being the darkmoon cards Greatness and Illusion (if you can either make or afford to buy them). 

Now for the upgrades, assuming you’re just doing battlegrounds and Wintergrasp.  Purchase the gloves and mantle first, as they’re the cheapest two set items, and the two give the two-set bonus of 50 resilience.  The gloves come first, as they give the Psychic Scream cooldown reduction.

• Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Gloves
• Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Mantle

The next items is the hood, which gives you a meta-socket for your Insightful Earthsiege Diamond.  Then comes either the robe to give you the four-piece bonus.  Also, don’t forget to pick up the PvP enchants for shoulders and head when you have enough stone-keeper shards, which you’ll be picking up a lot of from Wintergrasp.

• Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Hood
• Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robe

(Just a tip:  If you are doing arena and buy two pieces of Hateful Gladiator and two pieces of Deadly Gladiator, when they’re all equipped you get both 2-piece bonuses for a total of +100 resilience.)

These next items can be purchased whenever you get enough Wintergrasp marks to do so.  If you don’t have any trinkets, get them first (you should get the Rune of Audacity first anyway, for its very useful on-use freedom effect).  Get the cuffs and band before the belt, boots or legs, as they provide the most benefit per mark as ilvl 226 items.

• Titan-forged Rune of Audacity (25 marks)
• Flow of Knowledge  (25 marks)
• Titan-Forged Cuffs of Salvation (15 marks)
• Titan-Forged Band of Ascendancy (15 marks)
• Titan-forged Cord of Salvation (15 marks)
• Titan-forged Slippers of Salvation  (15 marks)
• Titan-Forged Cloth Trousers of Domination (40 marks)

The following items are good purchases with the honor you’ll be picking up in Wintergrasp, especially if you do the assorted not-quite-daily dailies, but don’t have any special order in which to acquire them.

• Deadly Gladiator’s Cloak of Deliverance (38,000 honor)
• Deadly Gladiator’s Pendant of Deliverance (38,000 honor)
• Hateful Gladiator’s Band of Dominance (30,400 honor)

It make take a while to earn enough honor and marks (never let a Wintergrasp pass you by), but you’ll be well equipped for PvP from early in your progression. 

Now, I’m not a expert PvPer by any means, and I’ve yet to step into an arena, but what I’ve written should give you a head-start when it comes to assembling your gear and starting in battlegrounds and Wintergrasp.

Just remember:  Have fun!

/wave

Some links that I sourced for my guide:
http://penancepriest.blogspot.com/2009/05/getting-started-in-arenas-what-pros-are.html
http://elitistjerks.com/f38/t13983-surviving_priest/
http://www.plusheal.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2822
http://bobturkey.wordpress.com/ (not PvP orientated, but great priest info)