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

Glyphmas Comes But Once An Expansion

Post soundtrack: “They Say It’s Spring” by Blossom Dearie (in honour of some glorious spring days of late)

Hmmm, has it really been so long? (Considering my last post was over three weeks ago, signs point to “Yes”)

I haven’t fallen off the edge of Azeroth, at least not all the way down.  I’ve been taking a breather, and enjoying things outside of WoW, not least of which is a change of diet (tried buckwheat noodles for dinner tonight, and it was particularly yummy) and getting some exercise into my day (inspired by Xeonio’s progress).  I’ve also been reading about Stoicism, after coming across a link to a book review on the subject on Boing Boing a couple of months back.

In-game, I’ve been reaping the profits of being a Scribe; Glyphmas has been and gone, and I’ve made over 200k in sales (only 150k of that being profit, as I hadn’t prepared for it with anything remotely resembling diligence, and I missed the first couple of days).  I’ve also been spending some of my collected Justice Points to gear up Ringle and Mingle (Isn’t the new community site nifty? I’ll admit to a “They wouldn’t dare” moment when I saw my RL name displayed above my selected main character, but it appears to only show up for you when you’re logged in), despite the fact the gear will be replaced by quest rewards in under a month (and I definitely won’t be keeping it, especially that truly awful rogue T10).

I’ve also been farming crusader seals with Ringle (although not from jousting) in order to purchase the third hippogryph mount for her enjoyment (probably my favourite mount in the game); tomorrow will put her over the magic 150, which leaves me in search of a new goal.

And I’ve been roped into joining a guild which a friend is an officer in(ostentionably to help with guild leveling, but probably really because they just don’t have enough gorgeous dwarven women).  I’m keeping Pringle in OOTA as my banker (I really wish we had goblins on Alli side for that), but Dingle, Ringle and Mingle have all jumped ship.

I’ve been doing a little bit of writing for my arty project, but it’s still early days and I’m trying to decided what format to take it in.  (My inability to write accents doesn’t help, especially with the dwarf-heavy cast. Actually, writing dialogue at all is a challenge.)

For now, it’s time for more writing (although no NaNoWriMo for me, unlike other more talented writers), the occasional daily LFD, and the tail-end of Glyphmas.  Oh, and sleep.  [3AM Crits you for 100k]

/wave

WoW: An Artistic Experiment

I’ve been contemplating a new project (related to this blog), and as part of my deliberations I put together this little combination of screenshot, WoWModelViewer, Photoshop (and a couple of nice little 3rd-party filters).

It’s just a proof-of-concept image (click for the full image), intended to make it look like I’ve been busy while I consider my options (and take lots of notes). It’s called “Entering Ironforge” – what can I say, I love prosaic titles.

/wave

WoW: Guess What’s Hiding In 4.0.1

Post soundtrack: “Moondance” by Van Morrison

I noticed something interesting while 4.0.1 was installing, and now I’ve found a working version of WoWModelViewer (the ‘DEV WORK’ version, so you should be surprised if it works) I found something veeeeeeery nice.

Isn’t Miss Goblin cute?  And she has company.

Meet Mister Goblin.  Some great little touches in his animations – I particularly love the way his ears sag when he cries, it’s quite touching.

Mr Worgan.   Pretty much what you’d expect.  And last, but not least…

And Ms Worgen.  While she’s still prone to lycanthropic Chihuahua-ism when viewed from certain angles (and some of her animations have clipping issues with her armour that you wouldn’t believe), she’s not as poorly modeled as the initial screenshots of her from the char select screen would suggest.

She does seem to need a good few layers of polish, though.

Roll on 4.0.3!

/wave

WoW: Vanity Thy Name Is…

Post soundtrack: “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon

I decided to do something about my unguilded state, and the easiest route was a vanity guild for myself.  I purchased the guild bank slots while I was at it, so there’s a lot of space for me to fill with bits and pieces while I wait for Cata.

I’m not planning on making the guild a ‘real’ one (I’ve been a GL before, and it turns out I’m pretty dire at it), but it gives me somewhere to put my alts while I fail to get around to finding a raiding guild for Cata.

Now to go fishing for Mr Pinchy.

/wave

Shared Topic: What’s In A Name?

Post soundtrack: “Who? Where? Why?” by Jesus Jones

I’m usually not motivated enough to take part in the shared topics on Blog Azeroth, but this one caught me at a time when I’m reassessing my naming habits in preparation for adding new characters to my roster, come 4.0.1 and Cataclysm.  (Warning: incoming stream of consciousness!)

I initially touched on my naming habits a looooooong time ago, but for those new here it can all be traced back to a mouse.  I love the name Dinglemouse, a character from Spike Milligan’s book Badjelly the Witch (which I really need to buy a copy of).  When I initially considered using the name for one of my characters, I decided to save it and try a variation first, which was Pringlerouse.  Variations begat variations, and soon I had seven dwarves to play with (although Fingle has since moved servers, leaving me with an open spot in the roster, and there’s still no Snow White to keep them in line).

My current assortment on Dath’Remar, nominally my home server, is Pringlerouse (80 rogue), Kringlelouse (80 hunter), Dinglemouse (80 warrior, and star of my last few blog posts), Ringleprouse (80 rogue), Mingledouse (80 priest), Binglerouse (80 pally), Tingleflouse (35 druid and the only non-dwarf) and Ninglethouse (very disposable 58 DK and AH mule).  On other servers my highest level characters are server transferee Finglethouse, an 80 dwarf priest and Pringle, an 80 gnome rogue on Argent Dawn (home of SAN-US), and Dinglemouse, a 70 troll rogue on Aman’Thul.

While Pringle, Dingle, Mingle and Ringle are pretty much guaranteed to stay around on Dath, I’m looking at re-rolling (and probably renaming) Kringle and Bingle with 4.0.1, and replacing (and definitely renaming) Tingle with a Worgen druid come Cataclysm.  My quandary now is how best to name these new characters -  it’s been hard to come up with names that fitted the system I’d been using yet sounded as good as the original ones (Kringlelouse never really rang true, and Binglerouse sounds more like a gnome), and I’ve been resistant to the idea of breaking tradition (at least, until now).

Incidentally, one little exercise which has helped me firm up the identities behind the names of my characters was a collection of little thumbnail descriptions I did of each of the main characters when I entered the Cataclysm Comic Contest a few weeks back on Disciplinary Action.  (The winners’ prizes were really quite delightful, by the way)

Mingledouse, the pathologically pessimistic priest.
Dinglemouse, the timid tank.
Kringlelouse, the hunter who’s allergic to pets.
Binglerouse, the paladin atheist.
Ringleprouse, the clumsy yet ridiculously lucky rogue.
Pringlerouse, not a serial killer, honest.

Needless to say, while I’m definitely not a roleplayer it was fun to come up with simple hooks upon which I can hang the identities of my characters (even if they are just currently purely cosmetic hooks – although the behind-the-webcomic-scenes post on DA today has left me… a little contemplative of possibilities).

But I digress.  (Like usual)

As I said above, for my dwarves my current system hasn’t really scaled beyond four of the first five, which means it’s as good a time as any to come up with something new (and probably more individual this time round), which means time to hit some online name generators to see what I can find which sounds good (probably my only criteria).

As far as other characters go, well, they’ve pretty much inherited dwarven names out of habit.  My troll desperately needs a unique name of his own, and I’ll have to get creative if I roll some more horde-side characters (including a goblin, of course).  As names are pretty much forever (or until you spend some cold, hard cash), they’re not something I want to come to regret.  Time to cogitate.

After all, the Cataclysm is coming, so what better time to make some sweeping changes.  Not just to how you play, but also to who.

/wave

WoW: D1 Mission Accomplished

Post soundtrack: “Uam Uam” by Povo

After much trials, tribulations, and many many runs of UBRS, I’ve not only completed Dingle’s D1 set, I’ve also completed the quest chains to upgrade it all to D2.

For the D2 set, WoW Insider helped out again with its mini-guide for the upgrade quest chains.  But there’s several bits and pieces that they didn’t elaborate upon, which took a bit of doing on top of the ridiculous amount of travelling required for the D2 quests.

The first noticeable hurdle was Anthion’s Strange Request, the third quest in the chain to upgrade your leg, feet and shoulder pieces.  This quest has you provide three Dark Iron Bars, 20 Enchanted Leather, three Mooncloth and four Cured Rugged Hides.  The mooncloth was easy to find on the AH, but I had to make the Enchanted Leather and Cured Rugged Hides on my enchanter and leatherworker.  The Dark Iron Bars are a little trickier, as you need to complete The Spectral Chalice in BRD before your miner is able to smelt them from ore.  It was an easy solo for my level 80, and it took longer to procure the 10 truesilver bars than anything else.

Anthion’s Old Friend was the next hiccup, requiring the Crescent Key to get into the Dire Maul library.  Fortunately this is just a minor speed bump, requiring a partial run through Dire Maul East to kill Pussilin for it.

The Three Kings of Flame is another speed bump, with Duke of Cynders being noticeably subject to the RNG.  I stocked up with several sets of the Twilight Cultist gear (and a couple of Abyssal Signets) from the AH to use in the numerous attempts at summoning which you may (or may not) need to get him to appear – he’s a 1-in-4 chance from a Wind Stone, so good luck!

The last hold-up was getting a Flask of Supreme Power to turn-in for Final Preparations. As a vanilla flask, it wasn’t listed on the AH all that frequently, and I ended up taking one of my alchemists into Scholomance to farm Ras Frostwhisper for the recipe.

In the end, the longest hold-up to completing my D2 was actually getting the last item of my D1, the Breastplate of Valor, to drop.  It was only on Dingle’s 19th run that Drakkisath finally relinquished it.  And then it was back to Ironforge to turn in the final quest, and receive the last two pieces of her D2.

Accessorising is still a work in progress, but for now I’m using Dal’Rend’s Sacred Charge and the Draconian Deflector, along with the Knight’s Colors tabard.  The weapon isn’t perfect, but it looks more substantial than the usual one-handed weapons, and the colours of the shield are close enough.

Next?  Well, that’s a good question.  Which is to say, I have no idea just yet.  But with luck 4.0.1 is under a week away, and that’ll mean new toys (or at least, new abilities) to play with.

For now, I guess I’ll go on a road-tour of capitals or something suitably exhibitionist.

/wave