Pvp resto epicsFollow

This is a continuation of the "Heroic Arc kicked my butt" conversation, but it is essentially a new subject, so here we go.

I would like to upgrade my gear to give myself a little more survivability. It has been suggested that I get a couple of pvp pieces. So, I will.

Trouble is, I know absolutely nothing about pvp. I don't even know where the battlemasters are in most cities. I've been in AB a couple times on my hunter, but nowhere near enough to become competent. I'm not particularly worried about being awful, from what I remember, battlegrounds are mostly just people complaining constantly. No group that would accept me is going to have very high standards anyway. What I am concerned with is picking the right gear. I don't know where to look.

Will I have to play arenas to get level 70 epics? And if so, is there any hope of finding a partner or a group that won't be driven insane by my complete incompetence and lack of appropriate gear?

Also, I would prefer to upgrade my back and hand pieces, since they are my only blues, and I'd rather not break up either of my healing sets.


Edited, Jul 14th 2008 4:16am by Laecy

I'm guessing the S2 weapon (available through BGs) would be the best PvE upgrade, but I can't look at your gear right now (at work). That said, some more detail on the above post follows:

Non-set PvP = wrists, boots, bracers, back, neck, rings
Set PvP = Head, Shoulders, Chest, Hands, Legs
And let's not forget weap, OH, and idol.

S4 belt has no arena rating requirement. Just need BG honor and marks. In case you hadn't noticed, each BG gives a unique mark, so make sure you're earning the correct marks for the gear you're saving for.

S4 neck has no arena rating requirement.

S4 wrists have a 1550 arena rating requirement. Find a mediocre warlock or warrior to go with your mediocre (PvP) druidity and 1550 should be attainable.

S4 boots have an arena rating requirement, 1650 or 1700 iirc, so they may be out of reach for you.

S4 ring has an arena rating requirement, but I forget what it is.

Ok, here is what I think about all of this. I'm a resto druid as well, My spec is a little different 0/0/61 and mind you I raid way way too much.

If you want to add survivability I suggest working towards the badge gear. I know for a fact finding leather healing drops from the t4 dungeons is a pain. Gruul drops one the Cowl of Nature's Breath. Also you can get Forest Wind Shoulderpads from The Curator in Kara.

The main thing I noticed was this, you have all cloth gear except one piece and I know that dropping +healing for more armor sucks but sometimes it's something you'll have to do. This is my armory. I happened to get lucky when I joined my current guild as in they were in need of a healer for the t4 raiding. One of the best things you can do is just wait and save your badges for the island badge hand ins. There are 4 very good pieces you can get from there. Also there is a ring, Anveena's Touch, that is also for badges that has quite a bit of stamina.

If you can deal with the lack of healing you could lose the glyph you currently have on your helm for the Glyph of the Gladiator, which is from getting to revered with SSO.

There are a few things you can do, but most of them come at the lack of +healing or replacing your cloth gear with leather. You can try to get the S2 stuff but personally I don't think it's worth the time or effort you have to put into grinding the honor and marks when you could run instances and make money and badges together at once.

best advice i can give you as a newbie pvp druid is to find a geared warrior or rogue and stick to them like glue. keep them alive, do what you can to distract their opponents, and you will go far. youll also probably pick up some random strategy about the bgs and pvp in general along the way, assuming the person you follow and the people you play with dont suck ***.

naturally, if said geared war or rogue sucks ***, find someone, of any class, who doesnt. two skilled healers in AB or AV can last against a much larger force if they play their cards right.

Edited, Jul 14th 2008 10:04pm by Quor

Whoo Hoo!

I got my first pvp epic :D - the Merciless Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves. I've been spending a ton of money on enchants this week, I'm going to end up a pauper if I don't drag my hunter out for some gold grinding. But it's so worth it to see my stats climbing steadily.

When I first learned that I would be able to earn an epic upgrade for my gloves in a single day, I was furiously indignant. Having spent weeks for even the most trivial of upgrades in pve, whether through organizing and running a million heroics, grinding out lots of gold, pushing rep with seemingly endless factions, or gathering tons of mats - I nearly spat out my tea. Now I know better. Two minutes in pvp packs an hour's worth of stress. The feeling reminded me forcibly of this Calvin and Hobbes comic.

Now, I know one piece of S2 does not a pvp'er make, but I was nearly always top of the healing meter, and my groups won a bit more than half the time. Would these qualifications be sufficient for me to ask for a spot in a pre-made group? I'm not as concerned about upping my victory ratio as escaping the incessant complaints and insults. Honestly, if that many people really hate the Alliance so much, there would be far more Horde players.

I think I'm going to shoot for two healing sets in the end. One that will be pure healing - optimized +heal/int/spirit/mp5, and one with more armor, resiliance, and stamina. They will both still be mostly for pve, but I thought I could use one during trash pulls and bosses where there isn't much ambient damage, and the other where I'll need to be able to take a few knocks. . . . Like druids need to store another gearset :P.

Anyway, thanks everyone for all the feedback and guidance. It's helped me enjoy my newbie learning experience much more than I thought I would. I can't wait to become that resto druid that is impossible to kill!



Edited, Jul 15th 2008 6:55am by Laecy

Or turn in one mark from each BG for 314 honor as many times in a given day as you please. It's a repeatable quest that you get from the same guy that gives out the daily BG quest.

Arena points aren't too bad. Do the 10 matches needed per week and after a while, you'll save up enough points, however it will take a while, so don't go expecting to get a lot, even if you win all 10 matches.

If you're planning on going for it, get a lesser enchant such as +30 intel or something similar for your current (or merciless' if you got for it)

uh, i wouldnt wonder about the brutal glad weapons OR shoulders until you're confident you can hit 2050+ in a single bracket. because both shoulders AND weapons have personal rating requirements that exceed the 2k mark.

you see, arena gear works a little like pve gear in the sense that there are clearly delineated tiers. season 1 all the way to season 4. right now, S2 gear is the lowest common demoniator. given enough time, anyone can acquire a full suit of S2 gear + S2 weapons, as well as a mix of the S4 and S3 off-set pieces. assuming you have all that, are skilled, and have a good team(mate), you can then push your team to the higher 1900+ ratings. as you gain more rating, you can acquire the rated off-set items (bracers, boots, ring) and more S4 pieces (legs, chest, helm). eventually, youll reach the 1800+ point and be able to pick up an S3 weapon, and finally the 1950+ point where you can get S3 shoulders.

now, once youve done all that, youll be about on par with other high-rated arena players. however, until you do that, youll be at a gear disadvantage, and that is likely enough to hold you back from going further on.

the bottom line of all this is....dont worry about the S4 weapons or shoulders. you wont have the rating for them for a *long* time (unless youre crazy crazy crazy good and have an awesome and geared team helping you out). however, the S2 weapons/shoulders are easily within your grasp, as they only require honor and tokens. all the S3 pieces sans weapon/shoulders are also easily obtainable, and at a discounted price over their S4 equivalents.

my "ideal" way of a new pvper gearing up for arena play would be to snag the S2 weapons and shoulders, then store all their honor/tokens for the off-set pieces while they arena for the main-set S3 pieces. assuming you hold out around the 1500 mark, youll have a full suit of pvp gear in under 2 months. as you get new pieces, your potential arena point earnings go up, as the increased power from the better gear will help push you higher, thus shortening the time it takes to get new pieces (and allowing access to more pieces of S4).

dont grab anything but the S4 gloves if you can help it since they dont require rating.

Thanks guys, I kinda figured I needed a reality check :). I didn't know how the rating system worked. I knew it had something to do with making sure equally good teams fought each other, and I figured you earned points faster the higher up you go, but I didn't realize any of the gear had rating requirements.

Ayn, do you think the pvp starter set would be better to run AV's with than what I have now? I like being able to pump out the big heals, but I can only do that if no one notices me. If someone tries to kill me, my only hope is to heal through it till someone else kills the enemy for me. If a warrior and a rogue both get to me at the same time, I'm stunned till I'm dead. I think I'd be happy to trade some of the big heals in order to not have to spend so much time running back from the graveyards.

Also, do people make premades for AV? I keep asking if any want a healer, and I haven't gotten a single response. It very well could be luck (or people looking at my armory page), but I thought perhaps people don't try to get 40 players together and organized at once.

Thanks again for all the responses.

I would definitely consider picking up the starter PvP set if you are either at or very close to the Revered reputation requirement. If you are still far away and only are looking to do BG's I wouldn't worry about it. If you plan on doing arena, I would defintely get the starter set (arena with the primal mooncloth set will be no fun).

Assuming you grab every piece of the starter set along with your S2 gloves and S2 mace, you will end up with about 200 resilience, which is a good amount to keep you alive in Bg's and arena. And, if you do decide to go with the starter set, I would gem everything for stamina rather than +heal or other stats. The raw stamina will give you much greater benifit in terms of survivability than +heal.