http://www.thottbot.com/i28658
iLevel 115

http://www.thottbot.com/i28302
iLevel 123

I am talking about now, not the joke that was pre 2.1

:/ .

Looking at the stamina on some of the weapons coming out from BT (70 on a caster-staff anyone?) I really hope the season 2 gear will atleast be close in comparison. A few rings/trinkets/necks would be nice aswell but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Do you really think that would be fair?

Remember: The Season 2 will start at 12./13. of June. 1 month after the start, nearly everyone would be able to afford at least one of the Arena-Weapons.
Now tell me, how many raid you expect to kill Illidan until Mid-July?

I think Arena-Weapons will be updatet in a small way. Maybe a few more dps. Also the Sets maybe between T4 and T5 Niveau.
If you expect the Arena 2-Sets being on T6 Niveau, in my opinion, this would be a "crushing blow" for PvE in World of Warcraft. Everyone would focus on PvP, because if you look at it in a global view. It would be the easier way to get the best items.
So WoW would really get a pure "e-sport"-Touch.

From my view, I don't want these things to happen, because I always liked the mixture of both PvE and PvP (especially the Arena System, which is more appealing than 24/7 BG-Farming )

Necdeus, how many people currently have a large advantage because of T3 Blacksmithing or ilevel 128 tempest keep / SSC loot in non armor slots? Pendant of Triumph is ilevel 113, PVP is again quickly falling behind

I've composed two gears of equipment minus trinkets for a healing Paladin. One with items exclusivly from Honor / Arena rewards, one with items up to T5 raiding instances minus Kael / Vashj drops.

They PVE Set is using 4 pieces of Gladiator and the Salvation, so reasonable survivability is maintained, BoJ rewards and some SSC / TK / Karazhan loot.
One trinket slot is open for whatever you wish to put in there, the other holds Medallion of the Horde.
This results in the following stat benefits for the entire set (CTprofiles is down, so I can't provide full stats)

Healing +1201, Spellcrit +248, Stamina 365, Int 330, resilience 144



the PVP set is using 5 pieces of gladiator, shield wall, Salvation, rest honor gear

Healing +855, Spellcrit +228, Stamina 517, Int 256, Resilience 306

So the PVP compared to PVE is

Healing +372
Spellcrit +20 rating (+ another whole % from the INT)
Stamina -152
Int +74
Resilience -162

So as you can see, the PVE Paladin will have 2% more crit chance as well as having over 1k more mana and heals for ~133 more hp on a MSed target while losing survivability stats that are hardly ever checked in the arena. This is the disadvantage PVP players currently are at against PVP teams from guilds raiding T5 instances. These numbers will become worse and worse as long as the arena does not provide a full set of equipment. The honor rewards are so far below the T5 itemlevel already, it will be even worse when T6 gear becomes more and more common in the next few months.

You are for sure right, Keline. I also would like to see Item-Upgrades in both, Honor Rewards and Arena Gear.
But I believe Blizzard has to watch out to keep the Balance between PvE and PvP Content.

Maybe my posting above has been a little bit of "horror vision".
I like combination of gear. Pieces from Arena, Honor and raiding. And upgraded Arena-Gear will make me spend my DKP on really good upgrades.

But I also have to say, to introduce Arena-Gear with Stats similar to T6 and Weapons similar to drops of Vashj and above would be a little bit to soon on 13th of June.

A lot of guilds have killed Vashj and Kael recently, but what percentage is this? 1%, 2%?
I believe a lot of guilds/players which do not raid 5 or more days a week, and which still are on their way to face Vashj and Kael will lose a lot of motivation organizing, learning and playing these encounters, if they can get equal gear from Arena and Battlegrounds.

For sure, the primary motivation is to get the encounter "cracked" as a team. But also the loot is around 50% responsible for motivating people going through the learning curves.

After all, we'll see next week, which Arena-Gear will be introduced


To say something about blacksmithing etc: I also don't think, that Blizzard did a good job making the tailoring, leatherworking, blacksmithing items that strong.
Maybe the should have made them a little bit weaker, but with an option to easily improve them by yourself as you go on in the content.
(Like blacksmithing items need Nether Vortex to upgrade)
The more a player goes on in content. The more he wants to explore, the more he should be able to upgrade such equip, with - maybe drops or something similar

They've already stated that new gear will come with the new season.

The new season is coming with the next patch.

Pretty much Blizz wants to start season 2 right now - but must coincide it with a content patch, thus the uncertainty - I doubt they are waiting to see how these next few weeks turn out in terms of raiding.

Well I didn't say they should have the same DPS stats but they should atleast compare to or be better than PvE items when it comes to survivability stats such as stamina. How long does a season last? 3 months? Currently the top end guilds are clearing the Black Temple content pretty fast which makes me worried about the PvP balance.

Blizzard needs to provide PvP gear for PvPers or they will lose a lot of customers.
Probably I am not the only one, that does not want to set a foot into a raid instance with more than 10 players.

Quoted from the post

Appologies in advance if pasting here is an issue.

This looks to me, that yes new items WILL come, but NOT next Wednesday.

I really wish I am wrong, I am stocked pts as well, but it does not look it, for the reassons I wrote in my previous post.

I interpreted that as meaning not every new season will come with new rewards. I would put good money on there being new rewards this particular season, available on patch day. However in future seasons it would be more random - probably based on the pace of PvE content and how much has been defeated etc.

Edit: Just to clarify one point. I think your bolded part was a specific comment by Drysc in relation to future seasons, not this coming one. I think it was a 'cover our arse now' move so that when season 3 hits people don't say "u were gonna guve us new rewardsss!!!1". This particular season though will have new rewards, and nothing he's said indicates otherwise.

I could be wrong, but i doubt it. If they don't give us new rewards on patch day i'd be pretty shocked..

1 week

And thanks for the other pov as well.

Now af far as the items go I believe it does (for blizzard).
Do you remember before the item buffs that ppl from PvE guilds started going to arena to get the OH?
Then ppl that wanted to focus solely on PvE were "forced" to pvp to get the best (then) available OH from the arena.

My reassoning is that Blizz will want to prevent that now, and this is the reasson why yes new arena rewards will come, but maybe not next Wednesday.
So that the PvE community wont go emo again and start saying that they raid 6 days a week to get pve progress and at the same time all the ppl that have some arena pts are getting shiny new 100 dps 1 handers, and they have to pve to equip their gorues/warrs with them in order to assist with progression.

I am generalising, but I believe you understand the idea.

Yes I see your point, but I believe that side of the equation is a lot better than the alternative. A lot of people have argued that getting an item or 2 from the arena is effortless, and it is. You can amass those points in just a few weeks of playing 10 games a week. That's 1-2 items from the very highest tier of PVP itemisation. To get 1-2 items from the highest tier of raiding typically requires many hours a week in instances. That's fair enough for the people who like it, but if we're talking about pure PVPers that's a rediculous requirement.

I don't think the sky is falling at the moment though, paladins and warriors are the only classes that really want PVE gear other than weapons and trinkets. I just wanted to point out that I think the balance point should be at the top rather than at the average.

They've already confirmed that this season there will be new gear. He was simply saying that not all seasons will come with new gear. Keep in mind that season 1 was much longer than they'd like a normal season to be. Eventually I would guess that arena season restarts will start coming much faster than PVE progression.

Whether or not the patch will be Tuesday is up for debate, but whenever it is, it will come with new arena and honor gear.

Personally, I've done about 2 dozen BG's this year and consider the ongoing grind to get my level 70 PvP trinket to be a painful one (shouldn't have bought that cloak!). Due to raiding schedules and my general lack of gold I can only PvP (I guess I could AFK in AV with my useless spec) from Saturday post-raid to Monday pre-raid, and most of that time is spent doing a fairly small number of arena games.

Maybe I'm alone being a serious "casual at PvP" but I'd be pretty disappointed if the new honor gear was too powerful and S2 Arena gear extraordinarily expensive. I like the lack of grinding and I hope the emphasis stays right where it is.

Not confirmed yet, but:

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.ht...US;source=live

Compare that to S1 shoulders and you gain:

+6 Strength
+8 Stamina
+5 Intellect
+6 Crit
+7 Spell damage

Item level is 136, 3 higher than T5.

So assuming this is not fake, S2 gear will be to T5 what S1 gear was to T4 - slightly higher level, 3 to be precise.

There's a rather glaring ommision of resilience on that item.

Again, assuming it's not a fake and that's an input mistake or something, the extra resilience would bump up the iLevel probably quite a bit more.

Whether the lack of resilience lends weight to the argument that it's fake or not, I don't know. There's probably a few explanations for why it's not there.

(what a non-descript first post!)

S1 Paladin retribution set doesn't have any resilience either.

Damn, I wondered if that might be the case and checked up on it. Seems I managed to check the spell damage set instead :o

Here's hoping it's real and we get some info on the other sets soon too.

I think you were using the wrong S1 stats, most likely from Blizzards website, which is never updated. The changes are a bit less:

+3 Strength
+5 Stamina
+3 Intellect
+3 Crit
+3 Spell Damage

Also, the Retribution Paladin gear did not have resilience for Season 1, so it's no surprise if they do the same for season 2.

Quite unimpressive, but expected. The weapons will be the most telling, I think.