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Phat Loot Phriday: Medallion of (your Faction)
This week, we're going a little off the beaten path to take a look at two of the most basic, almost mandatory items in all of PvP. (Yes, yes, unless you're human, we know. We'll ignore Every Man for Himself in this discussion, including its inherent wrongness that the ability doesn't change to Every Woman for Herself based on character gender.) The trinkets I'm talking about are the Medallion of the Horde and the Medallion of the Alliance. These items are identical except for their icon and names; they are appropriately based on the faction of your character. I mostly offer the Medallions as this week's Phat Loot Phriday because it's amazing how many players miss when a new version of the PvP trinket is released. With Season 8 now on us, it's important to be packing as much resilience as possible. And since these new versions of the Medallion provide the most resilience per-slot, they're a clearly superior choice for anyone who doesn't mind the time to farm the honor. You can buy this trinket with honor, which means that you'll probably want to get yourself to the closest Wintergrasp or battleground, and get to honor farming. Try not to be that guy who afks through the entire match, though. That's really annoying. (The picture is a random picture with a trinket theme, because you can not see trinkets on your character.) Name: Medallion of the Horde/Alliance Type: Trinket Attributes: Resilience: 153 (1.87% @ L80). Use: Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. (2 Min Cooldown) How to get it: Farm 68,200 honor, and go visit your faction's Veteran Quartermaster. You can only buy this, it does not drop. How to get rid of it: To the regret of me every time I delete an old version, the Medallion can not be sold or disenchanted. %Gallery-33600%
Gearing up for Season 5 continued
PLATE MELEEWarriors, Death Knights, and Retribution Paladins can all look forward to the Savage Saronite non-set, which is crafted by Blacksmiths. The recipes are available from the trainer, so all players have to do is look for a Blacksmith who has Blacksmithing at 425 and didn't scrimp on his training. The Plate PvP items have higher Stamina and Resilience overall compared to the other gear, making it an excellent investment for Northrend starter PvP.Savage Saronite SkullshieldSavage Saronite PauldronsSavage Saronite HauberkSavage Saronite WaistguardSavage Saronite LegplatesSavage Saronite WalkersSavage Saronite BracersSavage Saronite GauntletsThe materials to craft the Savage Saronite pieces aren't as straightfoward as the Leatherworking items, but they're still quite simple. It will take a total of 102 Saronite Bars (or a shade over five stacks), 2 Eternal Airs, 2 Eternal Shadows, 2 Eternal Waters, 1 Eternal Fire, and 1 Eternal Earth. All eight pieces confer a total of 559 Stamina, 360 Resilience, 380 Strength, and 340 Critical Strike Rating. PLATE CASTERFor now, Holy Paladins get a free ride in raids and dungeons because all Plate caster drops automatically go to them. Unfortunately, as far as crafted PvP gear is concerned, they get an awful compromise. The set has one piece with Strength, the belt, which is utterly useless for Holy Paladins. Some pieces also have token MP5 when it should simply have been Critical Strike. And there's a dearth of Intellect. Still, the key is Resilience, and this non-set has quite a bit of it.Ornate Saronite SkullshieldOrnate Saronite PauldronsOrnate Saronite HauberkOrnate Saronite WaistguardOrnate Saronite LegplatesOrnate Saronite WalkersOrnate Saronite BracersOrnate Saronite GauntletsIt's advisable to wear some pieces of PvE gear at the expense of Resilience in order to inflate the Holy Paladin's mana pool. All the pieces grant a whopping total 87 Intellect, an odd 44 Strength, laughable 36 MP5, and 567 Stamina, 355 Resilience Rating, and 139 Critical Strike Rating. Assuming you'd want to have the entire non-set crafted -- it's still 355 Resilience, after all -- you'll need the same materials needed for the melee version. It takes 102 Saronite Bars, 2 Eternal Air, 2 Eternal Shadow, 2 Eternal Water, and 1 each Eternal Earth and Fire.FILLER GEARTrinketsThe most important filler gear for any PvP situation is the all-important trinket. This should be your first priority in terms of gear, above and beyond any other piece of armor. The start of Season 5 introduced Level 80 versions of the Medallion of the Alliance and Medallion of the Horde. If you're serious about doing Arenas, this 49,600 Honor trinket is the first thing you should buy with Honor. It grants a massive 84 Resilience, almost double that of its Level 70 epic counterpart. You can purchase this at the Hall of Legends in or Champion's Hall.You can put anything else in the other trinket slot, but considering how it's only the beginning of the Arena Season, I'd recommend padding Stamina until you can get better from epic gear. Jewelcrafters have great options in the Bind-on-Pickup Monarch Crab and Ruby Hare figurines, both of which have over 60 Stamina. Both also have two sockets each, with a +9 Stamina socket bonus, making them incredible for PvP. Between the two, Ruby Hare would be the safest bet as you'll be able to use the sprint use more often than the Dodge of the crab trinket. Can't have Warriors and Death Knights insta-gibbing you.Alchemists have an awesome trinket in the Indestructible Alchemist's Stone, although the Dodge rating is terrible against the aforementioned classes. But +75 Stamina is +75 Stamina, and the added bonus of healing effects of potions is extremely useful. This brings to mind the only potions usable in Arenas... the Alchemist-only Endless Healing and Endless Mana Potions. Note that these aren't trinkets, merely endless charge items that stay in your inventory.Engineers can use a Sonic Booster, which is a melee trinket. But the sweet thing about this trinket isn't the proc but the amazing +81 Stamina. The caster version, the Noise Machine, provides no Stamina but has a defensive proc that just might prove useful against those pesky melee classes. If you're not a Jewelcrafter, an Alchemist, nor an Engineer, there's a perfectly good alternative which is the Essence of Gossamer, which is a great tanking trinket but works equally well in PvP. A whopping +111 Stamina from one trinket slot is insanely good. The proc is pretty sweet, as well. This beauty drops from Hadronox in Heroic Azjol-Nerub.RingsObviously, the best upgrades in the ring slot are the currently available Honor items. The Hateful Gladiator's Band of Dominance and Band of Triumph provide great Stamina and +33 Resilience Rating. The rings cost 38,000 Honor, which should be a good Honor sink for those who've capped at 75,000. Barring those, Jewelcrafters can make a Savage Titanium Band and Savage Titanium Ring, caster and melee rings respectively. Both have sockets and provide +32 Resilience.CloakLikewise, the Hateful Gladiator epic cloaks, which require no Arena ratings, also cost 38,000 Honor and are a significant upgrade from old PvP cloaks. There are eight versions of the cloak (which makes you wonder why there are only two rings), so it might get a bit confusing. The good thing is that players are certain to find a cloak that will fit their play style perfectly. We'll take a look at all the newly available Honor and Arena gear soon. For now, gear up and get PvPing!
Scattered Shots: Sting operations
Scattered Shots is for Hunters. This week, Daniel Whitcomb will be covering for David Bowers, despite the fact that his Hunter isn't currently specced for Scatter Shot. As Hunters, our primary role is and likely always will be the DPS. Even the new pet talent trees probably aren't going to change that too much. In the end, we sit back and fill the giant target full of arrows or bullets. That said, we also have quite a few tricks up our sleeves, a few stops we can pull out to get jobs done. Some of these come in the form of stings: a series of shots that put a debuff on the mob that can, when used correctly, turn the tide of a battle. Today, we'll look at each sting, what it does, and how best to utilize it in PvP and PvE. There's a few universal truths to look at before we start: First, all stings are poison. This means that they can be cleansed, and that certain mobs will be immune to them. Second, there's only one sting allowed per a hunter, and most stings don't stack. That means that you can only apply one sting at a time as an individual hunter. Still, that can turn out to be helpful in some cases, as we'll discuss later. In addition, Viper and Scorpid Sting can only be cast by one Hunter at a time, so in multiple hunter situations, be sure to decide amongst yourselves who's casting what, should they be needful. And now, on with the stings!
