PvP Gear Worth It?Follow

I hear most people recommending to switch to +spell damage around level 40 when you can get around +100 in total from various pieces of equipment. +spell damage is great for locks in most situations, except maybe pvp where some spell damage is needed but people generally go for a little more +stam to keep you alive long enough for your dot's to do their damage. I did use the defiler's boots and other
pvp rewards (defiler's talisman is great pre 60 giving you a shield for a short time as well as the rune of perfection from WSG for spell penetration) but I do do a lot of pvp. Something to keep in mind if you are not sure whether you will use the rewards at your level (depends on play style basically) is that the gear at 60 is great in my opinion, specifically the epics you get in Og. So if you like pvp but don't think you need the items you currently have access to save up your honor points (you can have a max of 2Xthe most expensive reward, which is a lot) and cash in at 60. Don't worry about marks, you will always have enough.

This is true, I think pvp stuff is only for people who really like pvp. As stated before especially when you hit outlands most of your hard earned rewards will be replaced. That being said at level 67 im still in 3 of my epics I got at level 60 form pvp but they took a couple of weeks to get, so probably not logistically worth it. The same holds true pretty much before outlands as well. If you aren't a huge pvp fan then I wouldn't worry about the pvp gear, but if you do love pvp, as I do, then you will find the best stuff to use in battlegrounds etc. from the pvp awards.

I'm mid 60s now and used to be SM/ruin (that's mostly affliction, 21 in destr to get ruin), but I went demon when the Felg option came out. I also have two sets of armor, + sp dam and +sta. And I'm liking the +sta a lot. I do miss my +sp dam, but the tons of hit points more than makes up for it, and Felg keeps my dps from being too low.



Actually this is a completely valid point. If you LIKE your +dam gear and feel you didn't spend too much time or money getting it, that's cool. I'm not saying you did a bad thing. But you don't really *need* it to level. It's nice but certainly not mandatory. I've leveled a lock w/ crap gear - and w/ okay-ish damage gear - and at the lower levels I hardly notice the difference.

If you pvp or drain tank, you probably really miss the stamina. I opt for stam for that and because when I grind or farm I get tired and make mistakes. I get sloppy. Lots of sta = hps to get out of bad situations. I do notice dying far less often.

Pvp gear that's worth it is stuff like the boots from AB that give you stats and SPEED. Just a little, but it makes a big difference in pvp. And it lets you add another enchant, like more sta!

I know a ton of Affliction locks who love Affliction to death (pardon the pun) and are quite convinced their build and set of armor is the best of the best - that there's no other way to play the game. The truth is that the Deep Destr. build, Demon/Felg build, and several reasonable hybrid builds are quite good and are actually *better* for many situations. And the best build and gear combo is the one you like and that you know how to play well.

If you like having +dam and affliction, why are you threatened by people who don't? Don't be! Enjoy what you do well, but allow others space to express what they do. And don't be so close-minded that you never try other things, never learn, never grow. I thought I might hate Demonology, but I really like it now. Once you learn how to use the Felg and the Demon tree, it rocks!


Edit - your sarcasm, to me, is misplaced. Again, your build and gear choice is not the ONLY way to level.

Maybe a +dam item is only 2g, but if I'm going to level out of it in a few days, it's not worth 2g to me. And if I'm going to spend anything, I don't nec want +dam at your level, which I honestly don't notice - especially doing the affliction thing. I think it's way overrated, scaling or not. The only place I noticed it making a difference was when I was draining and when I'd use a nightfall proc to fire off a shadowbolt. When I was drain tanking I valued the sta much, much more.

+Sta and +int can be used to perform aggressive and fast exp gaining moves to level. I found I needed the hp and mana pool to take on challenging multiples or add situations - not more spell dam. In other words, extra spell damage didn't kill fast enough for me, but survivability and enough mana did the job.

This is how I play(ed). I'm pointing this out for others reading this post. Again, unlike others, I'm not saying this is the ONLY way to do things. I'm saying it's what worked for my play style. Again, I'm big enough to admit that I get sloppy and tired when I grind: +dam means nothing to grinding efficiency when I am dead and running alllllll the way down STV to rez! I just did way better w/ sta/int gear. I didn't need great gear at that for grinding, either.

If you wanna park at lvl 49 or so and BG a while, this is different. At that point I'd go HEAVILY into sta unless you group w/ a team, and then you can try the glass cannon option and go sp dam. Sta, however, is what has worked best for me.

Edited, Apr 20th 2007 2:11pm by IponemaGirl

Mmm yeah, we've all seen crappy locks. Stop pulling logical non sequiturs on us.

(I'll save you a Google on that: "This term is Latin and means "it does not follow," as in one conclusion does not logically follow from another fact or facts.)

I just loaded my 66 lock and took on a string of lvl 65 Talbuks. I put on all +sta gear (and had over 12k, btw - gonna go "mmm yeah" and sneer at that, bro?), and with all +sta gear and almost no +dam gear on, I timed how long it took to drop a Talbuk, averaged, over several fights.

Then I put on my +dam gear set, which is incomplete and just under +500 (I am open minded and have two sets, there are situations where +dam works - but I'm willing to admit that - you are not, so far, willing to be open minded - that's why I'm coming after you). I killed more same-lvl Talbuks. With +dam gear on, the difference in killing was about half a second. Hooray for damage gear and a hit point pool half the size of my other one! Yay! I'm so uber now! Yeah, right. Except wait, I feel like a snotty jerk being sarcastic like that. Oh, is it "Let's role play snotty, arrogant Blood Elves day" on Allakhazam? Gee, I must have missed that memo.

Other young warlocks reading this post: Banatu is in love w/ his gear and build. Imho he's too much in love with it. If you're smart, you'll try different things as you level up - you should also try what he's saying - there are times when what he does works well (I got sick of it).

Obviously the dude doesn't pvp or bg, or do it well. Sure, if you can sneak up on people w/ a +dam build, you can kill them - if you can find a newb to gank, you can kill him. But w/ no sta you CAN'T survive a stunlocking rogue, you CAN'T survive a warrior's charge, you CAN'T survive a BW pet on you -- there are so many things you CAN'T survive it's silly.

Now he's bragging about killing things that couldn't hit back because he found a place where he could keep them feared. That's quite an accomplishment, killing something that's running around hilly nilly! I don't care if it had 20k hp. A naked lock can kill a 20k mob he can keep feared. You might as well brag about shooting fish in a barrel with an elephant rifle!

I can kill elites above my level WITHOUT fearing (there are places where you can't fear). Try that, then come back here and "Mmm, yeah" us. Mmm yeah.

I'l take a little of both sides from experimentations I've made so far on my 50 lock, Affliction built.

First, I did not find +damage to be worth it "to grind" at lv 40'ish unless I could stack a whole lot of it. The problem was to stack a bunch, I'd give up lots of stam and int or mostly stam. All I know is that you need A LOT of +damage for it to make a difference as a whole. +40 isn't doing much for example. I have to admit, I like my stam, which most lock friends of mine look at me like I'm crazy for some odd reason on my server.

I have two destro lock friends, one always brags how she has "4k mana". I always told her concentrate on sta and int, not int and spi and +dam. So I dueled her a few times, not once did she bring me below 75%. Know why, because while having 4k mana and her spells did hit hard, she had 1.4HP, at 50 thats laughable. The other guy has pretty good PvP gear, but hes basically a twink every 9th lv, so kinda cant compare to the average guy that just lvs and pvp's occasionally.. He PvP's since lv 19 for that gear that will give him 10 great lvs. IMO its not worth it for 10 lvs(specially the early ones that you fly through) To give you an idea, yes he is very good, but he sits doing WG and AB for a few weeks every ten lvs, not my style, 2 hrs in any PvP arena and i'm done. Anyway I'm rambling now.

I will side with Ipo on this one, IF you are the type that will lv strictly off Instances only, go for all the +damage possible. I find for grinding a good mix of both works a little better, for me that is, I drain tank and drain hunt depending what I'm fighting.

Yeah, I can see how more health will help in heroics. No, deep affliction with maxed shadow damage is not the is-all ends-all of things to do. Yeah, I was coming off evangalistic and I'm sorry about it. : \ It's just got a lot that I found lacking in the other classes I've tried, heh.


So.. yeah. I'm a little machoistic, I actually like being a glass cannon. It's a lot more involving, which I like. And naturally, I had to make sure everyone else knew just how much I liked it. Eugh.


I shouldn't post on days that I don't sleep, lmao.

Edited, Apr 20th 2007 4:30pm by Banatu