Thursday, September 26, 2013

PvEers, Stop Hating on PvP Gear

I did one of the celestial bosses on one of my lesser played alts this week and won two pieces.  One from a drop and one from a coin.  That is the best thing you could ever hope for.  Well, actually the best thing you can ever hope for is two PvE pieces, but when you don't have a great deal of gear on a character those PvP pieces are pretty damn awesome.

Think about it for a moment and if I told you that I won two 522 pieces this week for a character that was in mostly timeless island 496 items you would say congrats.  So why does it seems like most people say, well that sucks, when you point out those two pieces were PvP items?

At the beginning of mists they changed the way stat allotment works so PvP stats no longer counted toward the total stats on an item. 

For example, lets say a piece of gear was meant to have 500 total in secondary stats.

In the past:
The PvE and PvP item would have the same item level and the PvE item might have 250 haste and 250 hit whereas the PvP piece might have 250 haste and 250 resilience.  This means that at the same item level the PvP item was worse for PvE as it was "wasting" 250 of a stat on a unless for PvE stat like resilience.

In mists:
PvP gear is always slightly lower than PvE gear in item level, such that the PvP gear is usually one tier behind the PvE gear.  But also, the PvP stats no longer eat up part of the stat allotment.  So a 522 PvE item from last tier might have 250 haste and 250 hit and a PvP item from this tier might have 250 haste and 250 hit and an additional 250 PvP power.  That 250 PvP power is extra, it takes nothing away from the item when thinking of it from a PvE standpoint.

So when it comes to PvE if you wanted to use PvP gear you will always be a tier behind, as in getting ToT level gear, 522, now.  But that ToT level gear would be the same no matter if you got it as a drop from the raid, from a vendor with valor or if you purchased with conquest.

In the end my character went from a 501 item level to 506 item level.  Even if two of those pieces are PvP that 506 item level is still granting me the same exact stat allotment as if it were all PvE gear.

Why did I feel the need to bring this up?  Because of an exchange I read in general on the island when someone started bitching about winning a PvP piece for the third week in a row. 

Someone said, if it is an upgrade, use it.  Most of the people in general seemed to have not noticed, even this late in the expansion, the change to PvP gear.  The person that won it said, I don't PvP.  Others said, I would kick someone from my group if they were wearing PvP gear.  Most comments were like that, anti-PvP gear comments and only a few realized what the first person that responded did, if it is an upgrade, use it.

It kind of amazed me that something like this change seemingly has gone mostly unnoticed and people still have their prejudice against PvP gear in PvE.  And it goes both ways, like someone in an LFR saying, "I can't believe I beat you and I am in all PvP gear".  They do not seem understand things changed this expansion even a year after we have all been playing it.

So I decided to make a public service announcement that might actually teach some people something.

Item level means your PvE item level.  PvP stats do not eat up item level stat allotment.  So a 522 item level PvP piece is the same as a PvE piece of the same item level. 

In short, all gear is the same now.

With that said, my character got two upgrades from island 496 items, and I think that pretty much rocks.  Even if someone that doesn't have a clue will say, but it is PvP gear so it doesn't count.  As I always love to say, an upgrade is an upgrade is an upgrade.  I'll take any one I can get.

16 comments:

  1. I'm with you! If the PVP gear is worlds better than the PVE piece I have equipped, then I'm definitely going to equip it. I just got a pair of PVP legs on my hunter that were enough to finally push his ilvl high enough for the SoO LFR. You better believe they're equipped. I can always replace them later now that I'm in a position to have a chance at looting more.

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    1. That is the perfect way to do it now with the changes. So that 522 legs are the same as the ones you might get in ToT or with valor.

      Good luck in SoO. Not completely sure getting into that will be considered a good thing after you do it however. lol

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  2. You're 100% right.

    But I'm disappointed when I get PvP gear from the Celestials since the same loot win COULD have been for i553 tier. I'd rather get the tier. I won't complain about the PvP pieces, though, especially if they're upgrades.

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    1. I am with you. When I am on my main or one of my better geared characters each time I see PvP gear I am like, crap, would have been better with gold. But for lesser characters while gearing up it sure is a sweet upgrade just the same.

      Having a low geared character win 2 PvP pieces is pretty awesome. Nice way to give your item level a huge boost so you can get into some better stuff. Even if the 553 would have been better.

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  3. And I thought you'd quit gaming? As long as you argue THAT much.... I'm convinced you won't be gone for long.

    Rauxis, chosen of CAT
    p.s.: and you are right

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    1. I am not quitting yet but I do believe that my time is almost there. In the end it would have nothing to do with the game itself when I leave. It would just be my time to move on.

      I would need to find a new hobby to waste a couple of hours a night on and if you have watched TV in the last few years you would know there is nothing there that is an option to just waste a few hours. lol

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    2. I did not have cable for the last 3 or so years. Guess why :P

      Rauxis, chosen of CAT

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    3. I'm guessing you decided to not waste money because there is nothing to watch. ;)

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  4. Agreed. iLvL is iLvL; regardless if it is PvE or PvP gear.

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    1. Most people still think PvP gear is lesser gear. I even hear people in my own guild saying it. I keep having to tell them, 522 is 522.

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    2. Changing the topic but this reminded me... speaking of "522 is 522", I saw a Blue tweet recently that they'd made it so single-stat TI random gear would have the same secondary stat budget as those getting two, you'd just get twice as much of one stat. That hasn't been my experience yet (when I got a single stat, it was lower than two stat pieces got combined... say, 900 vs 600+600) but that may have been hotfixed at some point so make single stat gear less of a negative. Have your or anyone else seen any recent (within the past few days) examples one way or the other?

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    3. All the single stat gear I have go, and I have used 9 burdens including 2 just yesterday trying to get a crit haste ring, that have had one stat the one stat is always about 1.5 times what a single stat of the 2 stat one would be.

      So even if a blue said it, real life actual information trumps them, they are 100% wrong. Single stat items have fewer secondary stats. For me, for you, for everyone I have ever heard mention them. Ignore the blue post, they have no clue what they are talking about.

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    4. Yeah, seems GC mis-spoke on that one if I understood his comment correctly, I got a bunch of single-stat pieces yesterday and they all had smaller item budgets than those with 2 stats. It's too bad... having equivalent item budgets would have sidestepped that issue relatively cleanly.

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    5. I would then be looking for ones with one stats. Ah, the thought of all critical or all haste if I am going for a haste build.

      One stat would be awesome, if the one stat was as much as the two.

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  5. It doesn't surprise me one bit that even a year into MoP people aren't aware of the 'flat iLevels' between PvP and PvE gear, as quite a few WoW players like to dismiss Vanilla etc. realms with 'the game has to move forewards' yet are utterly oblivious to game changes.

    Case in point, the XP Off/On seperation dates from 3.2 yet too many people still act like it never happened and treat the XP-Locked community like dirt, ignoring the obvious that those that were/are into twinking to grief newcomers never left the regular BG's to begin with thanks to Heirlooms.

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    1. They don't balance for lower level either, that is what messed up most of it. You want to be a god at lower level PvP, play a hunter. Or a disc priest.

      Seeing a low level disc priest I just want to give up. You basically need to kill them 3 times in 15 seconds or you have to do it all over again. No thank you. Just let them be their immortal selves.

      I wonder how it is for those level locked people. They must wait for hours for queues to pop. And then being they never balance around it those have to be dominated by whichever class is the most powerful. So what do you have a level 20, an entire battle ground with hunters and disc priest? No thank you.

      I love that comment you made on change however. How come the people that say "things have changed" when talking why they can't go back to vanilla are the same ones that don't know that "things have changed" and PvP and PvE gear is normalized item level wise.

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