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Posts with tag Item-sets

Brutally ugly gear will stay ugly


This morning, Mandy asked how everyone felt about the new Season 4 gear that was recently unveiled on the PTR. The general consensus seems to be that the armor sets are -- for lack of a better word -- underwhelming. Reusing the skins from the token gear that drops from Sunwell Plateau, the armor sets seem to suffer from a case of the Jackson Pollocks. Player feedback, according to the comments on this site as well as the World of Wacraft forums, indicates disappointment with the new sets.

Unfortunately, players unhappy with the look of the new gear shouldn't be holding their collective breaths for an update. Drysc has already stated that Blizzard's artists are devoting all of their energy at Wrath of the Lich King. He says that it takes time to develop new armor sets and that he's not surprised that the new (Badge) gear are mostly color shifts. While Arena gear has traditionally been recolored versions of their PvE counterparts -- e.g. Season 1 gear was recolored Tier 4 -- the new sets create problems because they're no longer distinctive to each class but rather to the armor category to which they belong.

Continue reading Brutally ugly gear will stay ugly

Blood Sport: No scrubs allowed in Season 4


Zach Yonzon takes over Blood Sport this week while new columnist Amanda Dean recuperates from a fever. Former columnist Vims decided he'll take his ominous laughter over to the Warlock columns exclusively.

The writing is on the wall. Welfare epics are on the way out. With the new changes to the personal rating requirements -- which now includes gear purchasable by Honor -- it will no longer be possible to completely gear up through PvP without stepping into Arenas. The moment the announcement was made, everything changed for PvP and gear distribution to the player base. With the introduction of the new requirements, Arena and Honor-bought gear has become more restrictive than ever.

How does this change the playing field? In two words? A lot. The good will get better, the bad will get worse, and the mediocre won't be getting anywhere. It is no longer possible to participate in Arenas casually. In fact, World of Warcraft PvP as we know it has changed completely. Clearly meant to address point selling teams, the personal rating requirement affects legitimate contenders -- or at least challengers (no pun intended) -- who play Arenas.

There is no question that gear is a differentiator in Warcraft PvP. Certainly it's not the only differentiator, but the impact of gear disparity in Arenas is such that it creates an artificial barrier of entry for players who are only beginning to play it. Players who have been playing since Season 1 or 2 will have garnered enough Arena points for at least 4/5 Season 3 gear. Players who have just hit Level 70 or decided to do Arenas late are at a disadvantage. With the changes to the PvP gear system, the gear gap will grow even wider.

Continue reading Blood Sport: No scrubs allowed in Season 4

Gear upgrades in 2.4: Engineering goggles, tier 6 armor sets, and more

MMO-Champion reports that their sources have uncovered some news about loot in 2.4. In non-Sunwell news, recipes for upgraded versions of all the various BoP goggles have been found. Mostly, the recipes require large amounts of elemental primals, some khorium, and primal nethers. A peace offering for the recent Rocket Boots Xtreme change, perhaps?

We also have names for what appears to be the PvP armor that will be purchasable off of reputation vendors. They're all called "Battlegear," but we're seeing some familiar prefixes, such as "Kodohide" and "Dragonhide" for the Druids, and "Ornamented" for the Paladins.

MMO-Champion's sources claim that the new Sunwell armor may actually connect directly to Tier 6, counting for the 2 and 4 piece bonuses on those sets. It doesn't appear, however, that there will be additional bonuses beyond those already in place on the sets, but it should encourage people to get a few pieces of Tier 6 in some of the older content before they try their hand against Kil'jaedan.

Finally, a set called Latro's Flurry has been uncovered, with one of the set pieces being the preexisting Latro's Shifting Sword. We'll have to keep an eye out for the other sword, possibly from the Sunwell daily rep or the new 5-man dungeon.

The PTRs should be up soon, and hopefully we'll have confirmation on this and more of the news coming in soon enough.


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