My Arena Gear setup is somewhat different from what most Arena experts would expect. Instead of stacking Stamina and Resilience like a good little Mage, I opted for more quick and destructive approach. So far it has proven to work in 2v2 and 3v3 quite nicely.
At a quick glance, you would see I have Season 4 Robes, Season 3 Helm, and Shoulders. You would also notice a PvE Weapon hanging off the side of my body (Off Hand is hidden when unsheathed). You can’t really tell what kind of Gloves or Boots I’m sporting, but if you saw me in Arena, you would probably think I’m in good a mix of S3/S4 gear. Mostly likely over 11k Health, and over 450 Resilience.
If you take a closer look however, you would notice that the color of my Shoulders aren’t quite right, but fortunately for me, in Arena you don’t get a chance to take the time to examine your opponents when you meet in battle. Especially with an Ice Barrier surrounding my Mage.
Here is a look at my gear:
As you can see, I have quite a bit of PvE gear mixed into my Arena gear. Even with all the PvE gear equipped, I’m not as squishy as you think. I still have amount of Stamina and Resilience. The difference is that I pack quite a bit of a punch now.
Looking at the stats, I have:
- 9803 Health
- 9776 Mana
- 303 Resilience
- 2532 Armor
- 938 Spell Damage, 993 Frost Damage
- 21.93% Spell Crit, 26.93% Frostbolt Crit
- 279 Spell Haste (2.12 sec Frostbolt, 1.15 sec Polymorph)
- +5% Frostbolt Damage
The best part of this gear setup is that I get both 4 Piece Set Bonus of the Tier 6 and the Arena gear. With the Spell Haste I have in this gear, when I pop my trinket and Icy Veins, I can do quite a bit of damage. I only wear this set up when doing 2v2s or 3v3s since I don’t have to focus much on staying alive, and I am free to pew pew.
In 5v5s, I have a different gear setup since I usually get focused on early in the game. I have to stack more Stamina and Resilience if I want to survive in 5v5.
In this gear setup, I have nearly 11k Health and 471 Resilience. I also have a lot less Spell Damage (849 Frost Damage), and no +5% Frostbolt Damage bonus.
I have still yet to get my [Medallion of the Alliance], so once I get that, both my sets will be in better shape.
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Sometimes I feel like I’m cheating by bringing in PvE gear into Arena though. In order to gear this way, you have to be able to clear the first three bosses in the Sunwell Plateau for the three pieces of Tier 6, and you need to have one other piece from Mount Hyjal or Black Temple. Not many players have access to this gear, especially if you just PvP.
What do you think of this gear setup? Would you gear it differently? Do you think this is unfair to other players?
No I don’t think it’s unfair. It would be unfair if there was NO way for other players to work for that gear. They can if they..key word here is “work”
Why didn’t we put lead shoes on Micheal Jordan when he played that would of been fair too I think.
I also like people that think outside the box, and bring fresh ideas to the board. IF it works, and your making the grade so to speak. The proof is in the pudding.
How effective do you find the (massive amount of) spell haste affects arena play on a frost mage?
I am about to buy another PvP ring, and I was thinking I would just get another dominance ring, although perhaps I should get the haste one instead.
Wow I’ve never seen anyone with this mix of gear before. Kudos to you for coming up with a way to get the 4 pc bonus for both sets.
I agree with River, if you can do it, so can everyone else in the game. You put in the work and got this gear, if others want it, they can put in the same amount of work too.
I too like it when people think outside the box and come up with new ideas like this. Maybe this will be the next “big thing”. Good thing there are some think-out-of-the-boxers like Tuna who makes things like this and “shatter combos” possible.
@Zupa
I think Spell Haste in arena helps quite a bit. I know from some personal experience that Counterspelling a caster’s normally 1.5 second spells, but with haste, is a pain in the butt. Tuna said his Sheep was a 1.15 second cast. If you factor in lag and latency, it would be nearly impossible to actually interrupt that spell.
Haste is probably the single best dmg stat for frost mages in PVP. With enough haste you can double shatter from max range (frostbolt+ice lancex2) when Icy Veins is active.
In 5s I run with about 123 haste from gear and have a shaman for heroism. We run 4dps so I will even use my quags eye and get my frostbolts going at 1 second cast or less.
WTB Skull of Gul’dan!
@ Zupa
Exactly what magi and Baddie said, Haste is extremely useful for many things. It allows you to do what Mages do best in Arena, DPS and CC.
If you already have the [Guardian's Band of Dominance] then the [Guardian's Band of Subjegation] is nice to have as your 2nd ring. Together they provide 48 Spell Haste.
@ Baddie
I was actually in the middle of researching the minimum amount of Spell Haste to pull off the double shatter too! After getting some solid numbers, I’ll probably post a video of it too.
<3 My Skull of Gul’dan!
It is frustrating when you hop into Arenas as a player with T5 PvE gear and Honor-awarded PvP gear and have to fight players with the perfect mix of gear.
For example, I recently got creamed by a team with a Rogue wearing dual Warglaives, 4 pieces of T6, and the rest Brutal gear. This is in the 1500s, mind you, and we play teams with gear almost as good constantly. I just don’t have access to that kind of stuff, and getting access to it means leaving my guild, finding a new one, convincing them to take (yet another) Hunter, and etc.
The frustrating thing is that my gear really isn’t bad – for the T5/early T6 content I see right now, it’s just great. But it’s totally meaningless in Arenas where competing means you have to have the right class, right spec, and best gear, or you’re Cream of Hunter.
The gear gap becomes apparent particularly when you add Haste into the mix. A Rogue with Warglaives is so deadly in large part because of the damage he can put out in the time he creates for himself by stunlocking. Even disregarding the power of the ‘Glaives, that Haste buff has a huge impact on what the Rogue can do to you during that short time he’s back there swinging. And Haste is hard to get! The first place you can really start stacking it is in T6, which is also where the amount of Stamina on gear really starts going up.
I don’t know if it’s unfair – I mean, you earned the gear. But would I prefer to see a system that gives players like me a chance to compete in some meaningful way in the Arenas? Yeah, that’d be nice. As it is now, you’re either pulling down crazy Arena points for your excellent PvP gear, or you’re in late T6 and winning with the power and PvP-orientedness of a lot of that gear. There isn’t really a place for people who haven’t found a guild that can carry them through T6, or who didn’t get on the Arena bus at the first stop.
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>> But it’s totally meaningless in Arenas where competing
>> means you have to have the right class, right spec, and
>> best gear, or you’re Cream of Hunter.
This isn’t your fault, this is Blizzard’s fault. They could have remedied this with bigger arena maps that might allow different class combos an ability to function (among other things).
Tuna: You are definitely not cheating. If you didn’t do it, someone else would and he’d use the gear combo to beat you. Best of luck!
-Cambios
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