After my failure of a Season 5 Arena debut last week, I made it a mission to replace all my level 70 PvP gear, and to make sure I’m prepared for next time. I had plenty of time during the day Saturday and Sunday to work with. I would farmed more honor if stuff like food and going out into the city didn’t get in the way.

PvE for PvP Gear

I know a lot of people out there are against the idea of PvEing to get PvP gear, but if Blizzard is going to have it in the game, I am going to take advantage of it. I don’t really like the idea either, but I’m not going to complain. Good players are going to kick my but in PvP regardless of what gear I can get, but the gear does help.

One way to get really great PvP gear is to run Vault of Archavon. 10 Man VoA drops Hateful Gladiator gear, and 25 Man VoA drops Deadly Gladiator gear. You can only obtain the Gloves, Leggings, and Chest pieces, but this is a good way to get the gear you need. As you may already know, I already got two pieces of loot already.

Vault of Archavon Loot Obtained:

• [Deadly Gladiator's Silk Handguards]
• [Deadly Gladiator's Silk Trousers]

Another way to get gear via PvE is by turning in your [Emblem of Heroism] and your [Emblem of Valor]. You can turn in Heroism emblems for Savage Gladiator gear, and you can turn in Valor emblems for Hateful Gladiator gear. All 5 pieces of the set can be purchased. The price for the Gloves and Shoulders is 30 a piece. The price for the Helm, Leggings, and Chest are set at 45 a piece. I had a good amount of Emblem of Valor saved up, so I put them to good use.

Emblem of Valor Loot Obtained:

• [Hateful Gladiator's Silk Amice]
• [Hateful Gladiator's Silk Raiment]

Emblem of Heroism were used to purchase the raw gems needed for all the gear I got. I am so happy that Blizzard added this vendor. I would still be using green quality gems without that vendor.

PvP for PvP Gear

All the gear I had so far took no effort (PvP-wise) to obtain, and I was able to get them in a relatively short amount of time since I already had the Emblems saved up for them. For the rest of the gear, took a lot more time, and was a lot more fun to obtain. The rest of the gear required Honor, and a whole lot if it too!

A great way to get Honor is by participating in Wintergrasp whenever it is up, and doing all the PvP dailies that is associated with the zone. By doing the daily quests, you will recieve [Stone Keeper's Shards]. You can also receive these Shards by doing heroic instances while your faction has control of Wintergrasp. With these Shards you can purchase a variety of item from the vendor in Wintergrasp.

Stone Keeper’s Shard Loot Obtained:

• [Kharmaa's Grace]
• [Arcanum of Dominance]
• [Inscription of Dominance]

By participating in Wintergrasp, you will also receive [Wintergrasp Mark of Honor]. For a win you receive 3 Marks, for a loss you get 1 Mark. For my server, it is pretty much “whoever is on offense will win”. With the help of “Patch 3.0.8 Day” where the server would reset after every Wintergrasp game (which would also reset Wintergrasp), I already had a nice stockpile of Marks. You can also purchase gear using these Marks.

Wintergrasp Mark of Honor Loot Obtained:

• [Flow of Knowledge]
• [Titan-forged Hood of Salvation]
• [Titan-forged Boots of Salvation]

Now normally there is a 2hr30min wait in between the end of a Wintergrasp game and the start of the next. So during the time between, I played a whole lot of Strand of the Ancient. Playing SotA yields a good amount of Honor, as well as [Strand of the Ancient Mark of Honor], which I used to turn in the quest, Concerted Efforts.

Getting ~1k Honor every 15 minutes isn’t too bad at all.

Strand of the Ancient is now my favorite Battleground. There is a set time limit so there isn’t any “turtle-ing” done to waste time. There is a lot of fighting to be done on offense or defense. There is a lot of different type of ways to fight with the use of siege vehicles, anti-personnel cannons, and seaforium charges. Pretty much a mini-Wintergrasp battleground.

Honor Loor Obtained:

• [Medallion of the Alliance]
• [Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Subjugation]
• [Hateful Gladiator's Cord of Dominance]
• [Hateful Gladiator's Cuffs of Dominance]

I’m liking the way the Mage Season 5 Arena Set looks.

Over 140k Honor earned, and over 2.1k Horde killed within two days, not too shabby. There is only a few more things left I need to farm Honor for, but I’ll say my Mage is all set for some serious Arena action now. She used to be at 15k Health, 760 Resilience, and 1200 Spell Power in level 70 gear. Now she is at 18k Health, 770 Resilience, and 1800 Spell Power in all level 80 gear.

Related Posts:

• Season 5 Arena: WTF is up with my Rating!?
• Over 1000 Resilience
• Back into PvP Mode
• A Totally Different Mage in 10 Days
• 2 Piece Valorous Frostfire