Now that you have and understanding of some of the basics of Frost Mage PvP, and know what stats to aim for, you need to gear yourself for PvP. But where to start?

In Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard has given players many ways to obtain PvP gear. The obvious way is to PvP. Participate in Battlegrounds, Wintergrasp, or Arena. You can also get them with badges obtain from dailies!

This is written during Arena Season 8: April 22, 2010.

Honor Points

The basic currency for PvP is Honor Points. You receive them by killing a player of the opposing faction. The best way to get honor is by going into Battlegrounds: Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and Alterac Valley.

Queue into any of these Battlegrounds from your Character’s Honor tab (press H), and start farming those Honor Points. Make sure you win at least one Random Battleground a day for that extra bonus honor! Not only do you get extra Honor Points, you get Arena Points as well!

You can also get Honor Points by completing the Weekly Wintergrasp Quests that are available in this PvP zone. So make sure you do them every week also!

Remember: The max honor your character can hold is 75,000 Honor Points. If you are getting close to the cap, make sure you spend some of it before continuing to PvP so more.

Furious Gladiator Set

• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Amice – 34,700 Honor
• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Cowl – 54,500 Honor
• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Handguards – 43,300 Honor
• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Raiment – 54,500 Honor
• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Trousers – 34,700 Honor

Non-Set Wrathful Gear

• Wrathful Gladiator’s Band of Dominance – 52,200 Honor
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Cloak of Subjugation – 52,200 Honor
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Cuffs of Alacrity – 43,400 Honor
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Cord of Alacrity – 68,200 Honor, 1300 Personal Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Pendant of Subjugation – 52,200 Honor
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Treads of Alacrity – 68,200 Honor, 1400 PR

Non-set Other Gear

• Medallion of the Alliance – 68,200 Honor
• Battlemaster’s Ruination – 34,100 Honor
• Battlemaster’s Vivacity – 34,100 Honor

The Personal Rating is the rating you have in your 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 teams. This is different than your Team Rating, especially if you have many different players in your Arena Teams.

Wintergrasp Mark of Honor

These mark of honor you get from… GASP- Wintergrasp! You receive 3 Marks for winning a WG battle, 1 for losing. You have to actually reach at least Rank 2 during the battle to receive full credit for winning the match however. If you don’t, you may only receive 2 or even 1 for a winning match.

Wintergrasp isn’t a Battleground that you can queue from your Honor Tab. You have to queue directly from a Battlemaster at any of your capitals, or actually fly into the zone in Northrend.

Also, there is a 2hr 30min timer in which the faction which wins the match, will have control over the zone. At then end of that timer, the battle will begin again. So there may be a chance that your faction won’t have control of Wintergrasp for many many hours.

Wintergrasp Gear

• Flow of Knowledge – 25 Marks
• Platinum Disks of Swiftness – 25 Marks
• Platinum Disks of Sorcery – 25 Marks
• Titan-Forged Band of Ascendancy – 15 Marks
• Titan-Forged Cloak of Ascendancy – 25 Marks
• Titan-Forged Cloth Leggings of Salvation – 40 Marks
• Titan-Forged Cord of Salvation – 15 Marks
• Titan-Forged Cuffs of Salvation – 15 Marks
• Titan-Forged Hood of Salvation – 40 Marks
• Titan-Forged Pendant of Ascendancy – 25 Marks
• Titan-Forged Raiment of Salvation – 40 Marks
• Titan-Forged Rune of Alacrity – 25 Marks
• Titan-Forged Rune of Audacity – 25 Marks
• Titan-Forged Slippers of Salvation – 25 Marks
• Titan-Forged Shoulderpads of Salvation – 40 Marks

Stone Keeper’s Shard

These shards you can obtain by killing any bosses in any Northrend Heroics Dungeons while your faction has control over Wintergrasp. You can also obtain them by completing the Weekly quests that are available in Wintergrasp.

Chances are you have a ton of these shards just sitting on your character begging to be used. Now that you are PvPing, you will have many uses for them now!

Stone Keeper’s Shard Items

• Wintergrasp Commendation – 30 Shards
• Arcanum of Dominance – 40 Shards
• Inscription of Dominance – 30 Shards

Relentless Tuna!

Emblem of Triumph

An optional way to purchase Furious Gladiator gear is by doing Heroic Dungeons. So yes, you can PvE to get PvP gear this way! You have to start somewhere right? If you mainly PvE and want a way to start getting PvP gear, this is the way to go.

This way is much better than jumping straight into Battlegrounds with just whatever gear you happen to have.

Furious Gladiator Set

• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Amice – 50 Emblems
• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Cowl – 75 Emblems
• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Handguards – 50 Emblems
• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Raiment – 75 Emblems
• Furious Gladiator’s Silk Trousers – 75 Emblems

Emblem of Frost

Just like the Emblem of Truimph, the Emblem of Frost can also be used to purchase PvP gear. The PvP gear that is available with this emblem is also a step up in tier as well. You will be able to purchase Relentless Gladiator Gear!

Relentless Gladiator Set

• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Amice – 60 Emblems
• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Cowl – 95 Emblems
• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Handguards – 60 Emblems
• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Raiment – 95 Emblems
• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Trousers – 95 Emblems

Arena Points

Arena Points are… well points you get from participating in Arena Matches. You can get 25 Arena Points by winning a Random Battleground, but you only get in once per day. So that’s more reason for you to win at least once a day.

The points you get is determined by your Arena Rating for your Arena Teams. If you are part of multiple teams, the points you receive will be based off the team rating which will give you more points. You only receive Arena Points for being on a team at the beginning of the WoW week (after server resets), based on how well you did the week before.

“1337″ Ratings!

You can calculate how much Arena Points you will get based on your Team Ratings on WoW’s armory page HERE.

If RATING = 1500 -> POINTS = [.22 x RATING + 14]
If RATING > 1500 -> POINTS = [ 1511.26 / ( 1 + 1639.28 x 2.71828 ^ -0.00412 x RATING ) ]

Penalties:
2v2 teams earn 76% of the points of a 5v5 team with the same rating.
3v3 teams earn 88% of the points of a 5v5 team with the same rating.

If your team rating is under 1500, you will receive at minimum, the amount of points you would if you were 1500 Rating. So the best practices to farm Arena Points is to be in a 5v5 team, and play at least the minimum required.

All the big boy PvP gear are purchased with Arena Points, and almost all of them will require a Personal Rating of some sort in order to purchase them. The Personal Rating required will vary between each item.

Remember: You are only eligible to receive Arena Points for a team if you participated in at LEAST 10 matches AND 30% of the total team’s matches for the week.

Relentless Gladiator Set

• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Amice – 10,550 Honor, 600 Arena
• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Cowl – 13,200 Honor, 770 Arena
• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Handguards – 8,000 Honor, 440 Arena
• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Raiment – 13,200 Honor, 770 Arena
• Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Trousers – 13,200 Honor, 770 Arena

Wrathful Gladiator Set

• Wrathful Gladiator’s Silk Amice – 1,930 Arena, 2000 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Silk Cowl – 2,370 Arena, 1950 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Silk Handguards – 1,430 Arena, 1400 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Silk Raiment – 2,370 Arena, 1600 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Silk Trousers – 2,370 Arena, 1500 Rating

Wrathful Weapons

• Wrathful Gladiator’s Piercing Touch – 1,260 Arena, 1700 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Wand of Alacrity – 1,260 Arena, 1700 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s War Staff – 55,000 Honor, 1,540 Arena, 1800 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Compendium – 350 Arena, 1800 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Grimoire – 350 Arena, 1800 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Blade of Alacrity – 38,500 Honor, 1,300 Arena, 1800 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Blade of Celerity – 3,950 Arena, 2200 Rating
• Wrathful Gladiator’s Combat Staff – 4,670 Arena, 2200 Rating

Any extra or left over Arena Points (like on last day of the season) you can purchase [Commendation of Bravery] for 100 Arena Points each.

Next I will cover Gemming and Enchanting for PvP.

We’ve already cover some of the basics in Frost Mage PvP: 101, now let us get into more details about what else we need to know.

The stats you need for PvP is a little bit different from PvE. Of course you will still need Spell Power, Crit, Haste, and Hit; but now you will also need two other stats: Resilience and Spell Penetration.

Spell Power: Self explanatory. The more you have, the more damage you do. Get a lot of it.

Critical Strike Rating: An important stat for doing spike damage, but as a Frost Mage, you don’t NEED it. You will rely on your many talents for your critical strike rates.

Haste: Much more important than Critical Strike Rating for a Frost Mage. The more Haste you have, the faster you cast. The faster you cast, the more damage you do.

Hit Rating: In PvP, you won’t need as much as you did for PvE since you will be fighting opponents at your own level. For PvP purposes, you will only need 4% Hit Rating total. 105 Hit Rating without talents.

Spell Penetration: Is (for the most part) a PvP only stat which will negate your opponent’s Spell Resists. Each point of Spell Penetration will negate a point of Spell Resist.

There isn’t much gear with this stat, so most of your Spell Penetration will come from your enchants and gems.

The hardest part about Spell Penetration is figuring how you need, and against some opponents, Spell Penetration is not needed, and is a wasted stat. It is still a good idea to have some Spell Penetration just in case.

For occasional PvP, having around 75 Spell Penetration is a good start. For Arena, you will want around 150 Spell Penetration.

You want to have enough Spell Penetration to effectively take your opponent’s Spell Resistance down to zero. Let’s take a look at who has Spell Resistance, and how much.

Druids: Can give themselves and their teammates Spell Resistance with a buff.

• Mark of the Wild = 54 Spell Resistance
• Improved Mark of the Wild = 75 Spell Resistance

Paladins: Can give themselves and their teammates Frost Resistance with an aura.

• Frost Resistance Aura = 130 Frost Resistance
• Aura Mastery = 260 Frost Resistance Resistance (for 6 seconds)

Shamans: Can give themselves and their teammates Frost Resistance with a totem.

• Frost Resistance Totem = 130 Frost Resistance

Death Knights: Can proc a buff on themselves and their teammates.

• Acclimation = 50 Frost Resistance (stacks 3 times)

Mages: Has self-buffs and talents which will increase their Spell Resistances.

• Magic Absorption = 80 Spell Resistance
• Mage Armor = 40 Spell Resistance
• Arcane Shielding = 60 Spell Resistance (for Mage Armor)

Remember, group/raid buffs won’t stack with each other. However, self-buffs will stack with group/raid buffs.

At most, you will need 270 Spell Penetration, and that is only against Arcane Mages partnered up with a Paladin. The minimum you will need is 54 Spell Penetration, which is against anyone with a regular Mark of the Wild.

Again, shoot for around 75 Spell Penetration for occasional PvP, and around 150 Spell Penetration for Arenas.

Resilience: A PvP only stat which will increase your survivability significantly. The more you have, the less damage you take, the longer you live.

I am just going to copy and paste what I wrote earlier about Resilience. Resilience is and even more important PvP stat than before.

Patch 3.2 gave us a new change to how Resilience works, and an addition hotfix gave us more damage reduction from Resilience, making this stat even more essential to PvP. You won’t see players with a lot of PvE gear in Arenas as much anymore.

Reduces Chance to be Critically Hit

At level 80, every 94.27 Resilience rating will net you a 1% chance reduction. For example, I have 1125 Resilience, so that will give me a 11.933% chance reduction of being critically hit.

Total Resilience / 94.27 = % Critical Hit Chance Reduction

There is currently no cap to reducing your chances of getting critically hit- so essentially you can be “uncritable” if you stack enough Resilience.

Mana Drains and Critical Strike Damage Reduction

Not only does Resilience reduces the chance of you getting hit by a critical strike, if you do get it, it will reduce the damage of the critical strike! Mana drain reduction too! Resilience is a nice stat.

[Total Resilience / 94.27] x 2.2 = % Critical Strike Damage Reduction

So I take the 11.933% Critical Hit Chance Reduction I have from my 1125 Resilience, and multiply it by 2.2 to get the % of Mana Drains and Critical Strike Damage Reduction I will have: 26.246%.

Additional Damage Reduction From All Damage Sources

On top of all that, Resilience now gives you a straight up damage reduction- and by double the amount of your % Critical Hit Chance Reduction too!

[Total Resilience / 94.27] x 2.0 = % Damage Reduction

So again I take the 11.933% Critical Hit Chance Reduction I have, then multiply it by 2.0 to get how much Damage Reduction I will have: 23.867%.

Next, I think I will get into gear, and how/where to obtain them.

Continue to Next Section:

Frost Mage PvP: 103 – Gearing for PvP

Related Posts:

• Frost Mage PvP: 101
• Frost Mage PvE: Gunship Battle

Welcome to introductory class to Frost Mage PvP! This will cover the very basics of what you need to know about PvPing as a Frost Mage. I will making additional posts to cover the different aspects of PvP. You can’t learn it all in one post!

I’ve gotten a few emails about PvPing, so this is my way of answering a few of those questions at the same time. Feel free to ask more questions, or if you want to add to anything I have, please feel free to do so.

Your Role as a Mage

As a Frost Mage, you have a lot of utility, and can do things many classes can’t do, or won’t do well. Playing a Mage isn’t just about doing damage, although damage is one of our main roles. And we can also do more than just provide food and water!

Crowd Control: Also known as “CC”, Mages have the ability to render an opponent useless for a short durations. It can be to make the opponent lose control of their character, keep an opponent from moving, or even preventing an opponent from using their abilities. And we have many ways to do it too!

• Polymorph
• Frost Nova
• Shattered Barrier
• Frostbite
• Deep Freeze
• Counterspell
• Cone of Cold
• Improved Blizzard

Buffer: We also bring buffs which will help make ourselves and our teammates stronger. We help our teammates crit more often, take less magic damage, take more healing, or just have more mana.

• Arcane Intellect
• Focus Magic
• Dampen Magic
• Amplify Magic

Debuffer: We can also debuff our enemies to make them weaker. We can make the move and attack slower; take more critical strikes; or even receive less healing.

• Ice Armor
• Winter’s Chill
• Permafrost

Tank: Yes, sometimes in PvP we are called on to just stay alive and keep the opponents occupied. When there are many players beating on you, you have many options to use to escape, and stay alive longer.

• Ice Block
• Ice Barrier
• Blink
• Invisibility
• Mage Armor
• Ice Armor
• Frost Ward
• Fire Ward
• Mana Shield

Frost Mage PvP Spec

You will need to know how to spec your talent trees. 20/0/51 is usually how most Frost Mages are spec’d, but “how” they spec each tree can be a little different.

• “Cookie Cutter Spec”
• Tuna’s More Offensive Reeeeeeeeeeeemix!!11one! Spec
• “Battleground AoE Goodness”

The Arcane Tree is pretty much straight forward. I’ve seen some players who opted to sacrifice Mana efficiency from Arcane Concentration for more defense from Arcane Fortitude. It will depend on your play style, gear, and team composition. Every other talent is pretty much a “must get”.

The Frost Tree gets a bit more complicated since there are many good talents to get, and not enough talent points. I’ve seen many Mages with different little variations in their Frost Tree. Again it is mostly preference and situational depending on your team composition.

Improved Blizzard: Mainly used for Battlegrounds, Improved Blizzard can be the nastiest movement debuff a Mage can do to a target. With all the right talents, your Blizzard can slow your target(s) to a crawling 30% movement speed, with each tick of Blizzard having a 15% chance to freeze too!

Frost Warding: A nice defensive talent with the utility of also returning you Mana too. It makes your Ice Armor stronger, and gives your Frost and Fire Wards a 30% chance to negate damage, turning that damage into Mana.

Cold as Ice: Some players have 1, 2, or no points at all invested into this talent. If you are used to long drawn out battles, you will probably be taking this talent. If you are used to matches being decided within the first 5 minutes, you might not bother with this talent.

Shattered Barrier: This is a nice talent which gives you addition protection by freezing anything around you whenever your Ice Barrier gets eaten through. The problem is, it shares the same Diminishing Return as Frostbite.

Arctic Winds: Another talent where some players will put some, none, or all points into the talent. It gives you an offensive and defensive boost at the same time. Some players don’t think it is worth all 5 points however.

Enduring Winter: The “general consensus” is that one point into this talent is enough, and I agree with that.

Chilled to the Bone: Some players won’t have all five points invested into this talent, and will use those extra points to put them into Shattered Barrier or Cold as Ice.

Major and Minor Glyphs

You can think of Glyphs like they are enchants, but for your spells! At level 80, you can have up to three Major Glyphs, and three Minor Glyphs.

Minor Glyphs:

• Frost Ward
• Fire Ward
• Slow Fall

Out of all the minor glyphs available, these three are the only ones with a useful use for them. The two wards will have a small chance to reflect back spells, and you can use Slow Fall for buff protection without wasting reagents.

Major Glyphs:

• Evocation
• Ice Barrier

These two glyphs you must have. The last glyph is open depending on your own preference. Here are some I’ve seen used:

• Blink
• Deep Freeze
• Frost Nova
• Ice Armor
• Ice Block
• Icy Veins
• Mana Gem
• Mirror Image
• Polymorph
• Remove Curse
• Water Elemental

This was just a quick basic overview of Frost Mage PvP. If you have any questions or like to add something, fee free to do so. For the next section, I will be talking about Resilience and Spell Penetration.

Continue to Next Section:

Frost Mage PvP: 102 – Spell Penetration and Resilience

Related Posts:

• Frost Mage PvP: 102 – Spell Penetration and Resilience
• Frost Mage PvE: Gunship Battle

This week we’ve busy and couldn’t get any games in til Monday night- the night before ratings are calculated and points are given out. Apparently this is usually the time where some of the good players queue up to collect rating off scrubs (like us), and we ended up only getting 15 games in before I ran out of time and had to leave.

We started off the night with just trying to get our 10 games in for the week so we can get Arena points for the week. We had a pretty bad losing streak so we ended up playing more games so we can get our Rating back up to at least where it was. Well we gave ourselves til 7pm before we would stop, but we ran into a team that just wouldn’t let us stop at 7pm.

Over 1 Million Damage AND Outhealed the other Paladin!

My Rogue partner got wtfpwn’d by the two Paladins early in the game. Then they went after me. Thing is, they got over confident and the Holy Paladin decided that he didn’t need to heal anymore. I guess the Retribution Paladin didn’t think he would need to bubble either, and I got a few good crits and and killed him. Now it is just me and the Holy Paladin left.

It was a chess match with us trying to out-mana each other. A long, long, loooooooooooooong chess match. As the match went on, I got less and less help from my partner over vent too!

1 Minute In:

“He’s at 50% Mana, you’re running low, Sheep him and use Evocation!”

2 Minutes In:

“You’re running low on Mana again, try to get out of combat and drink up.”
“OMG he has water too! Go interrupt his drinking!”

5 Minutes In:

“He’s trying to rez!”

10 Minutes In:

“… be right back, I’m going to go get a drink…”

15 Minutes In:

“WTF the match isn’t over yet?! We better get like 100 Rating for this Match!”

20 Minutes In:

“Holy shit, you’re still fighting?!”
Me: “Yea I think he bubbled like three times…”
“Okay I’m gonna go do something, yell in vent when its over.”

35 Minutes In:

“… okay you should just text me or something when this is over or something.”

Man I really really really hate going 1 on 1 against healers. It is such a different fight. You stop looking at Health bar and all you look at is the Mana bar. I have save all my cooldowns and keep an eye on all my timers.

There was a few mistakes the Paladin made which led to me finally winning the match:

• He blew a bubble thinking it would keep me from interrupting him from resurrecting his partner.
• He buffed himself with Greater Blessing of Wisdom. Thanks!
• He didn’t bring more water than me, and ran out. Mage FTW!
• He chased me out in the open (not near middle grave or entrance) and couldn’t LOS Squirtle and my final bursts of damage at the end.

Good match Mr. Nomixus of team ROADHOUSE! Hopefully we won’t cross paths again, I don’t think I can handle another epic battle. This was longer than when I solo’d old Onyxia.

We ended with a 7-8 record for the 3rd week of Arena, with a 1343 Rating. I think we ended up losing 5 Rating from what we previously had last week.Related Posts:

• Season 8 Arena: Week One
• Over 1000 Resilience
• Back into PvP Mode

The rush of ending a match only a few seconds into the match; the thrill of beating a composition you were having trouble with all night; pulling off a victory as the last man standing after your partner has died. Being angry at yourself for doing something stupid; forgetting to buff yourself and hoping your partner didn’t catch it; cheering on your partner to win the match after you died already.

Even the “pins and needles” sensation I get in my hands and arms after a close match. It feels great to do Arena again.

I’ve been away from competitive PvP for quite sometime, and I’ve pretty much had to learn to fight each class again. Learn to save my cooldowns for the correct time, and learned to save my Counterspells for just the right moment.

I had to learn what buffs some classes got, and what each spell animation looks like for whenever they pop a certain defensive ability. I’ve learned about the Hunter’s Deterrence ability the hard way. “WTF did he just deflect my Frostbolts!?!”

Our first week went fairly well. We were still learning how to play along with each other- learn each other’s play style. Also, I didn’t have a working mic, and my partner had to put up with playing with a mute Mage.

About 90% of our losses were against teams with a Hunter in it. For some reason, we just couldn’t win. They seem to cheat death like five times per match. Something for us to work on for the upcoming weeks.

We ended up with and .500 record and we stopped with a 657-ish rating for the week. Not bad for a new team with no communication.

Dear Blizzard,

Buff Mages.
Nerf Hunters.
Warriors are fine.

- Tuna

Related Posts:

• 36 Minute Arena Match
• Back into PvP Mode
• Over 1000 Resilience

Patch 3.2 gave us a new change to how Resilience works, and an addition hotfix gave us more damage reduction from Resilience, making this stat even more essential to PvP. You won’t see players with a lot of PvE gear in Arenas as much now.

Reduces Chance to be Critically Hit

At level 80, every 94.27 Resilience rating will net you a 1% chance reduction. For example, I have 1125 Resilience, so that will give me a 11.933% chance reduction of being critically hit.

Total Resilience / 94.27 = % Critical Hit Chance Reduction

There is currently no cap to reducing your chances of getting critically hit- so essentially you can be “uncritable” if you stack enough Resilience.

Mana Drains and Critical Strike Damage Reduction

Not only does Resilience reduces the chance of you getting hit by a critical strike, if you do get it, it will reduce the damage of the critical strike! Mana drain reduction too! Resilience is a nice stat.

[Total Resilience / 94.27] x 2.2 = % Critical Strike Damage Reduction

So I take the 11.933% Critical Hit Chance Reduction I have from my 1125 Resilience, and multiply it by 2.2 to get the % of Mana Drains and Critical Strike Damage Reduction I will have: 26.246%.

Additional Damage Reduction From All Damage Sources

On top of all that, Resilience now gives you a straight up damage reduction- and by double the amount of your % Critical Hit Chance Reduction too!

[Total Resilience / 94.27] x 2.0 = % Damage Reduction

So again I take the 11.933% Critical Hit Chance Reduction I have, then multiply it by 2.0 to get how much Damage Reduction I will have: 23.867%.

TLDR: Get Resilience, it’s a good PvP stat.Related Posts:

• Back into PvP Mode
• 36 Minute Arena Match
• Season 8 Arena: Week One

107k Honor in one day!

Since I am now on a new server, I will have to find myself a new Arena partner too! A guildie was looking for a Mage to do Arena with his Rogue- sounds like a pretty good 2v2 composition!

This also means I will be doing Battlegrounds regularly now for the PvP Daily, as well as collecting marks to turn in for more Honor. I’m just glad that I have enough Eye of Storm marks saved up that I won’t have to enter that BG unless it is the Daily. AB and WSG still remains as my favorite two BGs to play.

Dropping down that Pony Keg was a BAD idea!

I gotta go now! Have… to… farm… more… honor…

I’m going to put together some sort of Season 8 starter guide sometime in the near future so look forward to that. Look forward to more Arena Pictures too! I know a few of you have been bugging me to show off my MS Paint skillz.Related Posts:

• Season 8 Arena: Week One
• Over 1000 Resilience
• 36 Minute Arena Match

All you have to do is to fly into the Wintergrasp Zone before the battle begins. Anytime with less than 5 minutes til battle is a good time. Grab the dailies in the zone, and head towards one of the bridges towards the south towers.

You will see a two Horde NPCs fighting two Alliance NPCs. Help your faction’s guard out and kill the opposing NPC. (No Mercy for the Merciless) Horde Players: 1/10. Notice you will also be promoted to Corporal, and be given the ability to pilot catapults. Too bad you lose that promotion right away.

You can get the quest done before the battle even begins. Now you will want to be the first player to get their catapult driving license. The trick is, to wait by the bridge, near one of your faction’s would be factories, and right when the battle starts, kill the NPC, and you will be promoted to Corporal.

Since the battle is active, this time you will keep your promotion, and you can go to the factory, and charge into battle with the first catapult. You’ll be in your new ride, while players are still zoning in from Dalaran.

You will now have a head start at taking down the Fortress walls if you are attacking, or head start on taking down the lower towers if you are defending.Related Posts:

• Back into PvP Mode
• 36 Minute Arena Match
• Season 8 Arena: Week One
• Over 1000 Resilience

Here is a video from Round 4 of the second Best of Five Grandfinals match between SK Gaming Asia and HON. Yea I don’t know what means either, I’m just quoting what I read from the description. All I know is that this is a match between two well known Arena teams, and Mages were involved. Thanks goes to ex-ViewFromBehind Rogue, now ViewFromAfar Hunter, Doomilias for showing me this video.

It was a 3v3 Arena match, and each team had the same class set up, Rogue/Mage/Priest, or RMP for short. The video shows how versatile an Arcane Mage is in PvP, and goes from barely escaping a 2v1 disadvantage; to bursting down an opponent, leading to a victory.

First Part:

Both Rogues were taken out of the match, and it was Mage/Priest vs Mage/Priest. When HON’s Priest goes down, Orangemarmelade, the Arcane Mage, is forced into a 2v1 situation. While the announcers were calling the match over, Orangemarmelade keeps fighting, and evens the match by taking out the opposing Mage. Still, for a Mage, playing against a Discipline Priest is very tough.

Second Part:

The match keeps continuing until the time limit of the match is reached, and a victor is decided by whoever does the most damage. SK Gaming Asia needed only to win that match to win the $30,000 prize, but Orangemarmelade not only prevented that, but him and his team won the next match also, giving them the $30,000 prize.

Final Match:

This match shows how quickly matches can be decided in a Rogue/Mage/Priest set up. Watching these videos makes me want to start participating in Arena seriously again. But I’m lazy… and don’t feel like respecing. Maybe I’ll start up again after Dual Specs are out.Related Posts:

• 36 Minute Arena Match
• Season 8 Arena: Week One
• Back into PvP Mode
• Over 1000 Resilience

I got a few requests for this, so I took the list that I had and expanded it further to make a PvP gear guide players can use to plan out which gear to get. Here is a list of various PvP gear you can pick up, from starter gear, to the best you can get for his season.

Frostsavage Gear is a great place to start if you are just looking to get into PvP. They are all crafted by Tailors, and the mats are fairly easy to farm, or fairly cheap to purchase of the Auction House.

If you are starting off with no honor and no emblems, this is the perfect place to start looking for gear. These pieces of gear act as great fill-in gear for any slots you still have open. It is also good gear to use to farm honor with.

• [Frostsavage Belt]
  • 3 [Bolt of Imbued Frostweave]
  • 3 [Crystalized Fire]
  • 3 [Crystalized Earth]
  • 2 [Eternium Thread]
• [Frostsavage Boots]
  • 3 [Bolt of Imbued Frostweave]
  • 4 [Crystalized Fire]
  • 4 [Crystalized Earth]
  • 2 [Eternium Thread]
• [Frostsavage Bracers]
  • 3 [Bolt of Imbued Frostweave]
  • 3 [Crystalized Fire]
  • 3 [Crystalized Earth]
  • 2 [Eternium Thread]
• [Frostsavage Cowl]
  • 4 [Bolt of Imbued Frostweave]
  • 5 [Crystalized Fire]
  • 5 [Crystalized Earth]
  • 2 [Eternium Thread]
• [Frostsavage Gloves]
  • 3 [Bolt of Imbued Frostweave]
  • 4 [Crystalized Fire]
  • 4 [Crystalized Earth]
  • 2 [Eternium Thread]
• [Frostsavage Leggings]
  • 4 [Bolt of Imbued Frostweave]
  • 5 [Crystalized Fire]
  • 5 [Crystalized Earth]
  • 2 [Eternium Thread]
• [Frostsavage Robe]
  • 4 [Bolt of Imbued Frostweave]
  • 5 [Crystalized Fire]
  • 5 [Crystalized Earth]
  • 2 [Eternium Thread]
• [Frostsavage Shoulders]
  • 3 [Bolt of Imbued Frostweave]
  • 4 [Crystalized Fire]
  • 4 [Crystalized Earth]
  • 2 [Eternium Thread]

Savage Gladiator’s Gear is the next step up from the crafted PvP gear. In order to obtain this gear you will need to have to farm a lot of honor, run a lot of heroic instances, or have a few arena games under your belt.

They share the same item set bonus as the Hateful and Deadly Gladiator gear, so the Savage gear can also act as good filler pieces to have the set bonus while you are farming for the better pieces.

You can purchase these pieces of gear in three different ways. By using emblem of heroism, honor points, or a mix of honor and arena points.

• [Savage Gladiator's Silk Amice]
  • 50,000 Honor Points
  • 30 [Emblem of Heroism]
  • 9,600 Honor Points and 275 Arena Points
• [Savage Gladiator's Silk Cowl]
  • 60,000 Honor Points
  • 45 [Emblem of Heroism]
  • 12,000 Honor Points and 350 Arena Points
• [Savage Gladiator's Silk Handguards]
  • 50,000 Honor Points
  • 30 [Emblem of Heroism]
  • 7,200 Honor Points and 200 Arena Points
• [Savage Gladiator's Silk Raiment]
  • 60,000 Honor Points
  • 45 [Emblem of Heroism]
  • 12,000 Honor Points and 350 Arena Points
• [Savage Gladiator's Silk Trousers]
  • 60,000 Honor Points
  • 45 [Emblem of Heroism]
  • 12,000 Honor Points and 350 Arena Points

Hateful Gladiator Gear is the next best thing you can get, and will require you to do a ton of 25-Man Raids, or require you to do some Arena matches. Some of the pieces can also drop from 10-Man Vault of Archavon.

Pieces purchased with emblems or dropped from VoA doesn’t have a required Arena Ratings to purchase or loot, but if you purchase them using Arena Points, you will need to meet the Arena Rating requirements in order to purchase.

• [Hateful Gladiator's Silk Amice]
  • 30 [Emblem of Valor]
  • 9,600 Honor Points and 550 Arena Points
  • 1775 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Hateful Gladiator's Silk Cowl]
  • 45 [Emblem of Valor]
  • 12,000 Honor Points and 700 Arena Points
  • 1735 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Hateful Gladiator's Silk Handguards]
  • 30 [Emblem of Valor]
  • 10-Man Vault of Archavon
  • 7,200 Honor Points and 400 Arena Points
  • 1615 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Hateful Gladiator's Silk Raiment]
  • 45 [Emblem of Valor]
  • 10-Man Vault of Archavon
  • 12,000 Honor Points and 700 Arena Points
  • 1675 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Hateful Gladiator's Silk Trousers]
  • 45 [Emblem of Valor]
  • 10-Man Vault of Archavon
  • 12,000 Honor Points and 700 Arena Points
  • 1645 Personal and Team Arena Rating

Deadly Gladiator Gear is the best set you can get for season 5, and can only be obtained by 25-Man Vault of Archavon, or with just Arena Points. Only three pieces of the set drops from VoA, but doesn’t have required Arena Ratings. Purchasing them with Arena Points will have high Arena Rating requirements.

• [Deadly Gladiator's Silk Amice]
  • 1,800 Arena Points
  • 2050 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Silk Cowl]
  • 2,250 Arena Points
  • 1990 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Silk Handguards]
  • 25-Man Vault of Archavon
  • 1,350 Arena Points
  • 1750 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Silk Raiment]
  • 25-Man Vault of Archavon
  • 2,250 Arena Points
  • 1870 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Silk Trousers]
  • 25-Man Vault of Archavon
  • 2,250 Arena Points
  • 1810 Personal and Team Arena Rating

Now that we’ve taken a look a the set pieces, we have to fill in the rest of the missing slots in our PvP gear. You have a few options for those pieces as well.

Hateful Honor Gear is the PvP gear you can purchase with Honor Points which doesn’t have any Arena Rating requirements. You can purchase them at the quartermaster at the war room of your faction. Stormwind for the Alliance, Ogrimmar for the Horde.

• [Medallion of the Alliance] / [Medallion of the Horde]
  • 49,600 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Band of Dominance]
  • 38,000 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Ascendancy]
  • 38,000 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Dominance]
  • 38,000 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Subjugation]
  • 38,000 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Ascendancy]
  • 38,000 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Dominance]
  • 38,000 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Subjugation]
  • 38,000 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Cord of Dominance]
  • 49,600 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Cuffs of Dominance]
  • 31,600 Honor Points
• [Hateful Gladiator's Slippers of Dominance]
  • 49,600 Honor Points

Deadly Honor Gear are an upgrade to the Hateful gear, but cost more Honor Points and also have Arena Rating requirements attached to them. Like the Hateful Honor Gear, they can be purchased in your faction’s war room, but from a different vendor.

• [Battlemaster's Accuracy]
  • 62,000 Honor Points
  • 1800 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Battlemaster's Avidity]
  • 62,000 Honor Points
  • 1800 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Battlemaster's Bravery]
  • 62,000 Honor Points
  • 1800 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Battlemaster's Hostility]
  • 62,000 Honor Points
  • 1800 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Band of Ascendancy]
  • 47,400 Honor Points
  • 1670 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Ascendancy]
  • 47,400 Honor Points
  • 1600 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Dominance]
  • 47,400 Honor Points
  • 1600 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Subjugation]
  • 47,400 Honor Points
  • 1600 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Cloak of Ascendancy]
  • 47,400 Honor Points
  • 1750 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Cloak of Dominance]
  • 47,400 Honor Points
  • 1750 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Cloak of Subjugation]
  • 47,400 Honor Points
  • 1750 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Cord of Dominance]
  • 62,000 Honor Points
  • 1630 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Cuffs of Dominance]
  • 39,400 Honor Points
  • 1660 Personal and Team Arena Rating
• [Deadly Gladiator's Treads of Dominance]
  • 62,000 Honor Points
  • 1720 Personal and Team Arena Rating

Wintergrasp Gear you can get by turning in the Marks and Shards you obtained by participating in WG and doing the daily PvP quests in WG. Shards can also be obtained by doing Heroics while your faction has control over Wintergrasp.

The Heirloom Gear you purchase scales with your level, and are Bind on Account, which means they can be mailed to your alts to use.

• [Inherited Insignia of the Alliance] / [Inherited Insignia of the Horde]
  • 250 [Stone Keeper's Shard]
• [Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle]
  • 200 [Stone Keeper's Shard]
• [Grand Staff of Jordan]
  • 325 [Stone Keeper's Shard]
• [Flow of Knowledge]
  • 25 [Wintergrasp Mark of Honor]
• [Titan-forged Hood of Dominance]
  • 40 [Wintergrasp Mark of Honor]
• [Titan-forged Hood of Salvation]
  • 40 [Wintergrasp Mark of Honor]
• [Titan-forged Slippers of Dominance]
  • 15 [Wintergrasp Mark of Honor]
• [Titan-forged Slippers of [Salvation]
  • 15 [Wintergrasp Mark of Honor]

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