Armaggedon's coming!

What is the best dressed freshly dinged level 85 wearing to battlegrounds these days… and does it really matter?

Let’s go back about an hour…

This weekend I leveled Gnomeadeaden from 80 to 85.

I then grabbed the few guildies that were online and had my 1st (and most likely last) tanking experience in Crucible of Carnage.

Then I entered the BGs, SotA to be precise, as it was the Call to Arms for the weekend.

Two BGs later I had the last honor points I needed for my first level 85 honor piece (I had a bit of honor from early level BGs and I trades in my Justice points).

I grabbed the Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s Medallion of Tenacity, the 300 resilience trinket, so I could survive slightly better and more importantly escape every couple of minutes.

I was sporting two heirlooms, the helm and cloak. Ironically they are the PvE items, not the two PvP heirlooms abandoned a while back.

The reason is simple. As much as I suck at math, I do still possess the ability to compare two numbers and to date, there have been no quest or instance rewards that beat these heirlooms for stats.

So call me stupid if you want, but I am going to wear the item with the better stats in a life and death battle, rather than die for appearances.

Singlet, shorts and thongs may be unacceptable for admittance to a bar in Melbourne, but when I’m in Queensland, I’d be silly to wear the full attire.

Anyway, in a BG like SotA, BG gear is less relevant, smarts is what counts.

In SotA, your opponents aren’t so much 3.5k resilience arena players, rather they are Demolishers and Gates.

Any man and their 3-legged dog can attack gates and demos, as long as you are doing it smart.

Sure you need to pull the enemy off your demos and you need to slow their demos down, but these are a product of talents and skills, not the colour of your armor.

I would start each skirmish in the cannons, because I wasn’t getting hit, but I was hitting for 18k+ each time.

I was obviously doing something right as nearly every BG, I came out with destroyed demos and gates… More than most of those people in the BG, not bad for someone wearing heirlooms right?

If I remember right, in the same BG that lolwatninja was having a go at me for wearing heirlooms, I destroyed 3 demos and 2 gates. Sure I only got 1 killing blow and around 10 HKs, but SotA isn’t a game for kills (unless you get to farm a graveyard), it’s a game of CC vs. Dispels and Demos vs. Gates.

For the record, he was higher than me on the scoreboard with 1 killing blow and 12 HKs… But no destroyed demos or gates.

Aiming for victory

Different BGs require different levels of gear due to the mechanics, so let’s take a look at what you should aim for. I would never suggest you don’t enter a BG until you have the gear – it’s the best way to get the gear, as you learn while your earn.

There are 3 stats you want before dealing with your normal stats.

• Hit: You want 4% hit. Enough to hit a level 85.
• Penetration: You want around 170 to 220 penetration. 170 is usually enough for BGs. You want this even as melee if you have any “spell-like” abilities that can be resisted (ie. Demoralizing shout).
• Resilience: anything, the more the better, but there is a soft cap at about 3400 resilience. In fact Blizzard have recently changed things so that low resilience gets a boost and high gets a nerf.
• Everything else: your normal stat weighting.

How much for which BG?

As I mentioned, some BGs are more forgiving than others due to their mechanics. Some are more “PvE-ish”, whereas others require lots of hand to hand Gnomo-on-Gnomo fighting.

That said, there are exceptions to every rule. A guildy, Maiyen, recently joined us in our WSG adventures with zero resilience, not something id normally recommend, but why not?

Admittedly he was slaughtered midfield, I could hear his cries of despair without voice comms.

However, once he worked out where he could be the most benefit, it became irrelevant. We have one fight in our flag room that stretched on forever. I half noticed the little green swirls around my body, but paid it little attention. Apparently the Horde paid it less, as we DPS mowed them down while they ignored our squishy healer.

Required resilience gear:

Zero to as much as possible.

• Alterac Valley
• Strand of the Ancients
• Isle of Conquest
• Tol Barad

More is better.

• Arathi Basin
• Eye of the Storm
• Twin Peaks

Expect to die without it.

• Warsong Gulch
• Battle for Gilneas

Yes, yes, I know you can argue that some require more resilience gear (eg: EotS), but you always want more resilience gear. If you understand the battle and your PuG isn’t working at crossed purposes, then you will be fine.

There is always the chance that you will meet a team that will beat you whether you are in heirlooms and PvE gear or full epic resilience gear.

So, just do it!

Remember, you win some, you lose some. Play to win no matter what you are dressed in.

Gnomer and Out!

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http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/05/24/lolwut-heirlooms-in-your-battleground/