I scanned the archives and back in October of 2006 Arcarius was in Alterac Valley for the first time. There’s the picture of him with the Ice Barbed Spear and wearing the Stormpike Tabard. It’s been so long ago, but how could he have gotten the Tabard so quickly if that was some of his first goes? The spear you get for being in a winning game. The tabard? (Granted, Alliance was winning nearly all the time at that time.)
Regardless, now I have two more characters that have entered Alterac Valley. Greenclaw and Darkhand, my Druid and Rogue Night Elves.
My reaction, after playing half a dozen games with them? Well, for starters, I’m kind of low level to be in there. However, if I was just going to quickly level them up, then why would wait till 60 to go enjoy some battlegrounds action? I’d level up to 70 and go to the ultimate end-game. However, my gear will be outright horrible at that point, they not being mains, and that wouldn’t be fun.
Now Darkhand is a mace spec Rogue. So he’s got the stuns working for him. He also took Blade Twisting for more daze effect. But I’m not at all skilled in PvP with Darkhand (having come off a PvP server years ago) so I was just mucking about. Took off a few heads, stunned a few runners and watched them taken down. Lasted long enough to get credit for capturing a graveyard and a tower, completing those quests, snuck into the harpy cave under Stormpike and retaking the banner, *and* being there for the rare Alliance win and getting the Bloodseeker Crossbow. (Next stop was to go to Stormwind City and train in Crossbows. Till then I’d been a gunman (Engineer).)
Greenclaw is a Feral Druid, and I’ve directed him and his gear for cat dps. BG’s start the same for both. They ride to the battleline, dismount and stealth into the action. His pounce ability is pretty cool. Nothing more fun than starting a fight stunning the opponent, or joining a fight and stunning them mid cast. He too got a win in, and picked up the Ice Forged Hammer. Not that it’s worth having, since I’m using Blanchard’s Stout now.
Can I persevere with both, or either even, in order to aquire some PvP gear at level 60? That’s probably so not worth it anymore. When Msaker did his grind, he reached Centurian, which got him 4 of the 6 pieces of the rare (blue) PvP armor set. They changed the honor rules, no more titles, and he simply ground the rest of the honor to get the final two pieces. The set looked really cool (Samurai-like shoulders, etc.) and did pretty good in instances, good stamina to let me tank even though I wasn’t specced for it. But I started replacing pieces almost immediately upon hitting Thrallmar. He did it because there was nothing more for him. Molten Core was out since it also wasn’t worth it on the eve of the Burning Crusade coming out. Running the old instances for the Valor set? Really not that much of an upgrade on the PvP set, and that PvP set stuff was guaranteed me. (I remember a Druid running Stratholme 13 times and still no Druid legs for him.)
It’ll be worth it in one way. I do BG’s for fun. And I suppose by 70 I’ll have accumulated enough to drop the honor earned on some decent gear. Until then I do the battles for the amusement and enjoyment of it. I’ve got my end-game Raider. I’ve got my end-game grinders. I’ve got my low- and mid-level alts. And now I have two similar, yet different, battleground fighters. And if Alliance keep mostly losing in this bracket, then I’ll really have to get my level 43 Horde Priest to level 51 and into the action, staying back, healing her little undead heart out.
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January 15, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Tomas
Yeah – the 51 (or 61 now) in AV is pretty ubiquitous. I have fond memories of most of my toons alliance and horde both running into their first AV’s to try and grab that spear or to simply be able to buy the Alterac Valley Mana Biscuits.
As far as the warlord/marshal’s gear goes. The 60 stuff is pretty broken at the moment and doesn’t provide much value to anyone but a left over 60’s battleground twink. That said – you can still get a fair bit of mileage out of grabbing a piece or two of the gear.
For Skychaser *(my shammy and first 70 btw)* – it was one of the Warlord’s Bludgeons. I used that big hammer from 60 to 70 and for a good while after. The 59.9 dps mace was as good or better than just about *anything* that dropped for me through out my climb to 70. I put a nice enchant on it and it saved me oodles of gold not bothering with the auction house to try and upgrade weapons.
For Growl (my 62 tank druid) – the one piece was the Warlord’s shoulders. My guess is that she’ll be wearing them until the mid-high 60’s at least – and they might even make it to 70.
Each of these pieces filled out a weak spot that I felt existed in the quest or potential drop rewards on the way to 70. Both were relatively inexpensive honor wise and only required a week or so of my time to get. Plus – in both characters cases – I had enough money for epic mount training – but wanted a pvp mount. So the honor I was grinding was being put to dual use.
So for *me* – grabbing one piece or two is fine. But working though the honor needed to grab the 60 set is a waste of time. Would be nice if Blizzard would upgrade it or something.
January 15, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Kinless
True. The level 60 gear has gone the way of the 60 Instance, that is, by the wayside. Sad. But it’s like mourning one’s youth. We’re growing up and getting to see and experience new things.
It’s sad for the youngsters that they’re being rushed past all the pasttimes we enjoyed and getting to where we’ve been for a while now.
At least with the next expansion and we’ll all start “growing up” more again.
(And, heck, even the baby Death Knights are going to start “mature” and skip the whole “days of youth” phase. At some point we’ll start a new character class already at max level. Like they do for the Public Test Realms sometimes. Like they already offer in Guild Wars. :/ )
PvP mounts. That’s something to consider. And a good solid weapon.