Questions regarding pvp, gears, stats and stuff

[Teagirl]

Hi!

I just returned to wow and have some questions regarding current state of pvp and gearing etc.

1. How does it work with gear? In legion you only scaled with ilevel and gear had no other importance except for that. Is that still the case of how does gear actually work in pvp?
2. Does secondary stats affect pvp, both in battlegrounds and arena or in one of them?
3. I read somewhere about some strong pvp trinkets available in this expansion. How do you obtain these? Do these trinkets affect your stats somehow? If it works, does it work everywhere (bgs, arena, world) or just some places? Does all trinkets work or just pvp specific trinkets?
4. In Legion food and potions stopped working in random battlegrounds, according to Blizzard this was a bug. Has it been resolved and does food and potions work in battlegrounds again? Does it work in arena? In world pvp?
5. How is world pvp these days? You can flag up and then out in the world you are placed in a shard with other players, do a lot of player do this or people don't bother with it?
6. How does it work with the hearth of maguuma and traits on gear you put azerite points in, do they work in pvp? If so, is it in all pvp (bgs, arena, world) or just in some of them?
7. Does gems and enchants work in pvp?

[33kamous3]

Hi!

I just returned to wow and have some questions regarding current state of pvp and gearing etc.

1. How does it work with gear? In legion you only scaled with ilevel and gear had no other importance except for that. Is that still the case of how does gear actually work in pvp?
2. Does secondary stats affect pvp, both in battlegrounds and arena or in one of them?
3. I read somewhere about some strong pvp trinkets available in this expansion. How do you obtain these? Do these trinkets affect your stats somehow? If it works, does it work everywhere (bgs, arena, world) or just some places? Does all trinkets work or just pvp specific trinkets?
4. In Legion food and potions stopped working in random battlegrounds, according to Blizzard this was a bug. Has it been resolved and does food and potions work in battlegrounds again? Does it work in arena? In world pvp?
5. How is world pvp these days? You can flag up and then out in the world you are placed in a shard with other players, do a lot of player do this or people don't bother with it?
6. How does it work with the hearth of maguuma and traits on gear you put azerite points in, do they work in pvp? If so, is it in all pvp (bgs, arena, world) or just in some of them?
7. Does gems and enchants work in pvp?

1. There does seem to be some gear scaling still, but not to the extend we had in Legion. Better gear does provide an advantage now.

2. Secondary stats affect different classes/specs differently, so you'll have to find a guide for the class you're interested in.

3. PvP Trinkets are available in various iLvLs as random rewards from BG wins, the weekly conquest chest, and the weekly quest to cap conquest points. It's likely that the strong trinket you're referring to is the Maledict, which has an on-use that launches a projectile at the target that does damage and creates a shield that absorbs healing they would receive.

4. Food and potions seem to work fine in BG's and WPvP for the most part, but not arena. I regularly use the WoD potions from the garrison alchemist because they're basically free. There's also PvP-specific consumables available for Honor (or gold from the AH) that only work in BG's.

5. World PvP is based on the Warmode system, which you can enable in the capital cities and disable in rested areas. The game attempts to balance shards somewhat so that there's Horde and Alliance on both. Usually one or the other will dominate a shard for a while, but it ebbs and flows quite a bit. Usually WPvP centers around the faction assualts/incursions. You'll sometimes find "carebear" shards where people aren't really attacking each other, and just focus on questing.

6. IDK about any of that, but the azerite traits are active in PvP, some of them are more powerful or proc more often in PvP.

7. Gems and enchants seem to work fine in all forms of PvP.

8. Try not to triple-post.

[Thelxi]

Hi!

I just returned to wow and have some questions regarding current state of pvp and gearing etc.

1. How does it work with gear? In legion you only scaled with ilevel and gear had no other importance except for that. Is that still the case of how does gear actually work in pvp?
2. Does secondary stats affect pvp, both in battlegrounds and arena or in one of them?
3. I read somewhere about some strong pvp trinkets available in this expansion. How do you obtain these? Do these trinkets affect your stats somehow? If it works, does it work everywhere (bgs, arena, world) or just some places? Does all trinkets work or just pvp specific trinkets?
4. In Legion food and potions stopped working in random battlegrounds, according to Blizzard this was a bug. Has it been resolved and does food and potions work in battlegrounds again? Does it work in arena? In world pvp?
5. How is world pvp these days? You can flag up and then out in the world you are placed in a shard with other players, do a lot of player do this or people don't bother with it?
6. How does it work with the hearth of maguuma and traits on gear you put azerite points in, do they work in pvp? If so, is it in all pvp (bgs, arena, world) or just in some of them?
7. Does gems and enchants work in pvp?

1. Scaling is very complex, so complex that no one has completely figured it out yet and Blizzard refuses to reveal what they did. There is scaling with ilvl and there is scaling with your target's max health. If you hit someone with a much higher ilvl than you you might see a 10k crit while on his screen he gets hit for 15k for example.
2. Yes, very much so. Sockets are the best thing in PvP and seem to bypass some of the downscaling.
3. Trinkets are quite similar whether you get them from pvp or pve, with a main stat component and a secondary stat component, either one of which is either static or a proc. There are a couple of good pvp trinkets though, one of which got nerfed recently. For many specs the best trinkets come from PvE though.
4. I think they do work, not sure.
5. It's great, if you are horde. RP server shards seem to be alliance dominated though.
6. Azerite traits are nerfed in pvp across the board, and some specific traits are nerfed even more. Some specs don't care much about specific artifact traits while others desperately stack them to great effect. For some specs having 420 azerite traits is enormous boost to damage and survivability, for others not so much.
7. They sure do, and are very important.

Overall gear matters extremely much in PvP, but the scaling tries to close the gap a bit so that someone in quest greens doesn't get one-shot; they get 2-shot instead. Gear really matters a lot though, especially for some specs like warlock who can't really function in this caster unfriendly expansion without gear but their survivability and damage shoots through the roof once they get to 410+ilvl with 420 azerite pieces (which if anything have tons of stamina on them, which translates into a lot more survivability for a lock).

Overall gear directly determines how functional you are in PvP, and the difference between low and high ilvl is enormous. However Blizzard has changed their reward systems, and there is now a hard cap on ilvl for everyone, and as long as you play a single character every week over the course of a patch even the most casual player will reach 410ilvl without really raiding or grinding at high ratings. What I am trying to say is that gear matters a lot in PvP, but it is easy to get for anyone as long as they stay subscribed for a couple of months and grab all the time-gated free epics Blizzard throws at you. In a sense they chose to make good gear available to all loyal subscribers instead of actually scaling everyone to be on the a level playing field, if that makes sense.

[cparle87]

Overall gear directly determines how functional you are in PvP, and the difference between low and high ilvl is enormous. However Blizzard has changed their reward systems, and there is now a hard cap on ilvl for everyone, and as long as you play a single character every week over the course of a patch even the most casual player will reach 410ilvl without really raiding or grinding at high ratings. What I am trying to say is that gear matters a lot in PvP, but it is easy to get for anyone as long as they stay subscribed for a couple of months and grab all the time-gated free epics Blizzard throws at you. In a sense they chose to make good gear available to all loyal subscribers instead of actually scaling everyone to be on the a level playing field, if that makes sense.

Would you mind explaining that statement? I play quite often, but don't raid or do M+. With azerite rewards only recenly being increased by 390 to 405 I'm not sure how that statement is possible. Unless you consider doing a +10 every week to be "the most casual player."

[Thelxi]

Would you mind explaining that statement? I play quite often, but don't raid or do M+. With azerite rewards only recenly being increased by 390 to 405 I'm not sure how that statement is possible. Unless you consider doing a +10 every week to be "the most casual player."

Well there are 3 tiers of azerite gear, 385, 400 and 415. 385 is thrown at you immediately while 400ilvl azerite gear is a bit more time-gated for the casual player or alts behind things like conquest, warfronts and world bosses. However emissary quests now give 400 azerite gear as well, so again it's just a matter of time until you get 3 pieces of 405 azerite gear.

The rest of your gear will also slowly fill up with 400ilvl stuff from conquest or world bosses or monthly warfront quests. Emissaries now reward 395ilvl gear and warforges quite often, so again it's only a matter of time to fill out all your gear slots with 400+ stuff.

Now 415 azerite gear is the only thing that draws a line between the hardcore and casual players. It is very easy to get if you pug a lot of m+ every week or even just do a single +10 every week, but even without m+ you might be able to buy a single piece eventually if you get residue from all possible sources every week, other than m+ lol. The casual player will never get 3 420 pieces, let alone choose the traits on them, but even that gear is not completely out of reach for the casuals (and alts).

[cparle87]

Well there are 3 tiers of azerite gear, 385, 400 and 415. 385 is thrown at you immediately while 400ilvl azerite gear is a bit more time-gated for the casual player or alts behind things like conquest, warfronts and world bosses. However emissary quests now give 400 azerite gear as well, so again it's just a matter of time until you get 3 pieces of 405 azerite gear.

The rest of your gear will also slowly fill up with 400ilvl stuff from conquest or world bosses or monthly warfront quests. Emissaries now reward 395ilvl gear and warforges quite often, so again it's only a matter of time to fill out all your gear slots with 400+ stuff.

Now 415 azerite gear is the only thing that draws a line between the hardcore and casual players. It is very easy to get if you pug a lot of m+ every week or even just do a single +10 every week, but even without m+ you might be able to buy a single piece eventually if you get residue from all possible sources every week, other than m+ lol. The casual player will never get 3 420 pieces, let alone choose the traits on them, but even that gear is not completely out of reach for the casuals (and alts).

I've never seen any 415 azerite pieces. And it's only this week my emissaries have been giving me 400+5 pieces instead of 385+5. The conquest gear I've gotten is also all 385. I think you might have set the bar for a "casual" too high.

[Thelxi]

I've never seen any 415 azerite pieces. And it's only this week my emissaries have been giving me 400+5 pieces instead of 385+5. The conquest gear I've gotten is also all 385. I think you might have set the bar for a "casual" too high.

Well you will never see them unless you go looking for them. Check out the vendor next to the seals guy to see the prices for all the different azerite items. The cheapest option for them is 1700 or so residue for a random 415. If you do a +10 for the week you get 600 or so residue in your chest. But even without doing m+ you can slowly amass residue. You can get residue from disenchanting any epic (purple) azerite gear but also from things like island expedition rare missions. Regular random world quests now often give gear that disenchants into residue as well.

Also you said you play a lot but don't raid or do m+, which doesn't quite paint the picture of someone concerned about their ilvl but who hasn't even reached the 400 conquest gear yet. Now it's more clear who I am talking to.

[cparle87]

Well you will never see them unless you go looking for them. Check out the vendor next to the seals guy to see the prices for all the different azerite items. The cheapest option for them is 1700 or so residue for a random 415. If you do a +10 for the week you get 600 or so residue in your chest. But even without doing m+ you can slowly amass residue. You can get residue from disenchanting any epic (purple) azerite gear but also from things like island expedition rare missions. Regular random world quests now often give gear that disenchants into residue as well.

Also you said you play a lot but don't raid or do m+, which doesn't quite paint the picture of someone concerned about their ilvl but who hasn't even reached the 400 conquest gear yet. Now it's more clear who I am talking to.

I know about the vendor. 600 residue from your chest for doing a +10? Wow. Scrapping all the azerite gear I've gotten from WQs since they introduced the concept has only netted me about a thousand. I don't do organized pvp like arenas or BGs, I just do the weekly, gather war chests and such. I'm guessing once I cap the 500 enough times it'll start giving me 400 gear instead of 385?

[Thelxi]

I know about the vendor. 600 residue from your chest for doing a +10? Wow. Scrapping all the azerite gear I've gotten from WQs since they introduced the concept has only netted me about a thousand. I don't do organized pvp like arenas or BGs, I just do the weekly, gather war chests and such. I'm guessing once I cap the 500 enough times it'll start giving me 400 gear instead of 385?

As I said before a casual like yourself will likely have enough to buy 1 piece eventually before the gear becomes obsolete, maybe 2 if they really min/max their residue income. If you have 1k now only 700 more to go, and it will go much faster now that the world quest azerite gear is purple. You will never get all 3 420s let alone pick the traits on them, but you will get 405s very easily and 400+ in the rest of your slots. Just stay subscribed.

And this not me redifining what casual means. Just look around your capital or do random bg and inspect people. You will say many people with 200k-220k health that do not do any serious raiding, rated pvp or m+, but still scrapped together some gear, many of whom are total noobs that would wipe if they pulled too many quest mobs. Welfare gear has never been more extreme than it is currently; all it takes is time investment and subscription money.

And yes there is a specific conquest order where eventually the ilvl will increase to 400. It used to be gated behind the weekly lockout, but this far into the season much of it is unlocked for anyone to grind out at their own pace.

[cparle87]

As I said before a casual like yourself will likely have enough to buy 1 piece eventually before the gear becomes obsolete, maybe 2 if they really min/max their residue income. If you have 1k now only 700 more to go, and it will go much faster now that the world quest azerite gear is purple. You will never get all 3 420s let alone pick the traits on them, but you will get 405s very easily and 400+ in the rest of your slots. Just stay subscribed.

And this not me redifining what casual means. Just look around your capital or do random bg and inspect people. You will say many people with 200k-220k health that do not do any serious raiding, rated pvp or m+, but still scrapped together some gear, many of whom are total noobs that would wipe if they pulled too many quest mobs. Welfare gear has never been more extreme than it is currently; all it takes is time investment and subscription money.

And yes there is a specific conquest order where eventually the ilvl will increase to 400. It used to be gated behind the weekly lockout, but this far into the season much of it is unlocked for anyone to grind out at their own pace.

Azerite gear is purple now? My colorblindness is kicking me again, I can't tell the difference. Oh well.

I have noticed a larger number of people with 210-225k health stomping me in wpvp with my mere 195k lately. Is pugging a +10 really that easy? I did some +2s and +3s with friends early in the xpac and we almost never made time, so I gave up.

Also I've never seen this weekly cap probably because it takes me longer than a week to get 500 so I never reach it.