Covenants set bonus hurdle and gearing mythic past 200.

[Mickb]

So having returned to the game a few months ago after a 10 year layoff, now with 4 kids who play with me, it became very obvious very quickly that I’d really have to focus on something because I simply don’t have the time like I used to. No room for raiding, rbg, arena etc etc and multiple alts.

I had a. Shadow priest that I converted to Holy and started mythics. My reasoning is that healing gets you quicker into groups, and mythics are quite involving, like small scale but equally challenging raid encounters you can’t just muscle through like heroics. I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s not a snooze like heroics atm and has given some really satisfying gameplay.

But I’m confused by gearing. My current Ilvl is 199 and I’ve cleared all mythics over 5 and done a few 9/10/11. I’ve built a stack of gear in my bag, but it just doesn’t make sense to put it in because my venture covenant set bonus at 8/9 ilvl 197 gives +80 intellect. So it’s a sort of unsatisfying situation where for example last night cleared +11 SD (was a thrilling run, flat out, loads of oh shit moments we somehow got through etc etc) then I get a 200 ilvl chest which initially thrills me but then I slowly realise it can’t overcome the loss of the 8p intellect for breaking my covenant set.

I appreciate I can upgrade with valor but even with keystone explorer achieve its a ton of valor to get a few ilvl. And no way I’m gonna spend thousands to get 187/190/194 gear up to where it’s meaningful.

Now is there something I’m missing here? I appreciate there are secondary stats other than intellect that do matter here but how do you work out the point where say, 30 armor,40 crit and stamina and 70 mastery is better than the 80 intellect you’d lose? Are there tools for doing so?

Appreciate that great vault gives me chances but I haven’t been lucky here and this week having got to a 220 piece it will almost certainly be the slot my 235 legendary is.

[kamuimac]

So having returned to the game a few months ago after a 10 year layoff, now with 4 kids who play with me, it became very obvious very quickly that I’d really have to focus on something because I simply don’t have the time like I used to. No room for raiding, rbg, arena etc etc and multiple alts.

I had a. Shadow priest that I converted to Holy and started mythics. My reasoning is that healing gets you quicker into groups, and mythics are quite involving, like small scale but equally challenging raid encounters you can’t just muscle through like heroics. I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s not a snooze like heroics atm and has given some really satisfying gameplay.

But I’m confused by gearing. My current Ilvl is 199 and I’ve cleared all mythics over 5 and done a few 9/10/11. I’ve built a stack of gear in my bag, but it just doesn’t make sense to put it in because my venture covenant set bonus at 8/9 ilvl 197 gives +80 intellect. So it’s a sort of unsatisfying situation where for example last night cleared +11 SD (was a thrilling run, flat out, loads of oh shit moments we somehow got through etc etc) then I get a 200 ilvl chest which initially thrills me but then I slowly realise it can’t overcome the loss of the 8p intellect for breaking my covenant set.

I appreciate I can upgrade with valor but even with keystone explorer achieve its a ton of valor to get a few ilvl. And no way I’m gonna spend thousands to get 187/190/194 gear up to where it’s meaningful.

Now is there something I’m missing here? I appreciate there are secondary stats other than intellect that do matter here but how do you work out the point where say, 30 armor,40 crit and stamina and 70 mastery is better than the 80 intellect you’d lose? Are there tools for doing so?

Appreciate that great vault gives me chances but I haven’t been lucky here and this week having got to a 220 piece it will almost certainly be the slot my 235 legendary is.

you are missing the whole point of gearing up system in SL

and that point is not you getting pieces of gear from instances only your only and most significant upgrades comes from GV rng fiesta.

you are supposed to keep your sub up and keep runign it for 16-20 weeks to gear up nicely

also you can upgrade those drops with VP - making it supperior in every aspect to 197 covenant gear which you cannot upgrade.

[Kaver]

So having returned to the game a few months ago after a 10 year layoff, now with 4 kids who play with me, it became very obvious very quickly that I’d really have to focus on something because I simply don’t have the time like I used to. No room for raiding, rbg, arena etc etc and multiple alts.

I had a. Shadow priest that I converted to Holy and started mythics. My reasoning is that healing gets you quicker into groups, and mythics are quite involving, like small scale but equally challenging raid encounters you can’t just muscle through like heroics. I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s not a snooze like heroics atm and has given some really satisfying gameplay.

But I’m confused by gearing. My current Ilvl is 199 and I’ve cleared all mythics over 5 and done a few 9/10/11. I’ve built a stack of gear in my bag, but it just doesn’t make sense to put it in because my venture covenant set bonus at 8/9 ilvl 197 gives +80 intellect. So it’s a sort of unsatisfying situation where for example last night cleared +11 SD (was a thrilling run, flat out, loads of oh shit moments we somehow got through etc etc) then I get a 200 ilvl chest which initially thrills me but then I slowly realise it can’t overcome the loss of the 8p intellect for breaking my covenant set.

I appreciate I can upgrade with valor but even with keystone explorer achieve its a ton of valor to get a few ilvl. And no way I’m gonna spend thousands to get 187/190/194 gear up to where it’s meaningful.

Now is there something I’m missing here? I appreciate there are secondary stats other than intellect that do matter here but how do you work out the point where say, 30 armor,40 crit and stamina and 70 mastery is better than the 80 intellect you’d lose? Are there tools for doing so?

Appreciate that great vault gives me chances but I haven’t been lucky here and this week having got to a 220 piece it will almost certainly be the slot my 235 legendary is.

I’m pretty sure the covenant set bonus only works in open world content.. not in dungeons, raids etc.

[Mickb]

That’s what it says but I tested it and both on the character stats screen my intellect stays the same inside and outside content, and I’ve also checked a few spell tool tips. Maybe it’s actually doing so, and the tool tips are wrong.

[Volardelis]

I’m pretty sure the covenant set bonus only works in open world content.. not in dungeons, raids etc.

The 5 and 8 set bonuses work inside instances. The 3 set bonus is only outdoors and only in the zone your cov is based in.

[Mickb]

you are missing the whole point of gearing up system in SL

and that point is not you getting pieces of gear from instances only your only and most significant upgrades comes from GV rng fiesta.

you are supposed to keep your sub up and keep runign it for 16-20 weeks to gear up nicely

also you can upgrade those drops with VP - making it supperior in every aspect to 197 covenant gear which you cannot upgrade.

I get that but let’s say as I said I use a few thousand valor to upgrade a mythic piece to 207 now. I run the chance as I complete higher keys of having that piece drop at the higher level and the valor is effectively wasted. But even then it still won’t offset the loss of raw int from my covenant set.

[Twdft]

Work on timing all 10s so you can upgrade your gear to 213. Valor is probably best spent upgrading a BiS weapon/trinket.

+12 starts dropping ilvl 207 and I'd be very surprised if a couple of these (and other 200 pieces to repace set) really are worse than a full covenant set. Even if you only have 203 on every slot to replace the 197 set it should be better.

[Kaver]

The 5 and 8 set bonuses work inside instances. The 3 set bonus is only outdoors and only in the zone your cov is based in.

I'm not sure why I just assumed it applied to all the bonuses. My bad :P

[ifrah]

You have covered the part 1 of your gearing hurdle, which is scraping all the covenant sets and whatever comes along. The next stage is to time all 10s and to go valor shopping, prioritizing pieces with the stats of your preference. Also by the time you have some relevant valor stocked up, you should have at least some useful 200(+) ilevel drops for the upgrades. Going all the way from rank1 is not worth the investment, don't do that. Yes, the point grind is a grind if you need to have them in few weeks, but a helluva lot manageable than playing the weekly GV lottery alone.

[Mickb]

I take all of that on board but this weeks great vault I got an ilvl 220 head piece (was wearing a 197 covenant piece) and decided to equip it (who gets an upgrade like that and doesnt?). Once the set bonus is gone, might as well swap in a few other 200/203 mythic pieces I had farmed but hadn't used because of set bonus loss. This is the before and after effects on my stats.

Stat / Before / After

Int 1486 1423 ( -63)
Stam 1746 1803 ( +57)
Crit 17.00 17.14 ( +0.14)
Haste 15.24 16.70 ( +1.46)
Mast 18.43 19.29 ( +0.86)
Vers 11.88 10.50 ( -1.38)

So I've lost 63 intellect, gained 1000 hp and gained some haste/mast at the expense of vers. My average ilvl is lifted from 200 to 202.

In terms of raw numbers what this means is my base heal falls from 5354 to 5064 (-290), and serenity from 12704 to 12016 (-688).

Do my gains in haste/mastery offset this in real-world play? I don't know, I fear that when resonant words, trail of light etc is taken into account those losses in raw numbers will be big and noticeable. Not sure the haste will matter as in mythics there's so much movement you aren't really standing chain healing and I'm aware of the differences between theorycraft and real in-game situations.

All in all, this might or might not be better, and maybe the extra 1000 hitpoints gets me out of a sticky situation sometime but It's not the "oh wow, I just got an upgrade from 197 to 220!" feelgood effect that I might expect and I do feel that its an issue and there's a real-world hurdle there. All my raw numbers are down and in testing I cant feel the haste difference from a supposed "upgrade"

Btw I did enchant all the new stuff with equivalent to old and I haven't taken account of the loss of the level 5 set bonus (penance brand, which does proc a lot) either.

[Fenrys]

I take all of that on board but this weeks great vault I got an ilvl 220 head piece (was wearing a 197 covenant piece) and decided to equip it (who gets an upgrade like that and doesnt?). Once the set bonus is gone, might as well swap in a few other 200/203 mythic pieces I had farmed but hadn't used because of set bonus loss. This is the before and after effects on my stats.

Stat / Before / After

Int 1486 1423 ( -63)
Stam 1746 1803 ( +57)
Crit 17.00 17.14 ( +0.14)
Haste 15.24 16.70 ( +1.46)
Mast 18.43 19.29 ( +0.86)
Vers 11.88 10.50 ( -1.38)

So I've lost 63 intellect, gained 1000 hp and gained some haste/mast at the expense of vers. My average ilvl is lifted from 200 to 202.

In terms of raw numbers what this means is my base heal falls from 5354 to 5064 (-290), and serenity from 12704 to 12016 (-688).

Do my gains in haste/mastery offset this in real-world play? I don't know, I fear that when resonant words, trail of light etc is taken into account those losses in raw numbers will be big and noticeable. Not sure the haste will matter as in mythics there's so much movement you aren't really standing chain healing and I'm aware of the differences between theorycraft and real in-game situations.

All in all, this might or might not be better, and maybe the extra 1000 hitpoints gets me out of a sticky situation sometime but It's not the "oh wow, I just got an upgrade from 197 to 220!" feelgood effect that I might expect and I do feel that its an issue and there's a real-world hurdle there. All my raw numbers are down and in testing I cant feel the haste difference from a supposed "upgrade"

Btw I did enchant all the new stuff with equivalent to old and I haven't taken account of the loss of the level 5 set bonus (penance brand, which does proc a lot) either.

Int is king, so you may have to hold off on swapping for a bit longer. I get your frustration, but on the other hand, it is quite nice that the "free" set is actually rather good.

[Wuusah]

your problem is simply that you got all your catch-up gear but are doing content with it that drops about the same ilvl as that catch-up gear. When Shadowlands released, you couldn't just get all your anima gear to 197. It was a long timegated process that let you upgrade all those pieces by 1 rank week after week. That gear you are wearing now is meant as the starter gear to raid all of normal and a bit of heroic nathria. It's meant as a kickstart to let you go quickly into +10 and higher keys.