What gems to chose? (Warrior)

[lithander]

Being a bit unsatisfied with my feral druid in arena pvp I chose to level a MS warrior. I'm 70 since 3 weeks now and I started to farm honor and do some arena games so I can buy some kickass underprized T6 quality epix when Season 3 hits!^^

What bugs me a bit... I have no idea what gems I should get for that new gear. As blue gems are pricy I'd like to avoid resocketing if possible.

I'm going to play mostly 2vs2 Arenas with my resto druid partner. Getting a full Vengeful Plate set is my goal (including the shoulders). At the moment my warrior feels squishy like a clothy, especially facing double dps teams. Currently I feel like I lack stamina or stamina/resilience gems most to up my chance to survive when my healer is unable to heal me up. But survivability is not the only issue atm. I have also a hard time to chop through a priests shield or kill a paladin between bubble cooldowns.

To make it worse I have a no insight in how the situation will look like with when i actually got some pieces of gladiator gear full of stamina and resilience and facing higher rating teams with it. (1600 rating is not bad for my current state of gear but certainly not where I plan to be after Season 3 hits^^)

So... can you give me any advice what gems to put into the first 6 pvp items I'm going to get at the start of Season 3?

P.S.: To be able to tank some instances I got some pts in prot including Last Stand (and I'll probably continue to have that + Toughness in 2.3) so please consider that in your suggestion.

P.P.S.: my current gear/spec http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...eriss&n=Bonker

[chaud]

Last stand, MS, conc blow?
Honor cap for 2.3, buy all the honor gear, buy the season 1 gear, just get PvP gear in general. Greens/blues will not get you very far. Don't worry about gems unless you are gemming arena gear.

[lithander]

Honor cap for 2.3, buy all the honor gear, buy the season 1 gear, just get PvP gear in general. Greens/blues will not get you very far. Don't worry about gems unless you are gemming arena gear.

Sorry if I was unclear. I was asking about what gems to put into the pvp gear which I'll buy with 2.3. I can't judge with my current gear what my future gear will lack. And while I'd like to watch out for cheap gems now I don't want to waste my cash on the wrong ones.

P.S.: You'd say Concussion blow > Imp MS & Endless Rage? I planned to stick with my 42/5/14 spec, just with Deathwish, Imp Intercept and Toughness instead of Sweeping Strikes, Weapon Mastery and Anticipation.

[sotallytober]

last stand and conc blow are terrible, endless rage is one of the worst 41 point talents in the game, never spend more than 33 points in arms.
a decent talent build to start with is:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LV0xdNbqM0zbZVVzmMxRc
From there you can shuffle around some of the fury talents for personal playstyle or even use 3 from it to go to Tactical Mastery depending on how fancy you want to get with macros (ie a spell reflect macro, an overpower macro)
Also pick the appropriate weapon mastery in arms and if you have Stormhearld the consensus is that you should also pick up Imp Hamstring as it gives your hamstring around a 30% chance to stun once all 3 stun chances are totaled.
In general 33/28 or 33/25/3 are the best distribution of points. There is no reason to put more than 3 in prot ever for PvP.
For gems, you will want to get a balance of AP, crit and Resilience, generally gemming for socket bonuses. If you feel you need more crit, gem for that. If you feel you need more AP, gem for that. Gem slots generally give you a lot of flexibility to fill in gaps on your gear depending on what your rings, trinkets and non-arena set pieces have.

[chaud]

last stand and conc blow are terrible, endless rage is one of the worst 41 point talents in the game, never spend more than 33 points in arms.
Also pick the appropriate weapon mastery in arms and if you have Stormhearld the consensus is that you should also pick up Imp Hamstring as it gives your hamstring around a 30% chance to stun once all 3 stun chances are totaled.
In general 33/28 or 33/25/3 are the best distribution of points. There is no reason to put more than 3 in prot ever for PvP.

Apparently you have never been on the receiving end of a 4 DPS team as a warrior. It is next to impossible to survive. It will be an alternative spec for warriors in higher brackets if they keep fighting a 4 DPS team.

[sotallytober]

As a warrior, if youre the first target for a 4 dps team in 5's that team is terrible. Targeting one of the highest survivability opponents first is a recipe for disaster as it is leaving healers alone, which should be able to keep you up if theyre untouched nearly indefinitely, while they are giving you near unlimited rage and your teammates are destroying their weaker members.
Also he is talking about 2's I believe. In any case I don't see how you can argue that 33/28 or 33/25/3 are de facto specs that are highly successful in any bracket.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...uzad&n=Efortee
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...mmer&n=Modrack
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...Illidan&n=Acid
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...ll&n=Hiimkuuja
need I go on?

[Tolok]

New Pain Suppression + Silence effects on DR is going to go a long way towards helping warriors against 4 dps. I think it's still probably better to go with a standard 33/25/3 or 33/28 or 35/23/3 build.

[Tolok]

As a warrior, if youre the first target for a 4 dps team in 5's that team is terrible. Targeting one of the highest survivability opponents first is a recipe for disaster as it is leaving healers alone, which should be able to keep you up if theyre untouched nearly indefinitely, while they are giving you near unlimited rage and your teammates are destroying their weaker members.
Also he is talking about 2's I believe. In any case I don't see how you can argue that 33/28 or 33/25/3 are de facto specs that are highly successful in any bracket.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...uzad&n=Efortee
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...mmer&n=Modrack
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...Illidan&n=Acid
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...ll&n=Hiimkuuja
need I go on?

I agree with your spec advice, but 4 dps teams kill warriors first all of the time. It's one of the hallmark strategies of that team make up. Warriors in 5v5 are usually dps gemmed/enchanted, and their armor does nothing against the magic heavy 4 dps zerg.

[lithander]

Even though my post wasn't about the spec choice I can comment on that too.

With my current gear I have no use for the cookie cutter MS arena spec. I wont reach the honor cap faster and i wont get a significantly higher arena rating with it. But I'd have a lot of problems to tank lowbie instances without Defiance (where - for now - I get most of my gear upgrades from). Also, the only reason to go deep into Fury is Deathwish, Imp Intercept and Flurry (did I miss anything? Piercing Howl is nice but not necessary for 2vs2 I'd say). If I can't have that stuff anyway because of Defiance it's better to take improved MS and Endless Rage imo. Improved MS is a huge dps buff if you aren't rage starved and Endless Rage is only sucky if you got no rage problems - which might be true for decent geared, flurry specced warriors but not for me! As it is now these talents form a nice synergy and I can keep both WW and MS on cooldown from white hits alone (except on priests^^).

But lets talk about 2.3. The whole point in the recent warrior talent changes is to allow alternatives to the cookie cutter warrior build. Once Deathwish and Improved Intercept is in the Arms tree, what must-have Fury talents remain? I'm sure we'll see a much greater variance in the specs of top rated warriors in Season 3. Last Stand and improved MS is yummie-yummie and once you are that deep in arms for gods sake: take Endless Rage!^^

In short: The warriors sotallytober linked are in a totally different situation then I am. What serves them well might not work for a blue/green warrior who needs to gear up first. And 2.3 is a totally different matter anyway.

[chaud]

As a warrior, if youre the first target for a 4 dps team in 5's that team is terrible. Targeting one of the highest survivability opponents first is a recipe for disaster as it is leaving healers alone, which should be able to keep you up if theyre untouched nearly indefinitely, while they are giving you near unlimited rage and your teammates are destroying their weaker members.
need I go on?

Please go on. You have made it painfully clear that you have not come in contact with 4 DPS teams. They almost always go for the warrior first, as he is easy to kill.

So yes, please go on.

As far as endless rage, I'm not sure how rage starved warriors are, but will that even be worth the extra points?

[Mightyone]

The only way to survive against 4 dps team, is not the spec, it's the crafted epic shadow resist.

Back + bracers + belt and you can take the boost if you want.

So it's around 200 shdaow resist, not gimping to much the stats, olso you can run in them, it will help a lot against warlocks and shadow priests.

Enchant and socket all items on max dps, and take flurry, to compensate the loss dps.

With 200 shadow ress unbuffed + aura, warrior is by far the hardest to take down in 4 dps teams, if you have a mage wich will poly - spam the rogue, then the opposite mage.

edited for spelling

[Merin]

Warriors are squishy while DPSing, probably the most squishy in the game, magic damage > melee damage and 110% of it sucks.

No need to gem for Stamina or resilience, though, it's not going to help a terrible amount, just get a decent starter set from the BG system in 2.3 and gem it with Str and Str/Crit hybrid gems.

As for 4 DPS teams, it depends on your rating/luck. I'm on a 4 DPS team, Warrior becomes a primary target often, because by the time they get a shield/defensive stance on, the healers are usually CC'd/stunned/silenced and theyve taken too much damage from the 110% berserker penalty. Heroism on a 4 DPS team hurts. A lot. That and two Arms Warriors with a windfury totem. makes a bad team setup kind of nice.

What's the main issue for a 4 DPS team? Healing. Taking Mortal Strike out of the equation corrects almost any weakness with the team. Without Mortal Strike our healer can often outlast *two* of theirs, assuming one is a Paladin. If one isn't a Paladin, there isn't any often about it, it's an always thing.

That, and Warriors are usually too dense to use Defensive and pop a shield on under focus until about 2000.

[chaud]

The only way to survive against 4 dps team, is not the spec, it's the crafted epic shadow resist.

Back + bracers + belt and you can take the boost if you want.

So it's around 200 shdaow resist, not gimping to much the stats, olso you can run in them, it will help a lot against warlocks and shadow priests.

With 200 shadow ress unbuffed + aura, warrior is by far the hardest to take down in 4 dps teams, if you have a mage wich will poly - spam the rogue, then the opposite mage.

I can't agree with this for being something 100% true. Our 4 DPS is lock, mage, ele shammy, rogue, pally, so shadow resist would be marginally helpful. Losing the resil would hurt more. Although it is effective against the heavy shadow damage teams.

[Mightyone]

I can't agree with this for being something 100% true. Our 4 DPS is lock, mage, ele shammy, rogue, pally, so shadow resist would be marginally helpful. Losing the resil would hurt more. Although it is effective against the heavy shadow damage teams.

we have not problems with such 4 dps teams. The problem is in DoT's and not direct dmg.

We have a hunter, he puts a trap, and it's easy to kite, olso elem shama is weak against mana drain sting, while I'm on lock dpsing him, our mage is polymorphin the enemy mage then shaman. Once shaman is oom, we won..

edit: we are at 2316 rating (top20) in blackout

[frosty]

i find crit gems in all of the yellow sockets to work brilliantly and crit/attack power gems in the red sockets to get socket bonuses, i have no stamina enchants or gems which i reckon is better for the long games but you just gota learn to use shield reflect and defensive stance more

[Mth]

You should not get any stam/resi gems imo. You will get that through your pvp gear once you get it. You could socket your current items with them though, but thats a waste tbh, unless you have gold for it. Id say you should go for str gems(try to get str rather than attack power gems).

[Davetheslave]

Bold Living Ruby http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24027 for red sockets.
Inscribed Noble Topaz http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24058 for your yellow slots.

Remember stats > raw ap. Example. Some ppl get 16 ap gems over 8 str gems(same amount of ap). Thats nub imo because Blessing of Kings affects stats, and you benefit more from stats than raw ap. Go with all +to str enchants, 6 stats on chest,12 agi on cloak,and Savagery enchant. Executioner may or may not be the way to go in 2.3. You could do like me and just get 2 S3 weapons one with Savagery and one with Executioner for when you fight clothies.

[lithander]

Bold Living Ruby http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24027 for red sockets.
Inscribed Noble Topaz http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24058 for your yellow slots.

Thanks folks, I'll start looking out for those.

Does anyone know at what gear level 4 crit rating (percentage based dps buff) outperforms 4 Str (flat dps buff)? Is this point ever reached with PvP gear vs typical resilience stuffed foes?

[frosty]

1% crit is about 20 crit rating, so 4 would be about 0.2% crit?