Is it worth spending badges now?

[v-ice]

Hello all. So I have this priest disciple specced and have about 150 badges. I've done mainly PVP before but now I'm focus on PVE. My PVE gear isn't that great tbh have kara gear and some t4. The weapon I use is the S1 healing mace.
Now the question is: should I spend badges to get Gavel of Naaru Blessings or should I buy some armor pieces with crit instead?

[Adamson]

I would get the Gavel. it's arguable as good as the mace from illidan.

You'll be hard placed to replace it anytime soon.

[Bainz]

Grab the Gavel.

[Ntrails]

Buy 10 epic gems, sell them for 100g+ a piece, keep the gold and the mace will be upgraded with some blue by level 75 anyway.

Just my opinion.

[bbr]

Buy gems, nethers etc.

[Knuffelbert]

Trade for money

[Krypt]

Buy S2 mace for honor imo;
247 spell power (gavel) vs 225 spell power (salvation)

And then buy some sunwell vendor items (the BT level ones) those rockzor.

(if your good @ PvP get S3/4 mace)

[Bigslick]

This depends on what type of PVE spec you'll be pursuing. The Gavel is phenomenal, but the S1 mace isn't terrible - what's the rest of your gear like? Look at the difference you'd be getting from upgrading each piece.

If you're going to be going deep in the holy tree, crit is a lesser concern. One of the best investments you can make is 100 badges for the Adorned Supernal Legwraps, which are better than T6 for deep holy-tree healers.

If you're going to be going more of a deep-discipline route, crit becomes one of your best friends. I'm currently running that spec and loving it - plus it's a spec you're already well familiar with to a large degree, if you've been pvp'ing as disc. The 100 badge crit chest (can't remember name) is phenomenal.

In the long run, you'll replace it all. Those pieces mentioned and a few others such as the Gavel may last you as late as 76-77, but that's about it. Given that NR is designed to be approachable at 68, you should have no problem going through and leveling up starting off in your pvp gear, though you'll want to replace it for pve pretty quickly as it has very little crit or regen, which are the two core attributes secondary to spellpower, regardless of the tree you choose.

[derevka]

If you're going to be going deep in the holy tree, crit is a lesser concern

I actually, completely disagree with this statement. Crit is now super important for a holy priest. Its the only way you can proc Surge of light (lots of free flash heals), and Holy Concentration now.

Raidbuffed, I now run at ~27% crit, and its fantastic.

But, if you can look at your gear and find some upgrades with badges, grab them.. if it makes leveling easier. By all means, do it.

[ToxTheWrecker]

When you loot Badges, it says (OBSOLETE) on the item discription. I noticed this when downing Prince Tenris.
It's up to you.. if the gear is an upgrade; then yes, it's still valid for you.

[kussy]

Don't know if you've compared T6 gear to T7...but i did and you'll notice that for a level 80 item and a Tier...T7 (80) is a lame upgrade from T6 (70)...so i doubt people will be switching such gear for level 75 blues...and gear from badges are pretty much equal to T6....I know blizz didn't want to do the same mistake with BC...but c'mon did it have to be that lame of an upgrade..don't be surprised if you see people at level 80 still walking around with SWP gear passing on heroic gear at 80.

[Ntrails]

don't be surprised if you see people at level 80 still walking around with SWP gear passing on heroic gear at 80.

I will be. They may not be huge upgrades, but they are better. I may keep t6 for set bonus, or even cause it looks better. In general, the item levels will mean more raw power. Only gemming/enchants will be a pain to continuously re-do and perhaps the balance may be lacking.

Clearing naxx in t6 may be doable. It may not be the most effective.

[Drawme]

Gear progression is exactly the same 70-80 as 60-70, with two differences. The first difference is intrinsic to the items - you get 50% more stamina on BC+ gear than on pre-BC gear, so where stamina matters, BC gear is plain better than vanilla. The second difference is mostly accidental - many more people are decked out in Tier 6 gear and equivalents (badge and arena gear and in some cases crafted) going into WotLK than were decked out in Tier 3 gear going into BC.

I predict people in current top end gear will be wearing some of it right into tier 7 raiding, while some other pieces will be replaced before level 80 or in 5 man content at level 80. Players with badge gear and tier 6 (as opposed to SWP) will have a few pieces still relevant into tier 7 and mostly replace with small upgrades before that.

[Veyne]

Blizzard has already stated that if you are geared for T6/Sunwell, you are already geared for Naxx. Greens and Blues from questing in Northrend will -not- be the huge upgrades they were in BC. Blizzard has stated that they did that wrong in BC. They do not feel that you should replace the gear you've worked on acquiring for months within the first 2 hours of Wrath being released. S1/T4 should last until around 73/74. S2/T5 should last about until 75/76, S3/T6 should last until around 77/78 and S4/Sunwell gear will get you into the first level 80 raids. But here's where it gets important. The better your gear is now, the easier and quicker leveling to 80 will be. So you decide. My priest is pretty much set, but my enhancement shaman is a different story. I'm not bothering with any badges or tier gear for him. I am simply going to collect the full S2 set and enchant and gem the hell out of it. He will be my new main in Wrath. Any badges I get on my priest I use to buy epic gems and resell them or have them cut for my shaman. But if you could use the upgrades then by all means go for it. But here's the thing I know from previous experience. Prepatch, the difference between the S1 mace and the Gavel of Naaru Blessings is almost 100 bonus healing, and much better stats. That's a lot. Of course, postpatch it doesn't seem as huge of an upgrade, but remember that healing cooefficients get a much larger bonus per point of spell power than spell damage does.

[Drawme]

They won't be *because* so many people are geared for T6, though. Might of Menethil (level 60 tier 3 2her) has a higher dps than level 70 blues, remember.

So many people upgraded so fast going vanilla to BC largely because virtually their entire playerbase was stuck in pre-raid quality gear. It's vastly different this time because of how accessible gear is in BC.

[jizzyburnizzy]

They won't be *because* so many people are geared for T6, though. Might of Menethil (level 60 tier 3 2her) has a higher dps than level 70 blues, remember.

So many people upgraded so fast going vanilla to BC largely because virtually their entire playerbase was stuck in pre-raid quality gear. It's vastly different this time because of how accessible gear is in BC.

this

[Ketesh]

So many people upgraded so fast going vanilla to BC largely because virtually their entire playerbase was stuck in pre-raid quality gear.

I think they also noticed a huge amount of instant upgrading from the pre-BC raid gear being cookie cutter per class vs. class/spec combination. Any healer class who previously had MC/BWL/Nax raid gear likely only had healing gear (and perhaps a few random junky pieces for dps), so literally any BC dps gear was a huge upgrade for leveling. If you were a Vanilla-WoW dps'er, you probably kept a few pieces for the set bonuses for at least a few levels, but things like weapons were instantly upgraded.

[Eurekasev]

I personally would just buy gems myself. with wrath so close youll soon gain new better gear. hell the first green drop u get in wrath is prob gonna be better then some of yur epics now. and the extra gold will be handy for lvling those tradeskills up.

[Topcraft]

with wrath so close youll soon gain new better gear. hell the first green drop u get in wrath is prob gonna be better then some of yur epics now

Can anyone playing beta say anything about this? Will we really upgrade our T5-T6 items at lvl73? That's a serious question. I don't play Beta or ptr myself, and I'd love to know how they worked it out.

[Ntrails]

Can anyone playing beta say anything about this? Will we really upgrade our T5-T6 items at lvl73? That's a serious question. I don't play Beta or ptr myself, and I'd love to know how they worked it out.

t6 will last to late 70's

There will be plenty of powerful gear flying around though, for those not geared.