Saturday
04Jul2009
Emblem Gear BiS for Patch 3.2
Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 4:14PM | Stoneybaby
With the sweeping changes coming to the emblem system in Patch 3.2 everyone will have access to the emblem gear, including the tier 7&8 pieces accessible through emblems. This presents an opportunity for my fellow Shaman to gear up outside of raids. Whether you're full-time Enhance who doesn't get to raid as much or as far as you'd like, or if you're a full-time non-Enhance who wants to spend some emblems building out a set on what is unanimously* considered the single greatest spec of all time, this post is for you.
* results based on a poll of all bloggers named Stoneybaby. Other specs were given some lovely parting gifts.
For those of you that are not Enhance, this is as much a thought experiment in the fallacy of "omg free lootz" as it is a gearing guide for my Enhancement brethren. With the change to Emblems what is the maximum gearing possibility of non-raider? This list below gives a very good look at what that would be. In fact, I've included a chardev.org link at the end to see how that potential spec would pan out.
This list is based on what gear is available through Emblems of Heroism, Emblems of Valor, and Emblems of Conquest. It assumes you don't have anything crafted, don't PvP, don't run Crusader's Coliseum, and that when you eventually get enough Emblems of Triumph for a piece of Tier 9 that you already know it's Best in Slot for you. Remember, come Patch 3.2 EoC drop off bosses in heroics and can be "traded down" to EoV and those down to EoH. Having said that, let's dive in and tackle the Best in Slot gear that you can get with Emblems of Conquest.
Total Emblems: 591
There are some gaps here, notably that there's only 1 ring, 1 trinket, and 1 weapon. My recommendation: follow this list for pre-raid BiS Enhance gear. Also, don't forget to check out my spreadsheet, which was recently updated for Patch 3.2 and includes gear from raids, crafted items, Argent Tournament, Reputations, PvP, and of course Heroics.
Let's do some quick and dirty math with this setup. Assuming the average heroic drops 4 Emblems, that would require running 148 heroics. If you ran 4 heroics every day it would take 37 days to build the above set. In those 37 days if you do the daily heroic and the regular daily every day you would net 111 Emblems of Triumph, which would translate into 1 iLevel 245 piece + 1 iLevel 232 piece. For example, you could get the 245 Legs (75 EoT) and the 232 Shoulders (30 EoT).
The resulting set before EoT upgrades with gaps filled in with drops from heroics and fully gemmed/enchanted would look like this. It's a good set. It's a really decent set. Any Shaman, or any player for that matter, that ran 146 heroics for their gear would certainly have my respect for working on and putting together a BiS set and surely deserves the gear on their character.
The troubling gap with gearing this way is the lack of weapons. It is impossible to get good weapons without raiding or serious arena rating. As a melee dps I always maintain that weapons are the single most important piece of gear, and in this setup it would be the main thing holding back outrageous Enhance dps.
Giving out Emblems of Conquest for running heroics doesn't mean giving away gear. It means that you can now have access to fill in the gaps on some slots but still have to raid to get access to decent weapons. Come patch 3.2, go forth and heroic for that gear! I know I will. And then do what you can to fill in the gap with better weapons.
May all your hits be crits!
* results based on a poll of all bloggers named Stoneybaby. Other specs were given some lovely parting gifts.
For those of you that are not Enhance, this is as much a thought experiment in the fallacy of "omg free lootz" as it is a gearing guide for my Enhancement brethren. With the change to Emblems what is the maximum gearing possibility of non-raider? This list below gives a very good look at what that would be. In fact, I've included a chardev.org link at the end to see how that potential spec would pan out.
This list is based on what gear is available through Emblems of Heroism, Emblems of Valor, and Emblems of Conquest. It assumes you don't have anything crafted, don't PvP, don't run Crusader's Coliseum, and that when you eventually get enough Emblems of Triumph for a piece of Tier 9 that you already know it's Best in Slot for you. Remember, come Patch 3.2 EoC drop off bosses in heroics and can be "traded down" to EoV and those down to EoH. Having said that, let's dive in and tackle the Best in Slot gear that you can get with Emblems of Conquest.
- Head: Conqueror's Worldbreaker Faceguard (58)
- Neck: Broach of the Wailing Night (19)
- Shoulders: Valorous Earthshatter Shoulderguards (60)
- Back: Hammerhead Sharkskin Cloak (25)
- Chest: Conqueror's Worldbreaker Chestguard (58)
- Wrists: Wristwraps of the Cutthroat (60)
- Hands: Gloves of Unerring Aim (28)
- Waist: Belt of the Ardent Marksman (28)
- Legs: Valorous Earthshatter War-Kilt (75)
- Feet: Pack-Ice Striders (40)
- Rings: Ring of Invincibility (25)
- Trinkets: Mirror of Truth (40)
- Weapons: Pride (50)
- Totem: Totem of Splintering (15)
- Totem: Totem of Hex (25)
Total Emblems: 591
There are some gaps here, notably that there's only 1 ring, 1 trinket, and 1 weapon. My recommendation: follow this list for pre-raid BiS Enhance gear. Also, don't forget to check out my spreadsheet, which was recently updated for Patch 3.2 and includes gear from raids, crafted items, Argent Tournament, Reputations, PvP, and of course Heroics.
148 Heroics
Let's do some quick and dirty math with this setup. Assuming the average heroic drops 4 Emblems, that would require running 148 heroics. If you ran 4 heroics every day it would take 37 days to build the above set. In those 37 days if you do the daily heroic and the regular daily every day you would net 111 Emblems of Triumph, which would translate into 1 iLevel 245 piece + 1 iLevel 232 piece. For example, you could get the 245 Legs (75 EoT) and the 232 Shoulders (30 EoT).
The resulting set before EoT upgrades with gaps filled in with drops from heroics and fully gemmed/enchanted would look like this. It's a good set. It's a really decent set. Any Shaman, or any player for that matter, that ran 146 heroics for their gear would certainly have my respect for working on and putting together a BiS set and surely deserves the gear on their character.
Conclusions
The troubling gap with gearing this way is the lack of weapons. It is impossible to get good weapons without raiding or serious arena rating. As a melee dps I always maintain that weapons are the single most important piece of gear, and in this setup it would be the main thing holding back outrageous Enhance dps.
Giving out Emblems of Conquest for running heroics doesn't mean giving away gear. It means that you can now have access to fill in the gaps on some slots but still have to raid to get access to decent weapons. Come patch 3.2, go forth and heroic for that gear! I know I will. And then do what you can to fill in the gap with better weapons.
May all your hits be crits!
Reader Comments (18)
I have simulated with the Sundial of the Exiled and found it has a reasonable DPS increase, although the FL or Loatheb trinkets are lots better. Rawr claims that is it better than Sphere of Red Dragons Blood but the Meteorite Whetstone bests it.
Sooo if you had 40 emblems of Heroism burning a hole in your pocket, you could try the spell DPS trinket... or just grab some Heirloom shoulders for alts (I took the latter option).
Looks like there are two new heirloom weapons coming in 3.2.
One mace looks kind of nice:
http://www.worldofraids.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=5438&c=7
Take a look at that sweet sweet 2.8 attack speed. I don't think I've seen any 2.8 weapons in wotlk before this one, will be interesting to see how good it will be.
Since 3.1, ilvl 213 totems are purchasable with Emblems of Valour - so wouldn't Totem of Dueling actually be the BiS Emblem totem?
Was thinking the same, Phil.
Totem of Splintering is actually quite weak.
Heya Stoney!
If the new shaman reaaaally want to farm... for main-hand he/she can always farm that one http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45203 from Argent Tournament, it's really easy to get(for my bad luck with drops o think it's more easier than Greed.
Take care!
Phil, Brtt: right on guys! My mistake. Actually, the Totem of Hex would be better than dueling I believe. I'll update in a bit.
Carcasshoof: I was basing this entirely on just doing heroics. But you're right that weapon is a good one and can be earned by doing the tournament dailies.
The link to your "pre-raid BiS Enhance gear" goes to your "edit" page in wordpress and not the actual published page. Otherwise, nice post. ;-)
[...] Big Hit Box covers the Best In Slot Emblem Gear in Patch 3.2 for the Enhancement Shaman. [...]
[...] Big Hit Box covers the Best In Slot Emblem Gear in Patch 3.2 for the Enhancement Shaman. [...]
Your wrist piece is questionable.
Anything with armor pen is not going to be worth it over something with hit.
Tower archer wrists are far better. For rings the ring in this comparison works very well until expertise dodge cap.
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=40736;40738;37642;40717&weights=Shaman%20-%20Enhancement%20(DPS);119:117:23:96:21:103:20:77:123:114;100:84:55:55:55:42:36:33:30:26
Totem of Dueling is way above Totem of Hex when you start getting 3k+ AP.
[...] Big Hit Box covers the Best In Slot Emblem Gear in Patch 3.2 for the Enhancement Shaman. [...]
[...] Big Hit Box covers the Best In Slot Emblem Gear in Patch 3.2 for the Enhancement Shaman. [...]
[...] Big Hit Box covers the Best In Slot Emblem Gear in Patch 3.2 for the Enhancement Shaman. [...]
Sitting at 3.9k AP and Dueling only gives me 3 DPS more than Hex.
Great Job with this post. I really appreciate the effort you went through to create it. I took this a step further and using my calculated EP numbers determined how much of a increase each item would give me relative to its emblem cost. In some cases, I have this gear or better but, there are also some huge upgrades in places. I found that the Gloves of Unerring Aim, Ring of Invincibility, and Belt of the Ardent Marksman would raise my dps the most for their cost.
[...] I did an analysis on the change. What would the BiS set look like for Enhance if all you did was run heroics? Result: not bad, but still not complete. That analysis assuaged initial concerns of Blizzard [...]
I have looked at the spreadsheet for gear, but cannot find any explanation of the color coding. Am I missing something?