The Looks of the new Tier 0.5 Sets

[Concillian]

Further reports are that... in a stroke of brilliance... all classes of both factions have identical quests, so they are all after the same drops from the same mobs... the entire server.

[Zarathustra]

I've heard that the quests are sequential and that the fourth of the quests involves 5 manning strat dead through Baron in <45 minutes.&nbsp;
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You receive a debuff after going through one of the gates in Stratholme, saying Baron Rivendare's prisoner doesn't have much time left. It's not 45 minutes from start to finish, so it should be entirely doable.

[Concillian]

Try WoWGuru. The information is incomplete at the moment, but it will get updated....eventually. :)
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This pic was posted in the warrior forum today showing the shoulders legs and boots which are supposedly from the strat dead quest + a bunch of money (and items that require farming and/or money)

http://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?image=w...orpieces3wq.jpg

[Concillian]

Here is a quote from a post in the warrior forum, in direct response to a post of mine asking for more info on the quest line:

Bracers:

One step, soloable by idiots, 20g.

Belt+Gloves:

Multi-step, soloable with a little more thought, requires several steps, two rounds of farmed mats, several expensive reagents (Stonescale Oil, Delicate Arcanite Converter) and 90g cash, spent at two different points.

Will take several hours /played to complete even if you start with all the mats and armor pieces you need.

Pants, Shoulders Boots: Have not personally gotten to this yet, but starts with the 45 minute Baron run, then involves farming ogres in DM North along with some other stuff and at least one very expensive buy from the Argent Dawn.

None of this is soloable unless you can solo those instances.

I'd say there are a couple "walls" in the line (apart from getting your Tier 0 pieces):

Wall #1: Mats at the belt and gloves step. How much arcanite does your server produce in a day? How much stonescale oil? How many people may want to do this quest? How many people want arcanite and stonescale oil for other uses?

That's what I thought. Buy now or be sorry.

Wall #2: Baron in 45 minutes after you get the belts and gloves. People who cannot play well simply will not be able to do this step.

[oldmandennis]

Aww damn, I didn't consider that it might cost money/expensive items to do these. I was considering doing it just for funsies, especially if they had a lot of XP which could somewhat compensate me for my time, but now... /meh

[Concillian]

Aww damn, I didn't consider that it might cost money/expensive items to do these.&nbsp; I was considering doing it just for funsies, especially if they had a lot of XP which could somewhat compensate me for my time, but now... /meh
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You were thinking Blizzard was going to give out free "epixxx"?

Were you on crack?

[oldmandennis]

You were thinking Blizzard was going to give out free "epixxx"?

Were you on crack?
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Nah, I just thought that 1) farming up a blue set and 2) jumping through 8 hoops like a 45min baron run would be worth 4 mediocre blues and 4 mediocre purps. I figured the items wouldn't interest me really, but hey I'm usually a sucker for a new quest and the XP-> gold thing would make it not a complete waste of time. If it's gonna cost gold, then it's just not worth it.


|--| close to an epic mount, finally.

[Concillian]

Another update and we have the basic outline of all the quests:

Apparently:
Quest 1 = Bracers, soloable, easy, 20g
Quest 2 = Belt and Gloves (epic), moderate difficulty but soloable, delicate arcanite converter + stonescale oil (qty?) + 90G
Quest 3 = Shoulders and Legs (blue) and boots (epic), strat dead in less than 45 minutes + Some Dire maul stuff + some expensive mats & presumably + some money too.
Quest 4 = Head and Chest pieces, summon a raid boss in UBRS that apparently has difficulty in-line iwth a real raid boss in terms of discovering his unique attacks, learning the correct counter to him, then creating a plan and executing to that plan.

Still unsure of what is needed in terms of exact items and farming requirements.

[Concillian]

The first three upggrade quest lines in much greater detail:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a...mp=1#post183615

[vor_lord]

I don't think I've seen anyone post the unconfirmed full stats for all of the Dungeon 2 sets. Judge the source as you wish.

Linky

The stats look nicely balanced for my priest. My stomach is still a bit queasy about the yellow robes though. Nothing will be as bad as Lightforge though. I copied over a premade paladin to the test server, but couldn't log in because he was so ugly.

[Concillian]

Looks like they are 'balancing' the pieces so they can beat their own itemization rules (as you get more of one particular stat it "costs" more). It's good and bad.

Comments on the sets I have 60s for...

The Warlock set seems a bit INT heavy and +damage lean... for my tastes anyway... personally I'd also trade INT for STA, but that's somewhat build dependent too. There are some nice pieces, however. Overall not too bad when mixed with existing items.

The Rogue set looks like a tron character, not terribly thrilling to me. I would consider the set to have too much STR (seriously what is up with so much STR on a rogue set, at least make if +AP instead). This set is probably the biggest disappointment of all of them. Some of the individual pieces are nice (especially the chest) but overall, not as good as I had hoped.

The Priest set is a pretty good balance, priests probably benefit most of all casters from the balanced stats.

The Warrior set is darn near ideal when you consider current tanking and DPS itemization prior to raiding. It fills holes in bracers and belt for tanking (how many tanks are doing MC with a green belt from a low-50s quest), and gives DPS options for AP vs. what exists now (almost all +crit gear, with fewer optiosn for +STR/AP). When considered with the new smithing recipe coming in 1.10 also (Titanic Legplates), it looks like mixing and matching heroism with some other items will make for some overall significant improvements in both tanking and DPS gearsets.

[bonemage]

The Warrior set is darn near ideal when you consider current tanking and DPS itemization prior to raiding.&nbsp; It fills holes in bracers and belt for tanking (how many tanks are doing MC with a green belt from a low-50s quest), and gives DPS options for AP vs. what exists now (almost all +crit gear, with fewer optiosn for +STR/AP).&nbsp; When considered with the new smithing recipe coming in 1.10 also (Titanic Legplates), it looks like mixing and matching heroism with some other items will make for some overall significant improvements in both tanking and DPS gearsets.
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I do not agree with you here. The warrior set is a hybrid set, with DPS and a couple of tanking pieces. Perfect for a DPS/part time tank build, but it's poor for full time tanking, especially tanks trying to gear up for raid tanking. It's well rounded for a generic warrior, but is much too weak in the defense department to get a tank even close to where he needs to be for raid tanking. The whole set gives only +15 defense. The bracers are slightly better than the Fel Hardened Bracers, but that is one piece I'll surely get. The belt is a nice blue that is about like the Stalwart Clutch that I currently use, with 1 less defense and better stats, and, well, it is blue instead of green. An upgrade there for me, but I might opt for Deathbone instead. The legs are decent, but not as good as the Enchanted Thorium Leggings. I'm quite disappointed with Heroism. If Blizzard set out to make a hybrid DPS/tanking set of plate, make 2 epic DPS pieces, and 2 epic tanking pieces, not 4 epic DPS pieces, and 3 rare tanking pieces and 1 rare stats only shoulders. Then there could be some good mixing and matching with partial set bonuses for both tanks and DPS warriors, and put a couple of pre raid epic armor pieces in the hands of warriors in the market that Conc and Durambar are in. The full set would be generic but well rounded, but better with tanking than it currently is. That would have made both DPS and tanking warriors happy, in my opinion.

The new Deathbone set, which was clearly designed for "tanking pallies" with defense, stamina, and mana regen, is still better for warrior tanks than Heroism. Heroism does not have enough +defense to make up for other tanking blues that you'd have to give up to wear part of the new set. The best mix of Heroism for tanking would be bracers, belt, legs (the only +defense items) and the high stamina boots to get the very nice 4 piece set bonus. I would have to give up 11 defense over what I wear now, give up considerable armor, and for all of those slots but the bracers (no Deathbone bracers), the Deathbone pieces are better, even with the wasted cost of the mana regen. Also take into account the Deathbone pieces are easier to get. It would have been nice if the few tanking pieces that Heroism has are best in that slot for tanking blues, but only the bracers reach that status. If you take the new Deathbone, but convert the cost of the mana regen to agility and some strength, that would have been ideal for tanking blues in my opinion. I do agree that some itemization issues have been addressed by 1.10, but not by Heroism when it comes to tanks.

Caveat: This is operating on the assumption that the information currently available is correct.

[Concillian]

I agree that the purple items are not tanking items, however the existing blue tanking items are quite nice for tanking. Raid tanks will be expected to upgrade through raiding.

I do not see it as a set that will ever be used as an 8/8 full set. I see the warrior set more as plugging holes in existing itemization. The other bracers with +def on them are exceptionally rare (one drops from a rare spawn in BRD and has no stamina and the other from a very specialized quest mob). There are already several great tanking chest and head items plus the 1.10 will add another head alternative, and the pants give a tank a chance to get nice +def pants that don't have NO stats (Legplates) or collect 300-400g worth of mats for (ET legs).

The shoulders I think are actually meant to be tanking shoulders with the higher than average armor value and the high stamina. I see the 2/8 bonus as best for tanks, and the 4/8 is great for tanking too, though probably best for solo-grinding.

While I agree that it would have been nice to see at least one epic as a tanking item (especially the boots, since that would fill a nice gap in existing itemization,) I guess I see the existing pre-raiding tanking gear as pretty good. I also see better tanking gear primarily necessary for, well, raiding. And existing tanking gear is pretty good for non-raiding or early raiding. You need better gear for raiding, and you get better gear from... raiding. The DPS options are great for soloing and great for PvP, both areas where a blue warrior trailed the gearing of some of the other classes.

Blizzard somewhat painted themselves into a corner with that because of the existence of Might. As it is, if you compare Heroism bracers with a Stam enchant to Might bracers with a +defense enchant you end up with a pretty close comparison.

You specifically have gone out of your way to get some of the best gear available to a pre-raider. You're in gear that is better than most MTs start doing MC in. There isn't much wiggle room between what you have and Might. I don't think the heroism set is aimed at someone who is already near the pinnacle of pre-raiding gear. It's aimed at someone in the gearing-up for raiding phase of their WoW career, and by offering the tanking items early in the quest lines, they make that gearing up process easier. Much easier than now, where Heroism is not an option.

Also, one thing you shouldn't lose sight of is that 1.10 makes healers more effective. GHeal is significantly more viable to use, and long cast healing spells were made quite a bit more efficient for all classes. As a result, stamina may carry more importance than in 1.9, so you can be more able to withstand the ups and downs of longer cast time heals. From that standpoint, the HUGE amount of stamina on the helm may make it a decent alternative to a traditional "tanking helm" and the breastplate and boots are no slouch on stamina either.

[bonemage]

Heroism pieces are some of the more difficult pieces to obtain, and when it comes to the 3 tanking pieces, they are 1st, 2nd and 4th best in their slots over what is available. The best is actually the easiest to get, and it goes downhill from there. The hardest to get, the legs, are probably only 4th best in that slot, and one of the hardest and most expensive. It doesn't add up to Blizzard's stated goal of the rewards matching the challenge. For tanking, Heroism is the exact opposite, and there are better options out there.

[Rinnhart]

Mavfin, don't read this post.

Pardon the tangent.

Also, one thing you shouldn't lose sight of is that 1.10 makes healers more effective. GHeal is significantly more viable to use, and long cast healing spells were made quite a bit more efficient for all classes.
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Not Paladins.

"BOO!" "HISS!" "SHUT UP ABOUT THE PALADINS, WE PLAY HORDE!"

Seriously, hear me out.

I assume this is partly to bring the other classes' heals more in line with paladin heals augmented by blessing of light. Unfortunately, the change ignores the point that efficiency is the sole thing the odd couple of paladin heals have to their advantage. There's a gaping hole between Flash of Light's weakness and Holy Light's cast time (and inefficiency) that could use something beside's rank 4 Holy Light to fill it.

It also blows by the fact that while BoLight may be common in even the crudest raid due to the new ease of deployment, in small groups there are significant tradeoffs. The other classes are receiving straight improvements to their efficiency, so to equal them, now, I have to sacrifice a portion of my utility? Hey, how about balancing the heals and related talents so that I'm not reliant upon a buff that eats the support my class is supposed to provide?

I will trade you efficiency- now, could I get a flash heal that doesn't fizzle?

I <3 u blizz y don't u <3 me?


Back towards the topic at hand:

The upgrade quests better be fantastic pieces of writing for me to rationalize the linear progression through the armor set. Why, exactly, do we need to spend time and money upgrading half the set to get to the quest to upgrade the one piece we might use thanks to their holey itemization?

The suspension of disbelief is already taking a thrashing, why make it a pain in the ass?

[Flymo]

I gather these quests are given by class trainers. Does anyone know if, for example, a priest can upgrade Magisters? The queue for the European test server is far too long for me to find out. : (

[Kevin]

I gather these quests are given by class trainers.&nbsp; Does anyone know if, for example, a priest can upgrade Magisters?&nbsp; The queue for the European test server is far too long for me to find out. : (
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Nope you can only upgrade "your class set". So warriors valor only, druids wildheart onle, priests, devout only.