Seems to be a lot of confusion so I’m bored enough to make a post explaining what has changed, what stayed the same, and the likely best course of gearing this season and what you should strive for.
First off:
What has changed?
Not much has changed in terms of how gearing works. You will acquire tier the same way (6 week until catalyst too), the vault functions the same, sockets still require tokens, etc. However, Blizzard did add three different types of Trophies on the vendor for conquest and honour for crafting reasons.
What do Trophy’s do?
Trophy’s are a special reagent used on profession gear to make a desired craftable item scale to the maximum ilvl in PVP depending on whether it’s a conquest or honour variant.
There are three types of Trophy’s, two of which can be obtain for free from partaking in rated PVP at the conquest level: Lesser Trophy of Conquest, Trophy of Conquest, Greater Trophy of Conquest. Other than that, they will be purchasable from the vendors for a set price, with lesser being cheapest and greater being more expensive.
Each type of trophy represents what kind of item slot it be used to craft with. Greater, the more expensive variant, is used to craft larger and typically more expensive pieces like chest and legs for example.
Why are these important?
Similar to season 1, crafting is the only way to acquire your maximum 2 equipped embellishments desired for your gear. Before, the crafted gear was in a predetermined slot with predetermined stats, but with the changes you can now choose where you want your crafted piece and what stats.
Aka, cloth users no longer are obligated to wear a belt without haste that occupies a slot where haste/vers is already on the vendor. This allows way more freedom.
So how do I craft?
Same way you crafted your season 1 gear before, but with some extra steps. 3-4 items are required for your ideal craft:
Spark of Shadowflame
Missive
Embellishment (optional, but recommended until you have 2)
Trophy
The Spark is a time gated item used for crafting high end gear from PVE to PVP. You get one every 2 weeks, with one already being available. If you have crafted gear from season 1, you can potentially have BiS embellishments already.
The Missive is the item that ensures your crafted item has the stats you desire. It can be ANY combination of 2 stats. This is the beauty of the new system. More haste++
The embellishment is a special power/effect you can add to your crafted item. This is how casters for example will acquire precognition baseline. You can only have a maximum 2 embellishments equipped on your player.
The trophy was explained above, but to repeat it’s the item that ensures your crafted gear will correctly scale up in PVP like all other PVP gear.
Crafting will look as followed (pay attention to optional reagents):
BASE ILVL DOES NOT MATTER. So long as you find someone to craft the item, you have your BiS in PVP.
Help! I forgot to add one of the key items to my piece?
Thankfully, you can recraft your botched item and add anything you missed. You can also upgrade previous season 1 gear to be season 2 relevant by adding a Shadowflame Spark to it.
What slot should I craft?
Well, it entirely depends on your class/spec, but the best slot for everyone is likely the ring as it’s impossible to get your BiS stats on both rings without one. Please note, you can’t craft a ring this week as it requires a Lesser Trophy and the quest cave a regular and greater one.
Final Notes:
if you’re still confused you are LITERALLY the reason why we lost vendors and i hope you can at least count to 10 unlike the mouth breathing coworker i’m stuck with until he finally quits
feel free to ask any questions tho cause maybe i missed something!!!
also you can’t craft weapons or trinkets.
Half hour of faffing about in Alterac Valley was enough for me to wrap up mine.