Let's talk about the crafted pvp gear

Gameplay Professions
1

I am not really sure where or when the crafted PvP gear is supposed to fit in with the game’s content right now.

First off, to craft the pvp gear, you need to get the recipe for it, which are drops you have a chance to get from the loot boxes you get from winning BGs/arenas. It doesn’t seem like too bad of a drop chance but I have a very small sample size, so I’m not sure. On my evoker, I’ve done 8 BGs, won 7, and got 2 recipes. Note that my win ratio has been very high and long term it will likely go down to around 50%, making the chance to obtain recipes even more difficult.

Second, not only are the gear recipes drops from loot boxes, but some of the reagents needed to craft said gear are ALSO obtained via…you guessed it, a recipe drop from pvp loot boxes. But wait, there’s more…the reagents you need for these reagents are also obtained from loot boxes (and maybe corpses if you kill someone in wpvp, I’m not sure).

So, for example, I got the recipe for Crimson Combatant’s Adamant Cuffs today. To craft it, I need 2 Crystalpine Fur, 1 Infurious Scale, and 10 Adamant Scales. The infurious scale is a crafted reagent, which you also need to get the recipe for via loot boxes. Luckily, I got this recipe yesterday. But to make the scale, I need 2 lustrous scaled hide and 2 Awakened Ire. From the 8 BGs and 1 world pvp quest I did yesterday, I got 1 Awakened Ire. Arenas probably speed this process up a good bit, but I believe the participation rate for BGs is a lot higher than arenas.

So, okay. You went and spammed some BGs or arena matches, you got your recipes, and you got your reagents. Time to craft the gear! It’s 340 ilvl and scales to 398 in arenas & BGs. The first rank of honor gear is ilvl 411 in pvp. As of my 8 battlegrounds, I currently have 10 pieces of honor gear equipped. I still don’t have enough mats to actually make this single piece of gear I got the recipe for.

Now, I know there are other factors to consider, like quality and other specialization perks that may increase the ilvl or decrease the mats needed and so forth. But right now this is just really, really bad imo. If you are winning a lot of BGs/arenas and getting the drops, it’s bad, and you’ll definitely have a full set of honor gear long before you can craft yourself these pieces. If you’re losing a lot, obviously it’s a lot worse, because you won’t even have a chance at getting this stuff, but you’ll still end up with a full set of honor gear before being able to craft these things.

Blizzard, I implore you to reconsider at least some aspect of the crafted pvp gear. I play on Proudmoore which is a high pop server and there are only 25 total pieces of crafted pvp gear on the auction house at the moment, across all armor types. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of the crafted blue gear up for sale, which (outside of pvp) have a similar ilvl. Considering that the crafted pvp gear cannot be upgraded like honor and conquest gear, it’s not worth buying or crafting this stuff at all. Due to the low amount of crafted pvp gear, the 25 pieces are all in the 99k range apart from one plate helm on there for 3k. The other crafted gear is 200-500g with some fluctuation depending on armor type.

I would really like it if people could buy or craft a few pieces of the pvp gear as a stepping stone into obtaining honor gear, but in this current state, there is no way it’s worth it in any way, shape, or form (in my opinion).

6 Likes
2

At this point crafted gear is basically cosmetic. The amount of time and effort I’ve been putting into getting the cloth set just isn’t even worth it because 2 hours of battlegrounds already earned me better gear.

3 Likes
3

These are for profit. YOU gear your pvp character and farm the stuff make the stuff SELL the stuff, to ME who has not pvped yet so I am not steamrolled by people like YOU who capped honor set day 1

1 Like
4

This is endemic of the disconnect between the design and implementation of the game and actually playing the game that goes back at least to Wrath when I first noticed it. And then various expansions since have either been slightly better or slightly worse. The designers that put recipes for crafted gear or gear rewards behind gated mechanisms don’t seem to play the game they’re designing for. The various other sources of gear have related problems with itemization, begging the question whether the designers actually play and theorycraft their own game (ie. Versa is a middling stat at best even for tank classes and effectively lowers itemization for many DPS and should not appear with as much frequency as it does outside of explicit PvP gear).

How many times have their been “high level” recipes for gear that requires random reagents or widget drops from raids, sometimes even BoP reagents, only to find that once you have farmed enough materials you’re very likely wearing something better, from the raid you had to run to get the materials in the first place? Is it there solely for the unlucky or unaware?

How many times have you ground out a reputation to Exalted, sometimes dealing with artificial time-gate mechanics that prevent you from farming at your own pace and interest, only to invariably be wearing gear better now than whatever gear rewards are offered? TBH, the Wraithion rep grind in DF might be the first time this has not been the case in I don’t even know how long. BC? Wrath? But even then, at least one piece has GD Versa on it.

I was able to make blue gear that was useful during leveling on my Druid, and some pieces waiting for him to hit 70 that will be worn, though a few will be replaced almost immediately with WQ pieces, etc., but the Combatant recipes just aren’t worth the effort, for the day or two I might wear them to run BGs. And that really diminishes the immersion and appeal of the profession, because the pieces are only going to be cheaper over time and many are already not worth crafting to try and sell because they’re worth less than the sum of their parts.