A more condensed version of the most useful stuff I followed on my leveling-via-BG path. Note that I had an excess of PVP Marks of Honor (account bound) when I did this and enough gold to buy gold-cost vendor heirloom items , but this was also my first Horde character on a new server:
Get heirloom items via MoH or gold for all slots available: everything except wrist, hand, waist, feet, ring1, ring2
Get heirloom items enchanted as much as possible, as the enchants scale with level (there are guides online for the best enchants). But this may require a friend for the enchants.
If you have excess MoH or gold, get additional heirloom items that you may eventually want to get (for other characters) anyways until you hit 35 heirlooms, which unlocks an account-bound ground mount usable even at level 1.
If you just do the above, you will have fun and be viable in BGs. There are a lot of extra things you can do (see below) that will give you a leg up, but I didn’t bother. If/when I level another character up, I will just do the above (although I won’t need to do some of them again).
Responses I received are compiled here for easy access to others. I’ll be editing as I find good/better info. Thanks everyone for the advice! My original post is at the bottom:
The first and best thing you should do is get heirloom items. However, be aware that the way heirloom items work will change come Shadowlands (believe EXP-buff is getting removed, and it’s uncertain what happens to the upgrades). Heirlooms can be got using a variety of resources (PVP Marks of Honor (MoH), Darkmoon Prize Tickets, gold). Heirloom items scale from lv1-60 and beyond and are also account-bound, so you can use them cross-server and cross-faction (except the PVP Insignias). Once purchased, these can be retrieved by any character through the Collections tab. I recommend getting all the things you can with PVP MoHs, then going for the rest with gold. I didn’t have enough Darkmoon Prize Tickets to get any items, so can’t speak to the opportunity cost of that avenue. This is a great site to target all your heirloom pieces: https:// wow.gamepedia. com /Heirloom
Once you do this, you should have all slots filled with heirloom items, except for: wrist, hand, waist, feet, ring1, ring2. The rings are technically available as heirloom items too, but require more work (see link above). [If anyone has some advice on what to do for these remaining slots, please let me know]
It’s also highly recommended that you get these heirloom items enchanted, because some enchants will scale with your item as you level up! You can then move these enchanted items between characters through the in-game mail system. The enchants are not applied to new heirlooms that you create via the Collections tab, so don’t trash your enchanted heirlooms.
Get the Alliance/Horde Battle Standard with MoH: https:// www.wowhead .com/item=18607/horde-battle-standard
Use PVP MoH to purchase gems (from Horde https:// www.wowhead com/npc=12793/brave-stonehide, but Alliance side has as well in a major city), or buy on AH, then use gems for:
lv70: Go to Shatt vendor on 2nd floor of center; head to Isle of Quel’Danas. Use vendor there
lv80: Vendors above Horde warchief area
lv90: Vendors on wall in MoP
You can also do dungeons/PVE at these critical points:
lv90: Siege of Orgimmar run for ~i130 gear and trinkets
And these are other things that you can/should do:
lv91: Train Draenor engineering for shields, gliders, and stealthmans (made using mats from your garrison)
lv100: Scan AH for BFA battle potions
lv110: Complete HOA quest immediately, and before hitting lv111 choose:
Continue with exp-gain on BGs but face lv120 sync’d players with huge power gap
Turn off exp-gain until you can get remaining two azerite slots filled (provides stats inc. stamina) then continue exp-gain on
lv110: Archaeology BOA trinkets become active
Optional things or things that require a bit more effort:
Engineering recommended for bombs and tinkers, some powerful equipment. Some notable items:
~lv87: Ghost Iron Dragonling trinket (https:// www.wowhead. com/item=77530/ghost-iron-dragonling)
Other useful items: drums, gliders, saltwater potions
Buy some equip on AH, but don’t spend too much money since you’ll out-level quickly
If you purchase 35 heirlooms, there’s an achievement that grants you a ground mount (https:// www.wowhead. com/item=122703/chauffeured-chopper). This is really useful for the early leveling because you can use this mount starting at level 1 (mount not usable in BGs from lv10-19).
There a timewalking vendor in Hillsbrad by the old AV entrance that sells items for a few slots that is based on your current level at the time that you purchase it but goes from lv10-120 (they do not scale with you like heirloom items do) and are bought with honor + timewalking badges (https:// www.wowhead. com/news=296203/korraks-revenge-timewarped-badge-items). As these items are BOA and thus non-transferable, may not be time-efficient to get these (since the character you get them on needs to have obtained the timewalking badges).
I recently resubbed to WOW and mainly just like playing PVP (but I guess I’d do a little PVE if I need to). I know I’ve come at a dark time for PVP, but I’ve heard about people leveling through BGs for the main purpose of playing BGs.
As I understand it, you create a new character and just go in BGs as soon as possible and level via BGs. I have a few questions though:
Do you get gear for BG games at level <120?
Is it necessary to keep up with gear via PVE even if just intend to level all the way up to 110+ via BGs? Are there a few critical points (levels) when this should be done? If it’s necessary, can it be done cheaply via AH scanning or just a few dungeons?
Are there any recommended classes to play in this manner?
Are queue times very long for Horde? I would like to play Horde since all my characters are Alliance currently.
I have a Mage, Warrior, and Shaman on Alliance already. I actually really enjoyed healing on my Shaman, so I might go Resto Druid, maybe healer Monk (both for the flexibility of heals/dps), or Hunter. Thanks for the tips!
Disc priest is still powerful. I mained a shaman for a while (until Legion) and it seems to crossover well in skill. Instead of riptide you have shields, a reactive healing spell, and I DoT everything for atonement and sometimes have the luxury of devoting more time to damage when we have extra healers.
I do looms, go through my crafters and make whatever I might need. I’d recommend you do engineering as a profession for bombs and tinkers as well as some OP equipment in mid levels. I’ll buy some equipment off the AH but I won’t pay more than 100g per item unless it’s for a mog or I’m desperate to replace a piece. There’s some type of scaling in place so it’s not critical to upgrade and it might be a downgrade if the stats aren’t as good.
Level 70: Go to Shatt. There is a vendor on the second floor of the central area. Then head to Isle of Quel’Danas (portal in shatt central area). There is a vendor there as well.
Level 80: Vendors above Horde warchief area (not sure about alliance).
Level 90: Vendors on the wall in MoP.
For each of these level brackets, just pick up as much gem gear as you can. You could buy gems off the AH, but your best bet would be to use PVP marks to purchase gems.
also id like to add there a timewalking vendor in arathi by the old AV entrance that sells items for a few slots that scaled to your current level and are bought with honor/timewalking badges. they dont scale with you as you level but it’s another option for gear all the way up to level 119.
Hey thanks everyone for the responses! Compiled a lot of the info provided into my original post (edited). After looking at the classes, I think I’m going to go with a Monk/Orc on Zul’jin because I liked played my Warrior, and Shaman for healing most recently, and it seems like Monk provides specs for both with somewhat similar play styles. I think I would enjoy the more direct-healing nature of Monk, as opposed to Druid, too.
Orc seems like it still has the best racial ability, and this seems to remain true for the Monk class. I selected the server because it in the EST time zone, has a high pop for horde, while also not being completely dead on the Alliance side (I wish there was more balance but it seems like most high pop servers are very lopsided). I didn’t want to be in the situation I was in when I last played: Alliance on a horde-dominated server – felt that there weren’t enough groups for me to join.
Let me know if I should reconsider any of the above, and thanks again for all the info!
With Experience bonus being removed from Heirlooms in SL, it will be nice to see Battlegrounds possibly bringing that “Gearing up for Battle” back.
So many years of creative items overlooked over due to the XP bonus they added.
So just hit lv10 and did my first BG on my Orc Monk. Fun times!
I’ve never really used heirloom items before, but I can still buy on my Horde character if I only have had Alliance characters on another server, right? And it seems like they’re available for 500g a piece or marks of honor (and I have neither the money nor the marks yet of course). Is that right, and are these worth getting over AH items?
As Kang said, you can invest in more expensive enchants for heirlooms since they grow with you. Check out xpoff .com, it should give you some ideas on how people enchant their gear. You can also get heirlooms from darkmoon faire if you have tickets. I’ll check in later, I’d give you some money for heirlooms if you make an alt on my server but I need to take off for a while. EDIT: If you make a char on my server post here and I’ll send some gold.
Ah thanks for the offer man! Actually I have some cash on my Alliance chars, bought some heirlooms on them, and then mailed them to my off-server Horde char. I didn’t know you could do that (both the cross-server and cross-faction part)! I bought items with Marks of Honor (since I have ~400 on my Alliance chars) and the remaining items with gold, and learned I could send the marks to my Horde char too (for the PVP Insignia)!
If you’re doing engineering, 100% pick up the dragonling around level 87.
3 cogwheel slots. Can put in either easy to make +22 cogwheel gems made from a few ghost iron bars or you could go hard and make the Cataclysm coghweel gems for +30 something stats.
You don’t need to send the equipment unless you enchant them, you can create them on any character from the collections tab. I’m in the same boat, I started the expansion late and I didn’t feel like grinding out PvE gear. I can still help with enchantments if you need it but I’m not sure how that works with heirlooms. I have some extra void satchels (my boa versatility trinket), if anyone wants one I have 9 horde side.
Oh damn, thanks for that tip (collections tab for heirlooms)! I ended up getting the Inherited Insignia of the Horde and Inherited Mark of Tyranny as trinkets. And… I just reached level 20 and realized that there’s the PVP talent instead of the Insignia. So… I would love an extra Void Satchel! My new character has the same name as me on Zul’jin: Ainsoph-Zul’jin
It was better when it launched, really good actually.
BFA BOA Trinkets are nice, check them out. +Group buffs
Darkmoon faire + Gurabashi two other survival oriented BOA trinks for lower levels.
I like your list, these two are classics which deserve a mention.
Drums, Gliders and Saltwaters should always be in the mix.
Okay so I leveled a Demon Hunter up to the point where I got a mailbox (and 700 gold), and then realized that I cant’ transfer gold cross-server. D’oh! If someone can spot me (Ainsoph-Zul’jin) a measly 10-20g (mainly to just get mount training and buy a basic mount), it would be much appreciated! <3