...and just in time

My team breaks 1500. I write yet another post about gear accessiblity. Then they announce Season 4 is 2 weeks away.

LoL

The nice thing is that I need 1 more week's worth of points before I can afford a Season 3 upgrade, so the timing is perfect, I guess.

And here is when I go crosseyed at all the possible ways to spend my points and the various implications on my gear.

I currently wear the S1 helm and chest as part of my raiding kit. Also, I wear the Vindicator's belt, boots, ring, and bracers for PvE. Well, and the S3 axe, but it doesn't look like the 2h weapon gets upgraded in S4, or so I think.

So, I can replace one of those with an S3 upgrade. The S3 pieces come with +hit. I currently sit 19 points below hit cap, and I eat Spicy Hot Talbuk during raids. Getting S3 +hit gear would bring me close enough that it might be worth while to examine each gem slot I have and try to replace all the reds and yellows with the nice +hit/+agi epic gems craftable from SSO jewelcrafting recipe I bought for my Guild JC.

I'm not sure, but it looks like the set bonus for Gladiator and Vengeful Gladiator don't overlap, so going 1 piece S1 and 1 piece S3 would not give the +35 resil bonus. So going this route might be a PvE upgrade only. Obviously, I'll test this out first chance I get, but for now, I'm assuming the seasons don't stack.

In parallel, I'd be able to grind out S2 helm and chest for BG honor to use in my PvP set.


The other option would be to get the S4 gloves, which will not have any team rating requirement, so I'd be able to buy them right away. For my PvP set, I currently wear the Blue PvP gloves sold by one of the Outlands faction vendors. I still have the legs and shoulders from that set, so I'd retain the +35 resil two piece bonus. This would largely be a PvP only upgrade, and unless I can find another piece with a blue gem socket, I'm going to keep raiding in my Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation.

So the jury is looking like its going to vote towards replacing either S1 helm or chest with its S3 equivalent, largely only to be equipped in PvE. Would be nice because then the piece that gets upgraded and retained only for PvP will then get socketed and enchanted purely with PvP stats, rather than the raiding stats its got today.


Then you move on from the Arena, kinda, and into the Battlegrounds. Seems that Season 4 non-set items will be purchasable for BG Honor: boots, ring, bracers, belt, necklace, trinket.

These are the slots that Vindicator's currently sits in. So will there be a new name in the line of Veteran's (S1 non-set items), Vindicator's (S3 non-set items), _____________ (S4 non-set items), with the Veteran's stuff getting pulled off the shelves. I think _____________ will actually be "Guardian's" but I can't confirm that right now. I like being vindictive more than being a guardian. Snap.

Uggy.

I put in lots of time grinding out the 4 Vindicator's pieces I wear. Re-grinding out upgrades in those slots will get old in a hurry, but then again, there's a part of me that just cannot rest while I know there's perfectly accessible upgrades sitting there.

And of course, it seems the boots will require 1700 rating. Ring 1650. Bracers 1575. Belt, Neck, and Trinket have no arena rating requirement. So maybe I'll only have to grind out belt, neck, trinket, and MAYBE bracers. Man, add to that the two S2 pieces from earlier, I'm gonna be BG'ing till my eyes fall out.


Is Season 4 causing you similar gearing issues?