Project Lore

Heartbourne brought up some excellent and not-often-talked-about points in his recent post on the logic and thought process behind the use of frost emblems to buy gear versus their use for gold. Depending on how you play and what you value in-game, there's a lot of aspects to consider before spending those emblems. Read it - it will get you questioning whether you're spending your emblems right.

I'd like to bring a bit of a counterpoint as to why I choose gear over gold. As Heartbourne contends, using your Frost Emblems for gear is pretty much standard despite the fact that they could instead be used to buy and then auction off Primordial Saronite and earn yourself a nice profit. Despite the gold that you and I could be earning from that, I'm here to champion the case of using your emblems to buy gear.

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With a fresh build of 3.3 on the test realms, that means some brand spanking new information is coming down the pipe. First off, perhaps in an effort to stave off would-be data-miners, Blizzard is starting to show off all the near Tier 10 armor pieces on their very own preview site. So far, you can only see gear for Death Knights, Druids, Hunters, and Warriors. Though I appreciated some of the Tier 9 designs, I'm really enjoy what I'm seeing here. Every set looks like it fits the theme of the class and, don't worry, you won't see the cut-and-paste jobs we got the last time. But a little info-spelunking can go a long way. MMO-Champion has discovered some details concerning the next tier of raiding gear in the files, and the set bonuses that will go along with them: EDIT: It seems as though these set bonuses will be tweaked or changed throughout the testing period! In other words, these are not final. We will bring you the end result when it's solidified, but until then, you should keep tabs on blue posts in this thread.

Death Knight

• T10 Tank 2P Bonus - Increases the damage done by your Death and Decay ability by 20%.
• T10 Tank 4P Bonus - When you activate Blood Tap, you gain 12% damage reduction from all attacks for 10 sec.
• T10 Melee 2P Bonus - Your Obliterate, Scourge Strike, and Death Strike abilities deal 10% increased damage.
• T10 Melee 4P Bonus - Whenever all your runes are on cooldown, you gain 3% increased damage done with weapons, spells, and abilities for the next 15 sec.

This how Death Knights will look in their full Tier 10. Druid

• T10 Restoration 2P Bonus - The healing granted by your Wild Growth spell reduces 0% less over time.
• T10 Restoration 4P Bonus (Rejuvenation) - Each time your Rejuvenation spell heals a target, it has a 2% chance to jump to a new target at full duration.
• T10 Balance 2P Bonus - When you gain Clearcasting from your Omen of Clarity talent, you deal 10% additional Nature and Arcane damage for 6 sec.
• T10 Balance 4P Bonus - Reduces the cooldown on your Eclipse talent by 6000.
• T10 Feral 2P Bonus - Your Swipe (Bear) and Lacerate abilities deal 20% additional damage and the cost of your Rip ability is reduced by 10 energy.
• T10 Feral 4P Bonus - Your Enrage ability no longer decreases your armor and instead decreases all damage taken by 12%, and the periodic damage done by your Rake ability can now be a critical strike.

Hunter

• T10 2P Bonus - Your Auto Shots have a 5% chance to cause you and your pet to deal 15% additional damage for until cancelled.
• T10 4P Bonus - Your Shot abilities deal 4% increased damage to targets afflicted with Viper Sting, Serpent Sting, or Wyvern Sting.

Mage

• T10 2P Bonus - Your Mirror Image ability also causes you to deal 15% additional damage for 10 sec.
• T10 4P Bonus - Your Hot Streak, Missile Barrage, and Brain Freeze talents also grant you 12% haste for 3 sec when the effect of the talent is consumed.

Paladin

• T10 Holy 2P Bonus - The cooldown on your Divine Favor talent is reduced by 60 sec.
• T10 Holy 4P Bonus - Your Holy Shock spell causes the next Holy Light you cast within 10 sec to have 0.3 sec reduced cast time.
• T10 Protection 2P Bonus - Your Hammer of the Righteous ability deals 20% increased damage.
• T10 Protection 4P Bonus - When you activate Divine Plea, you gain 12% dodge for 10 sec.
• T10 Retribution 2P Bonus - Your Seals and Judgements deal 10% additional damage.
• T10 Retribution 4P Bonus - Your melee attacks have a 4% chance to reset the cooldown on your Divine Storm ability.

Priest

• T10 Healer 2P Bonus - After your Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit talents expire on your target, they grant your target 10% increased healing received for 10 sec.
• T10 Healer 4P Bonus - Your Flash Heal spell has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown on your Circle of Healing and Penance Spells.
• T10 Shadow 2P Bonus - The critical strike chance of your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells is increased by 5%.
• T10 Shadow 4P Bonus - Reduces the channel duration and period of your Mind Flay spell by 51%.

Rogue

• T10 2P Bonus - Gives your melee finishing moves a 13% chance to add 3 combo points to your target.
• T10 4P Bonus - Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.

Shaman

• T10 Restoration 2P Bonus - Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next spellcast.
• T10 Restoration 4P Bonus - Your Chain Heal critical strikes cause the target to heal for 25% of the healed amount over until cancelled.
• T10 Elemental 2P Bonus - Your Lightning Bolt spell reduces the remaining cooldown on your Elemental Mastery talent by 1 sec.
• T10 Elemental 4P Bonus - The cooldown on your Lava Burst ability is reduced by 15 sec.
• T10 Enhancement 2P Bonus - When you activate your Shamanistic Rage ability you also deal 12% additional damage for 15 sec.
• T10 Enhancement 4P Bonus - Each time the beneficial effect of your Maelstrom Weapon talent reaches 5 charges, you have a 15% chance to gain 20% attack power for 10 sec.

Warlock

• T10 2P Bonus - The critical strike chance of your Shadowbolt, Incinerate, and Corruption spells is increased by 5%.
• T10 4P Bonus - Each time your Immolate and Unstable Affliction spells deal periodic damage, you have a 15% chance to gain 12% spell haste for 10 sec.

Warrior

• T10 Protection 2P Bonus - Your Shield Slam and Shockwave abilities deal 20% increased damage.
• T10 Protection 4P Bonus - Your Bloodrage ability no longer costs health to use, and now causes you to absorb damage equal to 20% of your maximum health. Lasts until cancelled.
• T10 Melee 2P Bonus - When your Rend and Deep Wounds abilities deal damage you have a 2% chance to gain 20% attack power for until cancelled.
• T10 Melee 4P Bonus - You have a 20% chance for your Blood Surge and Sudden Death talents to grant 2 charges of their effect instead of 1 and for the duration of the effect to be increased by 100%.

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Here's a nifty little announcement that got me even more excited for Patch 3.3. On the forums yesterday, Blue Poster Bornakk announced that Emblems of Conquest will be replaced with Emblems of Triumph as the main drop from dungeons as of Patch 3.3. Here's his words exactly:

General reminder: Things can still change. The current plan is to make Emblems of Triumph the "base" of emblems so everything that drops Emblems of Conquest would be changed to Triumph and then the new raid content would drop the new highest emblem along with things like the heroic daily and such.

He just had to add that addendum that "things can still change," reminding us that this may not still be the case come the full release of the patch. But it makes sense to make the higher-tiered gear more readily accessible with the coming of Icecrown Citadel so that more players will be able to participate - which I would say is good all around. I can understand how some people are upset that this makes it easier to get gear that they had to farm like hell to get in the past few months. But, you also have to keep in mind that the addition of the much higher-level gear that drops from all the new content will give players something new and shiny to work toward. So, if farming is what you enjoy - have at it. As things currently stand, Emblems of Conquest are much easier to come by, and they allow players to purchase items more around the iLevel 213-226 range. Emblems of Triumph, which now drop from daily heroics and certain higher-level content, will be the new easy ones to come by, instead allowing us quicker access to the level 232-245 gear available. Personally, I've been drooling over the Arena Season Six set (iLevel 232) Furious Gladiator's Vestments. They're not the best raiding pieces out there in the game right now, but damn they'd look hawt on my female blood elf. Up until now, the cost of 50-75 emblems of triumph a pop has been too expensive and time-consuming for me to get any pieces (except for the legs, a lucky 25-man VoA drop). Another big piece I've been looking toward - the iLevel 245 Mark of Supremacy to help me out where my hit rating is lacking. What does everyone else think of this change? Do you also have items you're scoping out come the implementation of the new system?

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So, have you found a guild to join yet? If that's the case, then you might be wondering how to make yourself a bit more attractive to the guild leader and/or recruitment officers. Of course, there are several ways to do this. I mentioned yesterday that applying for a guild is a lot like applying for a job. Well, gearing up would be the equivalent of building your resume. Before I give you some suggestions, though, let me point something out: in theory, player skill is infinitely more valuable than gear. You'd be hard-pressed to find a top-level guild that doesn't agree with that statement, so learning to play your class is the number one, most important thing you need to improve. There are plenty of sites you can go to in order to find out how to perform like the best, but two of the most popular are TankSpot (as the name implies, chiefly for tanking classes) and Elitist Jerks (for just about everybody else). Elitist Jerks, in particular, has even been praised by World of Warcraft's Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler for their approach to theorycrafting (hint: they create their ideal builds from what exists in the game, instead of whining about what they think their classes deserve). So click on over to their site, scroll down to the class forums, and find the one that applies to you. They also have a handy Guild Recruitment forum for you to browse if you haven't found a suitable one to apply to yet, and considering the types that usually hang around Elitist Jerks, I'm willing to bet that many of them are top-tier choices. Of course, all the theorycrafting in the world means jack if you don't have the experience. This may seem like a bit of a Catch-22 -- "how do I learn about raiding if I can't find a guild to raid with?" -- but the game has different tiers of content for a reason. Whether you're a tank, healer, or DPS, run as many 5-man dungeons as you can. Is someone asking for help with the Amphiteater of Anguish in Zul'Drak? Go lend a hand. Sure, most groups, even PuGs, steamroll through these parts of the game these days, but that doesn't mean you can't test yourself. Take the things you've learned online and apply them as best as you possibly can to these encounters. Something else you might consider engaging in, oddly enough, is PvP. I wouldn't rely too heavily on this option, since specific strategies and class specs are going to be different in a raid environment, but its a good way to prepare yourself for the more chaotic encounters in the game. Being able to keep on your toes and respond well in a crisis is key to defeating many bosses later in the game. In fact, Faction Champions in Trial of the Crusade is basically a mock PvP battle. Those of you out there who play DPS classes may also want to check their level of damage against target dummies that can be found in every major city, but for any class looking to place a value on their play skill, I'd recommend downloading the Recount add-on. I can't emphasize enough how important knowing your class is. If you think you're already good enough, I guarantee you that you're not. There's always room for improvement, and people are rarely aware of their own shortcomings. I've encountered far too many people who acted like they knew what they were doing, but couldn't raid their way out of a wet paper bag. They'd stand in the fires or void zones, their dps barely broke 2000, and they often weren't where they were supposed to be in any given battle. Repeated wipes will quickly show which players aren't pulling their weight. By "gearing up," we didn't mean to level Engineering! So keep that in mind. Good guilds won't recruit you based on your word. They're going to look for bonafide proof that you know what you're doing. How about that gear then? As much as I've rambled on about experience in the past few paragraphs, the suit you wear is still important. An insightful recruiter might still pick up someone who shows potential (and they should if they want to increase their potential pool of applicants), but don't think you're going to be a first-, or even second-, stringer if you haven't got the right equipment. There are certain bosses in the game that some of us like to call "gear checks." These often exhibit relatively simple, predictable mechanics that taxes players to their limit. Think "target dummies that actually hit back." Of course, the most notable of these is Patchwerk in Naxxramas. He's kind of old news now, but the massive amount of damage to tanks pushed both them and the healers to do their absolute best, while a strict enrage time required damage-dealers to take him out before he wiped the entire raid. "Gear checks" and other tough encounters ensure that you need a minimum level of gear to compete. And unless they've opened their hearts and plan on giving you a little charity, any guild you plan on applying to is not going to feel very good about carrying your under-geared ass through a dungeon. At that point, you're reaping all the rewards while they're stuck with the dead weight. As for obtaining the gear that you need, following is a list of viable options:

• Run 5-Man Heroic Dungeons: If you've been building your experience through 5-man dungeon runs, then you've probably already picked up a few pieces of epic equipment just from defeating their end-bosses.
• PuG A Raid: This isn't my favorite option of all, but if you act smartly, it can be a viable resource. I'd warn against joining PuGs for the current tier of content (Ulduar or Trial of the Crusader), but Naxxramas should be fair game now. Both Sartharion and Malygos are fundamentally easy to kill, but the mechanics of their respective encounters are still too complex for some people to follow.
• Spend Your Emblems of Conquest: Well, thanks to the new badge system, gearing up is easier than ever. Each boss in a Heroic level dungeon or regular difficulty raid will cough up Emblems of Conquest. While they won't get you net you the latest tier of gear, you can still pick up a few pieces that are equivalent to what drops in Ulduar. So hop on over to your faction's badge vendor (they're both located in Dalaran).
• Craft Your Gear: Gather materials and make your own or have someone else make them for you. Some crafted purples are actually far better than the average dungeon drop and they're handy for filling in those empty spots when a potential recruiter looks up your Armory profile (speaking of which, always log out with your best PvE gear on when attempting to apply for a progression raiding guild).
• Pay For A Run: This may seem like cheating, but many top-tier guilds out there will allow you to pay for a spot in their raids. You're probably not going to get to run ToC this way, but you might be able to score a trip to Naxx or Ulduar. This might seem to conflict with my advice of PuGing above (since that's free, unless you put a price on time, and I do), but there are some advantages to paying -- you'll be running with an experienced group, which more or less guarantees success. The people running with you may already have better gear, reducing competition on drops. And, if you prove yourself to be a good, consistent performer, who knows? They might just invite you to join them permanently. Of course the limiter here is your own, personal gold reserve. If you're an industrious player who works the Auction House and spends a great deal of their game time doing dailies, it might not be a big deal, but for the rest, it can get quite expensive. The top Horde guild on my server (Anvilmar) lists a raid spot at 1k, which only buys you the run itself (and whatever else is given out to all players, like badges). If you want a piece of equipment or a tier token, you're going to have to shell out even more. But, hey, if you can afford it, they're happy to have you along. It funds their guild bank, while you get a quality service in return.
• Shop On The Auction House: Another option for the wealthy player. Just buy gear. Some bosses drop Bind-on-Equip items that guilds will then sell on the Auction House in order to help fund their own banks. Some of them are quite good and there's nothing shameful in purchasing them if you've got the money.
• Get Creative: If you've got a crazy idea for obtaining loot, make use of it. Propose an offer to a guild recruiter and see if they'll take you up on it. Maybe they're willing to help gear you up if you can, in turn, help them in one way or another. You scratch their back and they scratch yours. If they get kickbacks for bringing in quality new members, then it would be in their interest to make you improve. Don't be afraid to get a little dirty, as long as you aren't stealing gear from other people (progression guilds tend to frown or  black list known "ninjas").

If you need a guide to gear, LootRank is a good general resource. There are also some class- or spec-specific pages out there like ShadowPanther (Rogues) and ShadowPriest (speaks for itself). The class forums at Elitist Jerks often provide Best-In-Slot gear lists if you can sort through the rest of the information. The last piece of advice I have for you today is this: once you've got your gear, gem and enchant it. And do it is much as you can possibly afford. If you can buy epic, purple gems, do it. If you can buy the best enchants, get them. It will show a recruiter that you mean business and that you're willing to be one of the best if they allow you to join. If you don't have the money, earn some. At least load up on blue-level gems, and make it known that you're poor right now. Having under-gemmed and under-enchanted gear is one of the top reasons why people get turned away, so don't fall into that trap. All of these options can and do work for people who do not yet have access to the latest tier of content. If you want to get there, then yes, you're going to have to work your way up the gear ladder. It can take a few days or it can take a few months, but I hope I've proven to you that it's not impossible. And, as always, experience and knowing your class are key. On the next edition, I plan on addressing issues of guild etiquette and why no matter how hard you try to get into them, certain guilds might just not be for you.

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With patch 3.2 on the horizon, this will be the last post in the Preparing for Patch 3.2 series. Be sure to check out the posts on Tradeskills and Battlegrounds as well! One thing you should be aware of in patch 3.2 is that all dungeons and raids outside of the Crusader's Coliseum will be dropping Emblems of Conquest. You can buy Emblems of Valor at the cost of 1 Emblem of Conquest, and you can buy Emblems of Heroism at the cost of 1 Emblem of Valor. Emblems of Heroism will still be useful for a variety of things, such as epic gems, heirlooms, and mounts. Emblems of Valor will not be useful; they already buy hardly anything useful. I suggest that if you have any leftover Emblems of Valor or Emblems of Heroism, you start looking saving these for epic gems if you need some cash or other non-gear rewards. Emblems of Conques will be easy to come by, and that sweet BoE bracer you get will not only be easily replaceable in patch 3.2, but also worthless. Who would drop hundreds of gold on gear when you can do a couple dozen heroics or a Naxxramas run in a few hours and get something much better? If you need to gear up for patch 3.2, my suggestion is simple: wait! The patch will be upon us any day now and with Emblems of Conquest being so easily accessible, crafted and BoE gear will bottom out in price, and if you are willing to put in some time, Ulduar 25 level gear will be yours from heroics. In addition to Emblems of Heroism and Valor no longer being accessible, the achievements associated with looting lots of them will be removed and likely made Feats of Strength. If you are a few Emblems away from any of the Emblem-related achievements, go grab them now, before it's too late! What are you doing with your excess emblems, and what is your gear situation for patch 3.2?

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You might have heard the term item level "iLvl" and not really known what it meant. It's sort of an extension of the tier system (or vice versa), and it's easy enough to understand at face value: a higher iLevel means more overall stats and superior item. Item levels are not something that you can see in the game with the default interface. You'll need an addon like iLevel Buddy. Most database websites have it as well, you can see it on WoWHead under "Quick Facts". These Conqueror's Darkruned Legguards have an iLevel of 226. The iLvl of an item has some complicated formulas that were reverse engineered by players. Basically, the iLvl of an item, its rarity, and the slot it goes in, like shoulders, waist, and chest, give the item a pool of points to take from. Chest and helms get more points than say bracers and belts. With these points, stats are allocated. Each stat has a certain percentage of these "points" that it costs. For stats like Agility and Intellect, the trade-off is one to one, that is, it costs the same amount of "points" from the iLvl to get +1 Agility as it does +1 Intellect. Gear of the same iLevel then differs based on its armor class and the stats on it. Lets check out how many of these "points" each of the stats take up (via elitistjerks).

Stat	Modifier
Strength	1
Agility	1
Stamina	2/3
Intellect	1
Spirit	1
Ratings	1
Attack Power	1/2
Spell Power	6/7
Mana per 5	5/2
Block Value	13/40

So if you had two items of the same iLvl, some stats might be +40 Intellect, +10 Intellect and +30 Spirit, +10 Intellect and +45 Stamina, or +10 Intellect and +35 Spell Power. A Priest might desire the +10 Intellect and +30 Spirit gear, but a Mage might prefer a +40 Intellect or +10 Intellect and +35 Spell Power. This is called itemization, that is, Blizzard pulling stats that players should want for their class on gear. For example, lets compare 3 iLevel 200 leather belts: Dragonfriend Bracers, Bindings of the Tunneler, and Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands. If you add up all of the points (after multiplied by the modifiers in the table) on the Dragonfriend Bracers, you see that you will result in 163 (49/1 Agility+ 38*(2/3)=26 Stamina +38/1 crit rating + 100*(1/2)=50 attack power). All epic iLevel 200 bracers will result in that sum. For example, the Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands also give us 163 (+36/1 agility +43 *(2/3)=28 stamina + 49 Haste Rating + 100*(1/2)=50 Attack Power). However, because Bindings of the Tunneler are not epic, they should have lower stats, even though they are iLevel 200. Doing the calculation shows us that (+31 Agility +67*(2/3)=45 Stamina + 25 Expertise Rating + 84*(1/2)=42 Attack Power) is 143. These calculations would give us the same numbers, 163 and 143, if we chose epic and uncommon cloth iLevel 200 bracers. We know something is Rogue gear when it's leather and has Agility and Critical Strike Rating on it, and something is Mage gear when it's cloth and has Intellect and Spell Power on it. However, the stats should sum up the same between them. That was just for bracers. There are all sorts of equations that can tell you exactly how many of these points each slot will have at each iLevel, but it's complicated and boring. Set Bonuses and special procs are (usually) a freebie. This is why tier pieces are usually so heavily valued; they come with awesome set bonuses without sacrificing stats. Sockets are usually 16 points. When deciding which piece of gear is better, iLevel is a good guide, but not the end all. PvP items have Resilience on them, which is all but useless in PvE. Some stats may be less valuable to you than others; for example, few classes would value Stamina over AP/SP. Look at the stats carefully before deciding before you give up 10 Agility for 70 Stamina in what you think is a fantastic upgrade because you went from iLevel 200 to 213.

10-man	ilvl	25-man
Naxx	200
KT, EoE	213	Naxx
Ulduar	219
Ulduar hard	226	Ulduar, KT/EoE
CC	232	Ulduar weapons
	239	Ulduar hard
CC hard	245	CC
	258	CC hard

The last thing you need to know is where to get what iLevel gear. Usually, the harder the raid, the higher the iLevel of the drops. Wow.com made this handy little table. Usually, you will want your gear to be within about 20 points of a raid before even considering it. Some gear can be crafted at high iLevels, but it requires Orbs, like Frozen Orbs or Runed Orbs which drop in the same areas as your desired iLevel gear does. You can buy them at top price at the auction house. Questions or comments?

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As more and more information comes out of the PTR, its pretty hard to not pay attention to it. I am personally getting pumped for all the great new content Blizzard is getting ready for us. As I'm pretty sure most of you have noticed, the new loot we will be able to earn is amazing. Tons of great drops, crafted gear, and most importantly the new tier pieces. While it all exciting, with 3.2 seeming near it makes me wonder if it all is coming a bit soon. I know this may sound a bit odd coming from the guy who complained about how long we were stuck in Naxx, but I don't think we have had enough time in Ulduar. Most of my shiny new T8 epics still have that new car smell, and there is plenty of hard-mode loot I haven't even had a chance to farm. Perhaps I am just concerned that the new loot showing up on the PTR is a bit too good. With all of this new stuff available I will see little reason to go back to Ulduar. This would be a shame because I think Ulduar is an amazing instance! Blizzard managed to create a challenging instance that is full of story and has tons of replayability with the hard modes. I am not ready to leave! While I'm sure people will still be running it, finding motivated groups will be difficult with all of the best stuff somewhere else. At the very least it would be nice to still make the hard mode loot relevant. Yes, I know there will still be best-in-slot items sprinkled around in old content, but by and large we are progressing past it. While I feel most people have had a fair shot at Ulduar itself, I know many people want time to go deeper and try those hard modes. Of course you can never make everyone happy, people progress at different paces, so while some are farming Algalon, many are still in Naxx. None the less for me, this seems fast. How do you guys feel about it? Want more time, or are you ready for something new already?

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Fighting in Lake Wintergrasp is among the most effective ways to obtain honor. With the addition of the weekly quests, you can jump in once or twice a week for an absurd return on time invested. Its no wonder that there is such immense lag whenever the battles start. In addition to honor, there are many other rewards to be had in Wintergrasp! Just like in a battleground, you recieve Marks of Honor upon the conclusion of the battle; 3 for a win and 1 for a loss. These can be exchanged for a variety of great gear. The first set of gear to note is the variety of trinkets, which will run you 25 marks each. There are the "Titan-forged Runes", which provide the "PvP Trinket" effect of being able to remove all movement impairing effects every 2 minutes, but also give a PvE stat. I don't really understand these items to be honest or why anyone would use them over a Medallion of the Horde/Alliance. The next trinkets are the Anvil of Titans/Flow of Knowledge, which provide 84 resilience and a chance on a successful melee attack/spellcast to increase attack power/spell power by 1000/590. Some players may recognize this as the PvP version of the Mirror of Truth/Sundial of the Exiled. You should note that they all share the same internal 45 second cooldown. Finally, you can acquire the Platinum Disks of Battle/Sorcery/Swiftness to increase AP/SP/haste on use, as well as provide resilience. Since I usually burst down targets once I open on them in PvP anyway, I use the Anvil of Titans and Medallion of the Horde. Next up are the Titan-forged belts. These are iLevel 213 and are nearly identical to the Deadly Gladiator's series of belts. You can pick them up for a mere 15 marks. The Titan-forged chest pieces are also on par with Deadly Gladiator's chest pieces at 40 marks, while the Titan-forged helms are on par with Hateful helms, also at 40 marks.  The  Cloth wearers can choose between haste (Salvation) and hit (Dominance). Rogues get armor penetration (Triumph), while druids can pick between the rogue piece and hit or haste. Hunters and Shaman also get to pick between Dominance, Salvation, and Triumph, while Warriors and Death Knights get only Triumph. Paladins get the choice of Salvation and Triumph. These provide great alternatives to spending honor on your entry level PvP gear. However, note that by using Titan-forged pieces, you don't get the Gladiator's set bonus from those pieces. Choose wisely!

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I'm always on the look out for new tools to use to keep track of trends in WoW. And it looks like a favorite of mine, what used to be called TalentChic, recently updated to allow users to find the most popular gear, enchants and gems, depending on a number of filters. I wrote a post a while back about how to use the same site to find talent builds and appropriate glyphs for those filters, so I'll skip over that information this time around. Now, the site is renamed WoW Popular, and has several other useful tools. Here's a refresher on how it works:

"To find the most popular talent builds, the (WoW Popular) system scans both the US and EU WoW armory sites to find the talent points, glyphs, gear, enchants, and gems chosen by characters. It then sorts those according class, spec and playstyle and collates the results."

Now I'm sure this is a debatable point, but the site asserts that the results of this search show the most accessible gear for a class.

"Because there are a limited number of choices, the collective mind of all players usually migrates to the best, most accessible option for players. What’s ‘best’ (top tier raid gear, or top arena gear) is not attainable for most players so it is usually shown a little further down the list."

Time for a little fun. Let's test out the system by taking a look at the most popular gear items among players of ALL classes. Here's the top 5, as of my writing this post!

1. Sundial of the Exiled
2. Band of Channeled Magic
3. Ward of the Violet Citadel
4. Tabard of the Kirin Tor (I guess we have a lot of raiders looking for Kirin Tor rep rewards out there!)
5. Shroud of Luminosity

Now, how about a look at the most popular main-hand weapon, again among all classes:

1. Hammer of the Astral Plane
2. The Turning Tide
3. Wraith Strike
4. Torch of Holy Fire
5. The Impossible Dream

Let's narrow it down a bit - Now a look at the most popular main-hand weapon for a fury-specced warrior:

1. The Jawbone
2. Betrayer of Humanity (I'm envious of that DPS)
3. Titansteel Destroyer
4. Armageddon (You will destroy the world with this weapon)
5. Ironsoul

As you can see, you can narrow down or broaden your search depending on what you're looking for. The search works for each armor slot, and you also can add in another search requirement based on one of five playstyles: crafted, mob, PvP, quest and raid. If it's not gear you're looking for, you can search for glyphs, gems or enchants, too. It's pretty handy and can simplify the dilemma in choosing gear - if you have faith in what other players are using. For the skeptics out there, try it out and let us know what you think. Are the results surprising? About what you expected? ...Laughable?

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Can't I Be A Snappy AND Functional Dresser? If there is one buzzword I noticed at this year's E3 it was "style."  Motion controllers aside, I heard everyone from EA to Disney Interactive Studios drop the word as a descriptor for at least one of the company's titles.  Style is nice and all, but I never thought it would become the word of E3.  The idea of digital fashion was littered throughout the trio of "new" racing games, Blur, Need for Speed: Shift and Split/Second, but it came up in unsuspecting places like Muramasa, The Invincible Tiger, Sin + Punishment 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum and even My Baby 2 (seriously! I think Southpeak caught onto the word's new-found popularity and just tossed it in there).  The five letter word was spoken in every fashion possible, adjective, noun, verb.  You name it, it was applied, by someone, somewhere, at the show. Although the PR people lead us to believe the term was coined this year, style has been around far longer than any of us.  Believe it or not, it has even been applied to games before aught-9!  Case in point, our favorite MMORPG World of Warcraft.  With each new tier or raid dungeon release the issue rears its ugly head again and with good reason.  Once you begin collecting items from a particular dungeon, that being Ulduar in the present day, the gear differences become incredibly small.  Sure, the min-maxers out there have a point, the percentage increases do matter, but I follow my old rogue officers opinion on that matter; "Whatever looks the coolest is the best." I'm not one to fret over my outfit too much, but I am a bit dumbfounded at our lack of a customizing (dieing, painting, etc) system in World of Warcraft.  I entirely support the artist's overall design of gear, except the druid shoulders, with each class having its own distinct style, but why can't we make small modifications to color schemes?  Heck, I am not hard to please in this respect.  Give me the ability to change the color accents of non-Tiered gear to match our in-the-works sets and I'd be happy as a disease-free non-Egyptian pig in slop. If E3 taught me anything this year, it is that all we gamers care about is style, whether it be our own, the game we are playing or some combination thereof. I can't possibly be the only one who despises running around with three shades of red, a mix of blue and some colors I can't distinguish.  Doing so in a single-player RPG is one thing, but when I am spending 10+ hours a week on a single character for years, I expect some ongoing customization outside of simply obtaining new threads.  The change can easily be placed inside the various armor crafting professions, or added as some sort of secondary profession.  Perhaps one with repairing abilities?! How much does a piece's look matter to you?  Will you take it over something with more functionality due to its visual prowess, or are stats the numbers the main one aspect for your decision?  It's no secret that I am a big critic of daggers in WoW, but to date, I have never raided with anything but them.  I've also never broken a set bonus purely for the looks of a non-set piece, but I have used non-set items between the reward zones for that reason. Everyone loves a spoonful of QQ to start off the week, right?

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