To Use Emblems for Gold or Gear? I Choose Gear.
pixiestixy on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 - 11 Comments Tags: crafted gear, emblems, frost emblem, gear, gold, icecrown citadel, primordial saronite 
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 said, 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.
Here's why: buying gear now (as opposed to after amassing your gold pile) leads to opportunities for even more emblems and more gear upgrades. As a rogue, my job in my raid group is to output the most dps possible, and basically not die. And sure, one single piece of gear bought with emblems may have a relatively minimal effect on my dps. But after saving enough emblems to get two pieces of gear and starting to see some set bonuses become active, you'll start to see more significant numbers.
Now multiply this effect across an entire 10-man or 25-man raid group, and the effects start to become more apparent. Each member showing even small upgrades to whatever it is their role calls for adds up to a significant change to the group dynamic, allowing your to take down more bosses, more quickly. This ultimately leads to more emblems and more chances to roll on gear drops.
Now, whether this possibility is better than the alternative of piling up loads of gold is ultimately for you to decide.
For me, probably the most fun I have in-game is working collaboratively with a team toward a common goal. And I prefer a challenge, not a farm. Whether that be in PvP or raids doesn't matter much to me, though I must say I've honed my skills in raiding much finer than those in PvP. Regardless, using emblems to buy gear upgrades that make me a valuable addition to the group and also increase our chances of success, for me, is much more valuable than collecting a pile of gold.
But I can't say that I haven't also contributed some to those who would rather use their emblems for gold: after one of my guildies got the pattern for Footpads of Impending Death, I couldn't resist buying a few primordial saronite with emblems. Not to resell them, but to use as the required reagents for said boots.
The other two I bought off the AH. The going rate on my server is about 2,300 gold each, and I was able to get a couple of "deals" with one for 1,700 and one for 2,000. It's people like me that make amassing gold possible for others. So I suppose it all works out. I'm 69 emblems and 3,700 gold poorer, but I'm a happy girl.
So once again, it all comes down to your personal play style. Which do you prefer?
Reader Comments (11)
I agree with both u and Heartbourne. But i prefer to alternate between gear and the primordial saronites. Use my 1st 50-60 emblems on a piece of gear (usualy the cloak) then the next 23+ on primordial saronite then on gear etc. This way i wont feel terible when i just got done buying my t10 shoulders deck em out and have the token drop in icc. -__-
o and btw 1st :P
The problem with that being, if you don't raid you don't need gear. It doesn't take t10 to do the daily heroic or even the old weekly raids. As I've said before, I could probably be classified as an altaholic above all and thus spend a lot of gold in small increments over a relatively short amount of time. There needs to be something keeping the gold coming in.
Even if I were to get a bunch of really good gear (IE, 264 non-set/T10) in hopes of raiding, only one, maybe two people in my guild have a few pieces of T10 or 264s. The rest are widely ranging from barely 187s to some badge gear like I have. We also aren't really very organized in terms of raid teams (we don't have an off tank or a geared raid healer). This doesn't really add up to successful raiding... and it's not like I'm just going to up and leave all my friends to join some raiding guild.
So for every 23 frosts I gather I get 1 primordial saronite and pocket 2k.
P.S. Once ICC is old business and primordial saronite is nearly worthless I'll collect my gear in time for what I'll use it for, faceroll leveling in cata. Maybe once cata's out and everyone's on an even playing field in terms of gear and progress my guild will get back into raiding.
i only raid on one toon. his emblems go for gear. my biggest alt is a tank decked out in 232-245 gear i dont raid icc with. he is an ot for guild runs of dailies and weeklies. his emblems go for crusader orbs and primordial saronite. his money funds my raider (flasks, repair bills etc) i have plenty of gold for whatever i want, and my raid toon gets the gear. i have my cake and eat it too :D
I do the same. I have 3 level 80s and only 2 that consistently raid. One is my main, and I always spend her badges on gear, the other two I use for the saronite.
So every 2.5 weeks or so I add 4kg to my pool, and still get gear on my main.
This to me is not an issue, but still very fascinating.
I buy gear with emblems on my main and saronite with emblems on my 3 alts whenever I have enough emblems. The alts don't raid often anyway so no loss there and I can chose how I use the saronite, either for having gear crafted or selling them (current rate on server I play on is 1.8k)
I don't consider emblem of frost a source of money. Recently i have been made by my guild to get 25 primordials to make Shadow's Edge and probably try to turn it into Shadowmourne. I farm like 2-3 hours a day and usually, if i am lucky i buy 2 primordials with 1.5k each a day. So my opinion is keep the emblems of frost for your gear...
Minnion of Nordrassil.EU
I don't consider emblem of frost a source of money. Recently i have been made by my guild to get 25 primordials to make Shadow's Edge and probably try to turn it into Shadowmourne. I farm like 2-3 hours a day and usually, if i am lucky i buy 2 primordials with 1.5k each a day. So my opinion is keep the emblems of frost for your gear...
Minnion of Nordrassil.EU
sorry for the double post
Since I only pvp and I don't raid, I always spend them on saronites to get gold for my enchants / gems and stuff for my arena gear.