At lvl 78, every class can get an 8 piece set of blue-quality pvp-oriented gear made by an appropriate crafter. The material cost from the AH isn't too bad, (around 1k for enh shaman stuff), but still something we might want to consider saving mats for as we tool around northrend. Aside from being great starter pvp gear (if you're into that), it would also be fine pve gear for filling in gaps in your other stuff or for a nice off-set. It's a little heavy on stamina and resilience, but still probably better than anything you'll find outside of high level instances and exalted lvl rep rewards. The mats to keep your eyes open for are any Eternals, especially air, and Saronite Bars (for plate), (heavy) Borean Leather (for leather/mail), and Imbued Frostweave (for cloth)
Just as an overview, here's some basic info on the 6 sets, stats and mats given for the total of the eight pieces. (head, shoulder, chest, waist, legs, feet, wrist and hands)
Ornate Saronite: Healing Plate Stats: 567 Stam, 355 Resililence, 36 Mp/5, 87 Int, 44 Str, 139 Crit Mats: Same as Savage Saronite
Leatherworking --in addition to the material cost, the leatherworker must spend 3 heavy borean leather to purchase each pattern Eviscerator's Gear: Melee Leather (rogues and ferals) Stats: 449 Stam, 300 Resilience, 450 Agi, 299 Crit Mats: 84 heavy borean leather, 8 Eternal Air
Overcast Gear: Caster Leather (Balance and restro druids) Stats: 450 Stam, 300 Resilience, 300 Int, 299 Spirit, 527 Spell Power Mats: 84 heavy borean leather, 8 Eternal Water
Swiftarrow Gear: Physical DPS Mail (hunters and enh shamans) Stats: 450 Stam, 299 Resilience, 300 Agi, 299 Int, 598 AP, 297 Crit Mats: 84 heavy borean leather, 8 Eternal Air
Stormhide Gear: Caster Mail (elem/resto shaman) Stats: 448 Stam, 300 Resilience, 300 Int, 526 Spell Power, 120 Mp/5 Mats: 84 heavy borean leather, 8 Eternal Water
yup. we'll see how end-game goes. I'm more amped to tank some stuff with our group than arena at this moment. I'm sure when dual specs come out, it will be a no-brainer though.
As long as we have a Skinner, i think we'll be okay. There are plenty of high-lvl LWers around. And they all want work right now to pay for the mammoths or rings.
Im not worried about the Leather wearing or cloth wearing people. OR Mail. As it stands, if Mail drops, only two people could be rolling on it. (Assuming Mock makes 80) Cloth is only adam. That leaves the following for plate. me you kpax and mikey. :D That's what I was saying by bringing one of them over to bring a little balance to the drop ratios. :D
I have the legs right now. They all have a decent amount of str, sta and crit and are often better than other stuff you can get at level 78, even though you are sacrificing a lot of points to resilience. Eventually, you'll end up replacing a lot of your crit with hit for end game instances and raiding, but there's nothing wrong with getting some pvp AND pve mileage out of a single set. You'll be geared better than I was at 78. I've done a lot of rep grinding and questing at 80 to get better stuff than that set.
I could only replace 1 other item with a savage saronite right now. My belt. But it wouldn't be a spectacular upgrade. I guess that says a lot about the set.
Edit: It might be better for me to buy a lot of the saronite off of you to fill in the gaps with my tanking gear, since Tempered Saronite set has some seriously nice defense stats.
Yeah, resilience is pretty much wasted stat points right now. People are saying that it isn't really worth much until you get closer to 900+ pts in it, which, of course, these sets don't get you. Nonetheless, I picked up the swiftarrow legs, belt, and bracers on the AH. All of them were upgrades to my current stuff, even ignoring the resistance. Granted, I wasn't replaceing dungeon blues or anything, but I wouldn't call the crafted gear crap.
