Gear Reset Not As Bad As Burning Crusade

**UPDATE**
Aticus hit Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive. (Click the picture to get a very nice detailed screenshot)

Yesterday, Bornakk, a Community Manager on the Warcraft forums confirmed that the gear reset which took place in the Burning Crusade will be different when Wrath comes out. He stated...

"Players and items will have an increase in their stats/items that goes along with leveling to 80, it will just be a little more consistent when compared to The Burning Crusade. What I mean by this is the way items are working right now will be closer to the new items you get in Wrath of the Lich King and it isn't like you will see an item with double the usual amount of stamina from your first quest."

In other words, if you have a chest piece with 50 stamina and 25 intellect, it won't double to 100 stamina and 50 intellect right at 71. It will progress slower all the way to 80. This is also nice because now your epic gear from BC arenas, battlegrounds, and raids will still be viable. Now, I had the level 60 GM PVP set from old world and that lasted me until level 68-70 (in which Season 1 replaced it). Hopefully, everyone with Season 1 now will be able to keep that gear until level 78-80. If I had to guess, it should stay like that.

Also, going back to Bornakk's statement, if this is true then your new raid gear won't necessarily be instantly replaced. A suggestion: If you have full season 1, don't bother setting season 2 gear once it drops to the battlegrounds. It'll just be a waste of marks and honor. Save it up for level 80 gear.

A Mage Update: Because both of our servers are really close to Phase 4, we've decided to put off the Mage leveling until next week or the week after. I know I want my title... like... really bad! And he wants just to hit Exalted (I'm only 2 rounds of dailies to go before Exalted). Lore-wise, I think the Shattered Sun is perfect for Aticus to join because he doesn't feel the need for the faction wars anymore. The Shattered Sun broke down the lines of factions between the Aldor and Scryers. So, I really want to be "Aticus Of The Shattered Sun."

Vial Of The Sunwell

Reading WoW Insider yesterday, I came across a trinket which should help a lot of healers. It's call the "Vial of the Sunwell". This little toy collects 100 points from any holy spell you cast. It will build up to 2000. If you use the trinket's ability, it instantly heals your target for the total collected points. It also has 15mp5 which is pretty good. Because this trinket can crit, I would have liked to have seen +crit instead of the mp5. However, there are Paladins who are having problems with mana.

Here are some extra notes which Heavenfall mentioned on WoWHead:

- The amount of energy you have can be ascertained by the number of stacks the buff has. If you have 10 stacks, you have 1000 energy.
- The buff on yourself that stores the energy lasts 10 seconds
- Using the trinket does not produce a Global Cooldown effect
- The trinket has approximately 10 yards range
- The trinket can be used with 0 energy, and then it heals for 0
- It is not affected by +healing gear
- It can crit

So, with this and the boost to Holy Shock, we Holy Paladins will have some viable instant heals. Every 10 Flash of Lights will make for a 1000 instant heal. The 2 minute cooldown is a real drag... It's just too long and this will make a lot of people cringe at the item. The 10 yard range isn't too hot either. You'll have to run up to the tank to use it.

So, does the instant cast heal out weigh the negatives mentioned above? In my opinion, I would pick it up for Aticus. What about you?

Battleground Gear & Tips To Get Season 1 Gear For Your 70

Since before the Burning Crusade, I have played countless numbers of Battlegrounds (BGs). Grinding out my Grand Marshal (GM) gear was a pain and took many weeks of endless grinding. However, that gear helped me all the way through level 67 and even at 70, I still had a handful of GM gear that I was still using. I heard that Blizzard was making Season 1 (S1) Arena Gear available for honor in the BGs. I then started to grind out more honor for that gear.

Remember: I never group. No raids, no instances, no group quests (unless I can solo it).

When Patch 2.3 hit the live realms, I already had enough marks and honor to get 4 out of 5 pieces of S1. Instantly, I noticed a huge difference! It almost doubled my health and mana, my healing skyrocketed and my spell damage increased slightly. I never knew how grand Resilience can help you in PVP. I played some more to finish the S1 set and also the Vindicator's Boots.

After all of that, I have three words to say: Well worth it!

Now, how should you go about grinding out your S1 gear? First and foremost, you should get some background of the BGs themselves. You're going to need to play all of the BGs to gain the marks cost. Here are some websites if you never entered into a BG before:

Alterac Valley
Warsong Gulch
Arathi Basin
Eye of the Storm

On a side note, WOWWiki is my number 1 resource for WOW Info. If I have any questions about an item, a mod, or zone, WOWWiki is where I go. Highly recommended!

So, now you know what you need to do to play these BGs. Figuring you're 70 (or late 60s), you should head over to your Champions' Hall (Alliance) or Hall Of Legends (Horde) and write down how much honor and marks you will need in total to purchase your gear. You might get shocked by the total but that's the fun of the PVP grind... Well, not really but try to stay happy about it.

The best way to get honor is to grind out in Alterac Valley (AV). You can gain an easy 300 honor per 20 minutes. If you win, it is about 450 honor. Also, a little trick I learned is to stay on defense when you play AV. You can easily get honor kills. As a Holy Paladin, my healing kept many other defenders alive. Sure, I died a lot but it is worth it.

Playing the other BGs, to me, is a horrible grind. AB can take 30 minutes a match for little honor. Playing for 30 minutes and getting 1 mark of honor is a knife in my heart. My way of handling this grind was to play 1 AV right when I log on, 2 BGs of your choice, then go back to AV for the rest of your playing session (I would say 1 session would be 2-4 hours for the average player). It spaced out the grind and helped not only gain marks but also a good 1200+ honor.

S1 gear is just like having Tier 4 gear (GM gear is equal to Tier 2). It has helped me a lot and should help all of you. If Wrath comes out next Christmas, those with S1 gear will be all set to get out there and quest to your heart's desire!

(To look at S1 gear for your class, visit WOW's website Here)