World of Warcraft War College – Getting Geared

This week, the topic of discussion is:

Getting Geared –Whether getting ready to jump into PvP with a new character or preparing for a new PvP season, it’s important to get enough Resilience on your items to be competitive. What are the best techniques you've found to gear up fast?

The battlefields of World of Warcraft are littered with the bones of those who have become casualties in the ongoing conflict between the Horde and the Alliance. You do not need to become one of them. One of the keys to victory is knowledge, and that is where the World of Warcraft War College enters the picture. In these discussions between players, you can learn and share strategies with other players to improve your tactics and improve your odds of emerging victorious from the field of battle.

Are you a veteran Gladiator with countless victories tallied? Are you new to World of Warcraft and striving to improve your PvP skills? In this weekly feature, we invite players of all skill levels to ask questions, share tips and tactics, and join a conversation dedicated to surviving and thriving in World of Warcraft PvP.

War College Thread Rules:

• Stick to the rules. All posts should abide by the forum code of conduct and these War College forum thread guidelines. Feel free to disagree with each other, but please do so respectfully. When you express opposing opinions, focus on the idea, not its author, their rating, or perceived skill level.
• Be constructive. The purpose of this thread is to share effective tactics and strategies; to adapt, overcome and become a better player based on current conditions. Claiming that a class, comp or strategy is overpowered isn’t conducive to learning better play and tends to just derail the discussion.
• No soapboxes, please. This thread is for the community to discuss strategies and tactics amongst themselves, not to push individual opinions about game balance or design.
• Please limit conjecture. Theorycrafting definitely has its place, but it’s best to keep the discussion focused, on-topic and practical.
• Important: Please provide explanations and be prepared to provide evidence. These threads exist to elevate the level of strategic discussion on the forums. When appropriate, please provide examples illustrating tactics or techniques you believe to be effective. When using videos please post time stamps to help direct people to the specific points in the action to which you’re referring.
• Ask questions! These threads aren’t just for experienced players, but also players who are learning the ropes or want to improve their skills. On the same token, don’t attack other players for asking questions.

02/08/2012 07:29 PMPosted by Mights

Strand of the Ancients weekend = full ruthless in ~4 days.

When you say four days, how much time are you spending each day in the battlegrounds.

Also, as an open question - how do you balance your Honor pieces against Conquest pieces? Which Conquest pieces do you prioritize?

To be all honest?

Do a premade with friends or get carried.

Newbie in a bg without any form of resilience will be eaten alive for breakfast and the bones gwaned upon.

Then as an additional point for discussion:

Is it better to convert Valor to Conquest and do Tol Barad raids to get a few PvP items before stepping into PvP at all, then finish gearing up via Honor and Conquest after?

I've noticed that some players have written posts that are all about BG tips (for example), but don't cover gearing. I think that the response so far has been awesome and the helpful posts are too, since there's some good advice in there, but it's best to keep posts on topic. Each week I'll be covering a different PvP related topic, and yes, we'll include battleground tactics - likely with an entire thread dedicated to tactics for a single battleground.

It will help us all get the most out of War College threads if every poster limits comment to the weekly prompt and everyone keep things focused.

You say..."this week"

When did the college actually start and where can I find the archives?

There are no archives... yet!

This is the first ever War College thread, but there will be a new thread posted each week. They'll be easily searchable using the term 'war college', and I plan to gather links to each thread in an archive post in the future.

02/09/2012 07:57 AMPosted by Reveries

I just got into work. I see this post and think wow this is a cool idea for them to do. Then I read the first 6 pages and see that there is 14 at this point. Is there anyway the posters/readers can like comments that are useful and dislike ones like mine that add nothing to the post. Expecting someone to read A 14 page topic isn’t going to encourage full reading and the posts will continue to loop.

While I'm pleased with the response the conversation has gotten, a large thread can get pretty unwieldy. I'll be including a prompt for players to upvote posts which include helpful information in the future. The rest, of course, will be up to the players reading the thread.

02/09/2012 07:57 AMPosted by Reveries

I just got into work. I see this post and think wow this is a cool idea for them to do. Then I read the first 6 pages and see that there is 14 at this point. Is there anyway the posters/readers can like comments that are useful and dislike ones like mine that add nothing to the post. Expecting someone to read A 14 page topic isn’t going to encourage full reading and the posts will continue to loop.

While I'm please with the response the conversation has gotten, a large thread can get pretty unwieldy. I'll be including a prompt for players to upvote posts which include helpful information in the future. The rest, of course, will be up to the players reading the thread.

Then why not say that?

Why sell it as, "Hay guys. How does one acquire a ton of PvP gear quickly? Tell newbs how to do it?" And calling it a "War College" like anyone is going to learn anything from this thread?

I agree with you, that's probably what they're doing...but then why the whole, "Help others learn something" angle?

It's just weird.

Because that's not what it's for. This thread isn't a sneaky way to figure out how players are playing, and it's not a place for feedback on our systems (though we're certainly always happy to learn from any thread we read on the forums), it's a way for players to share information in a constructive and directed environment.

While this question was pretty basic, it's also a good starting point. I'll also throw in more advanced subjects in the future. In this, it will mirror the Art of War series that's been running on the StarCraft II site, which covers subject matter all over the spectrum of play. Ultimately, the point is to open a dialogue that allows players to share information.

Sure, not every player will read every page, but there are those who will, and just about every page of this thread has useful advice on it. A surprisingly diverse set of approaches to the subject too.

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who has been participating constructively!