Gear for PvP vs. PvE--whats the difference??

[elsegundo]

i know i've been here for about a month, and have been playing for about four, and do understand about stats and such... but i am still a little fuzzy about gearing differences when a piece of gear is evaluated based on whether its good for pvp or pve.

i know there is gear for when i want to pvp, and when i want to pve, and then there's all these stats i have to look at, +damage, +spell, +int/sta/agi/str/spr. then there's something i've never come across is when people post about resilience, then crit rate, and some other things i cant remember.

my question is... what makes pvp gear pvp gear, and likewise for pve gear? what stats are people looking for when they look for pvp gear and why would it not work too well in pve, and vice versa?

i dont really know what some of the differences are. some things i do understand is that more damage is good, more health is good, more armor is good. but how are these prioritized when gearing for pvp vs. pve?

btw, that thread about should pve folks be able to nab some entry level pvp gear helps a little, but it doesnt quite explain everything i need to know.

thanks folks!

[Twoflower]

weeeell...

for pvp, no matter what you play, the first priority is survivability. so you want stamina ( more health ) and resilence ( less damage form crits and less probable to get critted ).

for pve, you want whatever stat you need for your job. +heal and manareg for healers, damage stats for damage dealers ( +hit, +crit, atack power or spelldamage ), alot of life and avoidance stats ( dodge, block, parry ) for tanks.

[elsegundo]

i understand. kinda.
in pvp, i'll still need good damage stats even with the added stamina and resilience, right?
as for pve, i'll still want stamina and even resilience even when i have the stats that i do need for my job, right?
so im guessings its more of a priority of the stats in question for a certain playstyle.

is it a smart idea to mix/match different purpose gear? or do people, when they gear, go for all stam/resil if they pvp and all +damage/healing/dodge/etc when they pve?

another question, or series of questions rather, is S1 gear "season 1" gear? and how is it different from S2 and so forth. going to the quartermasters, i dont think i can tell what gear is s1, or s2, or s3. maybe im missing something. and im guessing season= a length of time a certain pvp season lasted. as for T1, T2... T6, im putting it together that T means Tier, and for this, i have no idea how to differentiate what it means, where to get them, and what gear prefix/suffix makes a gear that "tier". i also am assuming that Tier 1 < Tier 2 < Tier 3 ... < Tier 6.

sorry for the length. thanks twoflowers for your response!

[dgrampa]

Originally Posted by elsegundo

i understand. kinda.
in pvp, i'll still need good damage stats even with the added stamina and resilience, right?
as for pve, i'll still want stamina and even resilience even when i have the stats that i do need for my job, right?
so im guessings its more of a priority of the stats in question for a certain playstyle.

Yes, it is exactly that, priority.

PvP - STA/Resil > anything else
PvE - depends on class and role

AFAIK resilience isn't needed for PvE.

Originally Posted by elsegundo

is it a smart idea to mix/match different purpose gear? or do people, when they gear, go for all stam/resil if they pvp and all +damage/healing/dodge/etc when they pve?

Most gear will have a good mix of stats. So good PvP gear will be high in STA but still have other decent stats. Generally, if a piece of gear has resilience on it, it is PvP gear.

If you want to get serious about either PvP or PvE you will want to build dedicated sets of gear for each specific role. For more casual play, you can get by with a mixed set.

Originally Posted by elsegundo

another question, or series of questions rather, is S1 gear "season 1" gear? and how is it different from S2 and so forth. going to the quartermasters, i dont think i can tell what gear is s1, or s2, or s3. maybe im missing something. and im guessing season= a length of time a certain pvp season lasted. as for T1, T2... T6, im putting it together that T means Tier, and for this, i have no idea how to differentiate what it means, where to get them, and what gear prefix/suffix makes a gear that "tier". i also am assuming that Tier 1 < Tier 2 < Tier 3 ... < Tier 6.

sorry for the length. thanks twoflowers for your response!

All of you assumptions are correct. S1 = Season 1 and T1 = Tier 1. The seasons refer to arena seasons. S1<S2<S3. Tiers refer to the item level (iLevel) of the specific class gear available from raiding. Again T1<T2<T3...T6.

T1-3 were sets for level 60 raiding before BC was released. BC started with T4-6 for level 70 raiding and I believe T7 is coming with the next patch.

[Findariel]

Originally Posted by elsegundo

in pvp, i'll still need good damage stats even with the added stamina and resilience, right?
as for pve, i'll still want stamina and even resilience even when i have the stats that i do need for my job, right?

Well the main thing is that PvE and PvP are diferent in a few ways:
- PvE at lvl 70 is centered around instances and raids, not solo play. PvE fights (usually) last a lot longer than PvP fights.

So in PvE:
a healer mainly gets +healing, +int and +mana regeneration;
a tank gets +sta and +defense
a DPS caster mainly gets +Spelldamage, +int and +mana regeneration;

In PvP it's different since tanks and aggro management (the thing PvE revolves around) don't exist.
So everyone gets +stamina and +resilience in order to survive.

- PvE gear has more damage and healing in general (except weapons)
- PvP gear has more stamina in general
- PvP is about bursts so has no spirit and little mana regeneration
- PvE is about long fights so more spirit and mana regeneration

A PvP geared DPS caster (or healer) wil do less damage (heal less) as a PvE geared one but has far more stamina and resilience, for example.
A PvE geared caster will very fast to a PvP geared opponent since an average PvE geared class (except tanks) will have far less health and no resilience.

Another thing is that for most classes, the best talents for PvP are different from the best talents for PvE. In a way it's a totaly different game.

[Beruen]

Having a few pieces of a recent arena season is nice for PvE so that you can swap out some PvE gear for something with a lot of stamina on it for some boss fights, but yes, for the most part, PvE gear spends its stat allocation on things that help you get your job done.

Wearing arena gear, most of my casters will have 50%-100% more health than they do in pure raid gear. In an arena, that means lasting 50-100% longer, which is important, since your opponents are generally smart enough to go after the easy targets first. In PvE, it usually just means that when something's gone wrong (tank dead or not holding aggro) and we're wiping, the wipe is going to take a bit longer.

We've got a hunter in my guild that's addicted to stamina, to the point of seriously hurting his DPS. He just doesn't get the fact that when you're in even as much as a 5-man, if the hunter is taking enough damage that extra health makes a difference, it won't make enough of a difference, because something's gone wrong enough that we're probably looking at a wipe.

[elsegundo]

hmmm... thanks guys for the info. its quite awesome to understand all this. seriously. i find it almost fascinating. not as fascinating as the first time i walked through the dark portal, but still fascinating enough.

another question. when matched up pvp, i would assume a person with high stamina would win a fight against a person geared for damage.
yesterday i kept getting beat, 4 times i think, by a lower level hunter, on my hunter. i was level 45 and he was, 43, i think. i got him down to less than half health most times, but not before he sent be to the grave. looking up his armory, he seems to have lots of +stamina gear. im in my crafted scorpid set.
my armory: primoprimero us shadowmoon
his: shazah us shadowmoon.

him: 4
me: 0

so.... im guessing he's a bg twink thats trying to level up.

[tardzilla]

How to determine if pvp gear is from Season 1, Season 2, or Season 3:

S1 - the name of the item starts with "Gladiator"
S2 - the name of the item starts with "Merciless Gladiator"
S3 - the name of the item starts with "Vengeful Gladiator"

[elsegundo]

Originally Posted by tardzilla

How to determine if pvp gear is from Season 1, Season 2, or Season 3:

S1 - the name of the item starts with "Gladiator"
S2 - the name of the item starts with "Merciless Gladiator"
S3 - the name of the item starts with "Vengeful Gladiator"

THANK YOU. this helps a lot since i dont the S1/S2/S3 details when i check out their gear!

is there an addon that will tell me what type of gear a person is wearing? like if im checking out his gear and i see some really nice... pants, and its S3 pants, is there a mod that will tell me somewhere "season 3 pvp", how much they paid for it, and where they got it, etc?

[Your Average WoW Player]

Originally Posted by elsegundo

THANK YOU. this helps a lot since i dont the S1/S2/S3 details when i check out their gear!

is there an addon that will tell me what type of gear a person is wearing? like if im checking out his gear and i see some really nice... pants, and its S3 pants, is there a mod that will tell me somewhere "season 3 pvp", how much they paid for it, and where they got it, etc?

Unfortunatly there isn't, usually it comes from just visual recognition. You can see how all of the sets (dungeon, raid, PvP and arena) look here. For how much they'd cost you'd have to find the vendors for them.

If I'm not mistaken, PvP gear can be found in SW for the Alliance, and Orgrimmar for the Horde, Arena gear can be found in I THINK Area 52 in Netherstorm in Outlands, Tier 1-3 drops in various Old World raid instances, Tier 4-6 is found in Shatterath City in either the Aldor's or Scryer's section, whichever one you've aligned yourself with, Dungeon Set 1 (sometimes referred to as Tier 0) is found in various Old World high-end regular instances, Dungeon Set 2 is acquired through various quests once you have Dungeon Set 1 items, and Dungeon Set 3 is found in various high end Outlands regular instances.