A Hunter’s Guide to PvP Gear at 80

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a pro when it comes to PvP, especially on my Hunter. Ironically, I enjoy PvP on almost every character but my Hunter if you want the unvarnished truth of it. However, I’ve spent my fair share of time in the battlegrounds on all my characters and I have at least a passing acquaintance with the arenas as well and because we receive a fair number of questions regarding PvP here at THM, I’ll attempt to share what knowledge I do have with you today. For players that have been “owning face” in PvP for quite some time now, none of this will be new information to you. Today, we’re focusing on the folks that have only a vague idea of what PvP is all about at 80 and have some questions that need answers before they dive right in.

Resilience

One of the first ideas you’ll encounter when you start to delve into the world of PvP combat is the concept of resilience. While it’s not a stat that you’ll encounter much in PvE combat, resilience is a key stat for survivability in PvP and the short answer is: you’ll need a lot of it.

What does resilience do?

Resilience reduces your chance of being the target of critical strikes, reduces the effect of mana draining spells, reduces the amount of damage taken from critical strikes and reduces the amount of damage you take overall.

To clarify, that means that it will be less likely for players to crit against you and when they do, they’ll crit for less damage. Resilience also reduces the amount of damage you take in general. Additionally, (and this is of greater importance to casters and healers than it is to us) any mana draining spells you’re targeted with will not drain as much mana.

In short, resilience increases your survivability via a number of factors and the more you have, the better off you’ll be.

How much is enough?

The current damage reduction cap is 33%. The conversion for resilience rating to percent is 82:1, which means you need 82 points of resilience rating to reach 1% of resilience. For each percent of resilience, you reduce your chance to be critically hit by 1%, damage taken from crits by 2% and overall damage taken by 1%.

The current resilience cap is 1,230 at level 80. However, there isn’t enough resilience gear available to reach that cap, so the simple answer is: as much as you can get your hands on. There really is no “magic number” for resilience that you must reach before you start to PvP. The difference is really just a matter of how painful the experience will be for you. Even just a little resilience will make a noticeable difference in your survival rate.

Where can I get resilience?

I’ll get to actual pieces of gear in a minute, but right now I’d like to talk about where you can get some added resilience through item enhancements to help get you started.

Enchants

• Earthen Leg Armor – Legs, 40 resilience rating and 28 stamina
• Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator – Head, 25 resilience rating and 30 stamina
• Arcanum of Triumph – Head, 20 resilience rating and 50 attack power
• Greater Inscription of the Gladiator – Shoulder, 15 resilience rating and 30 stamina
• Inscription of Triumph – Shoulder, 15 resilience rating and 40 attack power
• Exceptional Resilience – Chest, 20 resilience rating

Gems

• Mystic Dragon’s Eye – Yellow, Jewelcrafters-only, 34 resilience rating
• Kharmaa’s Grace – Yellow, 20 resilience rating
• Mystic King’s Amber – Yellow, 20 resilience rating
• Mystic Autumn’s Glow – Yellow, 16 resilience rating
• Empowered Ametrine – Orange, 10 resilience rating and 20 attack power
• Lucent Ametrine – Orange, 10 resilience rating and 10 agility
• Empowered Monarch Topaz – Orange, 8 resilience rating and 16 attack power
• Lucent Monarch Topaz – Orange, 8 resilience rating and 8 agility
• Steady Eye of Zul – Green, 10 resilience rating and 15 stamina
• Steady Forest Emerald – Green, 8 resilience rating and 12 stamina

You can also pick up some additional resilience with the Lesser Flask of Toughness, which provides 50 resilience rating for an hour.

PvP Gear

Now that you’re familiar with the cornerstone stat of PvP, resilience, let’s talk about some of the PvP gear that’s available in the game. You can get PvP gear from a number of sources: emblem purchases, Wintergrasp bosses, honor point purchases, arena point purchases and even some crafted items.

Purchasable Sets

In patch 2.4, Blizzard introduced the capability of exchanging not only honor points for PvP items but also PvE badges as well which allowed primarily PvE players to segue neatly into PvP combat. Currently, all three Hunter PvP armor sets are available for purchase through both honor points and emblems.

Emblems of Heroism: Savage Gladiator’s Pursuit

Emblems of Heroism were the first emblems introduced in the current expansion and dropped from Heroic 5-man instances and 10-man raids. For 195 Emblems of Heroism, you can purchase all five pieces of the introductory Hunter PvP armor set: Savage Gladiator’s Pursuit.

This rare set provides a total of 234 agility, 402 stamina, 111 intellect, 4925 armor, 222 resilience rating, 336 attack power, 209 critical strike rating and 1 meta socket, 3 red sockets, 2 yellow sockets and 2 blue sockets.

The two-piece set bonus provides an additional 50 resilience rating and the four-piece set bonus reduces the cooldown of your traps by 2 seconds. The set is comprised of:

• Savage Gladiator’s Chain Armor
• Savage Gladiator’s Chain Gauntlets
• Savage Gladiator’s Chain Helm
• Savage Gladiator’s Chain Leggings
• Savage Gladiator’s Chain Spaulders

Emblems of Valor: Hateful Gladiator’s Pursuit

Emblems of Valor were introduced along side Emblems of Heroism as the second “tier” of emblems, which dropped in 25-man raid instances or could be obtained by completing heroic instance daily quests. For 195 Emblems of Valor or 212,000 honor points, you can purchase the second Hunter PvP armor set: Hateful Gladiator’s Pursuit.

This epic set provides a total of 268 agility, 460 stamina, 137 intellect, 5095 armor, 256 resilience rating, 408 attack power, 243 critical strike rating and 1 meta socket, 3 red sockets, 2 yellow sockets and 2 blue sockets.

Like the previous set, the two-piece set bonus provides an additional 50 resilience rating and the four-piece set bonus reduces the cooldown of your traps by 2 seconds. This set includes:

• Hateful Gladiator’s Chain Armor
• Hateful Gladiator’s Chain Gauntlets
• Hateful Gladiator’s Chain Helm
• Hateful Gladiator’s Chain Leggings
• Hateful Gladiator’s Chain Spaulders

It’s typically recommended that players forgo the Savage Gladiator’s Pursuit set and instead pursue the Hateful set instead because pieces of this set can be obtained through honor points or emblem turn-ins and offers superior stats. Additionally, the leg, chest and hand pieces of this set also drop off Archavon the Stone Watcher on normal mode in the Vault of Archavon, giving players a PvE-style method for obtaining pieces of this set.

Emblems of Conquest: Deadly Gladiator’s Pursuit

Emblems of Conquest were introduced in the same patch as the Ulduar raid instance, and has essentially replaced the Emblems of Heroism. These emblems now drop from all 5-man heroic instances as well as 10-man raids. The third Hunter PvP armor set currently available, which can be purchased for 266 Emblems of Conquest or 52,800 honor points, is the Deadly Gladiator’s Pursuit.

This epic set provides a total of 304 agility, 515 stamina, 162 intellect, 5224 armor, 287 resilience rating, 474 attack power, 274 critical strike rating and 1 meta socket, 3 red sockets, 2 yellow sockets and 2 blue sockets.

Like the other sets before it, the two-piece bonus for this set provides an additional 50 resilience rating and the four-piece bonus reduces the cooldown of your traps by 2 seconds. This set includes:

• Deadly Gladiator’s Chain Armor
• Deadly Gladiator’s Chain Gauntlets
• Deadly Gladiator’s Chain Helm
• Deadly Gladiator’s Chain Leggings
• Deadly Gladiator’s Chain Spaulders

Because this set requires arena points to purchase if you intend to purchase it through honor points, you may find the Hateful set easier to come by. However, because this set can be purchased through emblems that are still available in Heroics and raids, it will be easier to purchase than the previous sets via that method. So, which currency you intend to use to purchase your PvP items (honor points vs emblems) will determine which set will be easiest for you to acquire. Additionally, the leg and hand pieces of this set can also be obtained from Emalon the Storm Watcher on normal mode while the chest piece can be obtained from Archavon the Stone Watcher on heroic mode in the Vault of Archavon.

Emblems of Triumph: Furious Gladiator’s Pursuit

Emblems of Triumph, which can be obtained through heroic daily quest turn-ins and 25-man raids and hard modes, can be used to purchase the fourth Hunter PvP set, Furious Gladiator’s Pursuit, and were introduced in the same patch as Emblems of Conquest to replace the Emblems of Valor. You can purchase the set for 325 Emblems of Triumph or 52,800 honor points and 3,050 arena points.

This set differs from the previous PvP armor sets in that two of the pieces require a specific arena rating in order to use them: the chest requires a personal and team rating of 1,000 or higher and the shoulders require a personal and team rating of 1,350 or higher, making it impossible to complete the set through PvE or battlegrounds alone.

The set boasts a total of 361 agility, 618 stamina, 270 intellect, 5384 armor, 331 resilience rating, 594 attack power, 282 critical strike rating and 1 meta socket, 3 red sockets, 2 yellow sockets and 2 blue sockets.

Like the previous sets, the two-piece bonus gives you an additional 50 resilience rating and the four-piece bonus reduces the cooldowns of your traps by 2 seconds. The set includes:

• Furious Gladiator’s Chain Armor
• Furious Gladiator’s Chain Gauntlets
• Furious Gladiator’s Chain Helm
• Furious Gladiator’s Chain Leggings
• Furious Gladiator’s Chain Spaulders

Additionally, the gloves and leggings can also be obtained as drops from either Emalon the Storm Watcher or Koralon the Flame Watcher in the Vault of Archavon.

Non-Set Pieces

There are a number of non-set PvP pieces available as well to augment your sets and fill in gaps. These pieces drop from either Emalon the Storm Watcher or Koralon the Flame Watcher in the Vault of Archavon or can be purchased for honor points.

• Furious Gladiator’s Pendant of Triumph – 38,000 honor points
• Furious Gladiator’s Pendant of Victory – 38,000 honor points
• Furious Gladiator’s Band of Triumph – 38,000 honor points
• Furious Gladiator’s Cloak of Triumph – 38,000 honor points
• Furious Gladiator’s Cloak of Victory – 38,000 honor points
• Furious Gladiator’s Sabatons of Triumph – 49,600 honor points
• Furious Gladiator’s Waistguard of Triumph – 49,600 honor points
• Furious Gladiator’s Wristguards of Triumph – 31,600 honor points

To get all the non-set pieces, you’re looking at spending a total of 244,800 honor points.

Putting it Together

Hopefully this will get you pointed in the right direction. If you’re short on gold, don’t gem your pieces until you’ve got the best you plan to have. The pieces you choose to go after first are up to you: you can go after the cheapest pieces first to get yourself as many pieces as possible, or you can save up for more expensive pieces first for a bigger boost right off the bat.

The pieces with the most resilience are:

• Chest pieces
• Leg pieces
• Boots
• Belt

So you may want to go for those items first to give yourself the best chance of survival, which will in turn make getting subsequent pieces that much easier.

Happy Hunting!