PvP: What Gear Do You Wear in AV?

PvP gear is for PvP, and PvE gear is for PvE, or at least that's how the saying goes. But is that always the case? Well, that's been a question on the table for quite some time. Warlocks are quick to point out that, Pre-TBC, PvP gear was incredibly viable raid gear, with it's high stamina and + spell damage. However, with the introduction of Spell Hit, things got a little more complicated, and a lot more specialized. And while the PvP-PvE gear dilemma has been squelched quite a bit by this and the advent of Resilience, it's still very much an issue. Well, at least in Alterac Valley it is.

Last week was AV weekend, and like so many do for the huge amounts of honor it rewards, I spent a great deal of time rushing to the Stonehearth Graveyard, DPS'ing Belinda, and running around outside Vanndar Stormpike's trying to stay away from the Marshals not being tanked properly. And in all of the nonsense that is the battleground, I noticed that in my PvP-gear (which includes Merciless Gladiator and Veteran goodness), the NPCs resisted my spell casts often, and my damage-done noticeably suffered. But when switching to my Hit-heavy PvE gear, the resists were minimal, and my damage-done increased as a result. An easy observation of which significance is easy to understand. Spell Hit owns NPCs, AV is full of them, and killing them equates to honor. The more efficient, the faster the honor-gain, the better. Score one for PvE gear.

But what about the 40 members of the opposite faction running around the BG? Where do they and the honor you gain from them come into play? Well, it goes without saying that the more you take down, the more honor you gain (on diminishing returns, of course). And with Resilience, PvP gear is more specialized for just that task. Score one for PvP gear.

So with the score tied, we're faced with a question of priority. Is killing the NPCs of AV asap (the PvE portion) more important than farming other players (the PvP portion), or is it the other way around? Which nets more honor? What gear should we be wearing?!

While working towards Rank 14 over a year ago, a few of us on the grind thought long and hard about just these types of questions. In a system that measured only the amount of honor gained in a set amount of time, we looked for the fastest, most efficient approach to the BGs and honor farming. Our conclusion? Shooting through AV as fast as possible while killing as many ranked NPCs as possible netted the greatest amount of honor, even on double-honor weekends for the other battlegrounds! It was pretty significant information back then, and in the current context, it's just as applicable now.

For great honor, remove all ranked NPCs. When in AV, take out as many as possible, and to speed up the process, put on your Spell Hit PvE gear. It's not only + Hit for the win, it's + Hit for the Honor as well!

There is your answer, my friends. PvE gear -- It's what to wear when you're in AV. =)

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