4.3 - Spending Valor Points

In 4.3 we now have a weekly cap of 1000 points per week. I've been noodling around planning out what I'll be doing the next few weeks, and I'm kind of stymied -- since all tier now from drops, there's really no VP "sink." This is good and bad, I guess.

I personally have bought the relic (700 VP) since there are no other options for that slot. I plan on purchasing the cloak next week (1250 VP) since, according to MMO, there are no cloak drops in DS.

After that, I'm kind of at a loss, as I was fortunate enough to amass a pile of 391. I'm curious to see what other people are planning.

I am pretty disappointed in how lousy the tank trinkets are for us. Given how much mastery and avoidance are on this tier's gear I may go dual stam (keeping CTC, of course) just for shits. I am stunned by how uninspired these things are.

not being a heroic mode raider my upgrades are more substantial. I have the relic already and I can maintain block cap unbuffed using double mastery trinkets and the shannox belt so I have a lot of mastery only items I am leaning on. The belt seems the most compelling upgrade to me with it being mastery/avoidance compared to my mastery/threat shannox belt.

Not having a require VP dump is something I enjoy. I'll run the new 5 mans because I like them not because I feel the need to get tier.

Given the mechanics of the 2pc bonus I am actually shading towards keeping more hit and xpt instead of having an active aversion towards it. It helps that it's not a choice between CTC or Hit/Xpt, but a choice between [Avoidance w/o Hit/Xpt] and [Block w/ Hit/Xpt] (at least with the pieces I have to work with).

Gearing is marginally more interesting, at least.

For Heroic tanks in full 391, I recommend the following purchase order. This does not apply to people who aren't maxed out in Firelands gear!

(1) Relic. You can put an epic gem in it knowing it won't be wasted.
(2) Cloak. You can put an epic gem in it knowing it won't be wasted.

After that it's kind of up to you, but I'd probably recommend:

(3) Ring. You can put an epic gem in it knowing it will last until you get 410 Curled Twilight Claw, which will be after you've killed Deathwing probably.
(4) Neck
(5) Trinket. I put this at the bottom of the barrel for anyone who has Spidersilk Spindle, since it's such a negligible upgrade over that.

I'm aiming for the massive mastery trinket. It's like my brawler's trinket, but with raw mastery (instead of dodge) and a larger on-use. I'd rather have the spidersilk trinket, but I don't, and don't reliably run Firelands.

That and a helm should get me to block cap, finally. I am tempted to get the relic, next, since it's a large upgrade, but frankly I am aiming to get 2x bonuses as soon as I can, probably ret chest/legs to go w/ my T12 2-piece prot.

That may change if/when I actually manage to run LFR this weekend.

For the casual, with no raid-drops, it's a no-brainer. Helmet. We're tanking in an ugly like crap pot at ilevel 353 unless we caved in and went with the 384 PvP one.

Week 2: Cloak, Boots (bought on alt)
Week 3: Ring
Week 4: Neck or Relic, I am not hugely fussed about either

Honestly, I've been mulling over this for a few days now and actually retyped this post several times. >.>

But I think I'm going to do Relic > Ring > Cloak.

Cloak's going to be my first upgrade. I'm still wearing the normal Rhyolith cloak with absolutely no more need for the mastery.

Already bought the Stoutheart Talisman this week. Cape next week, Boots and Bracers as well with with my alts.

I guess I didn't check into this enough... but which items from the new valor vendor are boe?

Nikachelle wrote:I guess I didn't check into this enough... but which items from the new valor vendor are boe?

afaik only boots, but I'll doublecheck in a few.

actually, the bracers are also BoE

Unfortunately the craftable bracers as well as the ones from Zon'ozz are better itemised and they both have 1 or even 2 sockets.

But i guess getting them with an alt until you can craft one or the other drops, wouldn't be a waste.

Yes, boots and bracers are both BoE.

after my calculations and valor tabs... it'll take 7 weeks.
there are 6 items that are of interest in the bis (according to ask mr. robot).

Relic, Neck, Cloak, Belt, Feet and Ring.
Using their default weights and prioritizing CTC and mostly my t12 gear... the results are as follows in terms of points.
Week 2 - Belt (alt 1650 feet).
Week 3 - Relic
Week 4 - pass
Week 5 - Neck
Week 6 - Ring
Week 7 - Cloak

Obviously, this may change depending on what drops one would get during the 7 weeks of raiding and what piece becomes more or less valuable. But from a casual perspective where one might not get many raid drops in the 7 weeks, this is the order I would go. =;c)

I put together an ugly chart for my own ease of comparison:



Relic: no drop options.
Cloak: no drop options.
Neck: no drop options.

So those three are obvious.

The ring is probably also pretty obvious. The DPS ring is mastery/hit so while perhaps not *ideal*, I'm not reflexively turning my nose up at hit anymore, so the DPS ring is fairly attractive.

I personally like the wrist drops more (and have them already :}).

Most people will probably prefer the VP belt over the drop, but I'm already struggling with too much mastery. Perhaps the VP belt is more useful in a herpaderp dual stam trinket build.

I prefer the dropped boots, but given the VP boots are BoE there's little reason not to obtain a pair in the meantime.

I'm likely to:
wk1: Relic
wk2: Cloak
wk3: Stuck at 1050 VP
wk4: Neck
wk5: Ring?
wk6: Stuck at 1550 VP
wk7: Waist?

wk5+ subject to change based on drops. I'd certainly replace the badge ring with the two heroic dropped rings, so I dunno. Given I have yet to plan what to cook for dinner, plotting out VP past the 4 week mark might be presumptuous of me.

PS fuck that trinket.

I'm pretty irritated that they'd found a way to solve upgrade problems for relics in Firelands and apparently have thrown that idea out the window with Dragon Soul.

I thought the Crystallized Firestones were brilliant. What the hell happened?

Everyone seems pretty down on the trinket. Could someone explain to me why that is? Are we expected to be able to have full CTC without any mastery trinkets?

Maybe I'm just unlucky since Beth never dropped the 391 Spindle for me and I'm stuck with the 378 version... but assuming that we have to run with one mastery trinket, seems like a pretty nice piece.

If you don't have better it's decent; while the on-use isn't *completely* wasted (assuming you have full CTC), it is, at best, inefficient, since it's basically pushing mastery on which you've allocated itemization points off into the wasted itemization zone.

There are several people planning on using this trinket -- it's still good. I'm just disgusted by the trinket design this tier

Also, I could go dual stam trinkets now (shudder) and maintain CTC with reforging and regemming (JC/BS is imba). Shit's crazy, yo.

I'm planning on going relic, neck, cape, with the relic bought already.


I usually advocate best improvement first, but is fairly pointless looking at the weightings or what you have to upgrade without considering, as fuzzy pointed out, that some bits have no alternative and are BiS.

Any upgrade that is not the relic will force you to wait the second week, also, any upgrade that is not relic, neck or cape could be a potential waste of VP in case an alternative drops.

The best option to me then is relic and either cape or neck as will give you 2 BiS items in the first two weeks, and I'll probably go for the neck as I'm a cheap bastard and I'll delay spending in enchants and gems.

degre wrote:I'll probably go for the neck as I'm a cheap bastard and I'll delay spending in enchants and gems.

From a cost standpoint, that's smart, since it'll give the markets more time to stabilize from the post-patch craziness.

Not only that, I might even get lucky dropping an epic gem which could fit, and waiting for the fourth week will give me more opportunities to get one to shove in right away instead of spending money for a rare and then upgrade it, and surely I will be willing to use it for the back as being BiS there's no questioning the utility.

Prolly going for the haste/mastery hands myself first. I can get tier gloves in heroic.

Prolly getting the neck/relic later.

I haven't checked all items but I think the rest can be replaced fairly easy.

Remember we can get the pvp cloak for just 7 wins in arena. It's quite a bit better then most other options for ctc/stamina.

With almost uniformly 378 gear, I think I will go for waist, neck, relic and cloak in that order. These seem to be the best in slot items for a non-heroic raider. I'll live in hope of getting tier pieces and other drops for the remaining slots. My upgrade order is based on prioritising mastery>avoidance>threat. At present, I am a little over block cap with two mastery trinkets but would really like to beef up my stamina (I was feeling squishy on the Zon'ozz 10N).

I may have to bring my alt out of retirement to get the two BoE pieces quicker, as, if I am unlucky with drops, VP gear is a formiddably long shopping list. I make it 17400 points or over four months to get all the possible tank gear.