69 Legion Gear Prep Guide

[Kirise]

The arrival of the Legion prepatch will bring significant changes to optimizing gear for XP-off players. Here's what you need to know for playing in instanced PvP (arenas and battlegrounds, not world PvP). Please let me know if this guide needs any corrections/additions/deletions!

• All characters in instanced PvP will receive stats based on a stats template predetermined by Blizzard, based on class and spec. Stats and enchantments on gear will no longer matter. Trinkets and weapon/gear procs will no longer work.
• All characters will continue to boost to 69. All item levels on gear below item level 138 will continue to boost to 138.
• For every average item level you achieve above 138, you will receive a 0.1% bonus to all of your stats e.g. if you get your average item level to 158, you will receive a 2% bonus to your stats.

Therefore, Legion makes item level the singular focus for XP-off gearing optimization. The following list covers what we know (so far) as BiS items. Any slot missing an armor or weapon type or stating "no finds" means no gear was found that exceeds ilvl 138, so any gear will work. Note that Engineering remains a required profession for some of the best gear at 69.

Head: Mechanized Snow Goggles (ilvl 183, cloth/leather/mail/plate)
Neck: Disarmament Alliance (ilvl 151)/Horde (ilvl 146)
Shoulders: Have They No Shame? (Alliance) / Have They No Shame? (Horde) (ilvl 155, cloth/leather/mail/plate)
Back: Prisoner of War (ilvl 159)
Chest: No finds
Wrist: Ears of the Lich King (Alliance)/A Score to Settle (Horde) (ilvl 155, cloth/leather/mail/plate)
Hands: Postponing the Inevitable (ilvl 155, cloth/leather/mail/plate)
Waist: Icy Satchel of Helpful Goods waistgear (ilvl 155, cloth/leather/mail/plate)
Legs: Icy Satchel of Helpful Goods leggear (ilvl 155, cloth/leather/mail/plate)
Feet: Quickening (ilvl 155, cloth/leather/mail/plate)
Rings: Stealing Their Thunder (Alliance) / Ingvar Must Die (Horde) (ilvl 155)
Trinkets: Gnomish Lightning Generator (ilvl 200)
Weapons: Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole (ilvl 200)
Off-Hand: No finds

 

[Glorifyd]

All characters will continue to boost to 69. All item levels on gear below item level 143 will continue to boost to 143.

The bracket currently scales to ilvl 138. Is this changing come legion?

Also, the BiS increases for Templates come Legion are;
For a lvl 60 Gnome with Double Engi Trinkets you get an iLvl of 141.86, for a .387% increase in stats.
For a lvl 60 with Grandfathered Engi you get an iLvl of 149.26, for a 1.13% increase in stats.
For a lvl 69 with Engi without Fishing Pole, you get an iLvl of 160.6, for a 2.26% increase in stats.
For a lvl 69 with Engi and Fishing pole, you get an iLvl of 164.7, for a 2.67% increase in stats.

 

[SkunkyMunky]

I believe that trinkets do not count towards item level in instanced PVP. Don't remember excatly where I read that but I remember reading it.

 

[Kirise]

The bracket currently scales to ilvl 138. Is this changing come legion?

Nope, my mistake. I corrected the guide -- thank you for pointing that out.

I believe that trinkets do not count towards item level in instanced PVP. Don't remember excatly where I read that but I remember reading it.

I've seen several people say that, but nobody has a source for that so far. I think people are assuming that trinkets no longer working means the slot is nullified, which to my knowledge isn't the case. If you do find a source for that, please let me know, as it will save the lower and midbrackets a lot of work if it's true.

 

[Glorifyd]

Do you know if its possible for a 60 to gain rep with Kalu'ak since they removed the fishing event?

Currently the only way to get the fishing pole would be lvl 69, doing zone quests then doing the 2 dailies (for 500 rep a day) for approx. 10 weeks. Granted this is with 0 rep bonuses.

 

[Kirise]

Do you know if its possible for a 60 to gain rep with Kalu'ak since they removed the fishing event?

Currently the only way to get the fishing pole would be lvl 69, doing zone quests then doing the 2 dailies (for 500 rep a day) for approx. 10 weeks. Granted this is with 0 rep bonuses.

I wondered the same thing, and from what I gathered via WoWhead, I came up with the same answer you did.