The War Within - Changes to Gear, gems, enchants and pots.

[Bakedaflol]

With the announcement that The War within will release on August 23rd, it's safe to assume that pre-patch is abit more than a month away!
With that, I figured it'd be nice to post some of the important changes that impacts gearing at level 20, so that new characters avoids breaking their backs farming stuff that won't be as important anymore!
I've felt reluctant to post about the beta this time around, since everyone was able to pay for access this time.
After encountering several people still gearing in WoD dungeons, I changed my mind.


Gear:

Item level changes:
GREENS:
Quest: ivl 79
BoE: ilvl 84
BLUES: ilvl 84
PUPLES: ilvl 89 - (includes epics from WoD rares & treasures.) - Classic epic item level remains unchanged.


Stat changes:


- With item level gap between upgrades decreased, the power level of TBC/Wotlk gear and potentially Green BoE's has increased alot.
- Offensive mainstat between blues and epics are now the same value. (Str / int / Agi)
-Defensive mainstat is slightly higher on WoD Epics. (Armor / stamina)
- Gear generally gives less secondary stats across the board. With secondary stats being more scarse, rings like Thornwoven Band and trinkets like Ghost Iron Dragonling are back strong!

WoD Warforged epics suffers the most from these changes. WF gear will still be good if you've allready farmed it! However most of it will NOT be bis, with the exceptions being off-pieces for classes that rely heavily on certain secondary stats such as mastery.
For new characters, i think it's good to know that there are other options that are equally good, depending on your build.

It's also great news for people who've farmed BFA trinkets/weapons with sockets, since it's now GF'd. Making YOU ( and me ) among the few 20s who have sockets in every single gearslot.


The War within:

Dragonflight:

YES Infinitely Divisible Ooze still works!


Gems and enchants:
- As you could probably tell by the screenshots, enchants have been buffed! Most enchants at 20 has had a stat increase by +1 from Dragonflight to TWW.
- Accord Ring enchants stays the same.
- Satyr and Elemental force stays about the same aswell.
- Tiered medallion setting is currently equippable on TWW-dungeon necks! MORE SLOTS. ( This might change. The 'current expansion endgame to beta 20s' transition usually causes some things that aren't intended. But for now, it seems legit. Will keep updating.)


-PvP epic Mainstat gems generally gives +4 per gem.
-PvP epic Mainstat+offstat gem gives 2/2
- Straddling Jewel Doublet - Now gives 15+ speed per SL gem slotted. (Up from +7)
- Healing gem gives the same healing.

These changes gives us alot more room to perfect or builds through Gem distribution!

Pots:

- Most flasks/elixirs seems to have been buffed.
- Slight buff to potions such as Wildvine Potion and Gladiator's healing potion.
- Alchemist's flask gives +4

Your eyes aren't fooling you, these are not tooltip bugs.

The War Within:

Dragonflight:

Additional thoughts:

- I've yet to test alot of Dragonflight Gear, since it's currently bugged as hell. Mobs and bosses dropping item level 200+ gear with no restriction. Please keep reporting this if you are also testing. We don't need more fomo in the game.
-There are some reworks to classes and talent-row organization, but I don't have the head to go through all those things. If you want to know if anything changed for your class talents, TWW Talent calculator is your best friend

One thing is for certain, gearing will be alot easier in comparison to Dragonflight. And there's alot more room to be creative!

If there are any things that'd be nice to add to this thread, feel free to post so. I'll be able to update over next week

 

[setsunahq]

well i just want to know ooze and totem still good or nah

 

[Sponsor]

As long as they don't make it that you need to re-farm all gear to obtain the new ilvl changes I'll be happy.

I'm ready to recycle my 15 years worth of gear collecting

 

[Bakedaflol]

As long as they don't make it that you need to re-farm all gear to obtain the new ilvl changes I'll be happy.

I'm ready to recycle my 15 years worth of gear collecting

No need to refarm the gear, unless you've deleted it of course

I'm very happy about this aswell. More choices, more fun

 

[Sponsor]

No need to refarm the gear, unless you've deleted it of course

I'm very happy about this aswell. More choices, more fun

My bank is 100% full of a plethora of items haha. I rarely delete stuff. I'll try and grab a SS of my bank tonight.

That's excellent news though, I'm glad I won't have to spend 50% of the expansion farming for BiS X.x

 

[sector3600]

For Rogues, the nice thing is that 'Precious Bloodthorn Loop' isn't needed as a backup as when Blizzard took Vanish to level 24, now Vanish is at level 17 that the classical Rogue is kind of back. If they would just return pickpocket like it was in original WoD under level 20 or allowed 'lock pick' to be back to learnable by unlocking instead of based on character level. Side Note: My previous level 10 F2P Rogue picked up the loop then, but with all the Shadowlands trinkets and other items that were viable/obtainable like Warforged ilvl 87, so when I level to 20 during all the pre-patching via Shadowlands it was stuck at ilvl 19 :O

Luckily like others, banked most of the BFA or other trinkets/rings that proc'd socket or tertiary. Just a matter of rechecking them with TWW pre-patch.

 

[Bakedaflol]

For Rogues, the nice thing is that 'Precious Bloodthorn Loop' isn't needed as a backup as when Blizzard took Vanish to level 24, now Vanish is at level 17 that the classical Rogue is kind of back. If they would just return pickpocket like it was in original WoD under level 20 or allowed 'Pick lock' to be back to learnable by unlocking instead of based on character level. Side Note: My previous level 10 F2P Rogue picked up the loop then, but with all the Shadowlands trinkets and other items that were viable/obtainable like Warforged ilvl 87, so when I level to 20 during all the pre-patching via Shadowlands it was stuck at ilvl 19 :O

Luckily like others, banked most of the BFA or other trinkets/rings that proc'd socket or tertiary. Just a matter of rechecking them with TWW pre-patch.

Well, Bloodthorn loop will have item level 84 now. Epic version will have ilvl89. Wich does make it more useful anyway!
Im so used to having shadowmeld, that I tend to use the ring if I've swapped horde
Having x2 meld/vanish is kinda sick as it is by all means

 

[Leek]

Luckily I didn't throw my blue gemmed gear away lmao, was considering it to save bag space

 

[Bakedaflol]

Luckily I didn't throw my blue gemmed gear away lmao, was considering it to save bag space

I'm a total hoarder. Thank god Warband banks are coming

 

[Thrano]

Few minor points:

Relics already socketed in artifact weapons do not get scaled up, so these would have to be re-farmed if for whatever reason you want that.
Bufffood has also been buffed along with all other consumables.
Slime/Ooze continue to work, as the underlying mechanic has not been touched. This also means that Torghast remains unavailable before level 47/48 (whenever Threads of Fate unlock)
Dragonflight dungeons currently give slightly lower ilvl than quests or all other dungeons. This does seem like an obvious bug though and I expect this to be remedied.

Quest rewards - since they can go to epic as well - are going to be a viable alternative to WF farming, especially if there is the odd trinket that seems very powerful.
For me, all items have been scaled up properly (except the relics mentioned at the beginning), so questing now and stockpiling promising items is absolutely a good idea.

 

[Irosas]

Please forgive my general lack of knowledge, but what would you recommend farming these days? From what I understand of this post, BFA dungeons can give trinkets with sockets that will no longer be obtainable? I’d be happy to farm BC blues, but the FOMO is strong in me, and I don’t want to farm things that aren't going to disappear!

 

[Bakedaflol]

Few minor points:

Relics already socketed in artifact weapons do not get scaled up, so these would have to be re-farmed if for whatever reason you want that.
Bufffood has also been buffed along with all other consumables.
Slime/Ooze continue to work, as the underlying mechanic has not been touched. This also means that Torghast remains unavailable before level 47/48 (whenever Threads of Fate unlock)
Dragonflight dungeons currently give slightly lower ilvl than quests or all other dungeons. This does seem like an obvious bug though and I expect this to be remedied.

Quest rewards - since they can go to epic as well - are going to be a viable alternative to WF farming, especially if there is the odd trinket that seems very powerful.
For me, all items have been scaled up properly (except the relics mentioned at the beginning), so questing now and stockpiling promising items is absolutely a good idea.

Buffs, gems and enchants were covered in the OP. They've all had a slight buff, with hardly any exceptions.

The item level issue with DF dungeons was also an issue for SL dungeons last time we were beta testing. Back then SL dungeon and world items were higher item level than the rest. This time, DF dungeon items seems to be lower.
So I left it untill we have solid info. (probably not untill pre patch tbf.)

Quest rewards have also been covered. I've yet to be questing on the beta, so I cannot confirm it 100% ... BUT! My post-squish quest-greens were same ilvl as any other greens. Wich makes it safe to assume that upgrade-procs will work the same way.

I can confirm that my artifact weapons are unchanged. However, I've not yet tested how newly aquired relics affect the weapon. I doubt it, but I'll definetly check it out.

I will add Ooze stuff to the OP, since I've wanted to, but not yet tested it myself! Ty man

 

[Bakedaflol]

Please forgive my general lack of knowledge, but what would you recommend farming these days? From what I understand of this post, BFA dungeons can give trinkets with sockets that will no longer be obtainable? I’d be happy to farm BC blues, but the FOMO is strong in me, and I don’t want to farm things that aren't going to disappear!

There is never a definite BiS anymore, since all specs have different mastery, different off-stats benefits and 10x the toolkit they used to have. BUT
As far as I can tell right now; More sockets = more power.
With the changes to Jewel-clusters, we are able to reach speed cap alot faster, so the more gemslots we have on that, the more we can put into mainstat.

To my knowledge BFA trinkets/weapon gemslot-upgrades are allready GF'd. And BFA dungeons have the same rules to gemslot-upgrades as any other Timeline.

I would suggest farming out TBC belt with triple socket. It's probably the worst one to farm.

As a Dot-caster I've made sure to get one of the Head-pieces with Meta gem-slot with +1 socket. (3 maximum)
Though I'm not sure I'm gonna need it. I just like playing around with Mystical Skyfire Diamond.

Shoulders - TBC x2 socket

Chest & legs - TBC triple socket.

Gloves - Double socket

SM neck and Gnomer ring is an easy socket proc to get, and is a great way to Vers cap early.

As for other off-pieces, allready farmed WoD sockets are still insanely good. But they're not much stronger than other Blues. So having the right off-stats on them matters alot more.
Because of this, it's alot easier to farm those pieces in other places than WoD dungeons. This is why I mentioned Thornwoven Band in the OP.

As I mentioned, there hasn't been a definite BiS in years, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[DoByG]

This is the first item that I have found, that is not scaled properly. Not sure why yet.

 

[Irosas]

There is never a definite BiS anymore, since all specs have different mastery, different off-stats benefits and 10x the toolkit they used to have. BUT
As far as I can tell right now; More sockets = more power.
With the changes to Jewel-clusters, we are able to reach speed cap alot faster, so the more gemslots we have on that, the more we can put into mainstat.

To my knowledge BFA trinkets/weapon gemslot-upgrades are allready GF'd. And BFA dungeons have the same rules to gemslot-upgrades as any other Timeline.

I would suggest farming out TBC belt with triple socket. It's probably the worst one to farm.

As a Dot-caster I've made sure to get one of the Head-pieces with Meta gem-slot with +1 socket. (3 maximum)
Though I'm not sure I'm gonna need it. I just like playing around with Mystical Skyfire Diamond.

Shoulders - TBC x2 socket

Chest & legs - TBC triple socket.

Gloves - Double socket

SM neck and Gnomer ring is an easy socket proc to get, and is a great way to Vers cap early.

As for other off-pieces, allready farmed WoD sockets are still insanely good. But they're not much stronger than other Blues. So having the right off-stats on them matters alot more.
Because of this, it's alot easier to farm those pieces in other places than WoD dungeons. This is why I mentioned Thornwoven Band in the OP.

As I mentioned, there hasn't been a definite BiS in years, so take it with a grain of salt.

Thank you very much for all the information, the effort to gather it (and explain it to me). I'm going to get started on it. If the expansion would return the original legendaries to level 25, that would make me really happy.

 

[Bakedaflol]

This is the first item that I have found, that is not scaled properly. Not sure why yet. View attachment 24358

Is it your first rare-drop? Cus it might just be that. Rare-mobs are one of the categories of drops that varies the most from Expansion one expansion to another.

For example, how WoD world epics have been buffed to ilvl89, and Post-squish Classic world epics remains the same. (pre squish classic items, will probably never be fixed, assuming it was delibrate to keep them at ilvl20 ish, so that people wouldn't run around with insane raid gear at lowlevel. )

I would love an update on this!

 

[Bakedaflol]

Thank you very much for all the information, the effort to gather it (and explain it to me). I'm going to get started on it. If the expansion would return the original legendaries to level 25, that would make me really happy.

I should've added, that the rules may be different for level 25, since you have access to a few more dungeons. (no?)
But from experience, it hasn't been that different so far. So I doubt it'll be now

 

[DoByG]

Is it your first rare-drop? Cus it might just be that. Rare-mobs are one of the categories of drops that varies the most from Expansion one expansion to another.

For example, how WoD world epics have been buffed to ilvl89, and Post-squish Classic world epics remains the same. (pre squish classic items, will probably never be fixed, assuming it was delibrate to keep them at ilvl20 ish, so that people wouldn't run around with insane raid gear at lowlevel. )

I would love an update on this!

It was just something sitting in my void storage. Other than it, everything (rares, quests, treasures - all from different expansions) are scalled to the same ilvl now, instead of the current DF mess.

 

[Irosas]

I should've added, that the rules may be different for level 25, since you have access to a few more dungeons. (no?)
But from experience, it hasn't been that different so far. So I doubt it'll be now

I think I don't have access to anything that my level 20 DH can't enter . Maybe some item scale, or my caps are different, but that's not something that worries me much. I want to be generally functional. Even if the level 20 warrior bis table doesn't apply to my character 1:1, I prefer to leave the calculations of items and stats to the experts (all of you). I just like being able to do things solo with my character hahaha

 

[Bakedaflol]

It was just something sitting in my void storage. Other than it, everything (rares, quests, treasures - all from different expansions) are scalled to the same ilvl now, instead of the current DF mess.

Ah insane! It's probably just a 'This is an old drop issue then.'
Or for all we know, since it's been laying around in void storage, it might be just a bug from transitioning void-storaged items over to the beta aswell. It wouldn't be the first time.

Thanks!