Dreadweave Battlegear

Not only did Nar recently pick up some more PvP pieces, but Rahr now has 4/5 on the dreadweave PvP blue set... because he might as well. For a self-admitted non-pvper, I now have 7 pieces that are explicitly PvP, stack resil, etc. What has this done for rahr, how am I going to socket them and what other burning questions in my own mind am I going to answer here for others to read? Look below and find out.

Again, the level 70, blue quality PvP set became available from various quartermasters of outland factions with the hit of 2.4, so why not pick it up for some quick PvP cred. Granted, it's not really much PvP cred because most serious PvPers have long established their completely epic sets and running around in little bluey pieces isn't exactly impressive, especially when anyone at Honored can buy these, but it is a nice reward for those who have PvEed and want to start getting into the PvP scene and not totally get demolished.

We know how important resilience is in PvP. You just won't have the survivability in BGs or arenas if you are easily critable and if your health pool is low. Without demon armor and with blood pact from my imp, I'm sitting over the 10K bubble with the new gear thanks to its heavy bias towards stam. That makes sense since it's specifically geared at locks. Let's take a look at these pieces now.

I skipped over the dreadweave hood because I already have the Vengeful Gladiator's Dreadweave Hood. You don't get any better than that with PvP, so it didn't make sense since I could take the other four pieces in the Dreadweave set and still get the set bonus. Oh arena, how I've skipped over you. Vengeful is providing 33 resil, +4 more for the socket bonus which is socketed with +12 and +9 spell damage. Total spell damage off of this head piece is +63. That's awesome!

Dreadweave Mantle (Shoulders) - +19 stam, +15 intel. We've got the opportunity to throw in a blue and yellow gem to give us +3 resil with the socket bonus. We're adding 6 to spell hit, 17 to resil passively and 26 to damage. It's really nice. This piece is over my previous shoulders, the Mantle of Three Terrors which is fine, but not nearly as good for PvP.

Socketing this piece, I'll throw in a Mystic Dawnstone for the +8 resil and in the Blue socket slot either the Green(Y/B) - Steady Talasite (+4 Resil, +6 Stam) or the Blue - Eye of the Sea (+15 Stam). The extra stam is nice, but since I'm sitting well under 400 resil, (obviously), I'll take the Steady Talasite. That'll be an additional 15 resil from socketing the piece.

Dreadweave Robe (chest) - Replaces my Robe of Oblivion. They are both great, and I definitely won't be taking the dreadweave piece into instances, especially after we talk about how I'll be socketing it. There's great stam on this one, +49 with +29 spell dmg and +14 resil. This piece along with the mantle gives me the two piece set bonus so we're getting an additional 35 resil as well.

Socketing this is easy. Runed Living Ruby in the red slot for +9 Spell Damage. That's my damage gem of choice by far. Expensive sure, as it's often 60g on AH, but it's well worth the cost. Best +dmg you're going to get without going epic, which I refuse to do on a blue quality piece. The Yellow slots are perfect for two more Mystic Dawnstones at +8 resil a piece. Throw all that in with the socketing bonus, another +4 resil and you get a total of 20 resil from socketing.

My resilience before socketing any of these items was 185 with the set bonuses and the other pieces I have. Throwing in the gems we've added, we've accumulated 35 more resilience for 220 total. Woot!

The other two pieces that I've equipped are nice as well, but don't have sockets, so we're stuck at 220 resil until I get some nicer PvE pieces and can resocket my Veteran's Dreadweave Cuffs. I should really be putting a Mystic Dawnstone in that bad boy for the added 8 resil, taking us to 228 total resil, but I'm unwilling to do that until I get as good a piece to use when PvEing, which is still my main focus.

Dreadweave Gloves (hands) - give us a great buff to our fear casting: +50% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting fear. Man! That's mean. I'm all about it. the added resil, stam and damage are great and they replace my Gloves of Oblivion, the equal PvE partner.

Dreadweave Leggings (legs) - complete the four-set, giving us a .2 sec reduction to our Fear spell cast time. Add that in with the gloves reduction of interruption chance and we are a fearing machine. This is another heavy stam piece with +49 and replaces the Trousers of Oblivion, again, it's PvE counterpart.

So now I'm sitting at 220 resil from a measly 85 resil before I started this whole endeavor. I've jumped firmly over the 10K barrier in terms of health and can't wait to give it a shot in the BGs again. I had already felt that my lock was in a better place for PvP -- partly by virtue of the fact that he's a lock, FTW, come on! -- but I think that the increased resil is just what he needed to be able to really annoy people with his ability to live. Today or tomorrow, I'm logging in and taking on the holiday weekend. Let's see how rahr handles it.