Blood Pact: Emblem upgrades
by Dominic Hobbs 
May 10th 2010 at 5:00PM
I recently turned my attention back to one of my 'locks that I had pretty much stopped playing after Trial of the (Grand) Crusader. This means that his gear isn't bad by any means but that there are quite a few upgrades I can get for him without even having to get him raiding again. Pretty much all of these items come from spending Emblems of Frost.
Emblems of Frost can be collected a number of ways, the easiest being the random heroic. Completing a random Lich King heroic dungeon (using the dungeon finder tool -- /LFD) for the first time each day will earn you two Emblems of Frost, so that's 14 each week. Do note that the random element of this tool is the dungeon; feel free to form your own party before using it. You can also do the weekly raid quest for another 5 emblems. Toravon the Ice Watcher is holding a couple more for you, so if you can kill him on 10- and 25-man modes, then you can bag another four from him. To collect any more in a week you need to raid Icecrown Citadel, where if you clear it and do the ICC quest, you can get up to 60 more. After the break, we'll see what we can spend them on.
The most obvious gear to blow your hard-earned emblems on is the tier 10 set. The basic set (the one you can buy with emblems) is item level 251, which is actually lower than the heroic tier 9 set. If you do compare them, most of the stats are lower, especially spirit, but there's a big gain in haste for the tier 10. It also looks like warlock gear and not like something you stole from a mage. Anyone not wearing the best tier 9 gear set is probably going to find a nice upgrade in tier 10.
Another advantage with the tier 10 items is that you don't waste the emblems should you wish to upgrade. With tier 9, you had to save up a load of emblems and then decide whether to buy the lowest quality items or hold out until you had a Trophy and go for the better ones. With tier 10, you only spend emblems on the lowest item level gear and then use the item and the boss tokens to upgrade. Tier items are not the only thing worth spending your emblems on, not by a long way. In fact, they're not the only items to consider for those slots. The Meteor Chaser's Raiment is a better chest item than the basic tier 10 robe. However, you do need to factor in how many set bonuses you are aiming for and whether you expect to be able to upgrade your set pieces to the ilvl264 or even 277 versions. The Gloves of False Gestures are in pretty much the same boat, but I feel they are far more on a par with the Dark Coven Gloves and so less reason to not use the set item.
So what else do our friendly Emblem of Frost Quartermasters have for us? Well, there's Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky, which is rather nice. Though it just struck me that it's the same model as the Death Knight reward from the quest Tonight We Dine In Havenshire. Well, I can live with that; it goes pretty well with the Dark Coven stuff.
The Belt of Omission is almost best in slot if you need the hit rating; otherwise, the Circle of Ossus is also a very nice purchase. They have very few items in the game that are better than them, but do bear in mind that one of them drops off the very first boss in Icecrown Citadel. The Crushing Coldwraith Belt is almost identical to the Circle of Ossus (swapping some spirit for crit), so if you are killing any bosses in 25-man ICC then this may come your way.If your trinket slots are needing some ilvl264 love then there is an option for you. Maghia's Misguided Quill is a very powerful item that is one of the best in the game, but (yes, it's a big but) it's only good if you need all the hit rating it offers. One hundred fifty-two hit in one item is going to make it awkward to upgrade later without spending some time over the cap or having upgrades sit in your bags until you can find some more with more hit rating. If you are at the hit cap without a trinket then this one is essentially useless and you're better off with the Abyssal Rune from normal Trial of the Champion.
That's pretty much it for the Emblem of Frost vendors. If you are overflowing with Emblems then you could spend them on Primordial Saronite to craft either the Deathfrost Boots or the Leggings of Woven Death. The boots are great and well worth crafting if you can afford them, but it's probably better to grind for the cash to buy the Primordial Saronite rather than blow your Emblems on them. The legs are good but not worth getting over the tier item, so they are worth it if you have gold to burn but are short on emblems -- but otherwise, go for the Dark Coven Leggings.
As always, gear selection is a very personal thing. I've tried to give an overview of the options you have from Emblems of Frost, but don't get too focused on these items. I strongly suggest you use SimulationCraft to find out what stats you will gain the most from increasing and choose upgrades based on that. Blood Pact covered the basics on doing this a few weeks back, if you need a hand with it.
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. If you're curious about what's new with 'locks since the last patch, check out WoW.com's guide to patch 3.3 or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Paploo May 10th 2010 5:48PM
One thing to keep in mind when upgrading from the ilvl 251 T10 to the ilvl 264 T10 pieces is that you lose any gems and enchants you had on the item you trade in. This also applies to the trade in from ilvl 264 to ilvl 277; they will start out with empty gem slots and devoid of an enchant.
fisiol May 10th 2010 5:50PM
dont like the trinket
signed
lock, 80
Dagnie May 10th 2010 6:14PM
T10 legs are better then the leggings of woven death? What? I believe you are in error. Comparing t10 ilvl 264 to leggings of woven death, isn't the legging the way to go? Which piece of tier 10 to you choose not to equip?
Applewho May 10th 2010 6:18PM
T10 legs are better then the leggings of woven death? What? I
believe you are in error. Comparing t10 ilvl 264 to leggings of woven
death, isn't the legging the way to go? Which piece of tier 10 to you
choose not to equip?
William May 10th 2010 6:17PM
if u need hit still, now, stop playing a lock.
Spellotape May 10th 2010 7:54PM
Because it's impossible to drop hit on old gear and need more when you get upgrades, right?
William May 10th 2010 6:19PM
crafted offc.
Finnicks May 10th 2010 6:25PM
My personal adhoc target dummy testing yielded some interesting results.
Using Tier 10 helm, chest, and shoulders, and item level 251 drops for pants and gloves, I was doing 5500 DPS against the dummy. Swapping out the 251 gloves from Deathwhisper for the 251 Tier 10 gloves (for the 4pc set bonus), and my DPS shot up to 6000+.
The Dark Coven 4pc set bonus is amazing. It would guess that you should aim for it, and ignore the 264 badge upgrade options.
The best bet for people who can't do 25m is probably to get Tier 10 helm, shoulders, gloves and pants and the 264 chest, or (if you're like me) and you want the full Tier 10 look, get the Tier 10 helm, chest, shoulders and gloves and get the 264 pants crafted.
ericwoodford May 10th 2010 7:17PM
Since I don't raid that often, I went for the off-tier chest (Meteor), head (ICC drop) and probably the gloves (False gestures). I did get the 2 set bonus with shoulders and legs. Can't decide if my next upgrade will be the gloves or belt though..
Scyrge May 10th 2010 7:06PM
Remember that the 4 piece bonus offers more dps than any piece of gear will give you, so focus on getting that first.
Revanel May 10th 2010 7:17PM
Just to let you know, the links from Deathfrost Boots and Leggings of Woven Death link to the spell to craft them, not the items themselves. You can downrate after the fix. :)
Dominic Hobbs May 10th 2010 7:32PM
Fixed with thanks.
Jeff May 10th 2010 7:52PM
Pretty sure that BiS has Leggings of Woven Death as the offset and that beats out having something like Meteor Chasers as the off piece. That holds true for pretty much all specs especially when you consider that the tier legs lack haste and in an article talking about badge gear (not counting harder-to-get for the beginning raider emblem drops) even the Sanctified Dark Coven Legs are worse than the more accessible T10.
Jeff May 10th 2010 7:54PM
Last sentence doesn't read quite right... What I mean is even T10.5 is not itemized as well as the Leggings of Woven Death, let alone the more accessible T10.
Spellotape May 10th 2010 7:59PM
To me it seems like this post is directed at people who either are hitting 80 or who don't raid often - so all of the other experts raving on about how great Leggings of Woven Death as an off-piece ... yes, that is true, but if you can't get that and you *can* get Meteor Chaser's Raiment or Gloves of False Gestures, then they are good alternatives for non-raiding or periodic raider locks.
For what it's worth, legs are my off-piece right now, but if I ever needed hit after getting other non-hit upgrades elsewhere ... I would use the tier legs in a heartbeat - stat balancing requires people to make different choices from everyone else sometimes.
Jeff May 10th 2010 8:35PM
Actually given how the cost of Saronite is steadily dropping on many servers and how cloth has become much cheaper (and the fact that there are plenty of things to spend those badges on other than the legs/chest), the 95 emblems to pick up the badge chest probably make it a worse option for a fresh 80 than the crafted legs, or for that matter even than the T9 legs.
Spellotape May 11th 2010 1:59AM
@Jeff
I think it's easy for people to say that if they are in a position to acquire Primordial Saronite without a problem or don't even need it. Given that the eight Primordial Saronite required to construct the Leggings is essentially twice as many Frost emblems as the chest requires ... you tell me what's a worse option for a casual/non-raider ...
Turtlehead May 23rd 2010 1:54AM
"Given that the eight Primordial Saronite required to construct the Leggings is essentially twice as many Frost emblems as the chest requires ... you tell me what's a worse option for a casual/non-raider ..."
Given how long it takes a non-raider to get frost emblems, using them instead of gold to buy primordial saronite would be insane.
Dagnie May 10th 2010 11:49PM
"So all of the other experts raving on about how great the Leggings of Woven Death is as an offpiece. Yes, that's true." Nuff Said
I believe the Leggings of Woven Death are good and worth getting more than the Deathfrost Boots if you were to only craft one craftable during current ICC content. If you are a fresh 80 and need hit despertly after collecting 310 emblems of frost for your 4 piece set bonus, remeber you can add 3% hit from Suppresion in the Affliction talent tree if you demo or destro; and cross you fingers for either a moonkin or a shadow priest in your raid for another additional 3% hit
Again, if you still need hit desperatly (post 4 piece excluding legs) pick up the hit trinkets from emblems of triumph or ( in excess ) emblems of frost and save it / them for leveling in Cataclysm when you come across level 83+ mobs often. In fact the only time the T10 legs might beat the Leggings of Woven Death is when they're the ilvl 277 version and your still magically hit starved or when your killing non elite mobs where 2 or 3 critical hits will kill your target ( aka grinding for gold, questing, or leveling)
One last note, if your new to 80 as a dps caster (ya including Mage wanna be's like SpelloTape) it's important to save your hit gear for side grading in the future.
Spellotape May 11th 2010 2:05AM
Your gear =/= everyone else's gear. People have access to different amounts of emblems/gold ... if they can get the legs, great, if not ... not the end of the universe and there are alternatives.
A significant number of people are going to make up their four-set with items that drop from vault, which includes that hit legs so reviled - I think it's far more important that people have four-set than labour on getting legs (while excellent) which will not provide the same dps increase.
As a sidenote, it's disappointing that a differing opinion in this column could reduce warlocks to call fellow warlocks "wannabe mages". Seriously ...