There are several reasons to get exited about when a new patch is on the way.  There is always new content to look forward to, usually new raids, instances, scenarios, bosses, or if we are really lucky all of them.  There is also generally more story line added to the game, achievements, and much more.

Most of us would be kidding our selves though if we didn’t admit that the most important thing added with a patch is new gear!  After all what excites most players more than finding new and more powerful gear to upgrade their character with.

So what kind of items are set to be added to World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria when patch 5.2 moves from the PTR to the live game?

New Heirloom Items

Not high level new raid gear, but almost as important for many of us with numerous alts to level up, there are new heirloom upgrades for purchase.  The old heirlooms stopped providing their boost to experience at various levels but all stopped by level 80. These new ones grant an experience boost all the way to 85.

They are expensive though so be warned.  They require you to have the old version of the heirloom and an additional amount of justice points to upgrade it to the new version. While the points do add up, most players will have a pile of justice points just sitting there anyway, so it is something to spend them on.

There are a lot of great items that are of a lot of use as you level up.  Many players opt for the weapons since you will then not have to keep finding new weapons while levelling, but keep in mind that the weapons do not provide an experience boost.  Therefore I would focus more of the pieces that do such as the chest and shoulders.

              

New Crafted PVP Gear

For those into the PVP scene there are several new pieces of PVP gear that can be created by players with the proper professions.  These are all item level 458 PVP focused items that are part of the season 12 crafted sets.

These items should allow players to get up to speed PVP wise with enough PVP power and resilience to at least cope with the PVP scene. In addition there are some good looking models to go with them, so if you are looking to transmog a cool set, these may offer some useful looks.

Item level 429 Troll Items

This one is only important for players looking to get items for transmogrification as far as I can tell, however it does make it far easier for them.  Many of the old Amani troll items from Zul’Aman and Zul’Grub had a cool look that players loved.  Now that those are old instances, getting the items for transmogrification can be tough.

The models have made their return as item level 429 gear found on the various trolls added in the new patch.  So if your looking to complete a transmog set, make sure you keep your eyes open for them, I am sure they will start showing up in the Auction Houses soon after the patch goes live.

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/247467" alt="Druid Tier 15"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 130px;"> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/247466" alt="Mage Tier 15"
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The new Druid and Mage tier 15 sets

New Legendary?

While a new legendary item has not been found yet in the PTR, a new legendary quest chain has been found.  The quests are part of the legendary quest chain that has been strung through the Mists of Pandaria expansion from Wrathion.

While there is no guarantee (in fact it is unlikely) that you will be granted a legendary from this patch’s round of quests, we will be getting something new from Wrathion.  I for one am excited to see what we get next.

Raid Gear: Tier 15 sets and more!

Ok, on to the big items for everyone out there that is into raiding. This is the section you are looking for.  There will be brand-new raid tier sets added with patch 5.2, tier 15.  Blizzard does not disappoint with the looks of them either, as many of the sets are amazing looking, even though there are 2 that I really don’t care for the rest look really cool.

Also, don’t forget that that a new raid means that in addition to all the new tier 15 items, there will of course be a whole lot of new items found in that new raid, the Throne of Thunder.

While many of the set bonuses are in place in PTR and being discussed by Blizzard in the official forums already, they are not set in stone and many are already changing on the PTR. Here is the conversation so far regarding the new set bonuses.


Druid

• We’re still iterating on this design for Wild Mushrooms. Currently, they each absorb 25% overheal, up to a max of 33% of the Druid’s max health (total of 75% / 100% with 3 Mushrooms out). This max size isn’t working in build 16446, but we hope to hotfix that soon. Upon blooming, their accumulated healing is split over the targets they heal. Several parts of this aren’t yet working in build 16446, leading them to be massively overpowered (which we also hope to hotfix soon). Feedback, especially in future builds, is appreciated.

Mage
• The Mage 2T15 bonus does favor taking Invocation, as people quickly pointed out, and we’re considering revising it.
• The Arcane Mage 4T15 bonus is a multiplier on all of the effects of Arcane Charges. Damage, mana cost, and number of additional targets hit.
• The Fire Mage 4T15 bonus is before Critical Mass. Net increase to your Pyroblast’s crit rate will be +6.5%.
• This build included a new version of Blazing Speed. We changed it from the previous build because we thought that it was too strong. This is definitely something we’re still iterating on for 5.2. The new version replaces Blink, but goes farther than Blink (and distance is variable instead of fixed), does not cost a GCD, and provides brief stun and root immunity, and is on a different spell school. Feedback from playing with it is very helpful. We realize that there is somewhat of a conflict here with the PvP Glove bonus, and will resolve that if needed.
• Another talent we’re iterating on is Invocation; it’s quite possible that the current version is overpowered, but we’d like people to try it out, and give us feedback about how you use it, especially as Arcane.

Hunter
• The Hunter 2T15 bonus is a chance to summon a Thunderhawk. That Thunderhawk will assist you, and will always cast 5x Lightning Bolts for 16k to 24k Nature damage. Its damage will scale with BM mastery, and will not scale with Survival mastery. However, the proc chances (which are Real PPM) vary by spec: 0.7/min for BM, 1/min for MM, 1.2/min for Surv.
• The Hunter 4T15 bonus is affected by Survival’s mastery, cannot trigger Wild Quiver, and procs at a rate of 3 RealPPM.

Monk
• Storm, Earth, and Fire is a new ability for Windwalkers. It’s intended to be fill the role of attacking 2 or 3 targets. It’s a rather complex ability, technically, and you’re seeing a very early version of it that still has some significant bugs (which we’re hoping to hotfix soon). To give you an idea of the design intent here, the spirits should mirror your damaging attacks against targets other than the one they’re on (so that it’s not a single target DPS gain). The spirits auto attack on their own. It should reduce your and your spirits damage while they’re out, but the exact tuning for that is still being iterated on. They’re currently -40% for 1 (total of 120% of normal against 2 targets), and -55% for 2 (total of 135% against 3 targets). Non-damaging attacks (such as Spear Hand Strike) should not be mirrored, but damaging attacks (such as Fists of Fury) should. Feedback very appreciated.

Rogue
• We are still iterating on Blade Flurry. We feel like the implementation of Blade Flurry on live forces rogues to go Combat on any cleave fights, while leaving Combat too far behind on any single target fights. It's fine if the rogue specs have niches, but the niches shouldn't be so rigid that you don't feel like you have any choice in spec. Blade Flurry will be how Combat does 2-5 target AoE damage. In the next PTR build, it deals 40% of normal damage to up to 4 additional targets, for a 20% energy regen reduction.
• The Rogue 2T15 bonus does apply to all finishers with a duration, including Slice and Dice, Kidney Shot, Recuperate, Envenom, and Rupture. In build 16446, the Kidney Shot increase was broken, but is fixed for the next build.

Priest
• Shadow Priests have raised concerns about both of their T15 bonuses being tied to Shadowy Apparitions. Know that we have improved Shadowy Apparitions. Previously, there was a cap of 4 out at once. In build 16446, that’s raised to 5 if you have 2T15. However in the next build, we just raised the cap to 10, which you should basically never hit. And more importantly, we significantly improved their AI. Please try them out. If they give you problems, please be as specific as possible about those situations.

Shaman
• The Elemental Shaman 2T15 bonus triggers from Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning hits (including Overloads). A Chain Lightning that hits 5 targets has 5 separate chances to trigger the Lightning Strike. If it Overloads, then 10 chances. There is no ICD, so it can proc multiple times from a single Chain Lightning. However, in the next build (or perhaps a hotfix), the damage from the Lightning Strike will be split between affected targets. There is a very high potential impact from this set bonus, so we’re keeping our eye on this, and may have to nerf it. But we’re trying it this way, since it is the most fun version.

Warlock
• Fel Armor has a significant typo in its tooltip; we added the 10% damage reduction and took away the armor. The health and healing received are still increases, not decreases.
• The new Glyph of Unstable Affliction reduces the cast time, but does not affect the GCD. Thus, it is not a DPS gain in a purely Patchwerk situation, but makes it harder to be interrupted, and allows you to start moving again slightly faster.
• The Affliction Warlock 4T15 bonus increases the damage of Malefic Grasp itself, and the extra ticks triggered by it. Same with Drain Soul.

Warrior
• The DPS Warrior 2T15 bonus has a RealPPM rate of 1.6 for Arms and 0.6 for Fury. It triggers all of the effects of enraging, including generating a Raging Blow charge, and 10 rage.

Death Knight
• The DPS Death Knight 2T15 bonus has a RealPPM rate of 1.0. The Zandalari spirit it summons has damage and attacks similar to the normal DK Ghoul, benefits from Unholy’s mastery, does not replace your current ghoul, and you can have multiple of them up at once.
• While the DPS Death Knight 4T15 bonus (increased Army duration) is on target, performance-wise, in most fights, it’s always challenging to have a set bonus improve a 10min cooldown. We’re considering some additional changes to this, such as also lowering the channel time and / or rune cost. We understand this is a challenging set bonus to design, so we're going to have to iterate on it a bit.

 


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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