Since starting to adventure in outland at the start of the year I've replaced pretty much my entire gear (I'm down to odd trinkets and mounts from Azeroth really). At first these were green (uncommon gear) that was better than the epics from the Old World, but those were superceded by blues (rares) and more recently purples (epics). In fact I only have a handful of rare items I still use - a hat, a couple of trinkets and (until I get some new gems) a pair of trousers for boss fights - with the rest nice glowy purple stuff.
Some of those epics I made (the robe, gloves and belt of the Spellfire set) others I "found" in my adventures, either as loot (trousers, cloak, necklace, a ring), as rewards from quests or repuation (a second ring, a trinket), or from collectin badges (a wand, and shortly another trinket. The third category of gear I won on the field of battle: boots, wrists, shoulders and weapon (as well as a spare set of trousers as it happens) as well as some gems. The gems, writs and boots (as well as a previous set of shoulders, come from the long-standing battleground rewards (now superceded alas) but the shoulders and weapons are from the season 1 Arena set, the so-called "welfare epics."
Now I can see why some of the hard-core arena players aren't happy with this - they spent weeks gettin them originally and now a few days hard work can net comparable gear - but as someone who has had difficulty getting into Arena games due to scheduling I can see the rationale behind making this outdated stuff available - there's already a trend in battlegrounds for Arena-equipped teams to beat the living daylights out of their regular-geared opponents and having the outdated arena gear available narrows the gap (but still leaves people in S2 or S3 with an advantage).
To be honest, while I love a decent Alterac Valley (or even Arathi Basin when not upagainst a pre-made) I'm not desperately fussed about having maxxed out gear for PVPing; the items I've picked up are mainly because they benefit the PvE raiding in Karazan and the like, either because there's no upgrade gear for me on the bosses we've fought or because the competition is so fierce (a pool of 3 mages, 4 warlocks and 2 hunters competing for the same Tier-4 glove token, for example). As luck would have it, after finally deciding to spend some of my stash on the Gladiator's trousers (from the Arena S1 kit) I aquired the better Trial Fire trousers in Karazan a couple of days later.
Still, not as bad as one of the Guild Paladins who spent a couple of week's worth of badges (in the days before Kara dropped them) on a new shield, only to have a better one drop about 2 hours later in the Chess event ... some days you can't win.
Some of those epics I made (the robe, gloves and belt of the Spellfire set) others I "found" in my adventures, either as loot (trousers, cloak, necklace, a ring), as rewards from quests or repuation (a second ring, a trinket), or from collectin badges (a wand, and shortly another trinket. The third category of gear I won on the field of battle: boots, wrists, shoulders and weapon (as well as a spare set of trousers as it happens) as well as some gems. The gems, writs and boots (as well as a previous set of shoulders, come from the long-standing battleground rewards (now superceded alas) but the shoulders and weapons are from the season 1 Arena set, the so-called "welfare epics."
Now I can see why some of the hard-core arena players aren't happy with this - they spent weeks gettin them originally and now a few days hard work can net comparable gear - but as someone who has had difficulty getting into Arena games due to scheduling I can see the rationale behind making this outdated stuff available - there's already a trend in battlegrounds for Arena-equipped teams to beat the living daylights out of their regular-geared opponents and having the outdated arena gear available narrows the gap (but still leaves people in S2 or S3 with an advantage).
To be honest, while I love a decent Alterac Valley (or even Arathi Basin when not upagainst a pre-made) I'm not desperately fussed about having maxxed out gear for PVPing; the items I've picked up are mainly because they benefit the PvE raiding in Karazan and the like, either because there's no upgrade gear for me on the bosses we've fought or because the competition is so fierce (a pool of 3 mages, 4 warlocks and 2 hunters competing for the same Tier-4 glove token, for example). As luck would have it, after finally deciding to spend some of my stash on the Gladiator's trousers (from the Arena S1 kit) I aquired the better Trial Fire trousers in Karazan a couple of days later.
Still, not as bad as one of the Guild Paladins who spent a couple of week's worth of badges (in the days before Kara dropped them) on a new shield, only to have a better one drop about 2 hours later in the Chess event ... some days you can't win.
; "Rotface down!")
; "Gnomes are scary")
; "More Gnome than you can shake a stick at")
; "The Big Gnome")
; "Aren't you a little big for a Stormtrooper")
; "Victory!")
; "Saurfang Down!")
; "Maebh Tuskarr")
; "Buliwyf the Tuskarr")
; "Andro_Tuskarr.JPG")