Note:  This post is outdated.  Check out my new Holy Paladin PvP Gear post for the latest info.

This blog, like me, has always been dedicated to PvE Holy Paladins.  But, if you’re anything like me, you still probably do the occassional battleground and maybe even an Arena match or 2 (or 10).  You might have collected a few pieces of PvP gear from the Vault of Archavon.  You might even be considering a PvP Holy spec as your second spec.  Before long, you’ll inevitably find you’ve begun collecting a good number of Stone Keeper’s Shards, Honor Points, Arena Points and lots of various Marks and wondering what you should do with them all.  You also may have a number of unused Emblems and wondering how they fit in to PvP.  This post will try to organize it all and answer the question of what you should buy and in what order.

Some Notes on Collecting PvP Gear

If you’re actively looking for PvP gear and not just ways to spend your currencies, the quickest way is to make sure you do both versions of Vault of Archavon and 10 Arena matches each week, while grinding the battlegrounds.  As long as you do 10 matches you’ll get points, even if you lose, and you can start buying your intro Savage Gladiator gear.  Wintergrasp should be your primary battleground, since you can actually purchase some pretty nice rewards with Wintergrasp Marks of Honor and it gives the best Honor.  Archavon will drop the Epic Hateful and Deadly Chest, Hands, and Leg PvP Set pieces and is by far the easiest way to get that gear if you’re lucky on rolls.

Side Note:  While it would appear there is some PvP in Venture Bay in Grizzly Hills and you can buy some stuff with those Venture Coins, there’s nothing there that a level 80 would want.  Also, you can use the crafted PvP gear if you’re really new, but its not as good as the Savage Gladiator gear, so you shouldn’t use it for long.

Should I PvP in PvE Gear?

At this stage, you can actually be successful in PvP wearing only your PvE gear.  PvP, especially Arenas, puts a lot more emphasis on skill over gear.  However, you’re likely going to do a little better in the blue Savage Gladiator gear compared to Heroic and 10-man Epics.  I would probably keep my 25-man epics on rather than downgrading to blue PvP gear, but its up to you.  Ideally, you’ll strive for the epic PvP gear and wear that in PvP.  You are going to do much better in PvP with a dedicated PvP spec, compared to using your PvE spec so consider going PvP Holy as your dual spec (which I’m going to do).  I’ll go over some good PvP specs in a later post.

Spending your Emblems of Heroism

The easiest PvP set to obtain(outside of crafted gear) is the Savage Gladiator’s Redemption set.  These are item level 200 blues.  If you have Arena Points but don’t have the 1615 Rating, these are the only things you can spend those points on.  There’s actually 3 different ways to get them.  (1) You can purchase them using the Emblems of Heroism you get from running level 80 dungeons, Heroics and 10-man Raids.  (2) You could also buy them for Honor Points or (3) for a combination of Honor Points and Arena Points.  You can’t get any epic PvP gear from Emblems of Heroism, so once you’ve got all your PvE gear, you can spend the rest of your Emblems on tank or ret gear, buy the BoA gear for your alts, or buy this Blue PvP gear.  You can buy these from the Emblem of Heroism quartermaster in Dalaran, within your faction’s section of the city.

• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Gloves - 30 Emblems of Heroism
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Spaulders - 30 Emblems of Heroism
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Legplates - 45 Emblems of Heroism
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Chestguard - 45 Emblems of Heroism
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Headcover - 45 Emblems of Heroism

Spending your Emblems of Valor

If you have regular access to 25-man raids and have spare Emblems of Valor lying around, you can purchase some very good PvP items with them.

• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Gloves - 30 Emblems of Valor
• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Spaulders - 30 Emblems of Valor
• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Legplates - 45 Emblems of Valor
• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Chestguard - 45 Emblems of Valor
• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Headcover - 45 Emblems of Valor

Spending your Honor Points

Honor Points are one of the easiest PvP resources to get and there’s a ton of stuff to buy with them.  Most of us get Honor Points just by doing the occasional Wintergrasp or Battleground and completing the quests.  If you’re serious about PvP, you can spend all day in battlegrounds and accumulate quite a lot.  Here’s a list of the ways you can spend them without needing an Arena Rating.  If you have at least a 1600 Rating, you can buy many of the equivalent Deadly Gladiator pieces for only a bit more honor.  Most of these can be purchased from the Officer’s Barracks in Stormwind or Ogrimmar.  The ones that require Arena Points can be purchased from the Dalaran sewers.  Think of this as your shopping list.

• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Gloves - 7,200 Honor Points and 200 Arena Points
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Spaulders - 9,600 Honor Points and 275 Arena Points
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Legplates - 12,000 Honor Points and 350 Arena Points
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Chestguard - 12,000 Honor Points and 350 Arena Points
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Headcover - 12,000 Honor Points and 350 Arena Points
• Hateful Gladiator’s Bracers of Salvation - 31,600 Honor Points
• Hateful Gladiator’s Band of Dominance - 38,000 Honor Points
• Hateful Gladiator’s Cloak of Dominance - 38,000 Honor Points
• Hateful Gladiator’s Pendant of Dominance - 38,000 Honor Points
• Medallion of the Alliance - 49,600 Honor Points
• Hateful Gladiator’s Girdle of Salvation - 49,600 Honor Points
• Hateful Gladiator’s Greaves of Salvation - 49,600 Honor Points (don’t buy this one, there’s a better option)
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Gloves - 50,000 Honor Points
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Spaulders - 50,000 Honor Points
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Legplates - 60,000 Honor Points
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Chestguard - 60,000 Honor Points
• Savage Gladiator’s Ornamented Headcover - 60,000 Honor Points
• Battlemaster’s Bravery - 62,000 Honor Points

Spending your Arena Points

Besides the 5 Savage Gladiator set items listed above, all of the items you can purchase with Arena Points require at least a 1615 Arena Rating.  If you can do good in Arenas and get up to at least a 1615 Arena Rating, purchasing the Hateful Gladiator set pieces will get you the best gear for the smallest number of Arena Points.  Unlike the other 3 pieces, you can’t get the Helm and Shoulders from the Vault of Archavon.  If you can get into the 1750 Arena Rating range, you can start buying the Deadly Gladiator’s Redemption set.  If you can get into the 1930 Rating range, you can start buying your PvP Weapon, Shield and Libram for an obscene number of Arena Points.  These can be purchased in the Dalaran Sewers.

• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Gloves - 400 Arena Points, 7200 Honor Points, 1615 Rating
• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Spaulders - 550 Arena Points, 9600 Honor Points, 1775 Rating
• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Legplates - 700 Arena Points, 12000 Honor Points, 1645 Rating
• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Chestguard - 700 Arena Points, 12000 Honor Points, 1675 Rating
• Hateful Gladiator’s Ornamented Headcover - 700 Arena Points, 12000 Honor Points, 1735 Rating

Spending your Stone Keeper’s Shards

Stone Keeper’s shards are mainly used to buy PvP enchants for your head and shoulders, to buy your PvP meta gem, and to buy yellow PvP Resilience gems.  You can also get your PvP Trinket using these shards.   There’s also a couple pieces of gear you can get, but they’re not really very good.  You can use your shards to help gear your alts if that’s your thing.  The best use for them though is to turn in 30 for 2000 extra Honor Points.  If you’re a jewelcrafter, you can also buy a number of recipes.  These or Honor can be purchased from the Wintergrasp Quartermaster in Wintergrasp.

• Forlorn Starflare Diamond - Meta Gem - 15 Stone Keeper’s Shards
• Kharmaa’s Grace - PvP Gem - 20 Stone Keeper’s Shards
• Incription of Dominance - Shoulder enchant - 30 Stone Keeper’s Shards
• Arcanum of Dominance - Head enchant - 40 Stone Keeper’s Shards
• Inherited Insignia of the Alliance/Horde - 250 Stone Keeper’s Shards
• The Blessed Hammer of Grace - 250 Stone Keeper’s Shards
• Pristine Lightforge Spaulders - 250 Stone Keeper’s Shards

Spending your Marks of Honor

You can exchange your Marks of Honor for Honor Points using the Concerted Efforts quest.  You can also use them to purchase mounts in Stormwind or Ogrimmar.  You can actually get a pretty nice off-set PvP head, foot piece and trinket from Wintergrasp Marks of Honor.

• Titan-forged Greaves of Salvation - 15 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor - buy this foot piece instead of the Honor ones listed above.
• Flow of Knowledge - 25 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor
• Titan-forged Plate Headcover of Salvation - 40 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor

PvP Gearing Strategy

For us PvE carebears, the best strategy is to buy the Savage or Hateful Gladiator shoulders and head with all those Emblems you’ve been accumulating.  If you’re doing some arenas, but don’t have the rating, you can buy them with your Arena Points instead.  The Arena Points will go to waste anyway and the Honor cost is very low.  I would not purchase the other Savage Gladiator pieces with Honor alone unless you have nothing else at all to spend the Honor on.  Just wait for the better set pieces (hands, chest, and legs) to drop from the Vault of Archavon and buy the off-set pieces with honor.  I would also just get the Wintergrasp foot piece and skip the Honor one since its better anyway and much easier to get.  If you have over a 1600 Arena Rating, certainly focus on buying the gear that requires that rating or higher.  The Deadly Head and Shoulders are the most difficult PvP pieces to get outside the Weapon, Shield, and Libram, which are near impossible for us mere mortals.

Good luck with your journey into the world of PvP!