Patch 5.3 PTR - Build 16911, PvP Gem Changes
Catching Up to 5.3
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
There’s a ton of content worth experiencing in Mists of Pandaria—but if you’re leveling alts or just looking to get to the highest gear levels to see the newest content, the “best” route is not always clear. We get a lot of questions on what to focus on, so hopefully this article can provide some helpful guidance.
Back in the Day
In the initial months after Mists of Pandaria launched, the primary method to gear up a new level 90 was to run Scenarios and Heroic dungeons, and then do daily quests (beginning with Golden Lotus and Klaxxi, and then progressing to Shado-Pan and August Celestials) to earn reputation to unlock the vendors that sold higher-level epics. Along the way, players would qualify for the Raid Finder version of Mogu’shan Vaults, and then eventually the Raid Finder versions of Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring, supplementing the gear they unlocked and purchased with Valor Points.
While all of that content, along with the original reputation vendors and associated progression, remains in the game, patch 5.2 introduced several new, more efficient ways to get a fresh level 90 caught up and ready to jump right into the Throne of Thunder raid.
Get to ‘da Island!
The core of the current gearing system revolves around the new Isle of Thunder, and the vastly accelerated rate at which Elder Charms of Good Fortune can be obtained on the Isle. Elder Charms are used for bonus rolls when defeating raid bosses from the expansion’s first set of raids—Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of Endless Spring—as well as Mists of Pandaria’s original world bosses, Sha of Anger and Galleon. By obtaining Elder Charms, defeating bosses, and using bonus rolls, you’ll receive more chances to acquire upgrades, helping you gear up at a faster pace.
The Isle of Thunder also offers other ways to acquire Elder Charms. By defeating rare-spawn enemies on the Isle of Thunder, looting a Trove of the Thunder King, or defeating common enemies, players can receive a 
Key to the Palace of Lei Shen (one per week, with a small chance at extras from the coffers awarded at the conclusion of daily quest arcs). Players can take the key to Taoshi in the Shado-Pan encampment located in the swamp at the center of the Isle for a chance to do a Treasure Room run. In these runs, players have 5 minutes to open as many chests as possible and make it as far as they can through a dangerous, trap-laden vault. These runs are not only a ton of fun, but can be extremely lucrative in providing gold and Elder Charms. Foregoing a race to the finish line and instead systematically opening every chest you can get your hands on will likely yield a significant number of Elder Charms—it’s not uncommon to emerge from a single run with over a dozen. Additional Elder Charms can be obtained by using Incantations that also drop from creatures on the Isle and taking them to the graveyard in the mogu ruins on the west side of the Isle.
In 5.2, we significantly increased drop rates in the Raid Finder versions of Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring, so it’s quite possible to walk into the Raid Finder and have enough Elder Charms to use a bonus roll on every boss you kill (with greatly increased drop chances) for a tremendous loot yield. You can also run Raid Finder more than once per week if you have more Elder Charms. You won’t receive normal drops from the boss, but your bonus rolls will have a chance of rewarding an item.
Misc. Stuff We Couldn’t Think of a Title For
If you’re into PvP, recent changes have made PvE gear pretty decent in PvP, and vice-versa. Outside of sockets and set bonuses, you can get a bunch of Honor (or Justice Points, and covert them to Honor at the Justice Trade Good vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind) and buy Item Level (ilvl) 476 PvP gear to help fill in any gaps and help you get into the higher rungs of PvE content.
Like Sha of Anger, the world boss Galleon now respawns much more frequently. The world boss Nalak is also now accessible on the Isle of Thunder, and the Shado-Pan Assault vendor is selling a neckpiece for Valor Points with no additional reputation requirements. In addition, the Isle of Thunder factions sell an ilvl 476 belt for gold at Honored reputation, which makes doing their dailies pretty enticing.
What the Future Holds
In Patch 5.3: Escalation, you’ll head to the Barrens and participate in an uprising that will lead to the ultimate challenges in 5.4, and a variety of patch 5.3 content will award ilvl 476 to ilvl 489 items for participating in and completing quests. It’s important to note that the 5.3 world event will only be available for a limited time, as the story continues in 5.4. In addition, the XP required to level from 85 to 90 is being reduced by 33% in patch 5.3. If you’re looking to level and gear up alts, patch 5.3 may be a good time to do so with these additional options.
Between all of these sources, an adventurous player should be should be able to walk right into the Raid Finder Throne of Thunder within a week or two of hitting level 90, even without touching any of the mainland reputations.
Content ilvl Requirements
ilvl 440 required for Heroic dungeons
ilvl 460 required for Mogu’shan Vaults
ilvl 470 required for Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring
ilvl 480 required for Throne of Thunder
Gearing for Throne of Thunder
XP required to level from 85-90 reduced by 33% in patch 5.3
ilvl 440 required for Heroic dungeons. Quest rewards from Townlong Steppes as well as Dread Wastes will bring you up to 440. It may be worthwhile to begin these zones earlier in the leveling process
At 90 head to the Isle of Thunder and progress through the quests each day and hunt for a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen each week. The portal to the Isle can be found at the Shado-Pan Garrison in western Townlong Steppes
The Arena of Annihilation scenario has a mini-quest inside that rewards an ilvl 450 weapon
Key to the Palace of Lei Shen looted once per week from rare spawns, Trove of Thunder King chests, or by defeating common enemies on the Isle of Thunder
There’s a small chance for Throne of Thunder LFR gear to come from the chests after you’ve completed your run
Loot run provides Elder Charms of Good Fortune
Elder Charms provide bonus rolls when defeating bosses in Mogu’shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of Endless Spring, as well as the 5.0 world bosses Sha of Anger and Galleon
You can run LFR more than once per week if you have more Elder Charms. You won’t receive normal drops from the boss but your bonus rolls still do have a chance of rewarding an item
With Elder Charms of Good Fortune acquired, and an average ilvl of 460, head into Mogu’shan Vaults, you can queue using the Raid Finder (default shortcut key: i)
Crafted PvP items (ilvl 458) can help get you over the hump into Heroic dungeons
Crafted ilvl 476 items (Gloves/Chest/Weapons/etc.) can help jumpstart you into LFR
5.3 Battlefield Barrens quests will award ilvl 476 and 489 items
476 belt is purchasable from the Isle of Thunder Kirin Tor Offensive (A) or Sunreaver Onslaught (H) for gold
476 Epic boots available from a quest received by killing Sha of Anger (loot Claw of Anger)
476 PvP items purchased with Honor can help fill in any gaps and raise your average ilvl with little negative effect to your overall ability in raids
Shado-Pan Assault ilvl 522 neck available at Neutral for 1250 Valor Points
Lesser Charms of Good Fortune can be exchanged at your faction’s shrine in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms for Mogu Runes of Fate. Mogu Runes provide bonus rolls for 5.2 bosses including those in the Throne of Thunder, and world bosses Oondasta and Nalak
Battlegrounds With The Blues! 5/03/13
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Greetings Champions!
Once again the song of battle calls we Blizzard employees forth to the fields of honor! Who will accept the challenge and test their might against ours!? (/rp)
Tomorrow (5/3/13) from 4pm-6pm PST we'll be logging onto the PTR realms and queuing for 5.3's new battleground Deepwind Gorge.
We'll be identified by the guilds [Blizzard Horde] & [Blizzard Alliance]. So come on to the PTRs, queue up for Deepwind Gorge, and be hungry for a fight.
Hope to see you there!
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Scenarios and Dungeons
Why is Blizzard pushing scenarios so much? Think of the amount of dungeons they could have made in this time.
Scenarios are far quicker to create than dungeons. They don't just rely on specific class balance among other things. So, the time it would have taken to create a single new dungeon is much greater than most realize. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Death Match Battleground
Battle grounds have always been missing an important part of world pvp.... PvP. Make it like a big arena but not so big that people can't hide. 10 to 15 players forced into all out pvp. First to so many kills or 10 minutes, whichever comes first, wins the round.
No need to even create an area for it. Just make a copy of Blackrock mountain in an instance.
What you're asking for is a straight Death Match type of Battleground. I'm not sure it would be compelling as you think. I'm a big fan of DM as well, at least in FPS', but for an MMO like World of Warcraft, I question how enjoyable it would be in the long run for people. I think for players who feel very comfortable with their abilities, straight head on PvP like that would be fun for them, but for others, I'm not sure it would have the same appeal.
That said, I'm not killing the discussion. I'm just interested in how you feel this would work or appeal to a wide enough audience for it to be worth creating.
I think Southshore/Tarren Mill speak to it being desired. But that's gone now.
People forget that Southshore/Tarren Mill occurred because there were no battlegrounds at the time. It was "the place to go" if you wanted mass amounts of faction vs. faction PvP. I remember, I was there. I also remember hoping a spell would go off in time.
As much as I'd love to believe everyone loves PvP, it's not true. That said though, I think World of Warcraft has managed to introduce PvP to more people who may have never tried it before. This is a good thing. Creating interesting PvP encounters is important for continuing to keep people interested in it though. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Spectral Guise Side Effect
Coming back to this one quickly; Spectral Guise removing a player from combat is not entirely a bug, but more of an unfortunate side-effect that's caused by the way the spell functions in order to accomplish particular tasks. We are fine that this perk is available through Spectral Guise and have no plans at this time to change the way the spell works.
We're aware that the tooltip is currently incorrect in its current state and are looking to update it in an upcoming patch, however this will not be until patch 5.4 at the soonest. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)