What is Worth Upgrading?

All throughout the expansion the Pandaren have been asking us “what is worth fighting for?” Now that patch 5.1 has arrived, the more pressing question is what is worth upgrading?

In the perfect scenario one would have started patch 5.1 at the 3000 point valor cap allowing for two full upgrades. I’m not so lucky and will start with around 1,600 VP; enough for one full upgrade or two half upgrades with another 1000 VP to be earned this week.

Regardless of how optimized you were in you valor acquisition, the question still remains what to upgrade? With the ability to earn a half upgrade each week it is unlikely that one will be able to upgrade all of their gear before the next tier arrives. Even less so when you take into account that most people are still acquiring LFR and normal mode gear, nevermind heroic gear. Some valor will be used to upgrade items that may well get replaced.

Most tools like Femaledwarf aren’t fully modified to handle the new system, and there is no definitive list of upgrade this, but not this. If you happen to be loaded up with full BiS then it’s easy, just upgrade all of that starting with pieces that give you most bang for the buck. Chances are you are not part of the WoW 1%, and don’t have all the BiS gear, so you have tougher decisions to make.

Weapons and trinkets will be obvious choices followed by tier pieces to give the set bonuses some longevity. It really comes down to you where you are with your progression, how fast you are progressing and when might you get your desired upgrades. If you started out with 3000 VP, then you’ll have three full raid lockouts before you hit the cap again which is a decent amount of time get some items and plan things out.

As for myself, I’ll probably do a full upgrade on my Relic of Xuen. If I get Taoren, the Soul Burner I’ll likely upgrade that even though I probably don’t have long to wait until Fang Kung, Spark of the Titans drops. Then I’ll have to consider an upgraded Fang Kung versus an upgraded Taoren. I think Taoren comes out slightly ahead. From there I’ll just have to wait and see how the progress grows. We’ve now defeated heroic Stoneguard and are working on Garalon normal.

No matter what you choose to upgrade I think this is a great system that Blizzard introduced to the game. Sure it keeps us on the dailies treadmill, but I never felt like I was getting off of that thing anyway.

So what is worth upgrading to you?


4 Comments on “What is Worth Upgrading?”

  1. Excellent post choice!

    The “obvious” choice are our weapons. Unfortunately, there’s a big caveat; We aren’t swimming in endless valor yet, so upgrading something that we then replace that week or the next is a strong negative consideration.

    For me my top three choices were my Xuen trinket (because I think its awesome and will stay around a long time), my 497 tier pants (because it will be a LONG time before I retire them), and my i483 Flintlocke’s Blasthammer gun because it would be the single-most important upgrade to my dps.

    I ended up going conservative and upgraded my pants because of the long value of the expenditure. I fear that I’ll end up with a sha weapon and a sha gem soon.

    I also upgraded my only 463 blue with the cheap 1500 justice points.

  2. I upgraded my two blue pieces (pants and bracers) today because I haven’t won anything usable in raids for three weeks. I’ve got about 2500 VP available today, and I’m hemming and hawing on how to spend it. On one hand, the Relic seems like the no-brainer because I’m not likely to replace it for a long time. However, our guild’s raid progression is very, very slow (3/6, total!) this tier, so I’m also thinking about Fang Kung (RF). I still haven’t decided… although I may decide tonight.

    Thanks for your perspective, Dark!

  3. You’re right about the weapons. I just had the discussion w/a guild mate who recommended I upgrade my weapon first. I have the LFR Fang Kung, and told him that I wanted to hold off on upgrading that b/c of maybe getting Taoren LFR or even Fang Kung normal.

    I think I’m still a ways off from Taoren normal or Fang Kung heroic.

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