Preparing for Patch 5.4 Guide: Gear Changes, Removed Content, and More!

Live Posted 2013/09/03 at 11:55 AM by perculia

Valor PointsExisting Gear Changes

In Patch 5.4, all reputation gear tied to MoP factions (except for Shado-Pan Assault) will cost Justice Points instead of Valor Points and the reputation requirements will be lifted--so if you hate grinding reps and are short on VP, just wait a week to buy those items.

Shado-Pan Assault gear will still cost Valor Points in 5.4, but heavily discounted, so it's probably best to wait and buy those items when the patch hits. Shoulders are unaffected, as they cost gold.

Item upgrades aren't going away in 5.4--if you're not sure what to do this week, upgrade your best pieces with Valor this week, and buy the cheaper Shado-Pan Assault upgrades next week.

Patch 5.4 also introduces ilvl 496 BoA gear on the Timeless Isle. While you can't usually control what slot and armor type you'll get a token for, this gear is of a higher item level than the epics which formerly required reputation. Unlike past random-stat items, these epics come with chest, leg, and helm sockets. So hold off on buying some BoEs this week to boost your alt's item level, and send them some Timeless tokens next week.

Once raiding Siege of Orgrimmar you will get ilvl 528 from LFR, 540 Flex, 553 Normal, 559 Warforged, 566 Heroic, and 572 Heroic Warforged. Blizzard posted a blog on 9/4 covering Siege of Orgrimmar Raid Schedules, and you need ilvl 496 to queue up for LFR Siege of Orgrimmar. Flex Wing 1 will be available on September 10th, but LFR Wing 1 will be available on September 17th.

Since this blog's focus is about what you can currently do before 5.4, we're not going to dive into new gear too much--we've got more gear blogs planned for launch week, and in the meantime you can check out our blogs on Tier 16 Itemsets, Season 14 PvP gear, Patch 5.4 Trinkets, Siege of Orgrimmar Weapons, and Siege of Orgrimmar Loot tables. We also have all loot details up on Siege of Orgrimmar boss pages, including Flexible loot.

Click the cut to read about more ways to prep for Patch 5.4!Currency Changes

Valor Points will not be converted to Justice Points in Patch 5.4. If you have all Valor Points gear already, hold onto it for future upgrades. There will be no new Valor Points gear to buy in 5.4.

will be converted to because there's a new arena season starting.

As far as Mogu Rune of Fate, the bonus rolls will now work on Throne of Thunder pets in 5.4--if you really like pets, it might be worth saving a few for Living Fluid. since old LFRs are obsoleted when people level past 90 and you can only get that pet in LFR. Mogu Rune of Fate can also be acquired for 0 Timeless Coin in 5.4.

If you're done with Throne of Thunder loot and dislike farming Lesser Charms, hold on to them this week since you'll need them in 5.4 for Siege of Orgrimmar's Warforged Seal in instead.

It won't be as easy in 5.4 to convert Justice Points into and quickly get a fresh set of epics, since the conversion has been increased from 375 > 250 to 500 > 250. However, as listed above, there are easy ways to now get PvE epics with Justice Points.

For a full list of currency changes, check out our 5.4 PTR: Currency and Reputation Gear blog.

Crafting Preparation

As far as crafted gear goes, there will be ilvl 476 PvP recipes players can learn when making Celestial Cloth, Hardened Magnificent Hide, or Balanced Trillium Ingot. These daily transmutes require about the same materials needed to learn the ilvl 458 PvP recipes, so if you're short on materials and still want to learn some new recipes, it's best to wait a week. Players really into collecting recipes should stockpile Bolt of Windwool Cloth, Magnificent Hide, Trillium Bar, and Ghost Iron Bar.

These ilvl 476 Crafted Malevolent recipes will also help with boosting item levels and perhaps bypassing some lower-tier LFRs.

If you want to be one of the first to craft and use the new ilvl 553 BoE epics (legs and belts), you'll be interested in crafting several Accelerated Balanced Trillium Ingot, Accelerated Celestial Cloth, and Accelerated Hardened Magnificent Hide a day, which take the raw mats listed above in addition to Spirit of War, found from DEing 5.4 gear.

Many new glyphs are being added in Patch 5.4. The recipes will take some farming to get (world drops or Timeless Isle drops), but they'll all require Ink of Dreams, so stock up on that.

Living Steel is also worth hanging on to, as it will be used in a variety of Engineering vanity items, like Pierre.

We'll have a full overview of profession changes up at the end of the week, so stay tuned!

Removed Content

Eternally in the Vale will be removed from Vale of Eternal Blossoms as the zone undergoes some major changes from the Patch 5.4: Siege of Orgrimmar trailer. You will still be able to hit Exalted with the Golden Lotus, complete quests that grant achievements, and farm Alani.

With the patch coming pretty soon, you're probably best off supplementing daily rep gains with Stolen Golden Lotus Insignia from Zandalari Warbringer, making sure to do Work Order: Golden Lotus II at your farm every day, and selecting Golden Lotus for bonus dungeon and scenario rep. Be sure to pick up Grand Commendation of the Golden Lotus at revered to speed your reputation gains along if you want Eternally in the Vale.

For a complete look at all the changes in the Vale and a summary of Eternally in the Vale, check out our updated 5.4 Golden Lotus Guide.

The weekly quests for Battlefield Barrens, as well as most special vanity items, are being removed in 5.4. You will not be able to get Latent Kor'kron transmog armor or any Darkspear Rebellion vanity gear after the patch, or complete Hordebreaker/Darkspear Revolutionary and get the resulting title.

You will still be able to get Raptorhide Boxing Gloves and Gahz'rooki's Summoning Stone by killing Kor'kron mobs in the Barrens. While it's too late to start collecting Radical Mojo for a full set of Latent Kor'kron Armor, you can probably farm up items like Griftah's Authentic Troll Shoes with some friends quickly before 5.4.

Griftah's Authentic Troll Shoes may be available at a later point as well, since they're so popular and occupy a unique transmog niche.

To learn more about Battlefield Barrens, check out our detailed event guide.

Season 13 Elite PvP gear and the Tyrannical Gladiator's Tabard and Tyrannical Gladiator's Greatcloak are going away. Season 13 Elite gear is particularly unique because it required players to earn a ton of but didn't have a rating requirement. Season 14 Elite gear will be handled differently--in addition to earning a ton of points, you also need a high rating.

Wowhead Tools

Our PTR database has all the new Patch 5.4 gear, and our Siege of Orgrimmar boss pages have loot broken down by LFR, Flex, Normal, Heroic difficulties as well as by Loot Specialization.

Our items pages and item comparison tool now have Challenge Mode scaling options, so you can roughly see what your gear becomes inside a Challenge Mode or 5.4 Proving Ground.

Our Profiler can now be used on our PTR site to make Equipment Sets and item lists of 5.4 gear sets.

Our Battle Pet Team Calculator lets you save your ideal pet teams for the Celestial Tournament and power leveling. When 5.4 hits, you can also compare your teams to the Celestial Tournament teams as well.

There's been many glyph and talent changes, which you can check out on our PTR talent calculator.

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Comment by NulgarShado-Pan Assault VP gear is also changed to required Friendly reputation at most, compare Roofstalker Shadowwrap live and Roofstalker Shadowwrap PTR - this does not include the Shoulders at Exalted, which cost Gold anyway.Comment by WizzardlordUKI wonder what the shado-pan assualt discount is going to be it refers to a heavily dicount so hoping its at least 50%.Comment by perculiaYep, that's covered in the linked currency preview, this was just more of a general overview. If you're debating buying the gear this week, you already have the rep--it's more of a "hold off and save VP" message I wanted to get across.

The Shado-Pan shoulders do not cost Valor Points, so they are unaffected. Added a note about that.

My earlier currency blog covers all the detailed price changes--it's linked under the Currency section here, I just wanted to keep things relatively short instead of tldr.Comment by NulgarI wonder what the shado-pan assualt discount is going to be it refers to a heavily dicount so hoping its at least 50%.Comment by CalaelenDTAny news on whether or not the Battlefield Barrens titles will become account-wide once it becomes a FoS, or if it'll stay character specific (which would be stupid seeing as how all titles save PvP ones are account bound).

What's the deal with being able to use Mogu Runes to get battle pets in ToT LFR? I thought they have always been able to be a drop through a bonus roll? Was this not the case, or are they now a guaranteed drop on a bonus roll come 5.4?Comment by NogagoI just don't understand blizzard. Why they change the whole vale? Why don't they just phase it? Future newcomers will not have a chanche to see the original vale...Comment by 122711Is there a guide to finding all the vendors for this gear, or is it consolidated someplace?Comment by AzrileI just don't understand blizzard. Why they change the whole vale? Why don't they just phase it? Future newcomers will not have a chanche to see the original vale...Comment by AzrileIs there a guide to finding all the vendors for this gear, or is it consolidated someplace?Comment by 731625Any news on Spirit of Harmony being unbound?Comment by TraynwreckYou should mention that "according to the patch notes, all item enhancements from Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and various vendors and quests will be able to be applied to any piece of gear, regardless of item level."* So if you happen to be thinking of enchanting a BoA this week with a low level Vanilla enchant, wait and drop something way fancier on there. ^_^

*Source: WoWInsider, "Patch 5.4 PTR: Item enhancement changes for low-level players"Comment by 434395Has there been any news on whether there will be any delayed release for SoO wings for LFR (and maybe Flex) like what they did with ToT?Comment by EllipseWhat about Tyrannical Primal Diamond, will that be removed in 5.4? If I purchase it now, will I be able to use it in a s14 head? Note I don't have legendary gems, so don't say what's better than it :PComment by VoltanAnyone know if Yorik Sharpeye will still be around?Comment by 203799What's the deal with being able to use Mogu Runes to get battle pets in ToT LFR? I thought they have always been able to be a drop through a bonus roll? Was this not the case, or are they now a guaranteed drop on a bonus roll come 5.4?Any news on Spirit of Harmony being unbound?Comment by AzrileHas there been any news on whether there will be any delayed release for SoO wings for LFR (and maybe Flex) like what they did with ToT?Comment by Azrile
What's the deal with being able to use Mogu Runes to get battle pets in ToT LFR? I thought they have always been able to be a drop through a bonus roll? Was this not the case, or are they now a guaranteed drop on a bonus roll come 5.4?Comment by perculiaNethaera is planning on releasing a blog post tomorrow with the 5.4 raid scheduling details. I'll have a link to it when it's up.

Also yes, currently on live bonus rolls don't go towards ToT pets. In 5.4, bonus rolls can go towards pets in both ToT and SoO.

This is just one of many guides, we have more guides coming about the Timeless Isle gear, the Siege of Orgrimmar gear, etc. If you're curious where you can buy the new JP gear, you should still be able to get them from the currency vendors by the Siege of Niuzao.Comment by 611345Things I have not seen covered anywhere:
1. What is the iLevel requirement for SoO LFR?
2. How does the Cho questline that started in 5.3 change? (will it skip Battlefield Barrens and go straight to climbing the mountain?)
3. Are there new crafted PvP Blues, or will the old patterns grow up?Comment by kalgromashReally lame change to justive > honor. It's annoying enough to change em all sudden 500...

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