Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Cat Druid at 80, part 2
(Almost) every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, the second half of the Cat Druids gear guide to get you closer to Wrath raiding.
Sorry for the wait on the second half. Better late than never, eh?
/crickets
Ahem, moving on.
In part one, I covered Head, Neck, Shoulder, Back, Chest, Wrists and Weapon slots choices for gear available to pre-Wrath raiding level 80 Cat Druids. I also explained my methods, listed a recommended build and went over gems. Go read it on the initial post if you're interested. Otherwise, let's get this show on the road.
LEGS
Best Overall: Mind-Expanding Leggings. This is only available at Revered faction with the Kirin Tor. Of the major factions in Wrath, Kirin Tor is a bit harder to work with as they don't have many repeatable quests to do, just a Cooking Daily (A/H) and Jewelrycrafting Daily. Your best bet is to wear their tabard in Heroics for faction gain as well as the Daily Heroic.
Best Drop: Ravenous Leggings of the Furbolg drop from Gortok Palehoof in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. This is not a place I would recommend a fresh 80 to venture into without more seasoned friends along, but Gortok isn't one of the harder battles.
Best Faction Reward: See Mind-Expanding Leggings above.
Runner Up: Gored Hide Leggaurds drop from Gal'darah in Heroic Gundrak. This is the last boss you see in the non-Heroic version of the dungeon. In the Heroic instance, there is a bonus boss you may have met when looking for that pesky Elder from the Lunar Festival. Also, you can hit the Auction House for Eviscerator's Legguards or Leggings of Visceral Strikes for a quick upgrade.
Enchanting: Icescale Leg Armor off the AH or from a Leatherworking friend is just what the doctor ordered.
GLOVES
Best Overall: Heroes' Dreamwalker Handgrips. No, your eyes do not deceive you. Those are the T7 Druid gloves and you can get them without ever stepping foot in the Wintergrasp raid zone to face down Archavon. or the Obsidian Sanctum to wrest them from Sartharion. It will cost you 60 Emblems of Heroism to do it, but you can wrack up 5-8 Emblems a day doing the Heroic Daily.
Best Drop: Gilt-edged Leather Gauntlets. Drops from King Ymiron in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle (who also drops the Meteorite Whetstone trinket.) Also, Charged-Bolt Grips from Ionar in Heroic Halls of Lightning. This instance eats some groups alive while others breeze through it. Your mileage may vary.
Best Quest Reward: Handwraps of Preserved History. Easy quest that is done with CoT: Stratholme. Gloves should hold you over until you save up enough Emblems for the T7 ones.
Runner Up: Rough Climber's Gloves. This is at the end of a very, very long Sons of Hodir quest chain (plus these two quests that finally lead to this one with the reward.) But don't dismiss these gloves due to the time invested to get them. You'll be doing this quest chain anyways for Sons of Hodir faction to get the best Shoulder enchants in the game.
Alternately, you can always pick up Eviscerator's Gauntlets from the AH until you can replace them with one of the beauties above.
Enchanting: Major Agility should be easy to find on the AH.
WAIST
Best Overall: Jorach's Crocolisk Skin Belt. Though this is the best you can get pre-Raiding, you may want to save your Emblems of Heroism (this costs 40) for the T7 Gloves or Chest piece. On the other hand, you can rack up the Emblems necessary for this in a little over a week if you did the Heroic Daily every night.
Best Drop: Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt. Drops from Ingvar the Plunderer in Heroic Utgarde Keep. It's a solid alternative to the Crocolisk Belt and in one of the easier Heroic instances. There's also the Batrider's Cord that dropds from the first boss in Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep, Trollgore, if you happen to be in there Badge farming.
Runner Up: Trollwoven Girdle. It's strange to list this leatherworking item as "Runner up" as it's just barely behind the Crocolisk Belt in terms of boosting your DPS. And these days it will only run you about 500-600g to pick up off the AH (at least on my server.) Pick up this and save your Emblems. If you don't have that kind of cash, consider the Ley-Whelphide Belt or, for 25g, the Eviscerator's Waistguard to get you started.
Enchanting: Buy an Eternal Belt Buckle off the AH to add an extra gem slot to your waist band. Recommended gems are in Part 1 of this guide.
