gearing-up
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Patch 5.4.7 roundup
Patch 5.4.7 is upon us, barring catastrophe we are expecting its arrival tomorrow, February 18. But what's actually coming with the patch? Is it really just a PvP season? Well, not quite. The key changes in patch 5.4.7 are as follows: PvP season 14 ends, PvP season 15 begins Honor gear item level is increased to 522, Conquest gear item level is increased to 550. The new gear drops from the Celestials, too. The Krasarang rares now only drop honor once per day. Timeless Isle weapons are all automatically upgraded to ilvl 489 including ones you already own There are terrain changes and NPC changes in Alterac Valley Dampening will start at 5 minutes in 2v2 arenas only There are a few class changes, notably to warrior interrupts and druids' Heart of the Wild. We're also tentatively expecting to see the pre-orders for Warlords of Draenor sometime after the patch's release, and the much-discussed buy-a-90 feature, although this has not been officially confirmed by Blizzard. Boosted level 90s will get 483 gear, and if you're boosting a level 60+ character they'll also get maxed professions. What does this all mean if you're not really into your PvP? Why should you care about the patch? Well, if you're a PvE-er leveling a brand new level 90 character, or maybe boosting one, the best way to gear it straight to 522 is now to grind out honor gear. But don't worry, the best way to do that is still via PvE. Same applies if you've still got slots below that ilvl.
Blizzard's guide to gearing up for patch 5.4
With an exciting new raid on the way, one question sure to be on many people's minds is that of gearing. How to make sure that you're ready to step into the Siege of Orgrimmar the moment it drops? Our own Olivia Grace covered that very topic earlier this week with this comprehensive guide, but today Blizzard released their own, as well. If you want the truncated version, it looks as though the Timeless Isle will offer the most diverse and quickest potential ways to upgrade your gear, however, it could be difficult for fresh level 90s or certain classes to solo there, so keep in mind other options--like intro ilevel 476 PvP gear, reputation gear, Valor gear, and Battlefield Barrens gear (while it still lasts!). The full Blizzard post is available behind the cut, and good luck gearing up for the Siege of Orgrimmar!
Six ways to gear up right now
So you know the score. You've taken advantage of the reduced leveling XP required, you've made the best use of your rested XP, and here you are at level 90 in record time. But now what? There's such a lot of gear available to you that actually getting yourself ready to raid is a bit of a daunting prospect. But fear not, friends, we're here with a list of top tips to get yourself up over 500, and into Siege of Orgrimmar LFR in no time at all. OK, a bit of time. We're writers, not wizards. And, as ever, we'll be scouring the comments for top reader tips to supplement our list. And with patch 5.4 on the way, you'll want to know how to get the best out of the new content, right? 1. Honor Point Gear We spoke about this in an earlier gearing tips article, and the information hasn't changed. Honor point gear, at item level 476, is still vastly superior to its justice point equivalent. However, with the point conversion coming in just a couple of weeks, you'd be very wise indeed to save up your honor and your justice for patch 5.4. When the patch drops, the current conquest point gear will be bought with honor points, and that's ilvl 496, so a huge boost to a flagging character. However, honor point gear should be used wisely, to fill gaps. Particularly in 5.4, when the JP-HP conversion is being nerfed from 375JP:250HP to 500JP:250HP, meaning the most reliable way to get HP gets slower. So what should you look at doing first?
Blizzard's official look at patch 5.3
Blizzard has been blogging up a storm about patch 5.3, and there have recently been 2 more articles added to their arsenal. The first is a run-down of the new scenarios available, posted by Community Manager Nethaera, which runs players down the four new three-player scenarios coming in patch 5.3. Neth gives us a quick summary of the stories behind the scenarios, while doing a great job of not being too spoiler-heavy. She runs down the background of Blood in the Snow, Dark Heart of Pandaria, Secrets of Ragefire and Battle on the High Seas. You can also check out WoW Insider's own articles on Blood in the Snow and Dark Heart of Pandaria, but beware the light spoilers that lurk within! Nethaera also briefly discusses the new difficulty level that will be added with patch 5.3, heroic scenarios. She clarifies that they are intended for pre-made groups of three players, and will award a hefty 120 valor, as well as bonus valor for completing the objectives. What's more, Blizzard has recently published a guide to getting geared for 5.3, aimed at players with alts, and players who are returning to the game. They've got some great tips in there, even going so far as to acknowledge some neat tricks that'll have you running the Raid Finder in no time.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Finally 50
As an MMO player, I'm generally behind the curve when it comes to leveling and cutting-edge content exploration. Pushing myself to level quickly is far less fun to me than taking my time and exploring all the nooks and crannies, and my available playtime is far less than it used to be. Ergo, while many of have been at the level cap for months and are either elite PvPers or Raiders of the Lost Hammerknell, I've just hit 50 this past week for the first time in RIFT. In a way, being behind the curve is a blessing because others have gone before you and forged a path so that coming from behind is much easier. That said, I still felt overwhelmed when the final ding happened because my previously clear goals evaporated in a second. What do I do now? How do I gear up? What does one do at level 50, anyway? Fortunately, I'm part of a guild that's full of seasoned 50s, not to mention that I'm friends with plenty of bloggers who were 50 when I was still in diapers. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Ahem. So for this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I posited them this question: What do you and should you do when you hit 50 in the game? They came back to me with excellent responses that I'm now going to share with you. PREPARE YOURSELF FOR IMMINENT KNOWLEDGE!
Arcane Brilliance: Upgrading your mage's gear in patch 4.2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. Other things, too, but none of those things are nearly as important. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that Arcane Brilliance is, without a doubt, the single greatest weekly mage column on this website. Period. New patch day has come and gone, and we're all now furiously blasting through the new content, hoping to upgrade our old uber gear for new uber gear. I love the weeks following patch days. It's like the twelve days of Christmas, only instead of turtle doves and french hens we get magical flaming staves and giant angry lava spiders. Sadly, all that new gear doesn't simply come down the chimney and appear below our flaming Christmas trees. We have to earn it, farm for it, slay bosses for it, and quest for it. All of those things take time, a thing I find I have precious little of these days. So where best to allocate our time in order to get the gear we want in the most efficient ways possible?
Arcane Brilliance: Mage pre-raid trinket compendium
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're talking trinketry. I have a rubber pig keychain that has an on-use proc: When you squeeze him, poop comes out of his butt. It's difficult to measure the value of that, but I'm pretty sure it's worth a billion DPS. Quickly: Close your eyes, forget that you have already seen the title and intro to this week's column, and tell me the first thing that comes into your head when I say, "hardest pre-raid gear slot to fill." No, not bracers. What ... dang it. I mean ... come on, guys! It's trinkets! Trinkets. Didn't you read the title? It's right there. Though you have two slots free for trinkets, they have always been one of the most notoriously difficult to fill gear slots in the game. And no single gear choice is more subjective than choosing one trinket over another. Instead of choosing between 225 intellect and 255 intellect, you're often picking between a Vengeful Wisp and a Fallen Footman. That's a bit like asking which is better, shrimp tacos or integrity? I don't ... I don't know. Sometimes the only indication that one given trinket is better than another is the item level, and let's be honest, even that isn't often a very reliable indicator. The math can be obtuse and often a bit fuzzy, and even plugging trinkets into a damage-simulating program like Rawr can prove problematic. And then there's the matter of finding said trinkets. Through each of WoW's three expansions, the relative difficulty of finding two good trinkets has been a frustrating constant. In many cases, you'll find solid endgame-level upgrades for every other slot while still waiting, an increasingly hard-to-ignore urge to kill swelling steadily behind your brow, for Paletress to finally drop the stupid Abyssal Rune, even though this is your 75th consecutive run and you've seen her drop the stupid hunter trinket the last 16 times ... To compound the issue, there's the undeniable fact that no other single gear upgrade can improve your DPS as dramatically as switching from a crappy trinket to an awesome one. Those two slots are arguably the most important in the game.
Blood Sport: Gearing up for arena, Cataclysm edition
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. It's the beginning of a new arena season. Recently hitting 85 myself, I noticed a lack of information about the best ways to acquire PvP gear for my upcoming adventures in Azeroth. Well, I've put together a little guide for you that I hope will aid you in whatever your PvP goals are this season. Conquest points are the most important type of PvP currency in Cataclysm -- and they're awesome. They're incredibly easy to get, as you only have to win four or five arena games a week to get to the starting cap of 1,343. The average piece of conquest gear is bought for 1,579.4 conquest points, so even if you never break 1,500 rating, you'll be getting a new piece of epic PvP gear almost every week. Try to save up early for your weapon, offhand, and relic/wand. These three slots are the only pieces of gear that can only be bought with conquest points -- don't make the mistake of buying other stuff with conquest points! You can just get a slightly inferior version of the other pieces via honor, but you might have to wave around that green or blue weapon for a while if you aren't wise about what you buy!
Spiritual Guidance: Gearing a shadow priest for Cataclysm heroics
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Your host for the Wednesday edition, Fox Van Allen, always brings you the latest in shadow priest news, the latest in shadow priest controversy, and the latest shadow priest tactics -- all with the level of maturity of an episode of Maury. After the break: a paternity test, a lie detector test, and you won't believe who we're sending to boot camp! Eight months ago, I wrote one of my most viewed and read articles here at WoW Insider. It was about GearScore and item levels. Most of us know, of course, that each weapon or piece of armor we equip has a numerical value behind it that approximates how powerful it is. Back then, far too many people were using item levels and GearScore as the sole arbiter of who could and couldn't team up with them in pickup raid groups. Sorry, you seem like a lovely person and all, but I've determined your entire worth as a raider boils down to a four-digit number. Unfortunately, the four-digit number assigned to your worth is slightly lower than the four-digit number I arbitrarily came up with as the requirement to participate in the outdated raid content I wish to be carried through. In the piece, I explained that item levels and GearScore provide you with a general idea about whether or not a piece of gear is good, but in the end, having the right stats matters more than item levels. That still holds true in Cataclysm -- stats matter. An item level 333 blue can be better than an item level 346 blue. Despite that, though, measures of your "gear score" matter more than they ever have before. Cataclysm instances and heroics are gated behind strict minimum average item level requirements. Blizzard has become that guy. We won't spend our time today discussing whether that's right or wrong; instead, we'll be productive gamers and figure out how and where to get gear to clear that item level requirement, get yourself into heroics, and eventually, get yourself ready to raid.
Totem Talk: Enhancing your gear in only four dungeons
Axes, maces, lightning, Windfury and wolves. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy lives it and loves it. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance, and leads the guild Big Crits (Week 12 now out!)as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby. Holy Stormstrikes! I'm going to refrain from using the term casual in a post ever again. Wait, I just used it there. Ah well, rack that promise up with "I'll never drink again" and "I'll never die to cutters again." Lies, all of them, lies. We all have different definitions of the term and judging by the comments in the last post, others' definition of casual is more severe than mine. I'll get into casual vs. hardcore and the ridiculousness of those classifications in another post. For now, I hear you loud and clear, so let's refrain from diving into that now. I digress. As I was writing last week's article I had this sneaking suspicion that I already wrote several articles on gearing your non-end game enhancement shaman. In fact I had written articles many moons ago, and they are all on my neglected blog, Big Hit Box. Time for a revisit.
Blood Sport: Gearing up for PvP
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column. Listening Music: One of Sinatra's best, My Way. I was going to choose a lesser-known Sinatra piece, but figured this one would be best for people who aren't huge fans. Last Week: We talked about why arenas might be awesome in Cataclysm. I'm stoked to see what Blizzard has for us -- and that was before the talent change got my whistle wet. This Week: I get a lot of common questions -- one of them concerns how to gear up for arena (or gladiator, etc). Cataclysm is still a while off, and now is as good a time as any to start PvPing. If nothing else, PvP gear is some of the best leveling gear around. The mix of offensive stats plus massive resilience gives you little downtime.
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing a new restoration druid at 80
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we are proud to welcome a new generation of trees whatever we're going to be in Cataclysm. Before I do anything else, I want to draw some attention to a guide on restoration healing recently published by Tree Bark Jacket that is an incredibly impressive work. It's comprehensive and fun to read, and for anyone who's getting started with the spec, I highly recommend heading both there and to Lissanna's guide to restoration healing in patch 3.3. We're continuing our updated and expanded series on how to gear a new druid at 80, and this week we're going to tackle restoration druids. Frankly, a lot of the desirability for the listed pieces depends on your spec and current level of +haste (if you're wondering why that is, you'll find an explanation in our Restoration 101 post). If you are planning to raid on your resto druid, this is a bare-bones guide to what you need to look for: If you have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are below 735 haste, prioritize haste. Look for +haste pieces and gem Reckless Ametrines. If you have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are at or above 735 haste, you can either prioritize/gem spellpower or (much better) move points into more throughput talents in the restoration tree. If you don't have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are below 856 haste, prioritize haste. If you don't have 3/3 Celestial Focus and are at or above 856 haste, prioritize/gem spellpower. As you get new pieces, it may be necessary to gem or regem to stay around the haste cap.
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing a new bear at 80
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we are proud to welcome a new generation of bears. I've been getting an extraordinary number of requests to update our older posts on how to spec and gear a fresh bear, cat and tree at 80. At this point in Wrath, the information should stay fairly accurate through the end of the expansion, and I agree that this would be a great time to do it. For the next few weeks, we'll examine how to get a new feral or restoration druid into fighting shape. When we first started out, I split gear into categories like best drop, best reputation piece, best quest piece, etc., and I don't think it's necessary to do that anymore. It's so much easier to get high-quality gear by running dungeons or hunting around for some crafted drops or PvP pieces. In particular, it needs to be said that a lot of really good bear pieces can be had from PvP. If you've got a pile of Stone Keeper's Shards lying around (and many players do at this point), buy Wintergrasp Commendations with them when your faction has Wintergrasp, convert them to honor on your druid, and voila -- you've got currency for some ridiculously good pieces.
Arcane Brilliance: Gearing up after the glorious patch 3.3
It's time again for Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that loves nothing more than to gaze down upon the whole of Northrend from one of the floating chunks of stone around Dalaran and realize that at some point, a mage has probably killed every living thing down there. At least the targetable ones, anyway. And the ones you can't target? I'm sure more than one mage has certainly tried. So I'm officially nominating patch 3.3 for "best patch ever" status. Here's a short list of the highlights of this patch: Three highly challenging, fun, lore-filled 5-man instances, full of sweet loot A massive new raid, with four gated sections, 12 bosses, and the promise of eventually being able to shove a Fireball up the Lich King's tailpipe The incredible, game-changing Dungeon Finder Tool, which is responsible for peace in the Middle East, has brought an end to the recession, and has cured cancer A few choice mage buffs, including a PvE viable Frost spec Quest Tracking without the need for an addon Quel'delar and Shadowmourne A swiftly approaching new Arena Season Weekly raid quests The Kalu'ak Fishing Derby Perky the Pug A host of little changes for low level characters Rocket bare Not shabby, right? And best of all, Blizzard has managed to deploy the majority of this new content without also deploying a host of bugs, glitches, and instability, or otherwise making the game unplayable for awhile as we've come to expect from patches this large. There were some log-in issues and bugginess on day one, but by day two, everything was running relatively smoothly by day two. I'm being relatively conservative when I say that Blizzard, in my personal opinion, has hit this one out of the park.
Arcane Brilliance: Making your Mage raid-worthy, part 2
Welcome to the latest Arcane Brilliance, the weekly Mage column that believes there's no such thing as a wrong time to turn something into a sheep. Unless it was already a sheep to begin with. Then it would probably have been better to turn it into a pig or a rabbit or something. Or maybe just hit it with a Pyroblast. Mmmm. Lamb chops. What were we talking about again? If you missed last week, here's a link to click on so you can catch up. If you can't be bothered to read the first part of this column, let me summarize the idea here: we're discussing ways to get your Mage all decked out in epic, raid-worthy gear without ever actually entering a raid instance. Now, more than ever before, we have so many options for obtaining raid-quality gear that actually raiding for it seems almost...old-fashioned. Last week we talked about 5-mans in both their normal and heroic varieties, focusing on Trial of the Champion, because duh. But maybe you don't want to do 5-mans. Maybe your guildies aren't on, and maybe you hate pugs. Maybe you are a Mage, and because there are eighty-four DPSers looking for group for every one tank or healer, you threw your hands up after an hour of trying to get a group and went off to do dailies. Well good news, everyone! Doing those dailies can get you epics too! Yes, it is entirely possible--even if you happen to be the guy on your server who ninjas gear in pugs and sucks at everything to the point that nobody invites you to groups anymore--to fill just every slot of your gear with sparkly purples without doing any instances of any kind. Isn't that wonderful? It tends to take a bit longer, overall, but these alternative methods for obtaining gear can be perfect for those of us who simply don't have a lot of time to commit to a group. Simply log in, craft an epic cloak, do a daily quest or two, blast out a couple Arena matches, and then repeat for a few weeks, and eventually you'll have epics too. Anyway, nice talking to you, see you next week! Wait...what's that? You want details? Oh fine. Clicky clicky.
Arcane Brilliance: Making your Mage raid-worthy, part 1
Welcome to another Arcane Brilliance, the weekly Mage column that asks all the tough questions, and then Ice Blocks before the tough answers one-shot it. A little while after Wrath hit, Arcane Brilliance posted a column on how to gear your Mage up for Naxx. Several things have changed since then: Pretty much everything I wrote then is now wrong. You don't really gear for Naxx anymore. Naxx is now a place you go in order to gear up for other places. Trial of the Champion. Knowing these things, I thought an updated gearing column might be in order. So if you're raising a fledgling Mage, and level 80 is about to hit you like a truckload of Death Knights, and you're looking for the quickest way to turn green and blue into purple, look no farther. Well maybe a little farther. The column's not over yet.
Drama Mamas: It's not you - it's them
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com.You can't fix other people. "Good Intentions" discovered that hard truth last week, after writing in for help coping with the fallout of a BoP misloot that rendered him a social pariah. When it's other people's issues, attitudes and behavior that are causing the problem, sometimes the only alternatives are to grit your teeth and endure or to cut the line and move to another fishing hole.This week, we hear from a newly 80 player who can't seem to gear up fast enough for everyone around him. We also revisit the unfortunate scarcity of a particular WoW netiquette basic that continues to set one incensed player's teeth on edge. On to the drama!
Blood Pact: Warlock's guide to gearing for Naxx
It's time again for a healthy dose of dots and demons, with Blood Pact! Now sporting a new host: Nicholas Whelan! Having at last removed the stench of brimstone from my robes, I'd like to start things off right with a post about gearing up for 10-man Naxxramas.Wrath of the Lich King has created a new standard for sheer volume of content available to players as soon as they hit max level. And with content, comes gear! Reputation grinds such as the Argent Crusade and the Kirin Tor can be completed in only a few days, even if you schedule time to deal with things like 'real life'. Crafted gear is mostly bind on equip now, making it much more accessible. Several heroics, such as Utgarde Keep, Violet Hold, and Nexus, are easy enough that a DPS can usually slip into them shortly after hitting 80 without slowing their group down. Even the 10- and 25-man versions of Obsidian Sanctum and Vault of Archavon, are frequently cleared by pick-up-groups.Head slot items for warlocks are pretty much limited to three right now. My current favorite is The Argent Skullcap, attained through a rather simple quest-chain in Icecrown. The high amount of hit rating makes getting that all-important 446 much simpler, and it's far easier and cheaper to get than either of the other two pre-Naxx headpieces. Though if you're a tailor The Hat of Wintry Doom may serve as a skill-up for you. And if the Forgotten Shadow Hood happens to drop in Heroic Culling of Stratholme, it's also a good choice. However, that 446 hit rating has to come from somewhere, and I've rarely seen any piece of gear with as much as The Argent Skullcap has.
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Feral (bear) Druid at 80
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, we take a look at gearing your lolbaretank for the rigors of standing in front of raid bosses and screaming, "Is that the best you've got?" EDIT: This article has been updated for patch 3.3 and Icecrown content. Please click here to see a guide to gearing a bear druid as of May 2010. My main spends most of her time tanking, so I have a little more experience with the gear on this list as opposed to others. Dan O'Halloran will be writing a guide to gearing a Cat Druid next week, and with that we'll be rounding up pre-raid gear for all 4 specs. As with our entry on pre-raid Restoration gear at 80 and our entry on pre-raid Balance gear at 80, this guide assumes that you do not presently have access to either 10-man or 25-man raids, and if I miss any piece that you've found helpful, please drop a comment and I'll make sure it gets added. I should also add that this gear set presumes you are gearing your bear tank with an eye toward main-tanking in raids and/or tanking the more difficult heroics. If you're mostly DPSing or off-tanking, please feel free to swap in more DPS-oriented pieces prioritizing +hit and +crit over +expertise, +dodge, and stamina. Before we get any further, some helpful links: Toskk's Bear Tank Time-To-Live Method, allowing you to look at upgrades from the context of your present set of gear and calculate how long you can go without healing assuming different talents and items. ThinkTank on pre-raid gear: While I don't think that Kalon's been able to update this for patch 3.0.8 yet and he weights items a little differently than I do, this is a terrific list. He'll also give you a much better sense of just how good PvP gear is right now (much to my everlasting annoyance concerning arena). Rawr: Use it. Know it. Love it. Big Bear Butt on +hit, +expertise, and +dodge conversion and numbers that you will need at 80.
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Balance Druid at 80
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we start to wonder where the hell all the +hit from "Burning Crusade" went.Greetings, fellow Druids, and welcome to another installment on Wrath gear at 80, and this week it's the boomkins' turn. Next week I'm going to tackle Bear gear at 80; Dan O'Halloran will take care of our Cat colleagues. As a number of people have observed, it's tougher to get +hit-capped pre-raid in leather as opposed to cloth, so you're going to find an awful lot of cloth on the list. I realize this represents a new and exciting development in the history of moonkin itemization. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. That's French for "We're screwed."Supplementary reading: Elitist Jerks' threads on Balance trinkets, Moonkin DPS spreadsheet, general issues, and Balance talents and specs. Gray Matter on necessary stats at 80 and raiding moonkin gear. As a note here concerning the recent news on Improved Faerie Fire (in a nutshell, you'll get the 3% crit no matter whose FF is up on a target, even a feral's), Gray Matter on why the talent's worth taking, and Macbook on the raid circumstances in which it might not be. As with our previous entry on pre-raid Restoration gear at 80, these guides assume that you do not presently have access to either 10-man or 25-man raids.
