Blood Pact: Reputable gear and more for raiding
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill opens up Shado-Pan dailies and then promptly decides that things like having 4-slot farms for all her alts and leveling her shockadin are more important. What a slacker.
Three weeks ago, I wrote briefly about the rewards from having reputation with Pandaria's factions. Three weeks ago, all I had was beta to go on, and on beta all the factions had dailies open to me independently of each other.
When Mists of Pandaria went live, we found out that it really should have been named the Golden Gate Lotus faction, complete with "You Shall Not Pass into August Celestial reputation" signs. Then we had a hotfix of the Justice Points and Honor Points gear to bring them in line with each other ilvl-wise, a hotfix that removed reputation requirements for justice point gear, and some more hotfixes opened up some of the valor gear behind faction reputation lines.
While your heading was spinning with all the faction-made gear changes going on, I was writing it all down to figure out which pieces I should be questing for.
Here's the low-down on ilvls in tier 14:
450: Crafted PvP gear like the Contender's Silk set.
458: Justice points and honor points (Dreadful Gladiator's) gear.
463: Heroic 5-man dungeons.
476: LFR loot and crafted PvE epic gear
483: Conquest points gear (Malevolent Gladiator's).
489: Mogu'shan Vaults normal modes.
496: Galleon's loot table, Heart of Fear normal modes, and Terrace of Endless Springs normal modes.
502: Mogu'shan Vaults heroic modes.
509: Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring heroic modes.
Instead of listing by faction, I will list this by slot, then by ilvl, then alphabetically. Some people are luckier than others in drops, so different people may very well have different slot priorities. I also don't wish to waste time reordering things to meet each reader's personal stat weights.
I've also included a few crafted pieces that are reputation-free, but due to materials may be considered grinds or "dailies" themselves. There are some 496-ilvl crafted items whose patterns have shown up on the Black Market Auction House, but they require materials you get from disenchanting raid epics, so I'm going to skip those for now.
Remember, if you lose your way about which faction where, lore and warrior columnist Matthew Rossi wrote a quick guide to the Pandarian quartermasters.
Head
Firecracker Corona -- 2250 VP, Revered with Shado-Pan
Lightweight Retinal Armor -- requires Engineering (600)
Neck
Wire of the Wakener -- 1250 VP, Honored with the Klaxxi
Necklace of Jade Pearls -- 1250 JP, Golden Lotus
Shoulders
Mantle of the Golden Sun -- 1750 VP, Revered with Golden Lotus
Back
Cloak of Snow Blossoms -- 1250 VP, Honored with Shado-Pan
Cloak of Ancient Curses -- 1250 JP, the August Celestials
Chest
Vestments of Thundering Skies -- 2250 VP, Revered with Golden Lotus
Spelltwister's Grand Robe -- Tailoring (600), pattern requires Honored with Golden Lotus
Robe of Eternal Dynasty -- 2250 JP, Shado-Pan
Robe of Quiet Meditation -- 2250 JP, Shado-Pan
Wrists
Minh's Beaten Bracers -- 1250 VP, Honored with the August Celestials
Tranquility Bindings -- 1250 JP, Golden Lotus
Hands
Sunspeaker's Flared Gloves -- 1750 VP, Revered with the August Celestials
Spelltwister's Gloves -- Tailoring (600), pattern requires Honored with Golden Lotus
Krompf's Fine-Tuning Gloves -- 1750 JP, the Klaxxi
Waist
Klaxxi Lash of the Orator -- 1750 VP, Revered with the Klaxxi
Legs
Leggings of the Poisoned Soul -- 2250 VP, Revered with the Klaxxi
Leggings of Unfinished Conquest -- 2250 JP, the August Celestials
Feet
Void Flame Slippers -- 1750 VP, Revered with the August Celestials
Fingers
Simple Harmonius Ring -- 1250 VP, Honored with Golden Lotus
Etched Golden Loop -- 1250 JP, Shado-Pan
Trinkets
Blossom of Pure Snow -- 1750 VP, Revered with Shado-Pan
Quilen Statuette -- BoA, Mogu rare from archaeology.
Mogu Rune of Paralysis -- 1750 JP, Golden Lotus
Shado-Pan Dragon Gun -- 1750 JP, Shado-Pan
Daggers, Wands, or 1H Swords
Amber Spine of Klaxxi'vess -- gold, Exalted with the Klaxxi
Amber Saber of Klaxxi'vess -- gold, Exalted with the Klaxxi
Off-hands
Inscribed Jade Fan -- BoE, made by a scribe of 560 skill. Requires Inscribed Fan (Inscription 560) as a material.
Umbrella of Chi-Ji -- BoA, Pandaren rare from archaeology.
Staves
Inscribed Serpent Staff -- BoA, made by a scribe of 560 skill. Requires Rain Poppy Staff (Inscription 560) as a material.
Amber Scythe of Klaxxi'vess -- gold, Exalted with the Klaxxi
World bosses
I know this isn't a faction, but the world bosses have some great loot should you score a spot with 39 other people to kill one. You don't even have to be level 90 to kill a world boss. My first Sha of Anger kill had half 90s and half 88-89s. Sure, it took over 10 minutes, but we got it done.
If you're in a raiding guild like me, chances are you can even start your weekly raids off with a Sha of Anger kill, since Mogu'shan Vaults is in northern Kun-Lai Summit. If you're not in a raiding guild, your chances are still good to ride along with a raid that's forming up for Sha. Even my 25man raid has 15 spots for people around us to get ninja-invited.
There's three things to remember about loot from world bosses:
It's LFR-style loot. You get one chance at loot per week, though you can kill him several times if you wish. Loot is not divvied out by the raid leader, but you automatically loot a cool item or a bunch of gold. You also get a toast telling you what you won.
Bonus rolls can happen, so turn in your Lesser Charms every week!
Cross-realm raids for Galleon/Salyis's Warband will not award you loot unless you are from the host realm (that is, the raid leader is from your realm).
I'm not sure if Galleon's CRZ hotfix also applies to Sha of Anger. Perhaps commenters can help me out?
Sha of Anger: When you kill the Sha for the first time, remember to personally loot his corpse for the quest item Claw of Anger. You'll have to fly to the Shado-Pan Garrison in Townlong Steppes to receive ilvl 476 hit/haste boots. The chance of gear you'll loot automatically includes:
Malevolent (S12) PvP gear, specifically the off-pieces (rings, belts, bracers, boots, cloaks, and necklaces) and the S12 tier gloves. These are ilvl 483.
Reins of Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent is the rare mount.
Galleon, aka Salyis's Warband: Galleon rewards 496-ilvl non-tier loot. That's equivalent with loot that drops in raids that aren't open until the eve of Halloween, by the way.
Sky-Sear Cowl, a lookalike to the warlock T14 hood.
Robes of the Lightning Rider, a lookalike to the mage T14 robe.
Belt of Detonation, matches warlock T14.
Son of Galleon's Saddle is the rare mount.
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DOTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through tier 13 set bonuses.