how-to-gear-a-bear-druid
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Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your guardian druid for Mists of Pandaria heroics
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This Tuesday, the four normal dungeons are a fat lot of help. The subject of today's article is, shall we say, an immediate concern. Due to the demand for tanks and healers in the new 5-mans, my main will hit 90 before she even makes it to the halfway point of questing through the Valley of Four Winds. This is good, because I get to relax and enjoy questing as an extended treat without having to worry about leveling. This is bad, because she's about 20 ilevels off from where she needs to be in order to access Mists of Pandaria heroics. This guide assumes that you will need an average ilevel of 440 to access heroics, because that was the number Blizzard was using on the beta. (Note: This is only true via the dungeon finder. Nothing prevents you from running out to the new heroics yourself with a group, but either way, 440's a decent number to aim for if you're worried about being sufficiently geared.) There are only four normal MoP dungeons, and only one of them (Mogu'shan Palace) drops gear that will help you clear this threshold. If I had to condense this guide's advice, it would be: Quest through the Townlong Steppes and the Dread Wastes. Be prepared to spend some justice points. Farm normal Mogu'shan Palace. If you have a good option available from professions (whether primary or secondary), don't ignore it.
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.
