Gearing Up for Raiding... Again
Posted December 31, 2008 at 05:27 PM by Warpy
Updated March 01, 2009 at 02:13 PM by Warpy (Font issues)
Updated March 01, 2009 at 02:13 PM by Warpy (Font issues)
Naxxramas and the Vault of Archavon are so easy compared to what Karazhan was like in the first few patch of the Burning Crusade (when the 25-man instances were just plain out-of-the-question for most of us), and they have no attunements! By the way, the comments below are mostly by, for, and about warlocks.
But even when you reach level 80, you still don’t want to be carried by your guild. Many of us had pretty good gear by the end of the Burning Crusade, but as you level, your gear gets worse, because every point of crit, hit, and haste rating on your gear does less for your actual performance in a raid. Your chance to hit and crit and the reduction in cast time from haste will go down with every level unless you improve your gear.
At level 70,
Choosing Gear
You’ll probably be using the same tools both to find gear to raid in and to decide what to roll/bid DKP on in Naxx.
Much of the best crafted gear out there is now exchangeable (bind-on-equip), so if you’ve got buckets of gold, or gold and skilled guildies, you can make a decent start on your gear without having to farm heroics. Tailors can make (and sell!) some raidworthy armor much, with +hit:
I actually saved up and bought the Signet of the Kirin Tor as soon as I hit level 80. It’s not just a nice ring; I use the extra-hearthstone feature a lot. can be obtained from scribes (EDIT: but you can only use if if you are a scribe! Thanks, Darinar).
Making the Right Friends
Many factions have very nice epic caster items available at exalted status, but I assume that most people want to start raiding within at least a few weeks of hitting level 80.
Exotic pets are all good and well, but I'd recommend that prospective raiders start on the Kirin Tor and get that relationship to revered as soon as possible. At revered, you can buy the Flameheart Spell Scalpel and the DPS-caster helm enchant (Arcanum of Burning Mysteries). Crystalsong Forest looks like it should have been full of Kirin Tor and Silver Covenant/Sunreaver quests, but Blizzard did have to release Wrath of the Lich King quickly, so we may see those in a later content patch. In the meantime, you can buy their tabard as soon as you hit level 80 and run heroics in it for rep (championing). I also recommend doing the daily cooking quest as you level as you need the recipes and reagents for buff foods.
The Sons of Hodir provide shoulder enchants for everyone except scribes, so you want to work on the quest chain that gets you to honored with them to buy the basic ones (Lesser Inscription of the Storm). It starts with "They Took our Men!" at K3 in the Storm Peaks. At least one of these quests involves your poor warlock getting carried around by the scruff of the neck by an exceptionally n00bish giant.
Your faction's Death Knight in Icecrown will pack you off to help his pals in Shadow Hold. Doing those quests will unlock the Ebon Blade Quartermaster and quickly get you to honored status, so you can buy the Dark Soldier Cape.
There's more +hit on the Sash of the Wizened Wyrm, available at honored rep from the Wyrmrest Accord. They have both regular quests (Coldarra and Wyrmrest Temple) and daily quests. Don't forget an Eternal Belt Buckle.
Balancing Stats
Until you get to the hit cap (depends on talents and raid make-up, but eventually you want to get to 446 hit), hit rating is the most valuable single stat on your gear. How valuable? Well, don't go crazy here. For example, if you can choose to raid in a Deathchill Cloak or a Dark Soldier Cape, choose the former, because it offers so much more spellpower, crit, and haste that you'll do more damage, even if you do miss 1% more often.
I haven't said much about these because I haven't had much luck here, both in terms of getting caster items to drop and rolling against other casters. The items that you can get are great, but don't count on them if you want to raid soon. There's a somewhat higher density of loot in raid instances.
What you can count on are Emblems of Heroism and rep. You can buy T7 gloves and chest with these, but you might want to go for one of the trinkets as you have two of thise slots to fill, even once you start raiding. Frozen Orbs are important for crafting more gear.
Next blog entry should be sometime before Tuesday, January 13th.
But even when you reach level 80, you still don’t want to be carried by your guild. Many of us had pretty good gear by the end of the Burning Crusade, but as you level, your gear gets worse, because every point of crit, hit, and haste rating on your gear does less for your actual performance in a raid. Your chance to hit and crit and the reduction in cast time from haste will go down with every level unless you improve your gear.
At level 70,
- 1% crit = 22.08 points
- 1% hit = 12.6 points
- 1% haste = 15.77 points
- 1% crit = 45.91 points
- 1% hit = 26.23 points
- 1% haste = 32.79 points
Choosing Gear
You’ll probably be using the same tools both to find gear to raid in and to decide what to roll/bid DKP on in Naxx.
- I used maxpdps.com, changing the list of available instances based on what the guild was doing at the time. However, it grossly undervalues hit and only has settings for deep-affliction warlocks at the moment. The destruction page is out-of-date.
- Bakka’s spreadsheet is a work in progress currently. It only supports level-80 epics for the moment, and he’s struggling with some technical issues.
- CanadianPimp’s list/guide is also under construction, but he offers a Leulier-type formula for weighing the values of different gear stats for affliction and destruction specs.
- Gear lists: one way to start is to find out what’s available: Akasha’s WotLK Warlock Armor Upgrades includes info on quest rewards, dungeon drops and tailored items. The search engine on WoWhead can be filtered for different kinds of items.
- You can use RatingBuster in game to compare items, but it helps to know what you are looking at beforehand.
Much of the best crafted gear out there is now exchangeable (bind-on-equip), so if you’ve got buckets of gold, or gold and skilled guildies, you can make a decent start on your gear without having to farm heroics. Tailors can make (and sell!) some raidworthy armor much, with +hit:
- Hat of Wintry Doom
- Silky Iceshard Boots
- Ebonweave Gloves / Spellweave Gloves
- Ebonweave Robe / Spellweave Robe
- Deathchill Cloak (by a Loremaster of Northrend)
I actually saved up and bought the Signet of the Kirin Tor as soon as I hit level 80. It’s not just a nice ring; I use the extra-hearthstone feature a lot. can be obtained from scribes (EDIT: but you can only use if if you are a scribe! Thanks, Darinar).
Making the Right Friends
Many factions have very nice epic caster items available at exalted status, but I assume that most people want to start raiding within at least a few weeks of hitting level 80.
Exotic pets are all good and well, but I'd recommend that prospective raiders start on the Kirin Tor and get that relationship to revered as soon as possible. At revered, you can buy the Flameheart Spell Scalpel and the DPS-caster helm enchant (Arcanum of Burning Mysteries). Crystalsong Forest looks like it should have been full of Kirin Tor and Silver Covenant/Sunreaver quests, but Blizzard did have to release Wrath of the Lich King quickly, so we may see those in a later content patch. In the meantime, you can buy their tabard as soon as you hit level 80 and run heroics in it for rep (championing). I also recommend doing the daily cooking quest as you level as you need the recipes and reagents for buff foods.
The Sons of Hodir provide shoulder enchants for everyone except scribes, so you want to work on the quest chain that gets you to honored with them to buy the basic ones (Lesser Inscription of the Storm). It starts with "They Took our Men!" at K3 in the Storm Peaks. At least one of these quests involves your poor warlock getting carried around by the scruff of the neck by an exceptionally n00bish giant.
Your faction's Death Knight in Icecrown will pack you off to help his pals in Shadow Hold. Doing those quests will unlock the Ebon Blade Quartermaster and quickly get you to honored status, so you can buy the Dark Soldier Cape.
There's more +hit on the Sash of the Wizened Wyrm, available at honored rep from the Wyrmrest Accord. They have both regular quests (Coldarra and Wyrmrest Temple) and daily quests. Don't forget an Eternal Belt Buckle.
Balancing Stats
Until you get to the hit cap (depends on talents and raid make-up, but eventually you want to get to 446 hit), hit rating is the most valuable single stat on your gear. How valuable? Well, don't go crazy here. For example, if you can choose to raid in a Deathchill Cloak or a Dark Soldier Cape, choose the former, because it offers so much more spellpower, crit, and haste that you'll do more damage, even if you do miss 1% more often.
- For more info on level-80 warlocks and the hit cap, check out Akasha's Hit Cap Guide.
- For a discussion about gearing sensibly for hit, see BRK's comments on balancing gear.
I haven't said much about these because I haven't had much luck here, both in terms of getting caster items to drop and rolling against other casters. The items that you can get are great, but don't count on them if you want to raid soon. There's a somewhat higher density of loot in raid instances.
What you can count on are Emblems of Heroism and rep. You can buy T7 gloves and chest with these, but you might want to go for one of the trinkets as you have two of thise slots to fill, even once you start raiding. Frozen Orbs are important for crafting more gear.
Next blog entry should be sometime before Tuesday, January 13th.
Total Comments 7
Comments
-
Note that I made the Faces of Doom with my hunter Scribe to give to my Warlock. Went to equip it and realized you must be a level 425 Inscriptor to wear it. So - Faces of Doom only good for Scribes.
Hope some wealthy, lazy Scribe buys it from the AH
Posted December 31, 2008 at 06:33 PM by Darinar
-
I was collecting the mats for one!
Thanks for the warning! I'll update the post!Posted January 01, 2009 at 11:12 AM by Warpy
-
Glad to see you back Warpy, missed seeing your posts every week.Posted January 02, 2009 at 12:50 AM by nitromoose
-
A good post =)
I have just two things to add:
1) Personally I just buy my frozen orbs. You really don't need all that many, and while prices may vary by server what doesn't change are the piles and piles of gold to be made from the numerous dailies. Badges are far more valuable on the other hand.
2) The Argent Skullcap is a perfectly suitable (and free) alternative to the hat of wintry doom. You lose the meta socket sure, but all the other stats are improved without the need to buy expensive gems.Posted January 06, 2009 at 06:18 AM by Sasztam
-
Excellent info Warpy
Just one minor correction:
I think the second link in the following should read Titanium Spellshock Ring vice Titanium Spellshock Necklace
"Jewelcrafters can make a wonderful Titanium Spellshock Necklace and a nifty Titanium Spellshock Necklace"
-OliPosted January 06, 2009 at 09:38 AM by Oliselia
-
TY for comments! Corrected the typo. Frozen orbs are heroic drops (and I've just used the ones I looted), just confusingly grouped with badges. I haven't been too hard-up for gems because I'm in a guild with very gung-ho jewelcrafters. I'm just waiting for them to patch in the Purified Twilight Opal.Posted January 06, 2009 at 12:12 PM by Warpy
Updated January 06, 2009 at 12:15 PM by Warpy (more typos....) -
Pure Gold!Posted January 07, 2009 at 03:29 PM by Tragik
Total Trackbacks 0
