I should start out by saying that this is one of those Captain Redbeard Rum posts. “There’s two schools of thought on that. All the other captains say it is, I say it isn’t.”
I’ve recently got Moniker, my warlock, to level 80 and transferred her to the Alliance (I didn’t go Gnome) and have started gearing her up to raid.
What’s really interesting is that I’m enjoying it far more than I thought I would. What I wanted to do with this post was to share the philosophy I’m taking towards gearing. This is very much from a DPS caster perspective, I can’t say how much it applies to other class types.
It’s All About the Journey
A subtitle for this post could be “how to gear up your fresh 80 in a way which makes sure you don’t suck”.
The first thing to remember is that for a fresh 80 the heroic “grind” is actually a key step in gameplay. Yes it’s a step that allows you to leapfrog tiers of content, but it’s also the step where you get at least a vague shot at working out how your class works, at 80, in a group situation.
If you are a DPSer you should have Recount installed, you should keep it to your fucking self, and you should be looking at a breakdown of where your damage is coming from, not just staring at your Damage Done For Overall Data.
Do randoms. Yes it’s more effective to get your guild to blitz you through TotC or ICC Normal a few dozen times, but running normal dungeons exposes you to a variety of different basic boss mechanics, which you need to get used to dealing with. If your damage sucks on a particular boss fight work out if there’s something you should do differently (very occasionally you’ll just be screwed, Svala Sorrowgrave sucks as melee and there’s no two ways about it).
The great pleasure of gearing up a DPS class in heroics is the slow but measurable increase in performance. Some of it comes from gear upgrades, but some of it comes from genuinely l-ing to p. And remember that you’re not just interested in your overall “best” DPS. Maximising your damage on King Ymiron, with his periodic stuns, is as much important practice as spamming your rotation against the patchwerk-esque Gotrok Palehoof.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ninja
I might get letters about this, but if something’s a potential upgrade for you, Need on it. Don’t stress too much about being a ninja. Most people don’t run Heroics for the drops these days, and they’ll probably get more annoyed at you for holding them up while you equivocate than by your nabbing some random blue.
There’s nothing to be lost by nabbing sidegrades, particularly if you’re still working out which gear works best for your class.
But don’t roll on spellplate unless you’re a Holy Pally, obviously.
Don’t Race to Tier
A lot of people make tier gear their first emblem purchases. Don’t. Or y’know, do. I’m in no real position to be giving instructions here.
But there’s two reasons I think you should hold off.
First of all, it makes you look like kind of a noob. Nothing says “I’ve only been 80 for five minutes” like a two-piece T9 bonus slapped on top of a set of Icecrown greens. Secondly, it makes you look like a noob who plays really badly – if you’re wearing Tier, people expect you to perform as well as somebody who is fully raid geared. It doesn’t matter if the rest of your gear is only ilvl 154, if you’ve got Lorefigures Helm of the Awesomedude, people will expect you to be rocking 4k on bosses.
The second reason is more practical, which is that there’s loads of chest, shoulder, head and leg upgrades in Heroics, and comparatively few decent rings and trinkets (plus you have two ring slots and two trinket slots). Yes, you are going to replace this gear soon, but that isn’t the point. Gearing on a smooth curve is better than jumping two tiers overnight.
Drops Over Emblems
The other problem with prioritising tier upgrades over upgrading other slots is that you very quickly get into a situation where your only potential upgrades come from emblems. This isn’t a problem in terms of efficient gearing – you need to nab your full sets eventually after all – but it’s a big issue when it comes to actually enjoying the process.
By and large, it’s more fun to get drops you can use than to get drops that are obsolete with your badge gear. Upgrading your rings and trinkets first maximises the amount of time you can actually be getting proper upgrades from dungeons. This in turn makes boss kills feel more worthwhile and less of an infuriating chore. It’s irrational, but the game is built around reward systems like this. Getting lewt from bosses is part of the fun, and you can preserve that if you don’t go for the big upgrades first.
Basically from my personal perspective, the key to hassle-free gearing is to remember that it’s a part of the game, not a barrier to it, that the gearing-at-80 process is an important part of growing into your class, working out how stuff fits together, and generally being able to play in endgame without making a complete fool of yourself.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go back to LFD.
I agree about the Tier gear, come to think of it, especially the shoulders. They're the most distinctive part of the set, so if you only have them and the rest of your stuff is blues, people might assume you have a full T9 set and expect more from you. Mind you. the first thing I've bought has been the shoulders – for my DK and for my shaman purely because the T10 ones look considerably less rubbish than the T9 ones. I am perhaps overly concerned about my character's appearance. My recent post Worldview: Azshara
First, almost all slots can be of blues with honored rep rewards (you get honored just for questing) and quests from normal, no normal drops included. Second, DPS badge trinkets suck. Can get the badge ring though. Besides that, all sounds good, rushing to buy tier when you can fill slots with drops isn't too much fun. Small caveat: Put a blue gem and a not so good enchant on your drops. Those are cheap. Put epic gems and good enchants on your tier. Nothing scremams noob as blue gems in your t9. (Enchants are not so inportant, the stat upgrades are not accumulative as gems, besides those can get expensive). Off-topic, what do you think of the DK Cata previews?
All good points here. I haven't gotten a new 80 since I got my 2 primary characters there at the start of Wrath, but I have a few that are close. Since my others pretty much had to gear with the curve as they've gone through the content, I've never even considered the implications of not having to do that. Thanks for the writeup. I'll keep these things in mind. My recent post Play "The Time is Right!" Win Prizes! (Seriously.)
Don't use trash meters. Those will be terrible skewed since the overgeared people are likely to kill them while you're still casting something not backed up by 10000 haste rating. Boss meters are good. I've never seen ninja accusations when something was actually an upgrade. But shoulders, man, shoulders! My recent post Why shouldn't DPS have low responsibility?
That's an interesting take on gearing a new character actually. I always rush to gear it so I can get out of farming heroics over and over, but you have a good point, I had some great fun gearing my Death Knight purely from heroics when it was all about drops and Emblems of Heroism.
I'd agree that you need to plan what you're going to purchase. Only use blue gems on things you're liable to replace immediately. I'd also say that people will think you're a noob anyway because you have a couple blues so don't let some fuckwit put you off gearing properly. If the t9 has an amazing 2set (e.g hunter) I'd pick it up first because it will give you a larger boost. Also I'd say work out how fast you want to be ready for endgame and plan accordingly. For example I'm a slacker with alts – I have 2 geared to run ICC but it took casual play to get there and both followed plans that only changed if lady RNG was good to me. On the other hand I know 2 people who levelled up a char and upon dinging had craftables , BoE gear ready including trinkets and then did an ICC10 rep run to get the rep ring. Both of them are ready for ICC10 HMs now and they've got stupidly low /played time at 80 My recent post Ulduar Achievement Happy Fun Time
Clothies have the easiest time of it when it comes to 'ninjaing' an item, especially a lock or mage. After all, as a general rule any piece of cloth gear with more spellpower on it is an upgrade. Pieces with hit, crit or haste – yes please. Pieces with spirit… well, yes please if they also have more spellpower or other stats on them. The only items that you would have a hard time justifying are those with mp5 but even then it can be very clearly an upgrade. Most of the 'issues' with ninjaing in randoms come from classes that can wear leather/mail/plate but also want to roll on cloth/leather/mail, or gearing up offspecs. Dps casters don't have that problem really so your 'lock should be safe! One thing I'd say about tier gear is that sometimes the tier bonuses just ROCK (from fun-ness or super imba-ness) which could impact on your decisions about where to spend emblems.
Heh, nice post, and definitely the way I'd like to go with my SAN characers in theory… My recent post How to please a girl…
DPS badge trinkets aren't great, but they're better than the ilvl 137 greens I was originally using, plus they come with a nice whack of Hit which is actually pretty good when you're just starting out. I confess that I've been ultra-cheap with gems and bought the green ones. My recent post Alternative Advice For Gearing a New 80
Oh! You asked about DK previews. A bit meh actually. It looks like they've got the class more or less where they want it and are just fiddling in the margins. The big change is obviously Blood becoming the tanking tree which I'm still not sure about. Other than that nothing too much seems to be changing. The difference with the Runes might be interesting but I'd have to see it in play to know for certain. My recent post Alternative Advice For Gearing a New 80
But if you don't use trash meters, how will you know how good your AoE spam is! My recent post Alternative Advice For Gearing a New 80
Yeah, same here. Gearing is way more fun when you're actually, well, gearing. My recent post Alternative Advice For Gearing a New 80
I always thought the chest was more obvious than the shoulders, but that might just be because I'm a robe wearer now. My recent post Alternative Advice For Gearing a New 80
I've been very lucky with the whole gearing, on all my toons. I can hop in and out of raids with guild members, get carried a little because I've helped gear their alts too etc. Only character I couldn't do this on was my mage, I had to grind heroics the old fashioned way and he's one of my best geared characters so far, it was also a lot of fun and I got to the stage I could do his rotation in my sleep. The ninja'ing thing is a touchy subject, I lost the trinket from FoS to a tank yesterday and really wasn't happy about it but as he nicely put before fecking off from the group "alls fair in pugs and war." I do agree however on grabbing sidegrades, it's better it might get used for about 20 minutes than sharded or sold, who knows, the blue could last for a while (trinkets for example, can be awesome, even if they're blues and ilvl200 epics) My recent post Apparently, we've been drafted…
I'm a bit baffled that needing on upgrades could be considered ninjaing at all. Do people really think that all gear should come from emblems these days and that actual drops are just meant for vendoring or sharding? The thing about tier shoulders and helms is very true, tanks and healers can use it to their advantage the opposite way as well, i.e. if you're sufficiently geared for heroics but worried that pugs might give you crap because it's not "good enough" for them, just get the tier helm or shoulders and they won't bother to bug you. Worked very well for my resto shaman. My recent post Planned priest changes for Cataclysm: new spells
For clothies (hey, I "grew up" one), the ninja-ing comes when you roll need on a weapon which most people greed nowadays to vendor instead of shard. So some people might think you are needing to go vendor it rather than to actually equip it. (Yes, I've been the tree in the back watching the tank curse out the mage for OMG needing on an upgrade.) I've also seen people get nasty on the caster trinkets in ToC or general spell items in ICC5s, even when it's a clear upgrade for the guy who originally rolled need. My recent post Cataclysm Warlock Stuff
"who knows, the blue could last for a while (trinkets for example, can be awesome, even if they're blues and ilvl200 epics) " This is so true. My warlock hit 80 around mid-December 2008, and soon after I started with some of the easy heroics like Nexus and VH. I didn't replace Mark of the War Prisoner (blue off Cyanigosa, H-VH) until after Tier 10 had barely broken out and I had saved enough triumph emblems to get Shard of the Crystal Heart. That's what…a year's worth for a measly 200 blue? Oh yeah, these blues can last a long time. My recent post Cataclysm Warlock Stuff
Personally I prefer the reg ToC route for gearing. It provides a relatively predictable environment (when you end up in a farming group) for trying out your classes abilities, the trinkets are decent, and I've pulled out 5 upgrades in as little as 3 runs before.
I was going to say the same thing. Has the endgame culture gone so far that ANY need roll is going to earn you the title of "ninja" even if it's an item for your class that is a legitimate upgrade? I don't ever hesitate to roll need on things that I need (though I'll ask first if it's an offspec piece that another member of the party might need for their main spec) but it never occurred to me that some people might think I was a ninja. My recent post Bones jumped the shark (oh, and Noblegarden too)
Great post! I wish I had thought about it that way when I was going through the LFD grind initially…I would have prioritized gear selection considerably differently. As for your philosophy about that 5 man phase of getting ready for prime time, I think you are RIGHT ON. How many people have I seen that try to skip phases of play, and come across as completely ignorant. SO many tanks fail to learn their role and how to really serve a 5 man group because they don't actually bother to learn group basics and how to establish and maintain aggro even at a 5 man level. Oh, and I laughed out loud when I read your take on Recount. It seems like many players are on either extreme, but fail to really use that addon for themselves. They either have it and broadcast it all the time (and still fail to use it to better themselves) or they don't have it at all. My recent post “Changes Posted” means the same thing in WoW and the AF.
Still using it in my shamans elemental kit! Ha it for as long as he's been 80 which is a few months now and I wont be replacing it for a while as it keeps me hit capped nicely and has a damned decent on use SP increase. My recent post Apparently, we've been drafted…
I want to build on that last part that klep wrote: It is NOT ninjaing when it is an upgrade. It is not ninjaing if you take it an use it *believing* it's an upgrade. When you know fully well that you are going to vendor it as soon as you leave the dungeon, then its ninjaing. Otherwise this is a nice, go-to guide.
I used to ask if it was okay to roll Need on an upgrade in a Heroic PUG, then I'd link my current item to show what I'm replacing. I never had any problems and would often get people saying, "Go for it." Now that I think about it, it's probably because I was holding the group up by asking if it was okay to roll Need. Now I don't even ask. I'm pulling my weight with my 2.5K+ dps, so if something drops that's an upgrade for me then I'm rolling Need on it. And yeah, I know 2.5K is not uber fantastic, but it's hella better than the 1K I've seen some 4th position DPSers doing in Heroics. My recent post Hacked
Just dinged 80 on Friday with my 3rd level 80 so i'm currently in that process of gearing up, though I'd say in a slightly worse situation – I'm a warrior trying to gear up as Prot- can't do heroics until I'm defence capped so having to run them as Arms.
Hint from someone who's recently geared his prot warrior: Reaching the defense cap is doable with the crafted saronite tanking equip from blacksmithing. Pretty cheap nowadays. The only problem is finding a group, which won't flame you, when you only got around 22k life.
Your next stop should be normal ToC runs, the tanking gear there will last a looong time, if it has to. Oh, and buy some drums and scrolls for yourself and the party. Might seem funny at first, to fully buff up for "just a heroic", but it helps a lot.
Hint from someone who's recently geared his prot warrior: Reaching the defense cap is doable with the crafted saronite tanking equip from blacksmithing. Pretty cheap nowadays. The only problem is finding a group, which won't flame you, when you only got around 22k life.
Your next stop should be normal ToC runs, the tanking gear there will last a looong time, if it has to. Oh, and buy some drums and scrolls for yourself and the party. Might seem funny at first, to fully buff up for "just a heroic", but it helps a lot.
Hint from someone who's recently geared his prot warrior: Reaching the defense cap is doable with the crafted saronite tanking equip from blacksmithing. Pretty cheap nowadays. The only problem is finding a group, which won't flame you, when you only got around 22k life.
Your next stop should be normal ToC runs, the tanking gear there will last a looong time, if it has to. Oh, and buy some drums and scrolls for yourself and the party. Might seem funny at first, to fully buff up for "just a heroic", but it helps a lot.
Hint from someone who's recently geared his prot warrior: Reaching the defense cap is doable with the crafted saronite tanking equip from blacksmithing. Pretty cheap nowadays. The only problem is finding a group, which won't flame you, when you only got around 22k life.
Your next stop should be normal ToC runs, the tanking gear there will last a looong time, if it has to. Oh, and buy some drums and scrolls for yourself and the party. Might seem funny at first, to fully buff up for "just a heroic", but it helps a lot.
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