Note to self: T11 and T12 Point Gear

All six items on WowHead.com.

We go a-raidin'

Well, I've joined a new raiding guild. Strange how that changes your approach to play. When I don't get every Mark of the World Tree I can each day, I feel I'm falling behind. When I don't get every VP I can each week, I feel like I'm not quite measuring up. This outlook is bonkers, of course, especially as I joined saying that though I was decently geared, I was responding more to the guild leader's call for "social players" than raiders, but I'd raid as much as they'd let me.

We ran through BWD. I watched a few Tankspot and ZAM video guides and glanced at Icy Veins beforehand, which was useful, but probably not absolutely required. Knowing how to jump up on the Nefarian pedestals was probably the most useful result of the preparation. The Aliena guide on ZAM talked about staying away from either end of Oxynia, but I ended up being told to stay firmly behind her. Lots of tail whips there, but very few wipes.

I really was the n00b occasionally. A few times the raid (and guild) leader had to say, "Boomkin, DPS Nefarian now," or something similar. We did wipe four or five times, but there were a few players that were fairly overgeared for BWD, so we didn't have too difficult a time once folks learned strategy.

It was fun, though long. The move away from waves of trash to boss after boss was an interesting change. We turned up Security Measure Alpha at one point, and even though it was my first run, the guild let me have it, which was great. We also have one restokin guildy that took an interest in Jal pre-raid, got my gear and talent tree spec'd "correctly" (I do miss Solar Beam while PvEing, though). He also brezzed me at least three times, and *very* quickly when I went down, which was appreciated. A few well timed whispers also kept me in the right places.

And it's that help that's probably the biggest change for me, other than the sheer number of instance and raid runs the guild does, when moving from small social to medium-sized raiding guild. This guy knew how to play balance, and balance was his off-spec. And he was patient as get-out, minus one communication when I said, "Can you show me your talents for resto?" and he interpreted that as, "Prove to me you're a talented resto player." The guild leader had asked if I could heal initially, and I said I could try, but hadn't off-spec'd yet and didn't strictly have healing gear, so I was asking how to set up the resto tree. That was a quick lol from anything nasty, though.

So raiding is fun. Putting a raid on your schedule is nice. Not really caring if I get any loot -- and getting some anyway -- helps. Having people patiently help you like mad is great. Finding replacements in seconds if someone has to drop is awesome. And the anxiety level during the mostly guild staffed raid run was a heck of a lot cooler than your typical PUG.

In other news, I'm still slowly adding VPs and quickly adding JPs. Bagged the Relic of Norgannon after a PUG Heroic yesterday. Better than Eonar , I think, because Eonar only adds Spirit, which I think essentially reduces to hit for us, and I'm finally hit capped (note to self: don't reforge SPI to HIT; there's no change). Before that, I went Haunt of Flies, as my cloak stunk. That took me from 333 to 359 on the back. Though I added Stormrider's Leggings, the difference looking back isn't enough over Blazewing's Klt for me to have bit. The thinking was that I'd get the chest and gloves from VPs, so all that was left from JP T11 was legs. /shrug I think next on the JP list is a ring and trinket and then I'm nearly "done".

Jal's first VP item will probably be either Obsidian Arborweave Gloves or the Obsidian Arborweave Vestment. Tyler at Shifting Perspectives argues pretty strongly that I should ignore the gloves, but I'm not as sure. See below for a quick exchange we had over on WoW Insider, edited a bit for stoopid grammar and clarity issues on my end.

rufwork said...

Okay, admittedly, I only read Blood Pact because I *can* find an RSS for Tyler, but not one just for Balance dr00d Shifting Perspectives articles.

That said, how do you quantitatively factor in tier set bonuses? Contra T12, [Tyler] says...

"The most common thing that I see people do in situation such as this is that they always, always rush off for their tier gear first. The simple matter is this: Everything is an upgrade. ... Get the upgrades that you can get now first, and get the ones that come later, later."

Though locks apparently have hands alternatives, they're from Rag. You can PUG Heroics and get T12 gloves after a little over a week. It's tougher to raid in a social guild.

But okay, let's even say you *can* bag raid gear easily. How do you factor in T12 2P bonuses? You know, for laser chicken, how do you measure the worth burning treants? For locks, um, how do you factor in whatever you guys get? Don't Tier bonuses make T12 items disproportionally powerful compared to other Valor Point gear? Or, rather, why *don't* tier bonsues make T12 disproportionally powerful? JP gear is nearly free with 70 points per Heroic boss -- and that bonus doesn't max out; you can run Heroics indefinitely and keep bagging 70 JP a boss.  But if I'm spending 2200+1650 = 3850 VP = a pretty solid month of PUGging, what are the numbers on getting 3850 VPs of non-tiered gear [which is essentially what Tyler suggested] before two tiered?

Being a part timer, Valor Points are something I can still earn without raiding. I think I go 2xT12 first, and gloves being only 1650, I think I start there. ?? If I can find 20k, I get valor bracers too. /shrug

2

7-12-2011 @ 8:29AM

Tyler Caraway said...

Gloves are the cheapest Tier piece option to get with Valor Points, this is true, but that similarly makes them the worst option. Gloves have the lowest "weighted" itemization. Slots are not all created equal, chests, pants, and helms generally have the most stats on them in comparison to gloves, wands, and rings. BH also has a chance to drop gloves for you, so getting your gloves first bars you from benefiting from that option outright.

If you aren't a raider, then does it really matter which pieces you get first? If you want your two piece -- which is all you can get without raiding -- then you would still get the chest and pants over getting the gloves. Further, the gloves, and even the chest to a degree, are rather worthless to non-raiders. They've got a lot of hit on 'em.

As for set bonuses:

All set bonuses are usually pretty decent, and all of them are better than not having them in most cases -- I'm seriously starting to doubt the new balance T11 four-piece does anything -- but what people often overlook is that new set bonuses usually aren't worth more than old set bonuses.

Outliers aside, the paradigam works a little bit like this. Your T11 2-piece is worth, say, 500 DPS and the 4-piece is worth 1,000 DPS (some specs/classes may have that reversed, but generally you have one strong bonus, one weak bonus.) Now, T12 set bonuses aren't actually going to be worth all that much more than T11 bonuses. Set bonuses aren't a scalar thing, they are usually all designed to offer approximately the same level of DPS as before. So, from the above, your T12 2-piece would be worth around 1,000 DPS, maybe 1,100 DPS, and your T12 4-piece would be worth around 500 - 600 DPS. 

[This is really confusing the way he wrote it.  It sounds like your 2P T11 bonus is the "weak bonus" of the set and the T12 2P is the "strong bonus".  So if you have inifinite T11 gear and only 2 T12 pieces, you really want to go 4P T11 and 2P T12, which is perfect, right?]

As long as you retain all set bonuses [he really seems to have missed my point; if I'm only getting soloable items, I can't retain all set bonuses.  If fact, I'm only guaranteed three tiered pieces total], you generally don't see a difference in weighting Tier items over other items. The only time you ever want to "rush" Tier first is when you have an exceptionally weak old Tier bonus but an exceptionally strong new Tier bonus. If the old Tier 11 4-piece bonus was the Tier 12 2-piece bonus, then you would absolutely rush for it -- and the reality is that druids probably should be rushing their Tier since the new 4-piece [on Tier 11?] is awful -- but in general set bonuses are fairly well balanced between themselves.

[emph throughout mine]

3

7-16-2011 @ 12:04AM

rufwork said...

@Tyler -- The what amounts to a "price of entry" logic is interesting. There's a sort of T12 price of entry per piece -- 1650 VPs -- and then a price to get that more efficient piece -- 2200 minus 1650 = 550 VPs. 550 VPs gives me a pretty good jump start on VP bracers if I don't have 20-30k gold sitting around, and gives me the T12 2P.

That's why I'm still thinking that I want a set with the most pieces possible with my VP that still includes a 2P bonus, though. I'm assuming you can keep the T11 2P bonus on top of the T12 2P. Now you're one drop in BoT away from having ((Chest or Legs)+Shoulders) * T11 + (Hands+(Legs or Chest)) * T12, and you can find a good BoT PURaid relatively easily, all things considered.

That's the way I was leaning, anyhow, and with your "T12 set bonus isn't >>> T11 set bonus" suggestion, gloves for VP seems even more like the cheapest way to get "2P+2P ~ 4P" and your valor bracers more quickly.

I mean, sure, if you could have any two T12 pieces and points isn't an object, you go legs and chest. But here, I think it comes down to if having valor bracers more quickly offsets having fewer good stats on the T12 gloves. Is (again, on Boomkin; sorry to hijack the thread)...

86 Int
157 Sta
266 Mastery (1.48)
683 Armor
30 Haste (0.23%)
1 Sockets
-177 SPI (so hit, like you say)

... (the diff of T12 chest over T12 hands) worth 550 VPs? I guess you could argue yes. But 44% of 227 INT = 99.88, and 44% is how close you are to valor bracers and their 227 INT with 550 VPs.

Perhaps it largely matters what T11 pieces you already have.

Thanks for the reply. It's really too much for a casual guy to think through and feel confident about. Bring back BC and point-blank wrath-spam! ;^)

This exchange really shows the disconnect between WoW Insider posts and your typical casual player.  Even after I've stressed casual gaming and PUG reward VPs as the only means to getting T12 gear, Tyler continuously seems to be assuming things that casual gamers just don't have access to get -- unlimited valor points and raid drops.

There's a huge disconnect between the "Here are the three best items in each slot" guides we sometimes get and the way most gamers, even max-level gamers, are almost certainly playing.  As soon as I get two Tier 12 items, I'm done with the PUG grind.  If the guild tells me I need more, no problems, but hopefully we can raid for them.  The chest is the only points-only tiered piece, right? I mean everything else in the Tier 12 set potentially drops from somewhere, right?  If I was still in casual/social land, if it weren't for what have to be kewl buring treants, I'm probably done chasing VPs after a single item, and the second can show up whenever it wants.

All +INT Justice Point balance gear from 4.2 that's not a Tier 11 piece

Panzerkin: Doing the nasty Wowheading so you don't have to. ilvl 359 stuff listed first. (That's the stuff that's new to JPs in 4.2) Some of this is resto stuff, but there are a number of lists that say you'd rather mix in some resto situationally, so it's all here.

EDIT: Now with prices.

Haunt of Flies	359	Back	1250	Cloak
Heavenly Breeze	359	Back	1250	Cloak
Fading Violet Sandals (BoE!)	359	Feet	1650	Leather Armor
Band of Secret Names	359	Finger	1250	Ring
Twined Band of Flowers	359	Finger	1250	Ring
Core of Ripeness	359	Trinket	1650	Trinket
Soul Casket	359	Trinket	1650	Trinket
Relic of Eonar	359	Relic	700	Relic
Relic of Norgannon	359	Relic	700	Relic
Blessed Hands of Elune	346	Hands	1650	Leather Armor
Cluster of Stars	346	Head	2200	Leather Armor
Apple-Bent Bough	346	Held In Off-hand	950	Off-hand Frill
Leggings of Late Blooms	346	Legs	2200	Leather Armor
Celadon Pendant	346	Neck	1250	Amulet
String of Beaded Bubbles	346	Neck	1250	Amulet
Somber Shawl	346	Shoulder	1650	Leather Armor
Thatch Eave Vines	346	Waist	1650	Leather Armor

Smolderskull sighting

Wow. Thirty grand. I'd guessed between 20-25, and then had a guy in chat offering for 20k, and heard someone else who bought another set of VP 378 bracers for 30k. Guess that's the going price.

Pre-Heroic Druid Guide 4.2 Update

I made a quick update to the Soloer's Pre-Heroic Gear Guide today to include a bit of 4.2 information. The Chest of Forgetfulness is off. Those 2200 JPs are better spent on the Tier 11 chest. Pretty much all the changes I made are below. I still need to add the 4.2 Firelands grind currency options.

Just quickly, the Jal update: More Firelands grinding while waiting for LFG PUGs. I've gotten in Vortex Pinnacle and The Stonecore that I haven't run before. And after a bit of a sales war between three sellers of the Chestguard of Nature's Wrath(I canceled, dropped price, and relisted twice), I managed to clear 4090g on the AH. Picture above. Four more times and I can buy new bracers. ;^D

Auction House:
Smolderskull Bindings (4.2) -- Going for 20k-30k in chat; haven't seen in AH yet

As Lissanna says, and then there were bracers. The Smolderskull Bindings are new in 4.2, and are actually 1250 Valor Point items. But they're BoE. I think you're better served by saving Valor Points once you earn them for Tier 12 gear. And when you're pre-Heroic, you can't get Valor Points anyway. The price is so high I considered keeping these off, but some folk are so good crafting or have access via guilds or mains that it's good to keep them in mind.


Reputation: Hyjal (again)
Nightweaver's Amulet (4.2)

You've already run Hyjal and gotten good rep just with the quests. That bagged the Aessina Blessed Gloves I mentioned before. With 4.2, you can quickly pick up an ilvl 365 neck for under 90g if you've finished Hyjal and enter the Firelands. It takes a few more Marks of the World Tree to enter the Firelands proper, but it's a minor grind. There are more rewards for grinding Firelands that I'll be adding shortly, but they take 31+ days to unlock, which is insane. Tol Barad-like, but grindier.

Justice Points: (note that the full lists for each of these is in the full guide)
Stormrider's Regalia items

Stormrider's Gloves (1650 JPs)
Stormrider's Leggings (2200 JPs)
Stormrider's Vestment (2200 JPs)

Chestguard of Forgetfulness (enchant with Mighty Stats) (2200 JPs)

With the addition of Tier 11 to the list of Justice Point gear in 4.2, this list gets lots longer. I'm going to remove my recommendation for the Chestguard of Forgetfulness and replace that with Stormrider's Vestment. That's a no-brainer. The same JP cost for a 359 ilvl with the possibility of tier bonuses instead of 346 is obvious.

At the same time, note that you only get 140 Justice Points per normal Cata dungeon. Getting everything on this list means you're running 59 normal dungeons. That's a lot, obviously. And you don't need all of this gear to be geared for Heroic, which is a change with 4.2. You're easily overgeared, if only slightly. So let's get the Vestment and Cluster (still the best head pre-Heroic). Then if you've got a one-handed weapon, go with Apple-Bent Bough. If not, save for the Stormrider's Leggings. Why? Because when you go Heroic, you'll want the lower price Tier 12 Valor Point gloves first, I think. Honestly, if you've got the Furious Kilt from the AH or farming, you could potentially skip the legs here.

Ultimately it's up to you. Just know if you gloves for the T11 two-piece bonus that you might replace those pretty quickly once you're in Heroics.

Quick item up: Moonwell Chalice Nightweaver's Amulet

ARGH. At first I thought you could get the Moonwell Chalice immediately upon entering Firelands, but no luck with the vendor for 31 days, apparently.

There is a full month-long chain of dailies to unlock her and the other two vendors.
..
To unlock the first vendor takes 31 days; to unlock all three takes 41 days.

But for your parting gift, I give you the Nightweaver's Amulet, which you can bag essentially immediately after hitting the Firelands.

And now back to the item you can get 31-41 days from now.


I've been trying to update the pre-Heroic gear list for 4.2, and it's been a pain, in part because Wowhead was misreporting Valor Point items as Justice Point ones. I thought I was about to get insane legs, pants, chest, wrists, and rings. Now, not so much.

That said, check this item out. I like the Gale of Shadows as much as the next guy, but this item is apparently purchaseable right inside the Firelands available only after a month of constant daily runs:

Moonwell Chalice - Item - World of Warcraft:

Binds when picked up
Unique-Equipped
Trinket
+340 Intellect
Requires Level 85
Item Level 365
Use: A small moonwell appears, blessing you with 1700 Mastery for 20 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)

4.2 changes to Valor points

EDIT: STOP SPENDING JUSTICE POINTS NOW. The short story here is that your Justice Points will be worth MORE after 4.2. You'll get serious ilevel 359 gear with Justice Points shortly, instead of the crap you're spending them on now. You will not lose your Valor Points.

(I've reworded this a bit; it looks like a number of people find this post when searching for Valor Point changes.)

Make sense? If you wanted Stormrider's Leggings now and you had 500 Valor Points and 2000 Justice Points, you're toast in 4.1. They cost 2200 Valor Points.

In 4.2, though, your 2000 Old Justice Points will combine with your 500 Old Valor Points, and you'll have 2500 New Justice Points. The Stormrider's Leggings will now only cost 2200 JPs! You're golden!

But if you spent 950 of your 2000 Justice Points on an Apple Bent-Bough during 4.1, an ilvl 346 item, you'd be toast when 4.2 drops. You'd only have 2000-950 = 1050 Old Justice Points + 500 Old Valor Points = 1550 New Justice Points. That's bad. Save your cash and get the good stuff.

So in 4.2 we'll have two new categories of currency. Valor Points v4.1 will become Justice Points v4.2. Justice Points v4.1 will be upgraded to Justice Points v4.2 too. You're going to have a lot of Justice Points v4.2, which can all be used to buy what can currently be purchased with Valor Points v4.1.

There will also be Valor Points v4.2 which can be used to buy gear that's not available in 4.1. Nobody will have any New Valor Points when 4.2 rolls out. Nobody! There's no reason to save VPs 4.1, as you'll be able to buy the same stuff with them in 4.2 as 4.1. But since you'll soon be able to spend Justice Points v4.1 on Valor Points v4.1 gear, you should save all of your Justice Points v4.1 until they appreciate in value in 4.2.

From MMO-Champion - Patch 4.2 Valor Points Rewards, Firelands Ragnaros Video, Blue Posts, Artworks

"Old epic ilvl 359/'Valor' gear is now available from the Justice Points vendor at the same prices.
'Old' rare/Justice Points gear is still for sale at the same price.
When Patch 4.2 is released, your existing Valor Points will be converted to Justice Points.
Normal versions of Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of the Four Winds will be nerfed and will only reward Justice Points.

You can still buy the same pieces with Old (pre-4.2) Valor Points as before. It's just that in 4.2, you can buy them with JP too! It's not really that your old VPs are being nerfed so much as your JPs are getting buffed. You can keep spending your Valor Points on whatever you wanted to spend them on, as their value won't change. Just realize you'll have tons of Old Valor Point equivalents soon when your JPs get buffed.

So you should keep running heroics, knowing you're now getting 70 Old VP equivalents + 70 Old VP equivs per boss now, right?

And randomly -- Why is WoWhead.com so slow recently? We might have too many eggs in that basket. Wish someone had told me about WoWPedia earlier too. I was wondering why WoWWiki was so danged out of date.

On the tax payers of virtual economies

I promised myself that I'd stop posting comments on Spinks' blog, as they tend to be too long and dominate the comment scroll. I also don't get a lot of follow-up conversation, honestly, so I'm really wasting everyone's time.

Oh well. Here we went again [sic]. Figured this was interesting enough (to me) to capture here too. This is from Spink's "Enchanting and the gear tax"post.

Or in other words, enchanting is an artificial way to stimulate demand in game.

Two long points.

The in-house Ultima Online researcher (years ago) had a great presentation on the way UO initially wanted to simulate a closed economy. Turns out a market flooded with n00b leather caps and sandals doesn't work so well.

The economic paradigm in UO quickly changed from a closed economy to a "faucet and drain" model. You pump gold in, and you provide drains to pull it back out. It's all subsidies and taxes.

Here, you take the players invested in farming mats (faucets) and crafting (small drain with recipes) who create useful enchants (money magnets/tax collectors) and then you hook larger drains up to these harder-core players -- repairs, guild rewards, mounts, etc.

It's not just demand that's stimulated with enchantments. It's a specific implementation of the faucet/drain system, one that involves setting up a system of tax collectors.

Am I really the only person who would prefer to be able to just grab a cool drop and be ready to go without being asked to do all the legwork for an extra minor bonus? It’s funny, once I used to find these extra complexities so cool. I think that I’m over it now, or at least I’ve done it over again in enough games that I’d rather just cut to the chase.

Second point -- you have to striate the market to maximize its appeal. This is the same as with difficult games and game guides. Who would finish all of Metal Gear Solid without a little help? Same with many quests in MMORPGs. Casual players can read guides. Minigame players and completists can take the time to learn professions. Harder-core players can challenge themselves and prepare for Heroic dungeons (and I can't believe how much time I've wasted researching and then gearing up, and I'm not that hard core).

As my third foray into Heroics showed me very quickly, many don't bother with gems, enchants, etc. It's a way of striating your customer base. You have to provide avenues for multiple playstyles to enjoy your content, whether they're completists, or (and I can't find the reference, which is killing me), folks (apparently young girls in the article I can't find) who would rather drive around Liberty City for fun rather than maim and rob. These are all games within games ["within games," Frank Herbert added, "You have to say it three times to achieve full effect."]. It's not that there's no right way to play. There are many right ways to play.

Very little is more fascinating than "virtual" economies -- of gold, of goods, of bits, and, most importantly, of dollars and time.

*Unfinished* Most Straightforward Pre-Heroic Balance Druid Gear Guide for Cataclysm

EDIT: This guide moved to a more permanent home here.

Gear upgrades and Grinding Tol Barad -- 18 quests a day!

I've been running archaeology digs, farming for Winterspring Cub Whiskers, and grinding Tol Barad while waiting for running normals recently. I recently bagged a Scepter of Power and traded in some JP for the Apple-Bent Bough. With the off-hand intellect enchant, I think I come out ahead of my old Staff of Siphoned Essences. Here they are compared on WoWhead, though it misses the +40 INT from the off-hand enchant. That with a few smarter enchants and though my iLevel is the same, DPS should start looking up. I also traded out my one piece of Heroic gear, the Corrupted Egg Shell, for the normal Gale of Shadows I picked up in my tenth or so run of Grim Batol last night. It was time to stop worrying about convenient mana and to throw in on more DPS.

But the real lesson for my grind comes from
this comment on Baradin's Wardens at WoWhead:

You can do a maximum of 18 daily quests to earn reputation with Baradin's Wardens [A] or Hellscream's Reach [H].

The post continues to tell you how. I've been stopping after "6 daily quests (out of 22) that you can pick up at Baradin Base Camp [A]", when, "If your faction controls Tol Barad, then there are 12 daily quests that you can pick up at Baradin Hold." Whoops. 18 a day (even the more sure 12, since I won't check in that often) would speed up the grind for the Stump of Time just a little bit!

DK-OT: Gear buying guide

Now this Death Knight Shopping List is the sort of thing I wish we had more often, or at least that I could find more often and easily. I mean, even if it's not perfect, it's going to be an improvement over just questing around, and it's going to save a lot of time over doing the mathes yourself.

So Jalyndrine, with a "y", is done with the Death Knight starting area. I'll post more Death Knight-Off Topic about it later. Overall, though, it made Wrath make a ton more sense. In a way, the DK starting area was an extended intro to Wrath lore, and should have been a required exercise for anyone playing over the age of 13. (Under 13-14 might have been surprised at some of the, um, questionable things your DK was doing.)

Next Justice Point goal

I'd kinda stopped going for the random normals, as I'd gotten my Cluster of Stars and have been just repping Therazane for the most part, getting ready to run Grim Batol next time I had a spare 90 minutes. My plan was to keep running GB until I had the three Chaos Orbs for the Chestguard of Nature's Fury. In the meanwhile, I've been using my Bloodied Wyrmhide Chest which, honestly, stinks. It's a PvP piece, and I don't PvP.

Justice Points really aren't hard to come by. If I didn't have a twink recruit-a-friending, I might have figured this out earlier, but the Robes of Forgetfulness are lots better than the Wyrmhide, and only run 2200 JPs. I just forgot to take a look.



That's a big enough difference to care. And then some. Time to crank daily normals back up.

(What does recruit-a-friend has to do with Justice Points? I just spent 2725 points on a Devout Aurastone Hammer for the friend (I'm twinking the off-account). Would have gone for the heirloom staff, but I think I'd like to try a Pally next. /sigh Would like to have the Robes already, but that Hammer plus a level 1 Intellect enchant has us geared well above the mobs we're tagging. Easy.)

Heroic Gearing: Poor Man's Enchants (and some glyphing)

Gear Update
Well, it's happened. A week or so ago, Jal finally got good enough gear to run heroics. I'm impressed with the new Armory's "advanced" view, shown above, which shows not only a quick snapshot with names of your current gear, but also yells at you for where you haven't enchanted. It's enough to drive even me to review my almost complete lack of enchants.

Most of the gear I've got comes from the Shifting Perspectives list I've been working from. I did finally shell out about 750g for the Bracers of Caustic Purification, and, after watching the AH for weeks, another 2500g for Blazewing's Furious Kilt. Those aren't horrible prices for good pre-raid gear, but I feel a little badly about the shortcut. But unlike the other slots, good pants and bracers didn't seem to be popping up without more work, so the squeaky wheels got the gold.

I've admittedly used a lot of Bloodied Wyrmhide to fill in spots I haven't earned yet. The resilience is worthless. The Wyrmhide has been slight upgrades over what I had anyhow, but I know on some level I'm using it not only to increase my leatherworking but also for the extra ilevel. I only have the chest and belt left. The belt will be replaced as soon as I'm done with Wildhammer rep, and the chestpiece will have to wait until I've got three Chaos Orbs and can fashion its replacement. I'm still running normals, and will try to run each normal at least once before going heroic, but running Grim Batol over and over with the "random" LFG is getting really really old. I'm up to four out of maybe six or seven runs now.

Poor Man's Enchanting
The enchanting lesson: Don't let your lack of time stop you from poor man's enchanting. I was going to run Therazane rep for the Cat shoulder enchant after I went exalted with Wildhammer (81% there now), and figured I'd do all my enchanting then. Dumb. I pity the fool who doesn't use Wrath enchants! I've had my Spaulders of the Endless Plains for weeks, and only now did it occur to me to run back by the Sons of Hodir for their enchants. The Greater Inscription of the Storm is 24 sp and 15 crit that I didn't have before. I bought two, just in case. Then I remembered that I was one arctic fur away from the spellpower fur lining for bracers. There's another 76 sp I was walking around without. I've also filled in too many slots with Savage Armor kits. I don't really need the extra STA, but with all the leather in Tol Barad, it's essentially free.

I did get a guildie to throw Avalanche on the Staff of Siphoned Essences. Stinks that the staff has its own glow and doesn't show the explosion of snow, but it looks like that should increase DPS by 3-4%. My next step is to install Recount again to see if I'm not doing better. Honestly, I've usually been just barely third on Recounts during PUG runs. I'm used to blowing folks out of the water in LK. I'm using Starfall and Typhoon a good deal. Though I do tend to off-heal when things get nasty, throw innervates when healz needs it, and "waste" my time on things that cause damage but don't hit my scale, I'm still lower than I'd like. I hope the enchants help enough to get me to second routinely (I've probably been an Avalanche behind), as well as the new gear (Blazewing, eg, is brand new).

Glyphs
I'll have to post on Glyphing later, but the quick lesson is that there are more purely positive glyphs than I remember from earlier. Before, it was a devil's deal. Get more damage, but lose range. Or typhoon gets more damage but doesn't push enemies back. Well, I often bank on those extra seconds to loot something (usually a keg of ale) or to throw half a starsurge. Now, there are (more?) unadulterated gains. The Wrath glyph is a must. +10% damage to Wrath. The end. Why I hadn't bothered before, I don't know. I'm hoping it changed from when I first played around with glyphs. Getting 50% of Innervate when you cast it on someone else is spiffy. And 50% faster swimming? Why not?

And here ends another unedited post brought to you by the panzerkin.

EDIT: Shifting Perspectives on enchants and glyphs. Sorry if this edit causes the post to pop back up in anyone's RSS feed.

Blazewing's Furious Kilt and the AH

There are two items on the Shifting Perspectives gear list that are BoE, and both come from rare spawns. The first is Blazewing's Furious Kilt and the second is Tarvus's Poison-Scarred Boots. I've flown through the cave for Tarvus four or five times (seen Lucy on Proudmoore there twice, camping), but no boots yet. Blazewing is in Mount Hyjal, and since that's not part of my circuit, I haven't tried to find him.

I've also been keeping an eye for Blaze's Kilt on the AH. It typically goes for 4-5k asking price for buy out on Proudmoore in the last week or so. I've bid once for 2000g and was outbid. (I've yet to see the boots, fwiw.)

Well, today I'm on for a few minutes, and catch it for 1056g buyout. Stupidly, I waited a few seconds before buying to make sure it wasn't the wrong thing, and luckily it was still there when I recovered. Mine. All mine!

But, um, now what? The next Kilt is up for 3400g buyout. Do I try to make cash or wear the kilt? 2000g is a lot of LW mats.

I listed it. And an hour later, it's gone. For 3142g. /jawDrop Nice. I cleared over 2000g in an hour. I'm still stunned, and stunned worse than the free leather in Tol Barad.

I'm not sure if I made the right decision. I mean, making Pristine Hides might be a better way to make cash, and I may never get better pants with the limited gaming I've been doing. I'll see how close 2000g gets me to the Chestguard and get back to you.

Ah, and I should add, I've found the Mobile Armory to be a painfully addictive timesink while looking for these two items on the AH.

Finkle's skinner in the bag

If you were wondering about soloing Upper Blackrock Spire (UBRS) at 85, it's straightforward and easy. You can honestly DPS (lots of Starfall and Hurricane) your way through the whole thing like a demigod, no problem. Lots of runecloth and rugged leather if you've got too much time on your hands.

The only pain is the amount of time it takes to beat the Rend Blackhand waves in the Coliseum or whatever. Hint: Don't walk through the big gate. It makes it easier to kill all the mobs quickly (they spawn immediately), but if you watch some of the dopes walk into the coliseum proper, the gate eventually closes back on you. Rend declares victory, and you have to hearth out.

I remember trying to sneak in via the balcony with a guildie back when we weren't quite level appropriate and waxing a few orcs before deciding to sneak on back out.

If you're not familiar with BRS, there's a good YouTube video that WoWwiki links.



In any event, after two tries on The Beast, that's a good +10 skinning now. The bad is that it's another spot in the bag even though it's a skinning knife; I still need the Gnomish Army Knife for its flint & tender. The good is that it'll live in the leatherworking bag... as will the army knife, it turns out. If that's not a change, I've been a dope for years.

And, of course, going to UBRS has some fringe benefits.

Gear from PUGging > Gear from rep?

Honestly, I feel the same way as I did in Wrath. I'm just barely strong enough to PUG now, and I've run Grim Batol and Halls of Origination down. And, of course, I'm also starting to get gear I feel I don't deserve (I'm maxing out at about 30% DPS on bosses; much less on trash) that ruins any gear chasing guide.

So the TL:DR version of this post is: Run instances for gear until you're done! The Aessina-Blessed Gloves are really the only no-brainer so far of gear to get via rep. Level 346 for rep I've already got...

I bagged Anhurr's Hymnal from Halls, level 333.

From Grim Batol, I just Needed the Staff of Siphoned Essences, level 333 (see a pattern?) and bagged the Helm of Secret Knowledge from Kill the Courier.

The helm really isn't worth much, though it was the best of the quest reward choices for Jal. Without INT and SPI, it's not really going to make the gear rotation. I looked, and I can only get 63 spirit on there by reforging. What's the point? I hadn't really read up on reforging, but had hoped to get lots more out of it. The helm's art even looks a little, well, odd. I'll also admit I thought spell crit and physical crit had been rolled into one like spellpower did with damage and healing. They haven't. /sigh

(I also didn't know Wild Quilvine is toast now. Well, duh. There's no more MotW, dude.)


Regardless, the Helm, too, is 333.

If I keep bagging a 333 every normal dungeon run, my long, slow march through Wildhammer rep might not be as useful as I'd thought. It's really more fun to PUG than grind, though, again, I'm not DPSing as well as I'd like yet and feel a little like I'm mooching. That doesn't happen when I'm making a a Beer Run.


My equally slow march through Leatherworking to make the Chestguard of Nature's Fury might not be as pertinent either, but since the Chestguard is level 359, I'm guessing I'll still be glad I did. And they sell for megabucks.

In other news, I'm upset I so quickly grabbed a staff with so little DPS. The days of the Panzerkin are over, though I do keep a melee DPS staff in my bag. And, finally, I need that Skinner, well, thirty minutes ago.

Ding! 85

And it's happened. I'm finally 85. And it seems appropriate I dinged while turning in Wildhammer reputation quests, as I'll be running that for quite a while.

Continuing the thread from my last few posts, I quickly picked up Aessina-Blessed Gloves (actually did that at 84; they req 85 to equip) and the Mantle of Wild Feathers, which is the Alliance version of Spaulders of the Endless Plains.

Though that bags me the steps Completed step [Shoulder] of achievement [Cataclysmically Superior]. - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 and Completed step [Hands] of achievement [Cataclysmically Superior]. - Tuesday, February 15, 2011, the bonuses are really pretty minor.



Once socketed, it'll be a little better, but still, minor gains. This ain't no tiered armor. ;^D

I started looking at Leatherworking guides like this one to see what it'd take to get to get to the Chestguard of Nature's Fury. I've been vulturing leather like crazy. There have been a few spots where, especially closer to Cat's release, people were smacking mobs and leaving corpses to skin like mad. But even then I've only got about 180 savage leathers and 21 dragonscales. I hate to cheap out, but with 5k gold in the bank, I'll at least take a glance at the AH today.

Also worth noting:
Oasis Bracers BoE drop, Lost City of the Tol'Vir

Shifting Perspectives at WoW Insider said these are BoE. WoWhead lists these as BoP and the comments seem to support that. Shifting seems to have gotten that wrong, so I'll need to 1.) Check the AH to double-check and 2.) Start looking for new bracers.

I think I'll keep running Wildhammer and start checking out Tol Barad. There are apparently a few good places to skin there as part of dailies.

And finally, of all the things I did during 84...

BEST! WEDDING! EVAR! *Hic*

Gear hunting

Okay, I took a look through Shifting Perspective's gear list, which nostalgeek suggested last time. It's a good list, though much is from heroic dungeons, which is probably beyond my part-time gatherer status.

There are many things that are easy enough to grab, though. I'm going to cut and paste a hacked version of the Shifting Perspectives list here which includes helm, neck, shoulders, chest, wrists, hands, and belt. I figured that was enough to start.

Much of the commentary is Caraway's (the post's author). I mark mine with -P. I've cut tons, though, so go "RTFA" (where F=Fabulous, I guess) for the rest of the info.

Tyler Caraway
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/12/17/shifting-perspectives-balance-druid-pre-raid-gear-guide/#continued

Helms

• Cluster of Stars 2,200 justice points
• Helm of Reorigination Doing it the Hard Way, Halls of Origination

For your helm, the best choice to go for is honestly the Cluster of Stars. .... If you don't have enough to get it quite yet, then I would at least queue up to run normal Halls of Reorigination at least once so you can get the helm from a quest you'll find there.

Necks

• Yellow Smoke Pendant Dragonmaw / Wildhammer Exalted
• Eye of Many Deaths Jewelcrafting

Shoulders

• Spaulders of the Endless Plains Dragonmaw / Wildhammer Honored

Chests

• Wrap of the Fallen City The Fall of Neferset City, Uldum
• (There's some debate on wowhead on if the Chestguard of Nature's Fury is worth a rip or not. -P)

The quest reward from Uldum (note: This is apparently a really easy quest - P) is going to be the best chest that you can really get until you start heroics or purchase the JP one.

Wrists

• Oasis Bracers BoE drop, Lost City of the Tol'Vir

(Note that these are BoE and can be purchased on the Auction House! -P EDIT: WoWhead lists these as BoP and the comments seem to support that. Shifting Perspectives seems to have gotten that wrong. -P)

Hands

• Aessina-Blessed Gloves Guardians of Hyjal revered

To be perfectly honest, there isn't much reason to not go for the rep reward gloves, especially considering that you can reach revered merely by completing all of the quests in Hyjal. ...

Belts

• Withered Dream Belt Dragonmaw / Wildhammer exalted
• (The Lightning Lash is apparently about equal to the Wildhammer rep item, with some arguing its gem slot makes it BiS pre-raid. -P)

I'm honestly not even going to bother listing any other belts out there, because nothing compares to this belt at all. ...

Two things jump out.
1.) I should've already gotten the Aessina-Blessed Gloves but I haven't. I've finished HyJal, so I should be revered, it appears (green, above).

2.) Three of these items (and four on the whole list) are based on Wildhammer rep (yellow, above). Guess where I'm farming next?

3.) Okay, three. Wrap of the Fallen City seems easy to get iff you've done Uldum. I started there, but quickly went Highlands. I can't tell how many of these questlines you need to do, but it appears to require a few. I might not be pulling in the Wrap.

I'll admit that I'm miffed that none of this is Leatherworking craftable. /sigh There's some debate on wowhead on if the Chestguard of Nature's Fury is worth a rip or not. The Lightning Lash is apparently about equal to the Wildhammer rep item, with some arguing its gem slot makes it BiS pre-raid.

I'll add some of that and do more research.

One final bit: It looks like you might need a Finkle's Skinner to skin some bosses. It looks like The Beast is soloable now. Here's one guide. I really shoulda gotten this years ago. I'm also going to need some Pristine Hide if I'm going to craft the chestpiece instead of going to Uldum.

WoW Rookie: How to get up to speed for heroics

Wish they could name it something other than WoW Rookie, but that's the sort of guide I'd hoped to find for gearing. Not quite as detailed as I'd like, but a good start. Example...

Reputations

As we talked about a few weeks ago, Cataclysm reputations can provide significantly useful gear. There are 20 epic items available for purchase with reputations, all at item level 359. There are dozens of item level 346 items available.

This also gives decent starts to wowhead searches for, say, craftables. Here's the list narrowed to items that are Druid useable. Next, picking out what's good for Balance. Nothing gives spellpower, so it'll take a little bit of thinking.

I'd really have preferred to see a list of items by dungeon, but obviously it'd be a lot of work listing everything for each class and talent spec. I'll dig around some more and get balance specific.

Panzerkin finally D-E-D

I found out reading Restokin:

Moonkin Form now grants 15% damage reduction instead of increased armor.

See, what the armor bonus did was allow you to put together mitigation gear, just like any other tank or off-tank. Now, the benefit is flat. I'll have to double check the mathes, since I really am mostly a non-mathes player, but I don't think 15% is going to be as good as max leather armor with the proper enchantments, etc.

This is really another watering down of the game, "Dungeons are hard" aside. Not only does the quest reward gear look exactly the same with small changes during upgrades, saying that you're essentially marching your way through a pre-defined route of gearing when questing, now, just as with the switch from +healing gear to just generic spellpower and the elimination of spell type specific bonuses, every Boomkin is marching along, playing just like every other.

The character of the game is taking a hit. Playstyles are becoming more standardized by the standardization of gear and gear bonuses.