So I’m slowly pulling together Holy gear and upgrading my DPS gear to start playing in heroics. I’ve been poking at the AH, but there’s been something of a dearth of affordable ilevel 200+ items, and the stuff that is for sale is 1000 gold or higher, usually more like 5k or 9k. Since I’m gearing up for two specs, I’m trying to keep it relatively cheap per piece, so I’ve been looking at reputation gear. I’ve got a few 200s in both specs, but if most of my gear is the 166 and 187 blues/purples you can get from Quartermasters, is that sufficient to start rolling heroics?
Yes.
Yeah, the masks are next to impossible to get in one year. I trick-or-treated like mad last year and only got 9 out of the 20.
Grats on the squashling and helm!
Bosstone, you might want to check into crafted gear too. If you can collect the mats, you can usually find a crafter to make the item for you for a small tip (or even for free if they are levelling their skill). The mats are not always cheaper than the final crafted item, but often are.
Sorry I won’t be able to join tonight. Good luck in DM!
I need to be running the HH all week just to get the Hallowed Helm, which will net me a title and a drake! But I haven’t even seen one yet, while the pet keeps dropping.
Okay. But maybe you’ll get it before our run :D. Also you can get the helm from trick-or-treating, in case you didn’t know. Good luck!
Therefore - unless another 'lock shows up - it looks like DM. That will be a nice change of pace, and we can always go back to BRD later.
Heh. It’s stuff like this that makes me feel guilty about getting my Hallowed Helm in a daily Fires box.
I can also give Rill a run into the jail section with Muzungu so he can at least get the princess quest.
The really expensive epics on the AH will probably be replaced in 3.3 with Icecrown gear; if not, the Triumph badge availability will make gearing for Icecrown a lot easier - I wouldn’t worry about dropping cash on most AH gear. The only thing I would suggest getting from AH before starting Heroics is Zom’s Crackling Bulwark for your Holy kit; it’s the best pre-raid shield for healing. Aside from that, the Savage and Ornate Saronite sets are fine for starting heroics; get with a Blacksmith and upgrade any slot you can. If you don’t have the De-Raged Waraxe from the Zul’Drak arena event, get that for Ret, and consider having a Saronite Spellblade (Blacksmith) crafted for Holy if you don’t have better. Then hit the Headless Horseman while the Hallow’s End holiday is on; there’s a nice ring for Holy (arguably two if you don’t have better than the +hit ring), a ring for Ret, and a helmet for Ret.
Once you’ve done that, try getting into a Trial of the Crusader (5man, aka ToC) normal mode farm group - the drops there are all epic, and all very nice. Run ToC heroic daily if you can; there’s a Ret axe and a Holy mace and other goodies. Between the two, and a few badge pieces, you’ll be ready for Uldaman and ToC-10/25 in no time. FWIW, I started solo healing ToC-5 heroic with ~1450 +heal, in full Ornate Saronite, still wearing some pieces from Karazhan, heh. The only problem I had was on phase 3 of the Black Knight where there is a LOT of group damage and, having not healed on a Pally for over a year, my reflexes were just bad… I’d recommend sticking to DPS in heroic ToC until you have better gear, and practise healing in other heroics.
Grats! And I made the same mistake as you, even though I’ve done this before, so you’d think I’d know better. :smack: I just misremembered. Fortunately, I noticed pretty early on that I got credit when I got the candy, not when I talked to the Innkeeper.
As the song goes, “It’s like Lotto: you gotta be in it to win it.” If you don’t run, you have zero chance of getting the mount; if you do run, you have a tiny chance of getting the mount, but you also get a bit of cash and some fun items.
Seriously, don’t worry about it–I almost never PvP on my main, either. Just go into a Battleground and soak up HKs. (You don’t have to be the one to kill the opposing player–you just have to be in the vicinity when they die.) I mean, obviously, help as much as you’re able instead of just standing there, but don’t worry if you suck at it.
Yeah, you’re probably looking at the BOE items that come off of vendors or drop in Naxx, Uld, and ToC, or the really high-level crafted stuff. Here’s some ilvl200 crafted stuff to look for:
DPS:
2H Mace: Titansteel Destroyer
Head: Spiked Titansteel Helm
Feet: Spiked Titansteel Treads
Back: Ice Striker’s Cloak
Healing:
1H Mace: Titansteel Guardian
Shield: I swear there’s a caster equivalent to Titanshield Shield Wall with the same model but different coloring, but I can’t find it. Check out the page and see if there are any items listed that share the model.
Head: Brilliant Titansteel Helm
Feet: Brilliant Titansteel Treads
Most Blacksmiths should have the Titansteel recipes (they all come from the trainer), so if you can’t find the items themselves on the AH, you can almost certainly find the mats and then have a BS (preferably a friend or guildie) make them for you. Even if the items are up, check the price versus a combine–it might be cheaper to have them made than to buy them outright. The cloak is LW, IIRC.
Absolutely. For lower-level Heroics, even a few greens is fine.
Did the HH yesterday on my druid tank and on my priest. One of our hunters just needed the Hallowed Helm to get the achievement and the drake from the meta-achievement, so she was chomping at the bit to do it again. We got together 2 other guildie DPS and my priest, and just needed a tank. A warrior friend of hers from an uber-guild had already done it but offered to fill in; he didn’t need anything. Fortunately for her and unbeknownst to me, I hadn’t done it before on my priest, so I had two summons to do. And of course, I went last, we’re down to the last summons, and finally the helm drops.
And after we’ve almost all passed, with her greeding, one of our guildies says, “I’m doing the achievement too, I’m needing.” We all yelled, “no, greed! we greed the vanity stuff!” The hunter who organized the run won the roll, and bingo, achievement spam.
Oh, and I did HCoS last night as well with my hunter, and it turns out everyone else already had the drake. :smack: I’m kind of disappointed, since I didn’t really want it - not only is my hunter an engineer so she’s got the turbo-copter, but I’m also just not a fan of big mounts.
I actually took the Icier Barbed Spear for that, and I’ve already replaced it. I suppose the Whale-Stick Harpoon isn’t the best for Ret Pallies, but it ain’t half bad either.
I lucked out on the one HH run I’ve gone to; the helm dropped and I was the only plate wearer in the group. It’s my best piece right now. I’ve also got the Holy ring; that’s all that would drop for us after the helm, so there were more than enough. 
Looking at that profile, I just realized I’m already hitcapped. Didn’t even notice. Yay for Draenei.
Grats–even if you never use it, it’s nice to have. 
That’s awesome. Getting to that 8% Hit cap is the best thing you can do for your DPS up to that point–under the cap, nothing else will give you as big a damage boost.
It’s slightly frustrating - I replaced my two-hander (in my DPS set anyway) with an axe that dropped in H ToC, which required me to find about 70 hit rating in gems and enchants. Then I went out and spent a buncha conquest emblems on a DPS chest piece, but can’t wear it yet because I need another 30 or so hit rating to make up for the difference between my current blue chest and the new purple one; I figure if I replace my current heroic-emblem belt with the conquest version that will make up most of the difference, but in the meantime my shiny new chest piece is sitting in my bags.
Nah, the Whale Stick isn’t bad; I actually should grab it, I think I’m Revered with them now. The only reason you - generally - won’t see Pallies with spears is because they have Attack Power, which doesn’t scale with Kings, so given equal DPS, an Axe or Mace is generally going to be the better choice due to stats. But still, a weapon upgrade is a weapon upgrade, if ya know what I mean.
Checking your gear, you really want the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond for your meta. AP is nice, but again, doesn’t scale with Kings, and the reduced stun duration really isn’t going to do anything for your PvE DPS.
Your Talents could use a little tweaking for PvE as well; Deflection and Eye for an Eye really don’t do anything for you DPS-wise. They may be nice for soloing, but as you get into groups and raids, you’ll want to drop them. Vindication is arguable, as it may be redundant depending on group composition, but can be helpful situationally. Spiritual Focus is definitely not recommended or needed as Ret - Art of War procs will take care of your soloing needs, and you shouldn’t generally be stopping DPS to heal in groups, other than the occasional Art of War if you have a free GCD with everything on cooldown. With the points you free up from the Ret tree, max out Seals of the Pure in Holy for DPS.
For Glyphs, replace Seal of Command with Seal of Vengeance (better for bosses, and you shouldn’t have mana problems as Ret anyway), and replace Divine Storm with Judgement. Also make sure to pick up Lay on Hands and Sense Undead for your minors. I know the advise is unsolicited, but hey, you linked a profile. 
Also, I popped back in specifically to correct myself… I can’t believe I typed Uldaman in my prior post. I meant Ulduar, of course. Damn Blizz and their “Uld” obsession. Soon we’ll have Uldum. Oy.
On preview: hit does get better; there’s a definite weird range of gear around Naxx level that just suffers for lack of hit. As you get into ToC and Uld, you’ll be less hit-bound.
Honestly, I hadn’t even considered that. I’ve been using Might and nothing but. When you mention Kings, is it because Kings will outweigh Improved Might with the right gear, or because in a raid there’ll likely be enough Pallies to spread the Blessings around and I should expect Kings?
I picked up Persistent Earthsiege because I was looking for a meta I could use that triggered off 2 yellows and 1 blue, which is all I currently have. Once I start gearing up I’ll definitely take that advice, though.
Yep, those were chosen with soloing in mind, and Eye for an Eye I only took because I had nowhere else to put those points. Art of War is usually sufficient, but sometimes when soloing I really need that Holy Light, thus Spiritual Focus. Plus, again, I had nowhere else to put the points. I typically use Command while soloing, so I didn’t bother with Seals of the Pure.
Again, chosen with soloing in mind, naturally.
Thanks, I wasn’t sure what to do for those empty slots.
Not at all! I really do appreciate the analysis. I’m a little uncertain whether or not I want to keep the Ret spec targeted for soloing rather than raiding, to make dailies and such that much smoother. But I probably will spec it for raiding, and in that case the advice is very helpful.
Well, my main (human pally 80) trick-or-treated the Sinister Squashling. Last night I took every single one of my alts (on all 5 servers) ToT-ing, and the only one to get the Hallowed Helm was my lvl 11 tauren druid on Cairne - my least-played toon on my two main servers. My human warrior on Steamwheedle Cartel (RP server) ToT-ed last night and again this morning, at the same innkeeper, and both times got “tricked” and transformed into mini-Diablo.
Strange, strange incident last night. I got my nelf priest to 20, so I was heading for Darnassus to learn Apprentice Riding and buy her a Striped Dawnsaber. I was waiting for the boat in SW, and beside me was a lvl 40 nelf (didn’t see his class) on a basic cat mount, so I guessed to myself, “Heh, looks like he’s on his way to get Journeyman Riding…” So we both got off the boat in Auberdine, and I ran straight across the pier toward the boat to Darnassus, and I noticed that, despite the fact that I was on foot and this lvl 40 was mounted, he never passed me. I thought, “Geez, it’s like he’s trying to follow me to see where to go.” Sure enough, while I’m standing on the Darnassus boat, he whispered to me, “Which one of these boatg ot (sic) Darnassus?” So I whispered back, “This one.” I didn’t think much of it - it can be confusing trying to remember which boat goes to Darn and which on goes to Azuremyst if you haven’t used the Auberdine boats in a while.
Well then we get into Darnassus and I head toward the Cenarion Enclave to get my mount, and he’s still staying behind me. About the time I got to the riding trainer, he whispered to me again, “Where do you buy mounts here?” 
So now I’m thinking, “Dude, same place you bought the one you’re already riding!” I didn’t answer him because I’d made it to the trainer and he was right behind me, so he could see for himself. He went directly to the mount seller and sat there for a minute, then apparently remembered he needed to train Journeyman riding first and moved over to the trainer. But I never saw the “<Player Name> has learned [Journeyman Riding]” announcement in my chat box. At that point I rode off to take care of some other business and left him to figure it out on his own (and I wanted to leave before he tried to ask me for gold to pay for his training).
My first thought was that he must have bought the character. I couldn’t think of any other reason for such cluelessness. But then I thought, who buys such a low-level character? My only guess is that he must have bought a whole account with multiple characters, with an 80 of some other race, and now he was trying out the lower-level toons. Dumbass.
I got a huge laugh when I boated over to the Exodar to hit the candy bucket there. The Draenei Commoners at the flight point were wearing the Flimsy Male Blood Elf masks, and one of them said, “I am a slender, delicate flower!”
(Curiously, all the masks I’ve gotten on my various toons have all been male masks. Not a single female mask so far.)
Anyway, how about some more WoW video fun? I just discovered this guy named Cranius who writes and performs his own original music for his extremely well done videos (as opposed to Nymh and others who do parodies of well-known songs).
Darrowshire is a real tearjerker.
Don’t Make Me Get My Mainis for the PvPers out there, and possibly the funniest WoW video I’ve seen.
Yeah, balancing around Hit and Exp caps is a huge pain in the ass. I recently dropped something like 1k gold regemming and chanting my Arms equipment after picking up a new DPS piece or two that pushed me way over cap.
Note for gemming: ignore socket bonuses, for the most part. Almost always, you’ll get more use by just gemming for the most useful stat to you instead of gemming a less useful stat that gets you the socket bonus. Figure out what gems you need/want, **then **figure out what sockets to put them in based on those socket’s bonuses.
The nice thing about a PvE raiding spec vs. a PvE soloing spec is that after you get gear that’s even a little bit better than the minimum, you’ll never miss the extra survivability talents you used to have.
Grats on the pet, and ain’t that always the way it works on the helm.
I’m thinking you’re spot-on.
I dare you not to get “That’s the World of Warcraft That You Play” stuck in your head. Granted, some of it’s a little bit outdated (it was written at the end of Vanilla, before the release of TBC), but most of it still rings true (and hilarious). And it’s not officially about WoW, but the cast of The Guild made “Do You Want to Date My Avatar” (c’mon, who doesn’t love Felicia Day?).
Yeah, the only thing I miss about my old PvE spec (ditched in favor of a tanking offspec) is the mounted movement speed bonus.
True enough. I’ve already noticed the dailies I’ve been doing regularly get just a little easier with each new piece I pick up. I’m barely taking any damage one-on-one with level 80 enemies as it is.
It seems once a week I have to point this out to someone in my guild. Plenty of folks still think you can only put a yellow (or orange or green) gem in a yellow slot. Unless the bonus will make up for it, always put your best gem in the slot.
Then, to get your meta activated, get one of the prismatic gems (Nightmare Tear being the current best one, but expensive - the older ones are fine too and should be reasonably priced). They count as 1 gem of each color and can activate any socket bonus (so use it in a socket with a nice bonus but a bad color for your class/spec). Never use a prismatic gem in a prismatic socket (i.e. the BS-created belt buckle). It’s a waste of the prismatic quality of the gem.
As far as hit-cap balancing also consider what you’ll be doing - the cap is different for heroics than it is for raids. Sometimes you might equip a lower-level item with hit on it to meet the raid-boss hit cap. There is also some tasty +40 hit food, and probably elixirs as well. Also, a few hit trinkets are available (even PvP ones can be useful if you need a nice chunk of hit).
It’s both. For many classes Kings becomes better than Might at a certain point in gearing. For example, my hunter has like 1950 unbuffed AGI right now, which means a 10% Kings gives me 195 AGI which is 390 AP and 3.75% crit. This doesn’t take into account the AP I get from INT and STAM (through Survival talents).
IME, BoK is the best of the Pally buffs for most classes, but you will almost always have both, even in 10-man raids. And, even if you don’t, you can get a replacement for Might from other folks (Warriors have Battle Shout that does the same buff). There is no replacement for BoK (except the LW Drums - which is an 8% buff).