Gear Check
So it is time to hunker down and get to work on finishing my gear. I have been reading Nibuca’s blog and she had up a “List of Affliction Warlock pre-Kara DPS Gear”. I have been using this as a guide and some things I will have to modify.
Bracers of Nimble Thought this is a craft item and takes Heart of Darkness a drop in Black Temple. *laughs hysterically* Yea right Farstriders has exactly ZERO guilds doing BT. Belt of Blasting is another crafted item that I will never see anytime soon. I will have to find a replacement for bracers and waist items.
So what does that leave me:
There are a few items on the list that require Heroic Badge of Justice…
Studious Wraps (Hands) – 60 Heroic Badge of Justice
Carved Witch Doctor's Stick (Wand) - 25 Heroic Badge of Justice
Icon of the Silver Crescent (Trinket) - 41 Heroic Badge of Justice
One requires Spirit Shards:
Seal of the Exorcist (Ring) – 50 spirit shards
I am not going to see 60 Badge of Justice for a while. I decided my next PvP item will be the Gladiator's Dreadweave Gloves. This doesn’t break up my current sets and is a significant upgrade.
Sethekk Oracle Cloak is a dropped off Talon King Ikiss. I have seen this drop once. I lost out to the mage running with us. I have not seen it drop since. I am going to watch for an alternative. This is a good candidate to PvP for a replacement.
I don’t really want to put together a Darkmoon Card: Crusade set because that is just a pain (and expensive). But in researching options I just may have to hunker down and pick this up. This thing Procs on EVERY successful spell… after the tank has established agro the first 10 seconds of a battle I toss up about 6 spells or more. That is a lot of stacking. But what a pain ...
Ashyen's Gift (finger) requires Cenarion Expedition reputation of exalted. So some reputation runs are in my future.
Enchants? Augments? Gems?
I am a mess.
I am slowly upgrading. With the epic flyer out of the way… I cringe less over a 40G gem and that is only +2 stats better then the 2G gem. I sure feel like I have a long way to go… but in reality I am almost there.
Comments
Please update the link to the new site ;)
I's finding the sandbox mode of warcrafter.net to be useful fer trying on different gear/gems/enchants to see how they affectifies me stats. Might wanta give it a look, if you haven't alreadies.
Kat, I'm sure you've mentioned your professions before, but damned if I can recall (coffee must finish brewing!). But if you're a tailor, the Shadowcloth set will happily take your through Kara and Gruul's before the honest-to-goodness upgrades start coming your way. Don't be too put off on the need for badges. Those items you listed would be real nice to have. But they're not an absolute item list that should be viewed as being set in stone.
Also, don't always spend that extra gold on gems that only give you a +2 increase to the base stat that the green gem version has. Because, honestly, what's the difference between a gem with a +6 Stam increase and a +8 Stam increase. Is it really worth the extra gold? Sometimes, sure. But not always. And not often.
Hello Arrens!
Yeppers, I am a Shadowcloth tailor so I have the complete set and have thoroughly enjoyed the benefits of the set bonuses.
I know I am not waiting till I collect all the badges to replace what I have. It was a kind of check list to me to see what substitutions needed to be made from the list. After this assessment they are all candidates to PvP for upgrades for my PvE set.
Gems now… I needed to balance my stats. Looking to gain more stamina without losing a lot spell hit and damage. So since I had a few hundred gold lying around I thought I should buy myself some things shiny and pretty. =)
The Spellstrike crafted set is equippable
I don't think my previous comment took, so i'm gonna try again. Hope this works and I hope you're not getting spammed by two huge walls of text. :)
The Spellstrike crafted set is equippable as soon as you hit 70, and if you're a tailor (as you should be), you get a pretty nice set bonus from it. Though they're expensive to buy/craft, these two items will last you well into tier 5 and even tier 6 raiding content. Get them and put good gems in them ASAP!
Speaking of crafting... if you're buying crafted gear or farming the mats for it, try to do it with a long-term goal in mind. For example, getting a belt like Girdle of Ruination crafted will provide you with the biggest short-term gain compared to most other crafted belts, but once you replace it in SSC (either with the Cord of Screaming Terrors or the Belt of Blasting), you've effectively trashed all of the mats and money you put in to crafting your original belt . I personally chose to get Unyielding Girdle crafted. While not quite as good as the "GoR," it still serves me well now that I've upgraded to the Belt of Blasting. I still use the "UG" for PvP and Arenas now that I've re-gemmed it for extra survivability. So I'm still getting mileage out of my old gear.
The same mantra holds true for enchanting or gemming your gear. The stuff that you'll hold on to the longest (Frozen Shadoweave, Spell Strike, tiered pieces, and badge gear) is the stuff you should put the more expensive gems and enchants on. Gear that is easily upgradable should get lesser gems and enchants. For example... say you just walked into Kara and picked up the Harbinger Bands off of Attumen the Huntsman. These are decent bracers, but they are easily replaced by the Bands of Nefarious Deeds off of Maiden of Virtue or by the Vindicator's Silk Cuffs from honor rewards. Don't blow 200G worth of mats to put +15 spell damage on the "bands." Just put the (much cheaper) +intellect enchant on them and hold out until you get something better. Likewise, you should be putting rare (or even epic) gems in your Frozen Shadoweave but not in your Oblivion Raiment. Just use the uncommon-quality gems in the blue items.
Oh, and if you have the money, you should really consider investing in the blessings deck. Darkmoon Card: Crusade is one of the best caster trinkets in the game. It's well worth the gold.
Let me know if any of this helps!
http://feardotdotdot.blogspot.com
@Logan
I am a tailor. I am using the Frozen Shadoweave, Spellstrike set, and the Unyielding Girdle too. I had the same thought about the UG for PvP and since had the matching gloves I socketed the gems for PvP.
Thank you for your enchanting and gemming view. I completely agree. You have said it much better then I could too. =)
@everyone
Just read what Logan wrote.
In case you're still shopping for enchants, I made a post of useful ones on my blog (linked above) if you're interested.