Part 1 - Introduction

Getting geared up for Dungeons & Raids – your first level 80
Part 1 – Introduction.

I guess it is best to think backwards and plan so you can start working towards this as soon as you get to Northrend.

To go on Raids you will need good gear. Blizard gives equipment a ‘level’ and to go on raids you will want to be pretty much epic gear all over and most of it will be above the ‘basic’ level of 200. This isn’t so easy! You will also want maximum benefit from enhancements, gems, food buffs and elixirs/flasks – especially if your gear is only just good enough.

ARMOUR + WEAPONS
To get better than average epic gear you will either need to be VERY rich or farm emblems.

Those with enough cash can buy the mats (or the finished article) for an epic level 264 legs & feet, epic level 245 chest & wrist and epic level 226 waist say 18000 gold for the lot! Getting the mats from the AH and farming and getting someone to craft the item is invariably a bit cheaper – but still not cheap!

The fastest way to farm emblems is to do lots of random dungeons on Heroic level. Guild runs help as better geared guildies will compensate for your (initially) not so good gear, but guild runs are not so easy to organise – especially as the guild has few healers and fewer tanks. So you can join Pick up Groups provided your gear is good enough to let you – so you need some fairly reasonable gear to start.

One way to get some reasonable gear is by getting faction rep with the right factions. There are 4 factions which allow exalted rep to purchase an epic level 200 piece of armour for a modest sum, each of the 4 offer something for a wearer of cloth, leather, mail and plate – but it may not be the type you want – a rogue, for example, will find a leather piece with the quartermaster of each faction but some will be suitable only for Druids etc. Cloth wearers do rather better than most in this respect. The four factions are Wyrmrest Accord, Kirim Tor, Argent Crusade and Knights of Ebon Blade.

The next way to get a level 200 epic item is to get it crafted. Tailors, leatherworkers and blacksmiths all get taught recipes for variations of two pieces of epic level 200 armour, not the same pieces though, Blacksmiths make head & feet, tailors chest & glove etc. Annoyingly the piece you can get crafted sometimes is covered by one of the faction reps (which are often cheaper than buying the mats and getting a guildie to craft it). Prices for the mats for these items do vary a bit – the most expensive would be about 600g but most will be a lot cheaper – especially if you farm some of the mats yourself. The guild jewel crafters can make epic level 200 necks and rings but mats cost about 500 gold each. Engineers can make epic level 200 guns – mats about 600 gold. Inscriptors can make epic level 200 off hand bits for spellcasters – these are useable at lvl 77 and pretty cheap on AH.

The guild bank does keep a few ‘spare’ basic epics which you can use – please make a reasonable donation.

You will probably pick up some reasonable gear as you level, especially in the dungeons at normal level, hopefully you will have picked up enough ‘rare’ gear to fill in the holes where you haven’t got epic stuff, faction rep can also help here as they all have rare items in addition to the epic stuff.

PVP gear can also help a bit, invariably this will have Resiliance and possibly Spell Penetration buffs which are pretty much useless in dungeons & raids so the gear might be pretty good for PVP but nothing like so good in a dungeon. Be prepared for the odd sarcastic comment in a pick up group if you are wearing PVP gear!

ENHANCEMENTS
There are 3 types of enhancements. The most common is obviously enchantments. The second is stuff manufactured by tailors/leatherworkers/blacksmiths and these are sometimes the only way of enhancing a piece (e.g. legs) and sometimes an alternative to enchantments (e.g. shield). Head and shoulder enhancements can only be purchased; either through PVP ( but these are inferior for Dungeons/Raids as above) or are available from the relevant faction quartermaster once your rep is high enough. Getting your faction rep up is pretty important as there is no other way to getting the best head and shoulder enhancements. Each of the four factions mentioned above stocks a different head enhancement and a fifth faction, Sons of Hodir, stocks four different shoulder enhancements.

GEMS
There are four levels of Northrend Gems, uncommon which can sometimes randomly be perfect (slightly better), rare and epic. Note the Burning Crusade gems are v poor, an epic BC gem is inferior to an ordinary uncommon Northrend one. The guild bank stocks one of each of most of the uncommon gems (they don’t stack) and if you take one it will quickly be replaced. There are also a few ready cut rare gems in the guild bank but these are the one of the mats for the epic gems and obtaining the recipes to cut them is a pain, but if there are some in the bank you need they will usually be easily replaced, a small donation would be appropriate. The guild Jewel crafters can cut most of the epic gems you are likely to want (between them) so if you have epic gear and know which gem you want just ask – a donation…..etc.

FOOD BUFFS
There is a variety of food buffs available and all the best ones need Northrend Spices, obtained by doing daily cooking quests (v easy). The guild has several maxed out cooks with all the recipes and tons of Northrend Spice. If you farm the other ingredients one of the cooks will cook it for you. Some of the mats are fish so fishing can be useful, the standard raid food (for those who don’t need a different buff) is Fish Feast. Note that the cooking and fishing daily quests are the only known daily quests for the Kirin Tor Faction.

ELIXIRS & FLASKS etc
I know little about the production of these, they are usually available on the AH and I personally prefer Flasks which continue even after you have died!