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You can skip the following 4 paragraphs to the numbered list of questions. Thanks either way

I've been doing PvP through WotLK and Cata. Stopped playing during Cataclysm, and returned to "retail WoW" (wink wink) shortly after they announced Warlords of Draenor. MoP did not interest me in the slightest, but I wanted to level a new main and gear up to prepare for when WoD goes live. This all happened late 2013.

Of course, needless to say, I received a slap in the face by Blizz. WoD was not going live until late of this year. I was once more, faced between two options: quitting again until WoD did come out, or playing through the horrendous PvP (in my opinion) of MoP. I decided to hold off on quitting again to try out some of the new PvE content. I never actually raided before, save for a few ICC pug runs which were never really successful, so I thought I should give it a try.

I haven't looked back since then. Raiding is a lot of fun! I've recently cleared Garrosh on LFR difficulty, and I'm willing to progress through it and clear it on Normal difficulty by the time WoD goes live.

Although, I do have some basic questions with regards to raiding. I received some answers on the official WoW forums, but I supposed them to be somewhat outdated (now that we're in 5.4.8). I'm also interested in further opinions on the following issues:

1. I have the complete 550 ilvl PvP gear set (with the PvP Frost stat priority of Haste > Mastery > Crit). Which raid difficulty will provide statistical gear upgrades for me? On the official forums, the posters informed me that only Flex gear would benefit me. And that I should only replace my Prideful gear with LFR gear for reaching the Hit cap. Is this still accurate with 5.4.8? Is 4/4 upgraded LFR gear now superior to Prideful gear in raiding environments? Is it even worth upgrading any of LFR gear slots to 4/4?

2. Weapons and trinkets. I'm looking for a set of weapons to replace my current Prideful Sword + Offhand, as well as a couple of trinkets to replace my current PvP ones. Which bosses in your opinion (and at which difficulty) can provide upgrades to both sets of gear? I currently have Purified Binding of Immerseus (LFR). Is it worth upgrading it to 4/4 and then replacing the Prideful Insignia/Badge with it. Which of the two PvP trinkets should I replace PBoI with? If it helps, I'm doing approximatly 120-140k DPS with my current gear.

3. Gearing up. Quickest method of gearing up in your opinion? Is farming LFR even worth the effort? Are there any competitive, yet purchasable pieces I can buy from the AH or from vendors? I had a look through my realm's AH and spotted two pieces in particular: Belt and Leggings of the Night Sky. Should I purchase either/both of them? Taking into account, I have the Chronomancer leggings from the Celestials.

4. Is the Prideful 4 set bonus better than the Chronomancer 2 set bonus for Frost? I find that Alter Time significantly affects my DPS, so it stand to reason that, Alter Timing more often would yield higher DPS. I currently have both Chronomancer pieces from the Celestials. If the Prideful 4 set is better, which of the 2 should I replace with a Prideful piece?

5. At my current ilvl, do you think Frost is an optimal spec? I'd very much like to go Fire. My Fire PvP set however is not completely Prideful. To give you an idea, with it, I can reach up to 42% crit chance (by ignoring socket bonuses and gemming full crit). Is Arcane at least, any better than Frost at my ilvl?

6. Legendary cloak. In your opinion, and based on speculation revolving around the WoD release date; is it worth finishing off the Legendary Cloak quest? How long does it usually take? My goal is to clear Normal SoO by the time WoD comes out. Is the Legendary necessary to accomplish this? At the moment, I'm on the Sigil farming phase of the quest line. I have 7 Sigils of Power and 1 Sigil of Wisdom. Any tips you can give me to complete the quest chain quicker?

7. Is my goal to clear Normal SoO by WoD even accomplishable? I'm on a PvP server, and I'm part of a dedicated PvP guild. Organized raiding is out of the question at the moment. Is Normal SoO pug-able?


Here's my armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/r ... shy/simple" target="_blank
I'm often switching between PvP and PvE sets, so I'll just list my current PvE set below:

Head: Prideful [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/103422" target="_blank ]
Neck: Ashflare Pendant (LFR) [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/105041" target="_blank ]
Shoulders: Shoulderpads of Dou Dou Chong (LFR) [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/104943" target="_blank ]
Cloak: Drape of the Omega (Flex) [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/105829" target="_blank ]
Chest: Robes of the Tendered Heart (Flex) [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/104693" target="_blank ]
Wrists: Prideful [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/103358" target="_blank ]
Main-Hand: Prideful [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/103504" target="_blank ]
Off-Hand: Prideful [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/103363" target="_blank ]
Trinket: Prideful Insignia of Dominance [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/103506" target="_blank ]
Trinket: Purified Bindings of Imerseus (Flex) [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/104675" target="_blank ]
Ring: Petrified Pennyroyal Ring (LFR) [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/104945" target="_blank ]
Ring: Prideful [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/103371" target="_blank ]
Boots: Prideful [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/103354" target="_blank ]
Leggings: Chronomancer Leggings (Normal) [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/99162" target="_blank ]
Belt: Cloudscorcher, Belt of the Impatient (Timeless) [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/101900" target="_blank ]
Gloves: Chronomancer Gloves [ http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/99160" target="_blank ]


Thanks in advance!

slap in the face

We need a bell that we can hit every time this is said on the forum. Or some sort of counter on the side


1.) A good rule of thumb if you aren't looking to get too deep into theorycrafting is that "It's all about the iLevels!" There's a bit more nuance with trinkets, but not so much when talking about the PVP trinkets. With the latest patch you can give your gear a total of four upgrades, or +16 iLevels. 528+16 < 550 gear (But not by much!).

However, gaining the PVE set of gear will provide you with set bonuses that you wouldn't get with your PVP gear. Being able to reforge and enchant that gear optimally will also net you a pretty large boost, more than what you'll see by sticking with the +2 ilevel pieces.

It isn't really worth upgrading the LFR gear however if you're able to get into a flex or even a normal raid. Only upgrade the gear that you're not going to quickly replace.

2.) It's going to depend on your spec, but the bindings is very much worth using and upgrading. Beyond that it's a toss up between the black blood from Garrosh and the Toxic Totem. Either would net you more DPS when fully upgraded versus either of the PVP trinkets.

3.) Throw tokens at Ordos if any character on your account has the cloak. If this character doesn't have the cloak, work on getting it. After that, SoO is really your best bet. It's worth farming if you want to improve your PVE DPS.

4.) Someone else will have to confirm, but I don't think the shortened cooldown on AT will match the tier 2 piece. It will also depend on your spec.

5.) Frost is our go-to spec for low iLevels. If you're looking to be optimal, this is what you're going to get the most bang-for-your-buck with in LFR. You can still play fire or arcane, but you may not do as well as you would do with frost.

6.) Very worth it! It grants you access to Ordos himself which, when he drops a piece, will always be normal warforged. In addition, it's miles above any cloak you would be able to receive in LFR. Unfortunately there aren't any tips to finishing it quicker other than making sure you kill every boss you can every week. Remember that the first two wings of SoO can also drop the items you need for the quest.


-------Edit: Whoops! Hit submit too soon----------

7.) It's very possible as long as you can find other people to play with. Normal SoO isn't too difficult, especially the first half of the raid. With the latest changes to gear upgrades it will be even easier.

I'm using the 550 PVP Alacrity neck til I get better. It;s not a bad item since it has haste mastery. I would honestly do celestial to get the gloves pants and LFR for the trinkets. Then start listing your name for flex. You might get lucky and get a ton od stuff that first week in and be able to start looking for normal pugs

I'd very much advise you to finish the legendary cloak quest, and then just try to find either crossrealm PuGs(can even pug earlier HCs) or find a guild trying to start doing normals(should be loads around). Especially with the 4/4 upgrades it'll be so easy to get a higher ilvl once you start raiding that you should just stick to the spec you like. They will all perform very well.

Just make sure that you get a flex 4 set if you can, the bonus is massive for fire.

1. Flex gear will only be better than prideful once you've fully upgraded it. Prideful is actually quite good (in most cases competitive with unupgraded normal gear). Except of course for the trinkets, which are awful. Your main priority should be trying to get Totem from Dark Shamans, or Black Blood off Garrosh. You can also get the VP Shado Pan trinket or Timeless Isle Curio. I would not waste your time with any LFR gear except for that.

2. Your weapons are already acceptable for normal, but you can get several upgrades in Flex. The main issue is just your trinkets.

3/4. I would definitely suggest using the normal 2 pc from Celestials both for the set bonus and for the fact that you've likely already upgraded them and 16 ilevels is a big difference. The belt is a nice upgrade if you upgrade it, but I wouldn't say it's a huge deal and unless you have a lot of cash to throw around I wouldn't bother getting it.

5. I would definitely wait until you get 4 pc to go fire.

6. The cloak/gem is a huge difference in DPS and will help a lot but you don't need them to clear normal. It will be very hard to find a raiding guild without one and the ilevel inflation helps you pug but it's definitely doable without having one. I pugged my Garrosh kill before getting it, in fact, I'm still on runestones. Depending on how long it takes to get 5 more runestones it has taken me about 3 months and since I doubt 6.0 is coming before Septemberish I would definitely recommend working on it. For the sigils, you can run every LFR which will make it go faster but is extremely tedious, after that it's the awful valor quests.

7. Yes definitely, I resubbed only a few months ago and I pugged all of it on Openraid. I would highly suggest just looking for long going runs after you've upgraded your trinkets and get right in. If you do well you'll probably be invited next week or prioritized, and it's a partial guild pug it's generally not too hard to get to Garrosh.

For reference, this is the group that I got my Garrosh kill with: http://openraid.us/events/view/197060" target="_blank

Thanks for the help everyone! Highly appreciate it. I'll post back when I have more questions.

Gaze of Arrogance recently dropped for me, unfortunately it was LFR... so it was about 3k less spell power. I don't think I'll replace my weps any time soon

I guess it's just the anti-pvp gear syndrome. PvP gear is apparently frowned upon in the raiding community :L... despite being statistically superior in most cases, I'm often questioned during pugs when I hop in with half a PvP set. I started flex today, and I will try to at least reach the third wing before the week's over. Thanks again!

EDIT:

You can also get the VP Shado Pan trinket or Timeless Isle Curio.

Yu'lon's bite is superior to the Prideful proc trinket? It's got an ilvl of 496...?
Thanks for your thorough response either way

EDIT II:

For reference, this is the group that I got my Garrosh kill with: http://openraid.us/events/view/197060" target="_blank

I see this in the requirements: "Minimum PvE equipped item level of 545+ gemmed and enchanted."

Whatch I tell you of anti-PvP syndrome Q_Q

Yu'lon's bite is superior to the Prideful proc trinket? It's got an ilvl of 496...?
Thanks for your thorough response either way

You're actually right to be skeptical, as I checked it out and the Prideful proc trinket is in fact better, I just assumed it wouldn't be thinking about the cleave trinket. The Shadow Pan one is though, but I wouldn't get it unless you're desperate.

I see this in the requirements: "Minimum PvE equipped item level of 545+ gemmed and enchanted."

Whatch I tell you of anti-PvP syndrome Q_Q

Eh, I had several prideful pieces (mostly jewelry) and I was able to get in. They didn't take me the first week I signed though. But I guess it might also be worse now since there's 4 upgrades rather than 2.

Quick update:

I recently switched to Arcane because mastery gear has been constantly dropping for me. I have since then experienced a significant boost in DPS. I also enjoy Arcane's playstyle and am finally glad to not need use that terrible Invocation . Rune of Power is a great talent... the only one in that tier that requires actual gameplay and decision making in my opinion.

Anyway, this week I just got my cloak and was able to pug my way through to Garrosh and beyond. I finally got my mount and curve achieve! Just wanted to thank everyone who helped me progress with this mage in raiding. Thanks everyone.