tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post3502596691903306612..comments2024-03-27T07:57:48.010-04:00Comments on The Grumpy Elf: Preraid Gearing Up In Warlords of DraenorTheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-45235731053347882762014-11-26T07:43:44.837-05:002014-11-26T07:43:44.837-05:00I finished off my druid last night and hit 100 wit...I finished off my druid last night and hit 100 with a 611 item level, enough for heroics, and that is just from nagrand. I really comes down to the luck of getting quest rewards upgraded or not. But I get what you mean. My first character was 589, second 605, and now third 611, so it is kind of all over the place based on luck of the quest gearing.<br /><br />Gearing over all looks horrible this expansion in my opinion.<br /><br />I am having issues with finding challenge mode groups as well, but after last expansion when I never got groups for them either, I am not surprised. <br /><br />The garrison invasions really need to be fixed. Hate that they are completely random if you get them or not, I believe that is dreadful design.<br /><br />They need to add something like valor gear back. Normal mode item level, something you can grind to get a new piece of gear every two weeks. It will give gearing options, it will make heroics have a reason for people to run them when they no longer need gear from them, and it will create a compelling reason to play along with giving a viable, even if slow, way for an alt to remain raid ready without needing to raid.<br /><br />The removal of valor gear killed this expansion before it even launched in my mind.TheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-53179927354620796442014-11-25T19:38:11.526-05:002014-11-25T19:38:11.526-05:00I'm not terribly happy with the way gearing ha...I'm not terribly happy with the way gearing has been done in Draenor. First, when leveling up, the minimum gear level for dungeons prevented me from actually doing the dungeon until I was too high a level for the dungeon to be interesting. You level up very quickly when questing. Too quickly to even think about finishing a quest chain in a zone before moving on to the next. And then when you get to 100, it seems like gear is more about spending tons and tons of money on the AH to buy crafted gear or BOE drops.<br /><br />I was at ilevel 594 when I hit 100, just barely enough to earn silver in the proving grounds, but of course, not high enough to enter heroic dungeons yet. <br /><br />I am at 622 now. 635 is the minimum to begin raiding when Highmaul opens i roughly a week. I don't have the 10's of thousands of gold required to buy the crafted 640 pieces on the AH, so what are my options:<br /><br />- Heroics only give you 630, so good luck getting >630 from Heroics alone. I was lucky enough to score 2 636 warforged pieces but both were main hands (a wand and dagger) and I have yet to get a >600 offhand yet. I've never even seen a item with a gem slot.<br /><br />- I have the Molten core 640 helm, JC made 640 necklace (made it myself), legendary quest chain 640 ring, and JC made ring. Engineers were screwed over by the guaranteed MC 640 helm drop, as the helm they can make takes much more work to get than the MC helm which requires just 615 to enter and about 2 hours to complete.<br /><br />- I have not found a single person that even wants to attempt the daily challenge quest on my server. In fact, I am usually laughed at for even asking (I have no idea why). <br /><br />- As you've mentioned, collecting apexis crystals takes far too long to buy any decent gear. Fortunately, I should have enough from doing the daily to upgrade the legendary ring to 680 by the time raiding starts.<br /><br />- Upgrading the crafted items from 640 to 655 isn't viable at all because of the requirement for savage blood. One savage blood goes for about 1500 gold on my AH presently, so that is >20,000 gold for one upgrade! And it will be a long time before my barn is level 3 (minimum 22 days to complete enough work orders to level it) and i'll be able to collect my own.<br /><br />- The weekly garrison raids could be a possible upgrade path but I have yet to get a single garrison raid quest (other that the first intro one you get when you upgrade to level 2). <br /><br />So there is a lot of forced waiting: from daily apexis quests, garrison resources, building work orders, etc. that makes it very difficult even for a dedicated player to hit 635 by the time raiding begins. I liked it back when you could simple run a half dozen heroics (or more) a day and be able to gear up that way. The way it is now, it either requires alts with high level professions and a garrison themselves, or tons of money. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-46592745775776192822014-11-11T10:09:08.470-05:002014-11-11T10:09:08.470-05:00I've just been full of unless (or useful depen...I've just been full of unless (or useful depending on how you look at it) information lately haven't I?<br /><br />As it seems LFR is still required, even if blizzard said it won't be. Only the top skilled players will be able to go from from dungeons to heroic raiding and I don't see that really meaning most people, myself included. I will have to pit stop at normal, and most likely LFR as well. Once again, blizzard lied to us.TheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-37914422306013878362014-11-11T09:34:07.514-05:002014-11-11T09:34:07.514-05:00Thanks for laying this out and explaining in detai...Thanks for laying this out and explaining in detail ways to gear up for raiding. This has been extremely helpful because everything is in one nice post. <br /><br />I totally forgot about the challenge mode dungeon gear. I'm in a new guild so hopefully they'll want to run these for that last bit of gear, outside of the crafted gear and any garrison drops.<br /><br />However, with all that being said, if I'm not as lucky, then unfortunately I may need to still do LFR. Good thing my main toon for this tier is heals.<br /><br />Thanks again for the help.Sufferwellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-16923013847442255742014-11-11T06:50:10.804-05:002014-11-11T06:50:10.804-05:00I am glad it will help you. Personally I am not v...I am glad it will help you. Personally I am not very happy with the gearing options outside of raiding. I do not believe there are any reasonable gearing options. It is as if we are forced to raid if we want decent gear and I believe that is a mistake in design. There should always be an option outside of raiding to get raid quality gear and there are absolutely none which is horrible design. I never supported the idea that only raiders need raid gear. Even non raiders like to feel their power increase and there is really none of that to be had with the gearing options outside of raiding this expansion, continuing the trend that started in mists. Warcraft is moving in the wrong direction if you ask me. I too think they need to add valor gear back in. Apexis crystals take too long to collect and give crap for gear, so they are most definitely not a suitable replacement.<br /><br />They totally forgot that warcraft existed at blizzcon. Expansion coming out, 10th anniversary, a patch coming out most likely 3 or 4 months after release, and what do they talk about? Changes to stats? The same thing they talked about a year ago and have been talking about every day since. It is like they forgot that warcraft is their flagship game.<br /><br />I never liked inquisition, I am personally glad it is gone. But I was never a fan of ret to begin with so my opinion really hold no weight at all. It is fun being able to solo DS now. I have been doing it for mounts on multiple characters but nothing so far.TheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-76639497029180968682014-11-11T06:12:29.257-05:002014-11-11T06:12:29.257-05:00Thank you so much for this post. It's exactly ...Thank you so much for this post. It's exactly the sort of clear, simple presentation of the information that I've been looking for.<br /><br />I resubbed last night to lock in the lower sub fee, as it goes up with Warlords launch in the UK. I'm sure that I will refer to this guide more than once when I start gearing up. As I've said a few times I'm not planning on raiding at all in Warlords, unless a friend happens to ask me to join as pug and I won't run LFR. So pre-raid gearing, or gearing outside of raids is what I'm looking at.<br /><br />I'm a little disappointed to be honest that there aren't more options, or more accessible options. The apexis crystal gearing could have been like an expansion specific valor kinda, but those prices are eye watering. I don't want to gear up in a day but I do like slow and steady, and most importantly consistent gearing options. I was the biggest fan of valor and I wish everytime I log in that blizz hadn't done away with it.<br /><br />Oh well actually experiencing something is always a little different from pre-conceptions formed reading about it. Mists didn't turn out at all like I'd thought it would.<br /><br />I really wish they'd given a little more information out at blizzcon, talked patch 6.1 or just something new, rather than it seeming like we'd entered a time warp and 2014 hadn't happened. I was hoping they'd announce the next expansion, it's not like we don't know there's going to be one. If there's only going to be 2 raid tiers in warlords then they really need to get a move on.<br /><br />Oh bit random but I tried soloing Dragon Soul heroic last night. I got my switching wrong so did Morchok by accident on normal meaning Spine and Madness had to be done on normal but I did the rest on heroic. Considering it was the first time I'd played ret since march, it's my offspec, I was missing Inquisition as there was a hole in my action bar (weird I know but my muscle memory was telling me to hit it), I hadn't been in DS in over a year and couldn't remember any of the fights. No potions, no flasks, no food, no buffs, none of the prep I usually do for soloing. I practically one shot the place. I don't think I've ever finished soloing something for the first time and been that disappointed. If I'd had anymore time last night I would have gone and faceplanted in MSV just to get to the soloing feel back. As it is I look forward to level 100 and to soloing Mists raids, hopefully they won't be nerfed as heavily. I like easy mount runs but a challenge is nice too. It just doesn't feel like an achievement otherwise.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17771213542953346538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-16449456945820939392014-11-10T20:43:14.105-05:002014-11-10T20:43:14.105-05:00Glad you liked it. You're welcome.Glad you liked it. You're welcome.TheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-34409314343988236292014-11-10T20:42:42.227-05:002014-11-10T20:42:42.227-05:00I'll have to adjust that one then. Will be co...I'll have to adjust that one then. Will be cool for hunters if that is right. Awesome.<br /><br />The apexis gear is just completely out of line. As I said, at those numbers they should be mythic pieces, not LFR item level pieces.<br /><br />Yeap, the conquest gear will be higher than LFR. No LFR tier sets of course, but the LFR tier sets are like old school dungeon sets, nothing special.<br /><br />Those raid BoEs will be awesome for filling the guild bank or gearing alts.TheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-5080236549910723922014-11-10T20:03:25.244-05:002014-11-10T20:03:25.244-05:00Fantastic post! Thank you!Fantastic post! Thank you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-52886542906149297102014-11-10T19:27:09.864-05:002014-11-10T19:27:09.864-05:00The engineering gun doesn't count as part of t...The engineering gun doesn't count as part of the 3 according to the datamining. Neither do cloaks.<br /><br />-I think everyone agrees that Apexis gear is outrageously priced. The same cost for each item+upgrade would make a lot more sense. So 9k for a fully upgraded Bracer instead of 26.5k.<br /><br />-Maybe I'll end up doing some PvP in order to get better PvE gear... 660 is better than LFR.<br /><br />-Hadn't noticed the Raid BoEs. I'll have to check those out.Jaegernoreply@blogger.com