Gearing for Challenge mode

[Deleted]

Hello!

So im going to start making my designated CM set and I've been reading up on how to gear. One thing i cant find an answer on is this:

Is it better to have as few pieces with hit/exp as possible, or should one try to spread it out? Maybe it dosn't matter?

That is, legs with 1000 hit or gloves+feet with 500 hit on each?

Another question regarding this is:

Is it better to gem or reforge hit/exp?

[DPA]

Maybe tell us what class/spec you want to use too to help you better.

[Deja Thoris]

It doesn't matter. As far as I know if a piece has hit it will keep the hit and lose more from the other stats budget.

What you want is pieces with as many gem slots as possible because they up your total stat budget and that's what you are after.

[Belloc]

You want to reach the appropriate caps with hit/exp on your gear and maximize the number of gem slots.

[Deleted]

Don't prepare, just cheat your way through it like most people do.

[Belloc]

How exactly do you cheat at challenge modes?

[Clrg]

I guess doing CM with disci priest, warlock, ele shammy, monk/dk tank and him.

[Olrox]

I found that the only things that really made even the slightest difference were having gem slots and consumables.

I just did 9/9 golds on my death knight (I was frost, prot warrior tank, disc priest healer, hunter dps and one floater slot that usually had a mage in it or warlock) and we got the entire thing done in about 13-14 hours across 5 days - some of them were significantly harder than others.

You shouldn't need to reforge or gem for hit or expertise; just wear your gear with the most gems and get things like a bonus-socketed ToT weapon and if you're DPS, bring your old Darkmoon Card trinket and another one with just your raw primary stat (I used two with flat STR as that was the best gain - secondary stat procs are cut too much and primary stat procs lose a ton on newer trinks - plus the CDR/Amp ones aren't that useful at such low %s so I didn't bother with mine)

Primary stats are where you want to go really - if I had really wanted to, I would've probably found the most ideal, multi-socketed items I had for each slot and socketed them all with strength in mind since it's hard to get solid or even decent rating %s at 463.

Don't let gear trouble you too much though; knowing how to squeeze the most of your given metric (dps, hps, mitigation) for your role and knowing when to invisibility potion is far more important than having perfect sockets or your old DM trinket.

I highly suggest checking out some resources that point out when you want to invisibility pot in each dungeon and note which trash pulls are the toughest - I saved my army of the dead for one very specific pull in most dungeons (the patrolling group with two purifiers and two judicators in the hallway with Armsmaster Harlan's room in Scarlet Halls, for example is one such pull) - knowing when big cooldowns are needed and how to pace your pulling is the key - you'll also find that the stronger your DPS, the more relaxed you can be; when my group settled into the same four players +1 we found we didn't need to chain trash pulls as hard since our DPS was sufficient to keep us going with gold time.

Also, don't necessarily bust your hump trying to make a cheese comp with all the "OP" classes - we didn't have a brewmaster or an elemental shaman and we did fine for golds - not like ten minutes under on Shado-Pan or some such but we beat the gold timers by around 1-3 minutes on many of them, depending on length.

[Pharm]

You shouldn't need to reforge or gem for hit or expertise; just wear your gear with the most gems and get things like a bonus-socketed ToT weapon and if you're DPS, bring your old Darkmoon Card trinket and another one with just your raw primary stat (I used two with flat STR as that was the best gain - secondary stat procs are cut too much and primary stat procs lose a ton on newer trinks - plus the CDR/Amp ones aren't that useful at such low %s so I didn't bother with mine)

If he's not a dual-wielding dps class, I'm pretty sure you get the most value out of using the Sha-Touched weapons. Can't beat that +500 stat gem. Outside of weapons, generally go for the most sockets you can obtain and non-RPPM trinkets work wonders.

[swaro]

theres no hit cap in wod

[Libretto]

The 500 stat gem does not work in CMs. The extra socket does.

Also RPPM trinkets work fine. Alchemy trinket is considered BiS for most dps classes (along with darkmoon trinket), but if not alchemy, RPPM trinkets are usually the other option most top DPS players take.

[Kazeijin]

If he's not a dual-wielding dps class, I'm pretty sure you get the most value out of using the Sha-Touched weapons. Can't beat that +500 stat gem. Outside of weapons, generally go for the most sockets you can obtain and non-RPPM trinkets work wonders.

Legendary meta gem wont proc in CMs or PGs
Legendary cloak wont proc in CMs or PGs
sha touched 500 stat gems are disabled in CMs and PGs

[Olrox]

If he's not a dual-wielding dps class, I'm pretty sure you get the most value out of using the Sha-Touched weapons. Can't beat that +500 stat gem. Outside of weapons, generally go for the most sockets you can obtain and non-RPPM trinkets work wonders.

Some guys beat me to it but yeah - as far as I'm aware, the 500 stat sha-touched gems aren't functional in challenge mode content but the additional socket (eye of the black prince?) does work.

The point of my post though was just to stress that you by no means require ToT weapons with bonus sockets or your old DM trinket, etc.. to be successful in challenge modes; all you really need to do is just bring your brain and know your class from one end to the other in terms of all the disruption and CC you can possibly manage along with as much damage as you can do either to bosses or the trash; one of them needs to be your forte as they're both important.

I've read some things that emphasize boss DPS over trash dps but there are definitely situations where aoe is more important (we found in Stormstout for example that the second-to-last set of adds, the little guys that heal one another, are horribly painful and maximizing aoe stuns and dps was vital and our damage on Yan'zhu was much less important since those guys weren't eating all of our time anymore)

It's probably variable per comp but I think the general rule is to worry less about gear and more about your kit - challenge modes are the only five man content where you need to know your class like the back of your hand - there's very little room for error or missing out on some crucial piece of your arsenal.

Also edit - are you the same Uchiro from Zul'jin and Relentless Onslaught? I noticed your monk now has that name and "Uchirosan" is missing from the roster as is any other warrior with a piece of your name.

[Naglol]

Don't let gear trouble you too much though; knowing how to squeeze the most of your given metric (dps, hps, mitigation) for your role and knowing when to invisibility potion is far more important than having perfect sockets or your old DM trinket.

This is probably the best advice someone could give you for CM's. emphasis on DM trinket, and then familiarizing yourself with each of the 9 CM's

[Weektwo]

Like a few above posters said, dont worry too much about gear, worry about how well you can play your class and how well your group works as a whole.

Recently walked in to full gold with some guilides with none of us swapping any gear out. Just make sure your all on the same page and communicate.

Oh yeah and have fun with it

[bachertzhan]

I found that the only things that really made even the slightest difference were having gem slots and consumables.