What is the best possible way of pre-raid gearing a character?

[appro]

taking blacksmithing as an example (the following might be slightly incorrect, as the ilvl for weapons and shields is lower then that of armor, 630 vs 640, but i have no idea if this is intended or not)

if the raids open in 2 weeks (was it 2? or more?) you can get 14 secrets of draenor blacksmithing

with 14 you can get 2 level boosters and the max of 3 pieces of gear with ilvl 655. i suggest you craft the epic shoulder pieces and a weapon + 1 random, this is because the apex vendors do not have shoulder pieces or weapons (in the beta now)

getting the lumber mill from the get go allows you to farm apex crystals, so by the time you hit 100 you should be able to compliment some dungeon gear (which i think is 655 normal raids is 665)

apex/dungeon is 630, epic crafted 640. entry level ilvl for normals or heroics for the more skilled players.

edit, ignore most of the above. did some numbers checks:
apiex upgrade 1 is 645, upgrade 2 is 655
crafted upgrade 1 is 655, upgrade is is 665

so best you can get is
6x 655 (wrist, waist, hands, legs, feet, cloak) from Apex
2x 665 from crafted (shoulders, chest)
1x 655 from crafted (weapon)
supplement with dungeon and dark moon fair trinkets/jewelry.

thats the best you can get before ever setting 1 foot into a raid. the cheer amount of alexis crystals and crafting materials make it unrealistic to do within a week.

realaisticly, you should see;
2x 640 from crafted. possibly upgraded to 655
1x 630 weapon from crafted. possibly upgraded to 645
1x DMF trinket
everything else filled with 630 from dungeons and starter Apexis.

Thanks, this is really really good!
I'll go through and figure out some of the details soon. I've been hearing that pvp trinkets may be bis for pre-raid gearing. This is due to the lack of Insrciption trinkets (WoD release date is 13th Nov, Darkmoon Faire is 7th December so no trinkets before raid opens) and PVP gear having a very high ilvl.
From what I've read the on use pvp trinket and the proc chance will be bis as all stats are primary stats. For example, int + int proc, and int + int on use.
Really hoping this is changed though, I'm not particularly keen on being forced into pvp to achieve pre-raid bis for pve - the two should remain separate.

[Mteq]

Thanks, this is really really good!
I'll go through and figure out some of the details soon. I've been hearing that pvp trinkets may be bis for pre-raid gearing. This is due to the lack of Insrciption trinkets (WoD release date is 13th Nov, Darkmoon Faire is 7th December so no trinkets before raid opens) and PVP gear having a very high ilvl.
From what I've read the on use pvp trinket and the proc chance will be bis as all stats are primary stats. For example, int + int proc, and int + int on use.
Really hoping this is changed though, I'm not particularly keen on being forced into pvp to achieve pre-raid bis for pve - the two should remain separate.

i have to add though, i am not sure if the 630 is heroic or normal dungeon level gear. i'm really not 100% certain on my write up, but i think im in the right direction.

[papajohn4]

taking blacksmithing as an example (the following might be slightly incorrect, as the ilvl for weapons and shields is lower then that of armor, 630 vs 640, but i have no idea if this is intended or not)

if the raids open in 2 weeks (was it 2? or more?) you can get 14 secrets of draenor blacksmithing

with 14 you can get 2 level boosters and the max of 3 pieces of gear with ilvl 655. i suggest you craft the epic shoulder pieces and a weapon + 1 random, this is because the apex vendors do not have shoulder pieces or weapons (in the beta now)

getting the lumber mill from the get go allows you to farm apex crystals, so by the time you hit 100 you should be able to compliment some dungeon gear (which i think is 655 normal raids is 665)

apex/dungeon is 630, epic crafted 640. entry level ilvl for normals or heroics for the more skilled players.

edit, ignore most of the above. did some numbers checks:
apiex upgrade 1 is 645, upgrade 2 is 655
crafted upgrade 1 is 655, upgrade is is 665

so best you can get is
6x 655 (wrist, waist, hands, legs, feet, cloak) from Apex
2x 665 from crafted (shoulders, chest)
1x 655 from crafted (weapon)
supplement with dungeon and dark moon fair trinkets/jewelry.

thats the best you can get before ever setting 1 foot into a raid. the cheer amount of alexis crystals and crafting materials make it unrealistic to do within a week.

realaisticly, you should see;
2x 640 from crafted. possibly upgraded to 655
1x 630 weapon from crafted. possibly upgraded to 645
1x DMF trinket
everything else filled with 630 from dungeons and starter Apexis.

What is the "secrets of draenor blacksmithing" and how you get it? Is a daily cooldown? If you have both Blacksmith and The Forge building can you get 2 per day instead 1? Does the blue crafter gear (1st tier) is on par with normal dungeon or heroic?

[Mteq]

What is the "secrets of draenor blacksmithing" and how you get it? Is a daily cooldown? If you have both Blacksmith and The Forge building can you get 2 per day instead 1? Does the blue crafter gear (1st tier) is on par with normal dungeon or heroic?

the secrets of Draenor blacksmithing are on a 1 day cool down (same as normal, resets at 03:00ish server time) you can only get one per day crafted by yourself. his is always 1 secret. they share a cool down with crafting a stack of (at 600 skill its 4) truesteel ingots. t

for the ingots the higher your skill level, the higher the stack can be. i have not seen and/or tested how high these stacks can get, or if any of the supplementary crafting items are created in the process, as i tried to get some secrets first. when i tried to craft any gear it bugged out, and now i can't do anything anymore so can't say.

the forge can create orders of work orders of steel for you, currently in the beta, its on a 1 minute cool down (don't think it will stay that way) you give the forge guy the materials (at the moment exactly the same as what you would need if you crafted them yourself) to create truesteel ingots. there is a chance to get supplementary goods required in certain recipes as well. (sorcerous earth/fire) when i placed 3 work orders at once in my level 2 forge, i got 28 bars, 5 sorcerous earth, and 3 fires.

you no longer smelt bars and so far, i have not found any use for the smelting skill at all in WoD.

i have not done any dungeons in beta at all, but the crafted tier 1 armor is 640, crafted weapon/shield is 630. i THINK normal level 100 dungeons have 630 gear. heroic will probably (speculation) be on par with upgraded weapons and shields, namelijk 645.


edit: also, upgrading crafted items required Savage blood. these are obtained through the Barn garrison building.

[Geckoo]

I appreciate the effort but unfortunately this is exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for.

I understand what you are looking for, but you don't really need it. Just to give a bit of context to my answer... i am the kind of player that clears normals the first week they are aviable and jumps directly to heroics the week after. I didn't give you a casual answer, i gave you my personal experience from other expansions

You have some good insight in how professions work in this thread and i'm glad they are useful for your purpose, you also have the daily challenge run and the pvp gear that sadly, it's usually better and faster to get than the dungeon gear, but the only thing you really need to start raiding is dungeon blues. Everything else will be helpful while you are progressing in case you have bad luck with raid drops.

[The Flavour Cat]

If you're ignoring LFR (Which you should), then it should be as follows: Profession gear, Heroic dungeon gear, rep faction gear. Then after that, join a raid to defeat the two world bosses, get your 2 tier 17 pieces, then hop into a normal raid.

[mistahwilshire]

Challenge mode will have a chance to give LFR loot..

A chance every single day for several weeks before LFR opens..

[Deleted]

Referring to bop profession gear, boe gear, dungeon loot, upgrades for gear etc.

If you had infinite time to gear beofre raids came out then crafter gear is much superior to dungeon loot.

But since you only have 2.5 weeks get as much crafted gear as you can and use heroic dungeon loot on the rest.

[Deleted]

Front page blue:

Will it be possible to go Quest > Normal Dungeon > Heroic Dungeon > Normal Raid in Warlords, or is LFR a required step?
It will not only be possible, but is in fact the expected path for people who want to do organized raiding. (WatcherDev)

So yeah dungeons + challenge modes until crafted/rep gear then straight into raids.

[greeeed]

Front page blue:

Will it be possible to go Quest > Normal Dungeon > Heroic Dungeon > Normal Raid in Warlords, or is LFR a required step?
It will not only be possible, but is in fact the expected path for people who want to do organized raiding. (WatcherDev)

So yeah dungeons + challenge modes until crafted/rep gear then straight into raids.

true to be told WoD normal raid = flex raid in mop

[Geckoo]

true to be told WoD normal raid = flex raid in mop

I never know if they are talking about actual normal or future flex normal they should use another term!

[Hellravager]

Daily H Scenario timeless isle LFR then flex then normal then heroic in that order

[papajohn4]

the secrets of Draenor blacksmithing are on a 1 day cool down (same as normal, resets at 03:00ish server time) you can only get one per day crafted by yourself. his is always 1 secret. they share a cool down with crafting a stack of (at 600 skill its 4) truesteel ingots. t

for the ingots the higher your skill level, the higher the stack can be. i have not seen and/or tested how high these stacks can get, or if any of the supplementary crafting items are created in the process, as i tried to get some secrets first. when i tried to craft any gear it bugged out, and now i can't do anything anymore so can't say.

the forge can create orders of work orders of steel for you, currently in the beta, its on a 1 minute cool down (don't think it will stay that way) you give the forge guy the materials (at the moment exactly the same as what you would need if you crafted them yourself) to create truesteel ingots. there is a chance to get supplementary goods required in certain recipes as well. (sorcerous earth/fire) when i placed 3 work orders at once in my level 2 forge, i got 28 bars, 5 sorcerous earth, and 3 fires.

you no longer smelt bars and so far, i have not found any use for the smelting skill at all in WoD.

i have not done any dungeons in beta at all, but the crafted tier 1 armor is 640, crafted weapon/shield is 630. i THINK normal level 100 dungeons have 630 gear. heroic will probably (speculation) be on par with upgraded weapons and shields, namelijk 645.


edit: also, upgrading crafted items required Savage blood. these are obtained through the Barn garrison building.

Thank you very much for the info! One last question, do you still research recipes by doing the daily cd (truesteel/secrets) or you learn recipes in a different way? Also in case you research the recipes daily, are they still separate by class? Since the items will change depend on spec and with parry/dodge/spirit/bonus armor removed from armor pieces, I think it would be wrong to still have 4 chests to craft/discover.

[Mteq]

Thank you very much for the info! One last question, do you still research recipes by doing the daily cd (truesteel/secrets) or you learn recipes in a different way? Also in case you research the recipes daily, are they still separate by class? Since the items will change depend on spec and with parry/dodge/spirit/bonus armor removed from armor pieces, I think it would be wrong to still have 4 chests to craft/discover.

you learn 5 recipes the moment you turn in the quest, 1 is for the secret, 1 is for the ingots and 3x are 550 ilvl armor items. think they are catch up of some sort.

the rest are all learned via the secrets of blacksmithing. they are aprox 8-10 weapons/armor/shields, 4 enhancers and 2 grinders.

[Revi]

Hit 90 -> Timeless + BoE -> LFR -> Flex -> raiding.

[appro]

A friend reminded me of this post so thought I might post an update:

As of now it is significantly more time efficient to simply level an alt and do a split raid in normal / heroic modes.
This is purely because of the huge time investment required for achieving 3x 3/3 crafted upgrades.

For example for me as a cloth healer would require 6 scribes, and 2 tailors at a minimum level of 91 (to trap elites) in order to achieve 1x trinket, 1x weapon and 1x armor.
It is far faster to simply level an alt (8 hours) and get it to bis dungeon gear (8 hours) as opposed to the 50-60 required for 3x 3/3 crafted items.

[Zantos]

Garrisons are probably the best way before the first raids. Epic gear that you can then get items from the tailors, blacksmiths, and leather workers to upgrade it further and to change its stats.

[SkagenRora]

Challenge Modes, Heroic Dungeons & Crafting.

It's as simple as that. You should do Dailies and such, get some gold to help you along the way and with reputation to buy the odd piece of gear or two, but it's all about getting into the content, to get the gear.

Challenge Modes have a chance to give a LFR iLevel piece of gear, and Heroic Dungeons should gear you for that as well. If you're part of a serious guild, they'll be crafting gear and issuing it out to it's members, and you should also be buying what you can off of the Auction House.

Where do i find these WoD dailies? I have heard everywhere that there is no dailies in WoD

[Chickat]

Where do i find these WoD dailies? I have heard everywhere that there is no dailies in WoD

There is a garrison daily that sends you out into the world and rewards you with these thigns called epexis crystals that you need for gear. The gear is 630/645/655 gear.

To complete a garrison daily you go to the area that it sends you that day and you complete tasks kind of like a gw2 renown heart until a bar gets to 100%. Then you get your reward. Theres also a challenge mode daily quest, and profs have daily quests if you choose their building.

[Spoonman]

Farm HC Dungeons til full 630
Craft 3 items and upgrade them. Do not Craft Head
Get 640 head from Molten Core 10y anniversary thingy event
Do the legendary ring quest chain, I think u get one early one that only requires a few quests in dungeons
Do the dailys CM quest for chance on LFR Piece

Farm Apexis Crystals as long as u can be bothered(Aka the nolifer farm) to replace the dungeon gear(If ure good geared from Dungeons its gonna be lot easier)