Lowest ilvl for Normal Raids

[Azrogol]

I finally started playing a few weeks ago and I was able to jump from 473 to 536 ilvl. I have shitty luck trying to get the trinkets/weapons from Flex/Lfr, which, as a result, is putting a hard cap on my dps. That being said, what do you think is the lowest ilvl I could do a normal Siege, even maybe just Immerseus or any other easy farm bosses (if there are any)? Is there really anything else i can do besides pray for gear? Would i still be semi competitive dpsing with conquest gear?

[Deleted]

With 536 you can do the first bosses, thats not the problem. The problem will be finding a group willing to take you wth them. Are you in a guild that can take you? Pug group usually rely on overgearing the content so they usually ask for around 550 ilevel

[kelnoctis]

When I started my guild we progressed all the way to siegecrafter with an average of 538 (in week 1). So your iLvl isn't the problem. The problem is people don't want to take undergeared players to pugs at the end of the expansion.. or ever really.

If I were you, i'd get the conquest weapon(s) and keep working on LFR and flex trinkets. PvP trinkets won't help you in PvE You could always buy the 522 valor (shado-pan) trinket but it's not that great for most classes I don't think. Timeless trinket for 50k coins is also an option for your iLvl I'd save your valor for item upgrades if I were you.

[Azrogol]

No guild yet, unfortunately. I didn't think there would be any guilds would take an undergeared dps with no cloak, no meta and no raid experience. That's why I figured if I could at least get geared I'd have something going for me.

edit: @kelnoctis: yeah I figured probably the biggest increase besides getting trinkets would be a weapon, so i'll pick up the conquest one this weekend, and maybe fill in the lfr gaps to boost my ilvl a little more. I'd try for that timeless trinket but coins are hard :s

[Jaymega]

With 536 you can do the first bosses, thats not the problem. The problem will be finding a group willing to take you wth them. Are you in a guild that can take you? Pug group usually rely on overgearing the content so they usually ask for around 550 ilevel

Agreed 100%. Normal Siege is tuned for Normal ToT gear. So anywhere after 520 is fine for the first couple bosses at least.

520 to kill Immerseous and maybe protectors.
545 to Down Normal Garrosh with a competent group.

And before anyone calls bull and says you need 560+ for Normal Garrosh, I got to Phase 3 with pug where we averaged 545 item level. It was tough getting there after Nazgrim, but we stuck with it and made it there. 560+ you can progress through heroic Siege fine, but may need more for the later bosses.

[crakerjack]

In all honesty, there's not much that you can do if you don't have a legendary cloak or the right ilvl. It's so late into the expansion that no one wants to go backwards. Your best bet is joining a raiding guild, but it's likely you won't get into the actual raids. What might happen is they'll invite you into their alt runs where they might clear the first half of the raid, but you also might not get any loot. If you're hoping to get geared by the end of this expansion, it's pretty much a long shot.

[Jaymega]

No guild yet, unfortunately. I didn't think there would be any guilds would take an undergeared dps with no cloak, no meta and no raid experience. That's why I figured if I could at least get geared I'd have something going for me.

Do what I did.

"LFM SoO Normal. (Insert your item level here) min. Need all."

Seriously. People are jerks and most WoW players are scrubs that need to overgear stuff to down it. Start your own pugs and make cool friends.I went from getting frustrated to the point where I felt like quitting, to now having people whisper me and ask if I can jump on my toon and DPS or tank for them. And I don't even roll with a guild. I would be pugging heroics but peopel demand a stupid item level for that and I just didn't feel like raid leading anymore. I will do em when i re-sub though. Send me a letter with your Btag and I will pug you if you want.

My toon is Either Kittan or Milsa, both on Proudmoore.

[Tradu]

PvP weapons might be an option. If you have a friend(or guildie or whatever) willing to do a bunch of 2v2s with you to get you a 550 weapon or 2 if dualwielding, but it does take a while to get to the required CP earned this season(not sure if it's doable in 1 week with the catchup cap now). As kelnoctis said, PvP trinkets won't do you much good(if any). Can't think of any other suggestions than what he already said for trinkets.
PvP gear in general is just as good as same ilevel PvE pieces, except the set bonuses could make it slightly better than PvE non-set items(but still worse than PvE tier bonuses). In general it's completely fine to just use conquest gear, though, except for(as mentioned) trinkets.
Try working towards the legendary cloak as well(the chain that starts with the Sigils of Power/Wisdom), because the meta and cloak are HUGE in terms of performance, and it also unlocks Ordos for another bunch of possible items(same ilevel as normal warforged)

You could take a look at OpenRaid for runs with sane ilevel requirements as well. Kalepp, Trusmoov and Sneezer do runs on EU servers every week(sometimes they miss a week due to real life stuff/holidays/whatever), and in general the OR staff members tend to have quite fair ilevel requirements for most runs(that means not their sort of competitive race-y runs, like the ToT Horde vs Alliance on EU tonight or the weekly Garrosh flex kills). Kalepp does SoO25N runs with a 540 ilevel requirement(if you ask nicely you might be lucky and he could make an exception) on EU Alliance every Friday, Trusmoov does beginner runs of SoO10N on Mondays(I think that's a sort of regular thing now, at least) with a 520 or something ilevel requirement, and Sneezer does SoO25N on Horde when he feels like it(supposedly weekly, but that guy is such a slacker :P)

[Kioshi]

Agreed 100%. Normal Siege is tuned for Normal ToT gear. So anywhere after 520 is fine for the first couple bosses at least.

520 to kill Immerseous and maybe protectors.
545 to Down Normal Garrosh with a competent group.

And before anyone calls bull and says you need 560+ for Normal Garrosh, I got to Phase 3 with pug where we averaged 545 item level. It was tough getting there after Nazgrim, but we stuck with it and made it there. 560+ you can progress through heroic Siege fine, but may need more for the later bosses.

I agree with you 100%, people assume 560+ because most people are not good enough to take more than 1 empower WW. I have done it with a guild that had 2-3 of them, all the DPS knew what to do. People are just too use to skipping mechanics, and there are just too many people that doesn't understand them that they require 560 ilevel so they don't have stupidity show its face.

[Deleted]

yeh the first bunch of bosses are doable with 530ilvl and were tuned for people in normal tot gear. The problem with alot of groups usually isnt the dps anyway but infact a tacts check.

[Hildrande]

I didn't think there would be any guilds would take an undergeared dps with no cloak, no meta and no raid experience.

You are wrong.

Basically every active raiding guild is recruiting, there are guilds with progression across the entire spectrum from flex progress to HC farm. It's usually best to join a guild approximately at your level, you're not looking for a guild with HC progress, you want one that's in the process of going from flex to normal, and at that level most people don't have the cloak anyway. On my server there are many guilds that would welcome you.

If the guild is casual enough they might not consider your item level at all, casual guilds recruits the person not the item level.

Getting the item levels from 536 to 550 is pretty trivial, once you are in a guild. Lack of raiding experience is what will hold you back.

- - - Updated - - -

they might clear the first half of the raid, but you also might not get any loot.

Or he might get all of it, because the other guys already have it.

[ThePants999]

Very approximately: the first wing of SoO normal is tuned for a raid average of 520-ish, the second wing for 530-ish, the third for 540-ish and the last for 550-ish.

[Alroxas]

I would also recommend openraid as there are a wide range of raiders there as well.

[BooQT]

I don't really buy the whole 'you probably won't be brought' statement. This late in the game a lot of progression 10 mans are downing Garrosh (specially since the ilvl boost) and will be making the transition to 25 or at least recruiting for future Mythic 20 man content.

A lot of 10 man guilds are about to get really thirsty and competitive over recruits. State your intent to raid, learn, and a good attendance attitude and I guarantee you'll find a home.

[Lord Pebbleton]

I can tell you you need at least 565 Ilvl to get into OQueue groups. sometimes 570.

[Saphyron]

I have done many openraid raids.
This is the result:
520 raid = got Nazgrim down could not go further
540 raid = got garrosh down.

So if you can find a raid that will take you along or if you make one yourself you should be good to go at your current ilvl.

[The Kao]

You are wrong.

Basically every active raiding guild is recruiting, there are guilds with progression across the entire spectrum from flex progress to HC farm. It's usually best to join a guild approximately at your level, you're not looking for a guild with HC progress, you want one that's in the process of going from flex to normal, and at that level most people don't have the cloak anyway. On my server there are many guilds that would welcome you.

Second this. Currently it's much more profitable for guilds to invest into future members that offer long-term interest and good potential than gear alone, since the well-geared players on a realm are probably already taken and new recruits have to come from somewhere. In a good guild the gear gap can be covered in 3 - 5 IDs, depending on RNG, so that should never be a problem if they - and you - are serious about raiding.

[Anzen]

Would i still be semi competitive dpsing with conquest gear?

Conquest gear is actually pretty strong. The PvP power isn't counted as part of the item budget, and with the exception of the shitty socket bonuses on half the gear, it's actually pretty strong to run with.

Think of it as the same as double upgraded flex gear.

Sadly a lot of people still see PvP gear and rage, whilst ignoring the people in 528 lfr gear /shrug

[melzas]

Conquest gear is actually pretty strong. The PvP power isn't counted as part of the item budget, and with the exception of the shitty socket bonuses on half the gear, it's actually pretty strong to run with.

Think of it as the same as double upgraded flex gear.

Sadly a lot of people still see PvP gear and rage, whilst ignoring the people in 528 lfr gear /shrug

This is very true, go for conquest gear especially if you have troubles getting a weapon. It's 550 and beats any LFR and is just as good as any Flex weapon. I also see people raging about conquest gear sadly, ignorance in wow community is something you just need to get used to... (if you only use pvp weapon people usually don't care though).

[Deleted]

Technically, normal SoO is intended for normal ToT-gear, so ilvl 522 should be absolutely fine. However, as others pointed out, PuGs won't take you if you can't outgear the shit out of SoO, so that won't get you into the raids. Nonetheless, it's good to know that technically you fulfill the requirements. 150k-200k dps single target and you are on the top end in most PuGs even though you might be far worse geared than most other players.

Now for the PvP-Gear: Since MoP pvp gear (aside from trinkets and set-bonusses) is just as good for pve as actual pve gear of the same itemlevel. The pvp-stats don't contribute to the items stats-budget anymore, they are just a free bonus, hence the lower itemlevel compared to pve-gear. The intention was to make pvp-gear viable for stepping into PvE (by making the additional pvp-stats free) but still not the best gear (due to lower itemlevel). As a matter of fact, pvp gear doesn't "fake" itemlevel anymore and you are just fine filling some slots with it now. Including weapons. So go for it!
Another suggestion: While grinding for the conquest points required to be able to purchase 550 pvp weapons you should probably buy as many cheap pvp items (rings etc, the 1250 cp ones) as you can to push your average itemlevel as far as you can. At the end of the day that magic number is everything those guys will look at.