Shamans - Gearing up Fresh 70's

[zanthor]

So I've got 4 of my 5 to 70, the 5th is 69.6 now... Figure I'll finish that out this week.

I spent yesterday getting honored with Cenarion and Keepers of Time, so now I have 3 elemental blue pvp armor pieces and two resto blue pvp armor pieces... I was thinking this is a good choice for the fact that it saves me from running two more factions to honored in the limited time left before the expansion, and it gives me an additional 35 resiliance two piece bonus.

So, I'm sitting here on all 5 (well, 4, the 5th will be there once he dings, the gears already bought and gemmed).

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackhand&n=Samam

I plan on doing enchants after two days of dailies, since after 5 mounts, 5 PVP sets, 5 sets of blue gems for all of them, I'm a tad broke...

Anyhow, I'm trying to put together a shopping list for the next 4 weeks, and I was interested in any feedback on what folks thought my weak spots in my current gear are...

The GOOD PVP Trinket ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30345') for 17K honor...
Boots - Vindicators Mail Sabatons ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33899') for 14K honor and 40 eye of the storm marks...
Shield - Vengful Gladiators Barrier ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33661') for 1500 arena points ... 4-6 weeks if I don't suck... hrm...
- Another choice... Shield - Merciless Gladiators Barrier ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33313') for 15k honor and 20 eye of the storm marks...
Bracer - Guardians Mail Bracers ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=35173') for 11K honor and 20 WSG marks...

[magwo]

For 2 easy epics, get brewmaster (spell dmg and healing) trinkets.

[Schwarz]

For 2 easy epics, get brewmaster (spell dmg and healing) trinkets.

that was sooooo two days ago. Not really an option to get these items now that the event is over.

I think the biggest upgrade I made when I dinged 70 was the s1 (now s2) spell damage weapon.

[magwo]

Oh yes. Indeed, your 1h weapon is THE item with the most bang for your buck.

[hardcoded]

I was in the same boat a couple of days ago:

Merciless gladiator's set (
http://www.wowwiki.com/Merciless_Gladiator%27s_Thunderfist )

all the vindicator complements ( http://thottbot.com/c24520 )

For anything I missed I go roughly off of the gear from another boxer:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Haomarush&n=Fii

For being a total noob, I'm doing pretty well in most BGs and very well in AV with just some gloves and a helm so far. Mostly just go down and defend our boss, then defend graveyards in AV for honor.

I really need the weapon and shield upgraded. Hopefully today or tomorrow I'll have the honor/marks.

oh, and for anything beyond that, I look at http://www.maxdps.com/shaman/elemental.php , but I doubt I'll have much time to do anything beyond s2 gear. It'll be a good place to start at wotlk, I hope :)

[zanthor]

the big thing is getting my worst gear replaced before lich king releases... once there ill just level and get new toys as I go.

[emesis]

Farm your Totem of the Voids - that's +55 damage; and not likely to be replaced until quite far into the expansion.

I'm at a pretty similar point in my progression as you; just dinged 70. Headed to Mech as soon as I run my dailies today to get the finish up the cash for the mounts.

[Ellay]

My current path on my newly Alliance leveled Shamans was Totem of the void first, followed by the 5 piece seer set being honored in each category ( this should be pretty easy and almost capped at each spot).
Weapon is first followed by the shield.
S2 Legs then Head then Shoulders ( Going for the 4 piece bonus)
at this point either purchase the S4 chest or S4 gloves pending on how much arena points you have.
At this point focus on the accessories i.e. Belt/Bracer/Rings with Honor and leave the rest to Arena Points.


My current state is working on Shoulders and buying Chest piece tomorrow, once both of these are obtained 2k rating is a possibility :)

[Thulos]

My current path on my newly Alliance leveled Shamans was Totem of the void first, followed by the 5 piece seer set being honored in each category ( this should be pretty easy and almost capped at each spot).
Weapon is first followed by the shield.
S2 Legs then Head then Shoulders ( Going for the 4 piece bonus)
at this point either purchase the S4 chest or S4 gloves pending on how much arena points you have.
At this point focus on the accessories i.e. Belt/Bracer/Rings with Honor and leave the rest to Arena Points.


My current state is working on Shoulders and buying Chest piece tomorrow, once both of these are obtained 2k rating is a possibility :)Hrm I did the Rep PvP blues and went for weapon, shield, accessories and then I wanted to start on the actual armor pieces. My thinking was to get as much Resilience as possible as quickly as possible. Was this bad thinking?

[zanthor]

My current path on my newly Alliance leveled Shamans was Totem of the void first, followed by the 5 piece seer set being honored in each category ( this should be pretty easy and almost capped at each spot).
Weapon is first followed by the shield.
S2 Legs then Head then Shoulders ( Going for the 4 piece bonus)
at this point either purchase the S4 chest or S4 gloves pending on how much arena points you have.
At this point focus on the accessories i.e. Belt/Bracer/Rings with Honor and leave the rest to Arena Points.


My current state is working on Shoulders and buying Chest piece tomorrow, once both of these are obtained 2k rating is a possibility :)Currently I have nearly zero lower city faction and despise the dungeons... I planned on going for totem of the void between PVP (arena/bg grinds) to break the pace... so getting honored there should be fine to get me the piece of seers from there..

Question is it worth chasing the 5th piece from Lower City before the patch? 8 damage more, minor stam/int difference, etc... I'd already have the 4 piece bonus...

Any suggestions on boots?

Revised shopping list...
The GOOD PVP Trinket ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30345') for 17K honor... or am I OK not using this since I should have tremors down most times? Merciless Gladiators Gavel ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32963') for 25k honor and 20 eye of the storm marks... Boots - Vindicators Mail Sabatons ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33899') for 14K honor and 40 eye of the storm marks... Shield - Vengful Gladiators Barrier ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33661') for 1500 arena points ... 4-6 weeks if I don't suck... hrm... - Another choice... Shield - Merciless Gladiators Barrier ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33313') for 15k honor and 20 eye of the storm marks... Bracer - Guardians Mail Bracers ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=35173') for 11K honor and 20 WSG marks...

[magwo]

In my opinion, use resto pieces where you don't have rep for the elemental pieces. The damage difference is minimal, and you'll be pretty useless either way, until you get some real gear. :)

Ditch the rep grind and go for BG grind for your S2mace/guardian parts, which is very very good gear compared to the nearly useless rep blues.

[zanthor]

In my opinion, use resto pieces where you don't have rep for the elemental pieces. The damage difference is minimal, and you'll be pretty useless either way, until you get some real gear. :)

Ditch the rep grind and go for BG grind for your S2mace/guardian parts, which is very very good gear compared to the nearly useless rep blues.Right, I've already got the rep for the 3 elemental 2 resto pieces, the totem of the void is good enough that I'll want it, and it will likely get me enough faction for the 4th piece of elemental armor for the 4 piece bonus, of course, that means I lose 35 resiliance but hopefully by then I have a few pieces of epic pvp gear...

[Boylston]

Whatever path you choose, make sure you get the 2-piece blue resilience bonus and the 2-piece glad bonus as soon as possible. I second the Weapon/Shield combo for the first two though.

I always like to get S2 shoulders as a first armor piece, since it's really cheap and not likely to be upgraded through arena very quickly...

[gobtol]

You mentioned that you may try to get the Vengeful shield with arena points. I'm pretty sure that the s3 shields still have a rating requirement of 1800 on them, same as s3 weapons. I've just hit 70 on my shamans as well, and right now I have 4/5 of the blue pvp gear (haven't got flying mounts to do Mech yet). The SSO dailys bring in a ton of cash every day, so it might be a good idea to hit exalted to get that shield and spend honor on other slots that can't be easily filled.

[Thulos]

Whatever path you choose, make sure you get the 2-piece blue resilience bonus and the 2-piece glad bonus as soon as possible.
QFT! This will add a huge increase in your resilience if you do this. I also recommend doing shield/weapon first.

[zanthor]

Whatever path you choose, make sure you get the 2-piece blue resilience bonus and the 2-piece glad bonus as soon as possible.
QFT! This will add a huge increase in your resilience if you do this. I also recommend doing shield/weapon first.Whats the difference between this and the 3 piece elemental armor 2 piece resto armor (blue pvp gear) giving two 2 piece bonus's of 35 resil each? I mean obviously the stats are better on the glad armor, but just making sure I'm not missing something else :).

[Thulos]

Whatever path you choose, make sure you get the 2-piece blue resilience bonus and the 2-piece glad bonus as soon as possible.
QFT! This will add a huge increase in your resilience if you do this. I also recommend doing shield/weapon first.Whats the difference between this and the 3 piece elemental armor 2 piece resto armor (blue pvp gear) giving two 2 piece bonus's of 35 resil each? I mean obviously the stats are better on the glad armor, but just making sure I'm not missing something else :).You didn't miss anything but if you did the pure elemental set like I did then when you pop the second piece of Gladiator gear on you get a nice bump.

[zanthor]

You didn't miss anything but if you did the pure elemental set like I did then when you pop the second piece of Gladiator gear on you get a nice bump. Good deal. I can REALLY see a difference between 0 resiliance and 175 in dungeons, I can only imagine it will make pvp a lot more durable. My spell dmg did take a pretty big hit, but I can bump that back up with a weapon and enchant once I find one worthy...

[puppychow]

Many will disagree with me, but imo this is not the time to really worry about gear anymore. Don't waste honor points on any gear, except maaaaybe buying the s2 weapon. Instead try to bank 75k honor and 100 of each token on every character (that would add another 30k honor) so at 80 you can buy maybe a piece or two.

The starting instances in WOTLK are very easy, you could do it with whatever gear you got right now, don't need anything special and definitely don't need epics! After a few dozen instance runs (and/or quests) every item you got will be replaced, or stuff will drop that is 95% as good.

What really matters going into WOTLK?

- Stick with your team or rerolling DKs? Make this decision now, if you are rerolling you want to stock up quest items, profession leveling items, gold, etc for your DKs, and not worry too much about your current team.
- Gold. You can never have too much.
- Professions. Recipe drops, etc that can be used by someone on your team are nice. Some people like to replicate the same profession on everyone (5x alchemists or 5x enchanters), others like to mix up the professions so all 5 cover everything.
- Achievements. There are a number of achievements you can do now and in 3.0, it doesn't really mean much but you can plan this route out. Exalted with various factions is a achievement as well, I believe.
- Practice multiboxing. Whether its 5 man instance running, arena PVP, battlegrounds, outdoor PVP, or whatever floats your boat, its good to practice this now.

I just run the daily heroic (unless its slab or crypts or a few others I hate) so I keep practicing on 5 man PVE, and I'm doing some 10 games of arena per week (1-9 lol) just to practice, my gear is all greens/blues and just the s2 weapon. Banked 40k so far on each toon, playing 4-5 hours of PVP on the weekend, by the time WOTLK is out I should have 75k, 100 tokens of each, and maybe enough arena points to buy 1 season 4 item (lol)

[zanthor]

Puppychow this is actually something I've considered. I'll have limited time between now and the expac to play anyhow, I want to level my warlocks (4) to 60 from 40... I also want to bring a druid team up to 60 before my RAF expires on Nov 5th... both easily doable, but will take time frm the shamans...

I also intend to do dailies on two 5 box teams each day through lich king as well, the purpose is to pad the wallet and get my epic fliers on my shamans... 2k a day from dailies will add up fast, plus the quest gold from both shadowmoon and netherstorm will put me on epics very soon.

I don't tradeskill, however I saw the bonus for gathering skills in lich king and think that miner/herbalist is a nice combo of bonus stam + bonus HOT.... so I may be grinding those up.