Fresh 80's- How much do you spend gearing them up?

[Bigfish]

Ok, so I got my first 80 last night on my Prot Pally. Everyone else is about halfway through 79, so they'll be following shortly. I dumped about 6k-7k on gearing him up in Titansteel and Titanium. Cleared out most of my float cash, but he hit his target numbers for heroics.

Anyway, my question is this, how much do people usually spend on characters once they hit 80? 6-7k doesn't seem too much, but times ten its going to get a bit hefty. I get the impression a lot of people just hit 80 and dive in to heroics, so I'm curious if fresh 80s can get by fairly well, or if I really need to make a solid investment in gear for my healers and DPS before I start running them.

[Hachoo]

I spent a lot. I didn't want to struggle too much in heroics and I had gobs of money from finishing storm peaks and icecrown at 80. If I had to guess, I'd say that I spent around 10k gold within 24 hours of hitting 80 on gear, and then probably another 20-25k since then :)

Edit: I also didn't want to run normal 80 instances at all - the gear drops are fairly horrible, the rep sucks compared to running heroics, and they don't give badges. I had extra money so I figured why not :)

[Siaea]

I'm too lazy to farm for mats, so I take my dailies gold (2k or slightly less if I do my usual round of dailies on all five) and buy BoE epics from AH. So far, all the shammies have the revenants breast and feet, titansteel guardian with 50 spell power, the Ebon Hold epic mail legs and cloth belt (with belt buckle), an epic spell power shield (zom's crackling something-or-other) and I'm working on getting them the Boe Necklace from naxx, along with the spellshock rings. My DK has the titansteel mace and some titansteel defense items. I haven't set foot in a dungeon in a couple of weeks, just doing dailies for gear basically.

[Bigfish]

Edit: I also didn't want to run normal 80 instances at all - the gear drops are fairly horrible, the rep sucks compared to running heroics, and they don't give badges. I had extra money so I figured why not

Yeah, that's kind of what i've been thinking myself. Why bother running the things on normal when I'll get more Rep on Heroic? (why that is stuck above badges, I have no idea. Probably because I never got used to the whole idea of a badge vendor, but I digress)

Except Loken. Gotta go kick Regular Loken's head in a few times til he gives me his awesome trinket. Twice.

[Lyonheart]

It took me about a week longer than other people to get my team to 80 ( I think I hit 80 in around 3 weeks ). That extra week was me taking the time to keep all my tradeskills maxed. When I dinged 80 my tank put on his titansteel gear, had 545ish def( i was farming SB for ore a few days into LK ), I gemed enchanted everything, put all the gear I could make from leather and cloth for my shamies and did my first heroic the same day 8) I killed the first two bosses there for a few days and I think the 3rd day i cleared it.( UK ) I'm not sure how fast i progressed, but It seemed pretty fast. I ran out of things to buy with heroic badges ( still could get a few PvP items )

I did not spend much money at all, I had all the mats I needed to equip myself for heroics. I hate spending money on gear.

[Kaynin]

I myself spent roughly 15k gold on craftables and such for all my four shamans which helped me go into heroics/10 man raids almost straight away. I cleared all 10 man content (bar Malygos which I still haven't done, moreso because my guild is quite casual and don't have enough time per week to do all) within 2 weeks of dinging 80 on all four shammies.

Yes, I replaced those craftables pretty damn quick. And looking at it like that it seems like a damned waste.

But I doubt I'd have been as effective in heroics and raids if I didn't have them. :P

[emesis]

Edit: I also didn't want to run normal 80 instances at all - the gear drops are fairly horrible, the rep sucks compared to running heroics, and they don't give badges. I had extra money so I figured why not

Yeah, that's kind of what i've been thinking myself. Why bother running the things on normal when I'll get more Rep on Heroic? (why that is stuck above badges, I have no idea. Probably because I never got used to the whole idea of a badge vendor, but I digress)

Except Loken. Gotta go kick Regular Loken's head in a few times til he gives me his awesome trinket. Twice.

Seal of the Pantheon is unique-equipped, so you only need one of his trinket.

Be prepared for a wake-up call gettting TO Loken, however. Ionar is a bitch. I'd run Drak and Gundrak several times on heroic successfully, went into HoL (normal) and proceeded to get my ass kicked, repeated (like 10 wipes) by Ionar, the boss before Loken.

I was trying the run-away strategy for him and his knockback effects kept breaking my follow. Finally figured out to take my guys out to one of the balconies, healing stream * 4, and just stayed put healing thorough his Disperse. Loken himself was trivial and was kind enough to cough up the trinket. Haven't tried HoL on heroic; not sure I'm going to anytime soon.

To echo what's been said, I geared up all my guys pretty throughoughly with crafted blues/epics, especially my tank, before setting foot in heroics. Took my about a week after getting my second team to 80 cause I got the epic flyers first (to make the dailies faster). Straight to heroics after that; hadn't really run any dungeons to speak of in Northrend prior to that.

[Bigfish]

Seal of the Pantheon is unique-equipped, so you only need one of his trinket.

Oh I know, but I need one for my Paladin and one for my Death Knight.

[Tonuss]

I just realized a major benefit of taking my time to level up all of the available professions with my group. I should be able to craft up all of the necessary gear for my tank when he gets to 80 (which could be a while, but I've already got 11 titansteel bars and counting, and my alchemist is able to transmute titanium bars as of yesterday!), as well as items for my other characters if needed, without spending huge amounts of gold. Which is good, since I will need those huge amounts of gold to get them all on fast flying mounts by level 77...

[puppychow]

When I hit 80 on my team I spent probably 500g on gear, having every prof except BS covered. Had enough mats to make titanium spell rings for all my guys, had tons of saronite/etc to make the maces for the shamans, just had to buy some frozen orbs and other minor mats and pay for a BS to craft some of the items -- in fact early on BS's were paying YOU to craft stuff, since they were still skilling up, so I think I actually ended up with a profit since I got ~50-100g per BS epic item crafted -- 3x titansteel weapons, and 2-3 tank items (helm, shield, legs?)

Revenant chest/boots are definitely worth making, if you have a skinner/LW you leveled along you will have plenty of mats to make em, I actually ended up making like 10 extra and sold em on AH for a decent profit.

The titanium necks are mediocore imo (both tank and caster), you can get 25 badges pretty quickly and that one is much better. After that just start grinding on heroics, doing raids, and you will gear up in a few weeks no problems.

[Hachoo]

Edit: I also didn't want to run normal 80 instances at all - the gear drops are fairly horrible, the rep sucks compared to running heroics, and they don't give badges. I had extra money so I figured why not

Yeah, that's kind of what i've been thinking myself. Why bother running the things on normal when I'll get more Rep on Heroic? (why that is stuck above badges, I have no idea. Probably because I never got used to the whole idea of a badge vendor, but I digress)

Except Loken. Gotta go kick Regular Loken's head in a few times til he gives me his awesome trinket. Twice.

Seal of the Pantheon is unique-equipped, so you only need one of his trinket.

Be prepared for a wake-up call gettting TO Loken, however. Ionar is a bitch. I'd run Drak and Gundrak several times on heroic successfully, went into HoL (normal) and proceeded to get my ass kicked, repeated (like 10 wipes) by Ionar, the boss before Loken.

I was trying the run-away strategy for him and his knockback effects kept breaking my follow. Finally figured out to take my guys out to one of the balconies, healing stream * 4, and just stayed put healing thorough his Disperse. Loken himself was trivial and was kind enough to cough up the trinket. Haven't tried HoL on heroic; not sure I'm going to anytime soon.

To echo what's been said, I geared up all my guys pretty throughoughly with crafted blues/epics, especially my tank, before setting foot in heroics. Took my about a week after getting my second team to 80 cause I got the epic flyers first (to make the dailies faster). Straight to heroics after that; hadn't really run any dungeons to speak of in Northrend prior to that.Ionar is actually quite easy with tank + 4 shamans. I will be making a video of heroic HoL soon to show my recommended layout (which I think I got from someone else here but it helps to see it in a video). Regardless, 4x healing stream + chain heals make this fight pretty easy.

[heffner]

I bought what I thought was reasonable gear from the AH. Any piece that is 100g and under is reasonable to me. All blue gear of course. I don't see the need to go balls out and get the best gear I can through the AH. I suppose with some research you can determine which ones will last a long while.

I always planned (and will start tonight since I Just hit 80) to do all normal instances. I need some upgrades (at least I assume I do, never really looked at the drops), but primarily because I am multiboxtarded when it comes to instances. I need the practice and I am assuming that if I know the fights on normal, it has to help on heroic to a certain degree.

[Multibocks]

I am making all my DKs on my second 80 team have Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting for tradeskills.... where is your god now?!!?

[Hor]

When I hit 80, I started knocking out quests in Icecrown and Storm Peaks, much like Hachoo the idea was get some gold, get some gear, and start rocking. Things have been a bit busy though, so I've only been doing chunks of quests at a time. While farming some Emblems from a Heroic everyday while I build up. For gear, my suggestions are as follows, all are BOE Craftable epics and shouldn't be too hard to get.

Main Hand: Titansteel Guardian - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41384
Offhand: Iron-bound Tome - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38322
Chest: Revenant's Breastplate - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43461
Legs: Windripper's Leggings - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44931
Feet: Windripper's Boots - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44930

It's tempting to say, "it's not mail, it's not worth it" but this kind of thinking won't really help you max your nuke potential. Itemization for elemental mail gear is kinda ... non existent. So, getting leather, even cloth gear is a real option. You might consider even getting Ebonweave Gloves, however I wouldn't simply because you'll likely be getting gloves from Emblems soon enough. I personally value crit over haste, hence the choice of Windrippers Boots over Revenant's Boots. Likewise, you could save up for the Zom's Crackling Shield, which is very nice. However, it's a BOE world drop, compared to the inscription crafted book. The book has more spell power and crit vs the MP5 on the shield. The real thing to consider is price/availability. On my server you can get the tome for about 400-500g vs 2.5-3K for the Shield. Overall, a decent choice imo. With this list, and quest blues you'll get from knocking out Icecrown, etc. You should be set.

[Khatovar]

I made a point of having tradeskills covered between my teams. Blacksmithing & leatherworking geared up our pallies, druids, shammies and hunteres very nicely. My pally has enchanting, one of my shammies has inscription. Several of my toons have JC. So that covers random enhancements, too. Each team had an enchanter, a skinner, an herbalist and a miner. What they picked up along the way to 80 covered gearing both teams very nicely. All I had to buy was a few orbs to get my healer and his tank kitted out enough to be heroic ready to get my own orbs.

So all in all, maybe 1k, but that geared 2 healers & 3 tanks for heroics. And that's when orbs were still ~250g each. Ouch.