Get More out of Heroic Farming in WoW

You may have already noticed that raiding requires a certain level of gear in order for people to take you seriously as a raider. As a new level 80 character, you may have been lucky enough to get taken to many of the earlier raids in Northrend, however people do not generally like taking along under geared people to these raids as they will be essentially “dragging” you through and doing all the work for you. To become a real raider in your own right, you will need to make sure you have all the best gear you can possibly obtain before you begin raiding. Blizzard has even made it easier in later years for beginners to get into raiding by introducing Emblem gear that is equivalent to middle of the range raids.

All of your gear will have a designated item level associated with it (known as ilvl). This ilvl determines your overall character gear score as well as the level of raid or instance your character is ready for. Toe xmaine your character gear in more detail you can use a third party website such as www.wow-heroes.com which gives a more in depth look at your character and also shows a helpful sliding scale to show what instances and raids you are ready for in your current gear.

To see ilvl of gear within game simply go to the game menu and select Interface >> Display and check the box that says “Show Item Level”. In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the level cap is 80 and level 80 gear starts off with an ilvl of 200 at this point. Item level 200 gear is basic starter gear for heroic instances and possibly Naxx10 raids. To gain a quick idea of what ilvl you need to do an instance here is the general ilvl of the gear that drops in each raid:

Naxx10 – Item Level 200 gear with 213 from the final two bosses.
Naxx25 – Item Level 213 gear with 226 from the final two bosses.
OS10 – Item Level 200 gear with 213 with drakes up.
OS25 – Item Level 213 gear with 226 with drakes up.
EoE10 – Item Level 213 gear.
EoE25 – Item level 226 gear.
Ulduar10 – Item level 219 gear with some 226 for hard modes.
Ulduar25 – Item level 226 gear with some 232 for hard modes.

These are just the first few raids you will need experience in before you can venture onwards to harder endgame material. Most people will require you to have the achievements for the Trial of the Crusader raid before you can go there or at least show extensive experience in earlier raids first in order to be given the chance to obtain the ToC achievement.

Heroics will provide you with basic ilvl 200 gear of rare quality (blue items) and with an epic quality ilvl200 item for completing the final boss in each heroic instance (purple items). You should aim to obtain the “Superior” achievement from these drops before you attempt any raid or the Trial of the Champion heroic instance. This means completely eliminating any green items from your character and replacing them with rare or epic quality items of ilvl 200 plus. Although Naxx10 provides you with ilvl 200 gear it is still a very complex raid and the gear that drops is all epic quality. Therefore, make sure you are fitted out in rare quality and above gear before attempting this raid and remember that your ultimate goal is to replace all rare quality items with epic quality ones.

The interesting thing about gearing up at level 80 for raids, is that you no longer need to complete the earlier raids in order to be able to go to Uludar and then beyond. You can in fact completely skip Naxxramas and Obsidian Sanctum gear wise simply by doing heroics. Although most heroics do not drop gear above item level 200 you can use the Emblems of Conquest that heroic instance bosses drop to purchase Emblem gear that is equivalent to Ulduar level. You can also downgrade these emblems to Emblems of Valor and then Emblems of Heroism to purchase lower ilvl gear you may be missing that you cannot obtain from Emblems of Conquest.

To make sure you are ready for Ulduar and beyond make sure you have ALL the following gear or better from previous raids:
Head of item level 226 (Tier 8.5) – 58 Emblems of Conquest.
Necklace of item level 226 – 19 Emblems of Conquest.
Shoulders of item level 213 (Tier 7.5) – 60 Emblems of Valor
Chest of item level 226 (Tier 8.5) – 58 Emblems of Conquest.
Cloak of item level 213 – 25 Emblems of Valor.
Gloves of item level 226 – 28 Emblems of Conquest.
Belt of item level 226 – 28 Emblems of Conquest.
Legs of item level 226 – 39 Emblems of Conquest.
Boots of item level 213 – 40 Emblems of Valor.
Ring of item level 213 – 25 Emblems of Valor.
Trinket of item level 200 – 40 Emblems of Heroism.
Off-Hand of item level 200 – 25 Emblems of Heroism.
Relics of item level 226 (Certain classes only) – 19 Emblems of Valor.

Finally, jump into an Ulduar raid to gain much need raid experience and try to get the previous raids if you can find a spot. Once you have enough experience in raiding, the right gear and all full epic gems and grade 15 enchants on your gear, you will be ready to join a raiding guild and possibly tackle Trial of the Crusader and beyond.

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