Raiding in Wrath of the Lich King

Once you have hit the level cap of 80 for the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion pack, you will no longer gain experience from questing. At this point many people choose to work on other areas of their character such as dailies for reputation with certain factions. The most popular type of game play for player who has reached level 80 is known as raiding. Raids are similar to the instances you may have encountered already while levelling up except that they involved much harder end game content. These raids include pivotal storylines and key figures that progress the story of your battle against the Lich King. However, you will not be able to jump into raiding as soon as you hit level 80 as you will need to get the appropriate gear first.

Gear up from Heroics

Many guilds have a gear level requirement before you can start raiding. This means you will need to start running heroic versions of instances in order to get appropriately geared for “entry level” raiding such as Naxxramas and Obsidian Sanctum. Throughout the whole of Northrend you will have encountered various different instances while you levelled from 70 to 80. Once you hit 80 these instances can then be completed once per day in heroic mode for much better loot. These instances become much harder than usual while in heroic mode but drop item level 200 rare gear, including an epic piece from the final boss. Before you consider raiding you will need to have collected all the best possible gear from these heroic instances. You can use an add on such as Atlas Loot to formulate your gear wish list and keep track of what loot you still need from each instance.

Complete the Sons of Hodir and your chosen Faction dailies

Raiders require all the best gems and enchants in their gear to enable them to progress through raid content and face new challenges. The very best shoulder enchants from the game can be obtained once you are exalted with the Sons of Hodir faction. In order to earn reputation with this faction you will first need to complete the opening K3 quest chain which leads through Brunhilder Village so that you can open up the Dun Niffelem area. Once you have opened up this area you will be able to do daily quests for this faction to earn reputation as well as hand in stacks of 10 “Relic of Ulduar” for additional reputation gains.
The best head enchants in the game can be found from individual Northrend factions and you will need to look at each faction quartermaster to find out which one has the enchant that your character would most benefit from. Once you know which faction you need, purchase a tabard from that faction and wear it constantly to earn reputation with that particular faction whilst you complete heroics. If you wear your tabard all the time and farm heroics for your gear upgrades then you will quickly find yourself revered with this faction and ready to obtain the head enchant of your choice.

Crafted Armour and Weapons

You can also make use of certain professions to help you to get ready for raiding quickly. Professions such as leatherworking and blacksmithing offer crafted gear from Northrend materials that are of epic quality and item level 200-213. If you wear mail or leather armour ask a 450/450 leather worker for their profession link, if you wear plate you will need to ask a blacksmith instead and finally cloth wearers can ask a tailor for their own crafted gear. Weapons can usually be made by a blacksmith excepting guns which are crafted by an engineer.

Farming for Emblems

Once you have all heroic gear that you need alongside crafted gear that is fully epic gemmed and enchanted you will be able to start basic raids such as Naxx and OS. These in turn will also provide you with extra Emblems of Conquest that you would have previously obtained from Heroics. These emblems can be later exchanged at the conquest vendor in Dalaran for item level 226 gear. Once you have all your gear upgraded to 226 level gear you can consider harder challenges such as Ulduar raiding. Not every piece of gear can be obtained using emblems of conquest, cloaks, bracers and rings for example will need to be obtained by converting your conquest emblems into valor emblems. Once you upgraded all your gear through earlier raids or emblems you will be ready for Ulduar and then work towards further raids such as ToC10/25.

Joana's Horde Guide has been fully updated for WotLK, and will be for the new Cataclysm expansion as well. If you have not seen his guide, you are missing out!