Gearing Up: It’s Easier Than Ever!
We gotta get jobs. The we get the khakis. Then we get the chicks. -Joseph R. (Coop) Cooper
this has nothing to do with anything, I just found it to be funny.
3.3 is finally here and my god are there plenty of opportunities to grab some sweet, sweet lewtz. I covered a bit of this in a previous post, but I thought I’d take some time to reiterate just how easy it is to get your toon decked out in 232 gear after seeing it firsthand myself.
With the large turnout we had last night, I think it would behoove the guild as a whole to start focusing on 25-man content from 7-9 (or so) server. Conversely. I don’t think we can just dash headlong into Icecrown Citadel (ICC) 25, so we’ll need to do it through progressive steps. Normally this would mean gearing people for Ulduar to be able to be geared for ToC to be able to step foot into ICC, but thankfully Blizz has allowed a lot of this nuisance to be skipped. Check out how beyond the break.
The Frozen Halls
The new dungeon complex is essentially a 3-pronged loot piñata. Not to say that the three dungeons are a complete walk in the park on heroic, but they are quite far from daunting. The entrance to the instances is located on the western side of ICC. If you are looking at the Citadel from the north, you’ll see to your right a bunch of Argent Crusade banners. Just fly up above them and you’ll notice a hallway going into the Citadel. Once inside, there are three gates, one for each instance: The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, & Halls of Reflection. The Forge of Souls is open to everyone immediately but must be completed to gain access to Pit of Saron, which in turn must be finished to allow one to enter Halls of Reflection. This is a one time attunement which can be completed on either normal or heroic. Just be sure to follow the quest chain as if you miss a step and complete the dungeon, you will not be attuned for the next wing.
I can’t stress how insanely good some of the gear is in here. In just running the first two wings on heroic, Maiden scored about 3 pieces of healing gear as well as a new tanking sword for my avoidance set. See check out your toon’s character sheet and make a shopping list of what needs to be upgraded and head over to this loot table to see what goodies you can possible snag. Unless you’re trying to bang out the attunement quests or need something specific like a trinket, I would suggest running the heroics only, as the gear is just so much better as well as the fact that the Battered Hilt can drop off trash (as well as other BoP epics) which well allow you to get your very own Quel’Delar!
Emblems of Triumph
If you are having difficulty in the new 5-man heroics or don’t want to deal with the luck of the drop, 232 gear can still be yours. Emblems of Triumph are now the base emblems and are basically being handed out willy nilly. You can get 5 of em (along with 5 Emblems of Frost) by doing the weekly raid quest with the guild on Tuesdays. You can also grab them off of any boss in either raids or even heroics. If you use the new Random Dungeon option, you’ll get 2 extra badges for each dungeon after the first (see below) on top of whatever the bosses drop. You can even run non-heroic dungeons using the Random Dungeon option and still get 2 badges!
Once you’ve gathered up a bunch of Emblems of Triumph, it’s now time to decide what to do with them. Outside of the Crusaders Coliseum you’ll find a series of NPC vendors. The first one of these 4 vendors sells the Tier 9 gear. Gloves and shoulders go for 30 Emblems of Triumph each, whereas the pants, chest and helm go for 50 badges. These are all 232 Ilvl and have the added strength of offering 2 & 4 piece set bonuses. If you talk to the furthest NPC, you find that s/he sells the same gear you can buy in Dalaran. They also use Emblems of Triumph, but are iLvl 245, though they are not considered set pieces. To get the iLvl 245 T9 gear you must first get a trophy (they drop in 10 heroic ToC aka ToGC and 25 ToC) and use that in conjunction with a ton of badges, so I wouldn’t worry about that just now.
Emblems of Frost
These are the badges dropped from bosses in ICC and are used to buy the iLvl 251 Tier 10 gear as well as some other nice, non-set pieces available in Dalaran. Though the primary way to grab these is by downing bosses in ICC, you can slowly start saving up on these without even stepping foot near the Lich Kings lair. As mentioned above, you can grab 5 Emblems of Frost a week by doing the weekly raid quest. You can also grab 2 a day by running a random heroic dungeon (each random dungeon after that awards 2 Emblems of Triumph). You also get a few (I believe it’s just 2, but maybe more) from completing the attunement quests for The Frozen Halls.
As you can see, loot is there for the taking. If everyone keeps running dungeons here and there, we should have a pretty decently decked out raid in a matter of a week or two. We would then be able to bang out some 25 ToC on Tuesdays, hone our skills and start making a push for 25 ICC in the New Year. All and all, I’d have to say it’s looking like everything is coming up H T.
