Great end-game gear without raiding: Bear
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If you’re a feral druid and you’re here for gear lists, be sure to check out my Cat DPS list too.
In a previous post, I laid out my guidelines for this series of three posts: gear that approaches Tier 4 and 5, but without the effort. The information in these posts is gleaned from a list of BC Feral Gear put together by a European druid player named Emmerald. While I’m sure we all dream about wearing a full set of Tier 5 equipment, the reality for me at least is I’m not that hard core of a player to know whether that dream will ever become a reality. So I’m putting together this series to give you a list of great gear that can be had with considerably less effort.
Bear form is for tanking, and tanking is all about damage mitigation. Soaking up damage and avoiding damage are essential activities for a tank and the formula Emmerald uses to rate bear gear revolves around armor, stamina, dodge and defense, as expected. By slot, here’s my list of what I’ll be going after.
Head
We start off with an easy one. Number 5 on the list is Stylin’ Purple Hat. This headpiece sports 232 armor, 48 agility and 45 stamina. The best part is it’s a crafted item, so all you need is some money or a nice guild tailor. I saw one the other night on my server for just under 100G. The best part? This hat is STYLIN’!!!
Neck
Moving on to our necklace, this one also was fairly easy. The first four pieces on the list require repeated elite raids or multiple Badges of Justice, and the fifth piece is an “…of the x” piece. Number 6 on the list however, fits our bill perfectly. Mark of the Ravenguard is a quest reward offering 40 stamina and 17 defense. This does require a trip into Sethekk Halls – but no farming required. Just one run to complete the quest and you’ve got your necklace.
Shoulders
After two fairly easy choices, the shoulder slot gets a bit more complicated. We’re thirteen gear items down the list before we get to Shoulderpads of Assasination. Don’t get me wrong, this is nice gear at 219 armor and 25 agility and 25 stamina, along with two yellow sockets (socket bonus of 4 stamina) and a +42 increase to attack power. No, this is the first item where you need to decide how much farming you are willing to do as this shoulder gear is a 11% drop off Talon King Ikiss in Sethekk Halls. You’ll be heading there anyway most likely to get attuned for Karazhan – the question is if they don’t drop the first time through, or you lose the roll, how many times are you willing to go back?
Your next option? Not many that are any easier to pick up. Most of the alternatives the next few pages are drops in heroic modes of other dungeons, so for my money I’m sticking with these. You’re going to be doing Sethekk anyways so an additional run or two to pick these up won’t hurt.
Back
Things get a bit easier again when talking about our cloak. Number four on the list is Bogstrok Scale Cloak, a drop off of Rokmar in The Slave Pens. Very farmable at level 70 and the cloak can be equipped at level 62, so you can pick up a great item early. This cloak gives you 223 armor, 22 stamina and increases your defense rating by 16. The drop rate is listed at only 14%, but given the great stats, the fact you’ll probably be in here anyways, I am definitely planning on farming for this cloak.
There is a crafted cape one position ahead of Bogstrok. The Resolute Cape offers 289 armor, 30 stamina and improves your resilience rating by 21. However looking at it’s mats I’m guessing it’s going to sell for quite a bit and it’s not equippable until level 70. This is one I might keep my eye out for on the auction house for an opportunistic buy at the right price.
As pointed out in a comment by Tanuviel, number one on the list is a fantastic cloak and is a drop off the first Mechanar boss. The Thoriumweave Cloak give you an incredible 318 armor and +35 stamina. Go there. Farm. Get this cloak.
Chest
Another easy one here. Number four on the list is Heavy Clefthoof Vest, a crafted item. This vest gives you 290 armor and 52 stamina along with two yellow sockets and a blue, a socket bonus of +4 dodge rating, and an equip bonus of 28 to your defense rating. While this vest cannot be equipped until level 70, I have already looked it up at auction and on my server it is not very expensive at all. Under 30 gold.
The vest is part of a 3 piece set, the Strength of the Clefthoof. We will be seeing this set again later.
Wrists
Good news for us, the highest rated tanking wrist armor is a quest reward. Umberhowl’s Collar offers us 281 armor, 17 strength, 10 agility and 22 stamina. Great stats and comments indicate there are other great rewards along the quest line. Another no-brainer.
Hands
Another great slot for bears, the second pair of gloves on the list is a quest item: Verdant Gloves. With 393 armor, 23 strength, 14 agility and 27 stamina, I can’t wait to slip these on. These gloves are from yet another quest line in Shadowmoon Valley (just like the wrist quest above). Be sure to read up on these quests and all comments to plan your Shadowmoon Valley questing out to maximum potential. But again – a no-brainer.
Waist
Your waist slot gives you a choice I think. Number twelve on the list is Girdle of Treachery. A very nice belt with 179 armor, 15 agility, 33 stamina and two red sockets. The socket bonus is 3 agility and you get 52 attack power for equipping. However, this belt is a 14% find in a chest after the chess event in Karazhan. Now, comments indicate that the chess event is early in the instance, but Karazhan promises to be a very challenging instance so depending on how you are playing you may not have access to these or want to keep trying for them. Plus one of my assumptions for this series is no elite raiding required.
The next best belt on the list is Manimal’s Cinch, a quest reward in where? You guessed it – Shadowmoon Valley. This belt offers 348 armor, 20 strength, 12 agility and 24 stamina. The ranking difference between the two belts is insignificant, and you don’t have to buy gems to power this one up. Since it looks like I’ll be questing a lot in Shadowmoon for other gear, Manimal is my first choice for this slot, but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the girdle once I get in Karazhan.
Legs
On to leggings and a choice very similar to above. The Skulker’s Greaves drop off Netherspite in Karazhan and have nice stats: 278 armor, 28 agility, 22 stamina, two red sockets, a blue socket, and a socket bonus of +4 dodge rating. Equipping these greaves additionally gives you +24 to dodge and +56 attack power. These are nice leggings, but do require end-game raiding.
However, just two positions down on the list is Heavy Clefthoof Leggings. These leggings have 251 armor and 42 stamina with three gem positions: two blues and a yellow. The socket bonus is +4 to dodge and the equip bonus is +34 defense. This is another piece of the Strength of the Clefthoof set and from my casual perusal of my auction house is not too expensive. Like above, I’m going with the Clefthoof Leggings for my first choice and keeping my eyes out for the greaves when I get into Karazhan.
Feet
Hey, guess what? Number six on the list is Heavy Clefthoof Boots and they are my pick for this slot. the Nimble Foot Treads at position two were considered, but they offer only minimally better rating and take Heroic mode Shattered Halls. Nope, I’ll buy myself a pair of these bad boys and equip them for 198 armor and 38 stamina. I’ll have a yellow and a blue socket to use with a socket bonus of +3 dodge. I’ll also get an equip bonus of +24 defense.
At this point, I’ll have all three pieces of the Strength of the Clefthoof set equipped and I’ll get the set bonus of +20 strength. Not much but I’ll take it.
UPDATE: The +20 to strength is only for Leatherworkers with skill 350 or above.
Rings
Okay, you get two rings, right? Taking up four of the first six positions on the list is the Violet Signet, which we will definitely be selecting. This ring is like the dragonflight ring in that it keeps powering up as you gain rep with The Violet Eye. Be careful too as there are different flavors; you want the “of the Great Protector” flavor. You start with this ring (210 armor, 27 stamina and +13 to defense) and eventually get the exalted ring (250 armor, 33 stamina and +16 to defense). Noice! Okay, this breaks my rule of no elite raiding, but this ring series is just too good to pass up. Plus even if you do just enough to get the first level of the ring, it’s still one of the best you can get.
So what’s your second ring? The next highest rated ring would be the Ring of Unyielding Force, and it’s a good one with 200 armor, 27 stamina and +21 to defense. This is a vendor ring requiring 25 Badges of Justice. These badges drop off bosses in Heroic mode dungeons, so if you’re not running heroic mode, what’s your next option?
The next couple of rings are drops off bosses in Karazhan and Serpentshrine, so I’m skipping them for now. No, on to the Iron Band of the Unbreakable. This ring is a 15% drop off a 68 elite in the Olds Hillsbrad Foothills instance, so it may take a little farming, but it’s a very solid ring. 170 armor, 27 stamina and +17 to defense.
So for rings, I’ve already starting building my rep with The Violet Eye by starting the Karazhan attunement and will be starting with my Violet Signet as soon as I can. My second ring will be the Iron Band for now, and definitely the Ring of Unyielding Force if I can get 25 Badges of Justice.
Trinkets
Well, the two highest-rated trinkets on the list are both engineered items. If you’re thinking this is finally your vindication for picking Engineering, this isn’t as lucky a day as you might thing. One of the trinkets takes goblin engineering and one takes gnomish, so at most you’ll be able to equip one of these. They both offer 45 stamina along with a great effect: the Goblin Rocket Launcher lets you, well, launch rockets and the Gnomish Poultryizer let’s you turn mobs into chicken. Don’t laugh – that’s additional crowd control on top of 45 stamina. Now that’s a great trinket.
UPDATE: Great comment by slipslappy that the trinkets are not unique, so you can equip two of either of these for 90 stamina.
So, for the rest of us non-engineers, what do we go with? Number six on the list is Mark of Tyranny. Remember that one from the Onyxia attunement series? 180 armor, dodge +12 and +10 arcane resistance. Hopefully you were smarted than me and hung on to it.
Right below Mark of Tyranny is Timelapse Shard. This is a vendor item sold in Tanaris that gives you 25 stamina and +23 to resilience. You can also use the item to reduce your threat to enemies withing 30 yards. While it doesn’t seem like it, this can actually be a useful tool for us every once in a while if we need to swap with another tank. However, this trinket does require Exalted with The Keepers of Time.
If you’re like me and dropped your Mark of Tryanny and don’t have rep with The Keepers of Time, there are a couple of Jewelcrafting figurines right below Timelapse Shard. The Living Ruby Serpent offers 33 stamina and 23 intellect (and can also increase your magical spells and effects by 150 for 20 seconds). The Dawnstone Crab increases your defense rating by 32 and can be used to increase your dodge rating by 125 for 20 seconds. These guys are BoP though so you’ll have to be a Jewelcrafter yourself to use them.
Okay, I’m skipping one-handed weapons and off-hand items. I just find that I always end up with two-handed weapons. If you like one-handers and off-hand items, then check out the list on your own.
Two-handed Weapon
I’m looking at two weapons here. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know that I’m definitely headed for Earthwarden sooner or later. Earthwarden is a great two-handed mace that gives you 500 armor, defense of +24, feral combat skill +24 and +525 to attack power in feral forms. You need exalted reputation with the Cenarion Expidition which does require repeated runs of The Steamvaults, but for this mace, I’m willing to go.
There is a crafted weapon higher up than Earthwarden though. Stormherald offers your bear +39 strength, +39 agility, +57 stamina and has a chance on hit to stun your target for 4 seconds (although weapon abilities don’t proc in feral forms). However, Stormherald is the third in a series of crafted maces, each requiring the one before. You must also be a Master Hammersmith to use Stormherald. So if you are one, then definitely go for Stormherald. If not like me, head for Earthwarden.
Gems
For items in the list with sockets, Emmerald lists two rankings for the item: a base ranking and a ranking with gems equipped. I haven’t researched his approach, but I’m assuming he computes the final ranking with the best gem listed for the slot. With that in mind, here are the gems you should be trolling for:
Blue: Solid Star of Elune (+12 Stamina)
Yellow: Enduring Chrysoprase (+6 Stamina and +5 Defense) – This gem is a drop off an elite in the Old Hillsbrad Foothills instance and I have yet to see on on my auction house. Almost as good is Enduring Talasite; always on the AH and you only lose 1 defense.
Red: Shifting Nightseye (+4 Agility and +6 Stamina)
Meta: Powerful Earthstorm Diamond (+18 Stamina and +5% stun resist)
Whew! That took a while, but I’m glad I did it. Just knowing what’s out there helps me put some priorities on what I’m doing and the quests I go on. I actually picked up Manimal’s Cinch last night after typing this up since I realized I was already started with the quest. Just that one piece bumped by bear armor by around 1000.
Just for grins I totalled up just the armor value of my first pick for each slot. You end up with 3315 armor, or 18,232 in bear form with three points in Thick Hide (you do have three points in Thich Hide, don’t you?). Now we know it’s not just all about the armor, but that’s some pretty darn good stats for just questing and trolling the auction house.
I hope you enjoy this writeup and find it helpful.
Adventures in Azeroth 
A great guide. You’ve obviously spent some time here looking it up, but it’s exactly what I’m looking for.
[…] picked up the first item from my Bear list. The Manimal’s Cinch is now mine. I didn’t even realize I was on the quest series […]
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Just an fyi, the engineering trinkets are NOT unique… So you can have two equipped at once. That’s a total of 90 Stamina.
Also, in regards to the Assassination shoulders… Sethekk is one of the fastest instances in the game, with only two bosses. If you have a solid group you can knock it out in under a half hour. Ikiss is wanted by hunters and shammys for the Desolation legs that never seem to drop either. Same with a priest piece I’m pretty sure. All in all finding a group shouldn’t be hard, and getting through the instance is cake.
Great job on this tanking list. Do a cat sustained dps list please. 😛 I have my list, curious how well yours will match.
Slipslappy – I’m working on it right now. About 1/3 of the way through. It doesn’t seem to be as straight-forward as the bear list, so we’ll have to see how it comes out.
Thanks for the feedback.
[…] quest chains in Shadowmoon Valley. These gloves are the piece of gear I most desire off the Bear tanking gear list I recently compiled. For an overview of this quest chain, follow this link and look for the green text about half-way […]
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Great job Amanna! I would suggest a couple of additional items for some of the slots:
– Neck: Strength of the Untamed. This is very easy to get if you are working on your Cenarion Rep. It is a vendor item you get at Revered. I got this one for Tanuviel.
– Back: Thoriumweave Cloak. This is simply the best tanking piece in the game at the moment and it drops from the first boss in the Mechanar. Still working on this.
Amanna, I just published a Cat DPS gear list for the casual player on my blog! I would love to have your feedback. I know you are working on a similar thing and I cant wait to see how it will compare. Thanks!
[…] Update to Bear list I’m still working on the cat list, but I have made a couple changes to the bear gear list: […]
Pingback by Update to Bear list « Adventures in Azeroth | April 16, 2007 |
This is a good guide, makes my life as a feral druid a lot easier =]
I was wondering why you didnt mention braxxis’staff of slumber instead of earthwarden. (550 armor, 234 attack power in form, and i heard it will even get stami in a later patch).
I’d also like to comment on your choice of headpiece, as you can get Stealthers helmet of second sight in shadowmoon too, and since it comes with three sockets, just ignore the socket bonus and stuff it with stami gems. These are the stats, unsocketed: (226 armor, 18 stami, 24 agi, red, blue and yellow socket with an 8 attack power socket bonus, 60 attack power, 13 hit rating, and the spectrecles buff)
Oh, and don’t forget staff of beasts (31 STR, 45 STAMI, 30 AGI, and 298 attack power in form) for your cat guide. i read something about a SL run on this site, about a druid who had staff of the four golden coins, which you get at lvl 66. Staff of beasts is a LOT better, and you can get that at 65 =]. It’s useable for tanking, too, but that won’t be the case when braxxis’staff of slumber gets a stami bonus.
That’s about it, keep up the good work!
JJ – I didn’t mean the list to be the “be all and end all”. As I stated in my assumptions, I was going off the gear list that Emmerald put together, assuming his rankings were accurate. If you follow the “BC Feral Gear Rankings” link in my Druid Stuff blogroll, you’ll see that the gear recommendations you make, while good ones, are ranked lower than the ones in my post.
That doesn’t mean they are right, nor does it mean that you shouldn’t use other gear if you want.
For more information on how Emmerald constructed the list and the formula he used, follow the link to the Druid Wikispaces page and he has posted lots of good information on how he put the list together.
JJ – I was thinking a bit about your comments over lunch and I wanted to leave this followup.
When evaluating Emmerald’s list, while you don’t need to know the specific formulas he used, it is important to understand what he was trying to do.
His bear list is a ordered list of gear for “tanking”. As such armor and stamina and agility are going to rank much higher than attack power. One could argue that attack power really isn’t important for tanking – it’s your ability to soak up and/or mitigate damage and hold aggro.
So that is a specific answer to your question on Braxxis vs. Earthwarden. Yes, Braxxis is a great weapon and it’s what I have currently equipped. But for straight tanking, I will take Earthwarden as soon as I can get it for pure tanking.
The other thing is that the original list is at a particular point in time. As patches and new content comes out we will have to see if Emmerald keeps the list updated.
[…] You all finally found the bear tanking gear list; […]
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Thank you so much that saved me so much time you dont know…
“Stormherald offers your bear +39 strength, +39 agility, +57 stamina and has a chance on hit to stun your target for 4 seconds.”
the ‘chance on hit’ on weapons has no effect when shapeshifted 🙂
Smoking Heart of the Mountain is a trinket that gives 150 armor and +7 to FR, NR, FrR, SR. It is craftable with enchanting at a skill level of 265 if you get the pattern from Lord Roccor in BRD. It is unique and BoP but you can drop enchanting and still use it.
Also the “Stormherald” is not that great. No armor and a proc that will not happen in bear form
sure the stats are decent but staffs like earthwarden and staff of natural fury with armor, stamina, and fap will be worth more. Staff of natural fury sells for about 2k gold on my server which is actually pretty easy to get.
Got a few mistakes here. Jewelcrafting trinkets are BoP. They can only be worn by the crafter who made them. Also as Karakye said weapon procs like on the Stormherld won’t proc in forms. Also for a tanking weapon pre-earthwarden check out Braxxis’ Staff of Slumber.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31186
Which is getting a real nice buff in the coming patch as well.
Don’t waste your money on stormherald – it has no feral attack power at all and the stun proc won’t do anything in feral form.
(It does have nice stamina though… but i’m sure theres a green with more)
[…] Strength of the Clefthoof – Set changes WoWHead.com had 2.1 patch changes integrated into their item stats already. I just happened to notice the other day when I was poking around. Assuming they were correct (which could be a big assumption), I headed over to Leather Armor (second floor, next to the whips), to check out the much-discussed changes to the Strength of the Clefthoof set. I have this complete set equipped and it was very highly rated tanking equipment on Emmerald’s Bear Tanking gear list. […]
Pingback by Strength of the Clefthoof - Set changes « Adventures in Azeroth | May 22, 2007 |
Also good for a neck is “Natasha’s Pack Collar” – From a Q in BEM.
More dodge than the Mark of the Ravenguard and more AP too.
Don’t underestimate AP… TO hold multiple mobs from high DPS machines, you’ll need 1400~1500 AP.
I have between 1400AP when crit immune (def at 415) for heroics.
Or 1500AP for normal instances. (Not crit immune)
The Supple Leather boots are also good for non-heroic instances/raids as you have more dodge too.
I went fully defensive at first, and after having to get the DPS to slow down, went more AP.
Still have 23k armour when in normal instances… But you need the AP too so the mobs don’t run off and hit the DPS. 🙂
Very nice guide. Thanks alot! =)
It’s helped me alot.
I’ve been wanting to Up my tank gear!
Ty Ty Ty.
=D
Very cool guide.. but you may want to update the Heavy clefthoof armor http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25690 and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25689. They seem to have received quite an update in armor making them a tasty update for feral gear.
Sorry… I forgot to mention that they are going for quite a pretty penny on my server… in the range of 100-200g each… the boots are still pretty cheap at least.
Thanks for the compliment Eyesis. Indeed, I posted a short overview of the changes: https://nedruid.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/strength-of-the-clefthoof-set-changes/. And you’re right – very tasty. I have the full set equipped and can’t see taking it off anytime soon…
Wow.. I missed that… thanks for the link. You are on top of this stuff ;p
Only because of all the great comments that get left here by the druid community.
Excellent guide for feral tank and DPS.
Do you plan on doing the same for Resto, or are you aware of a similarly good Resto guide?
Hei! I just dinged 70 a while ago and I tried to use Kaliban’s Class Loot Lists in order to gear up. At the moment I have around 20K Armor and 11K HP, I did one raid on Kara (I was MT!:D) but we wiped because I got gauged and the OT went DC:'( Anyway, I am one of the most unlucky people in WoW and I still have better stats:S How come? I ran 2-3 CF heroics but nothing more.. trying to work my way to Earthworden.. Here’s a link to my char: http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonmaw&n=Kaliora
As you see, practicly evreything is either static or Q reward, and I reach higher stats than noted here… anyway, awsome awsmoe awsome guide I’m certainly gonna try to put my hands on some better gear;-) Stylin’ hat looks just fine.. time to farm:'(
One last thing, Idols arent noted!! I think that the one I have equipped is really good because more dmg==more threat which could be handy with a very very encouraged mage trying to impress the priestess…
OK – Little update to gear…
Once peeps start hitting heroics…
–Badges of Justice:
Head: Cowl of Beastly Rage
Neck: Necklace of the Juggernaught
–Last boss heroics:
Legs: Mana-Tombs
Shoulders: Blood Furnace
Feet: Underbog
Waist: HFR
Bracers: Shattered Halls (Don’t have these yet)
This allows you to gear up nicely with only 5-mans 🙂
OK, SH may take a while to get… ^^ But UB is easy and most of the others are OK. 🙂
Allows for more AP with these items too, which allows the DPS to go harder, which means less time which means healers need less mana 🙂
For a gear check – IMHO a druid tank should be able to tank both Bog Lords before the 1st boss in UB.
it is quite a challenge, but if you can do that – Almost all heroics are doable. 🙂
Very nice guide for the most part, althoguh i would recomend revising some of your statements. The one that stuck out the most was leading people to believe that a druid can benifit from “Chance on hit” effect from melee weapons. This is not the case, Stormherald would be a poor choice of weapon for any druid, as a level 60 staff from hellfire would offer the same if not more dps.
Cowbear (great name) – thanks for the comments and reading the post.
The recommendation on Stormherald was based solely on the stats bonuses based on the list Emmerald posted. Also, while I do mention the weapon proc I also specifically say that it won’t proc while in a feral form.
I’ve been getting some feedback on this particular post for a while now, and what everyone has to keep in mind is that it represents weapon choices at a point in time. Things have moved forward and if you want to research current gear, then go directly to Emmerald’s druid gear list, which I link to.
If/when I get time in the future, I plan on creating a gear page like my gem page.
Thanks again and keep reading/commenting.
its a good post for starting off gathering gear for tanking. Most of your pre-instance/raid gear will coem from SV quests. you can buy a great headpiece with your spirit shards from Auchindouin from the vendor in Terrokar forest.
one thing thats not mentioned here ( but its assumend in Emeralds list)is that your druid has a defence greater than or equal to 415. at this point druids are prety much uncritable. Then you work on armor (current armor cap is at 75% mitigation – about 31k) and dodge.
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Aggramar&n=Alusin
What about the:
Badge of Tenacity Trinket
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32658
308 Armor
Use: Increases agility by 150 for 20 sec.
Definitely something to keep an eye on the AH for.
mesh
some of the items you picked are great, but as a main tank of my guild (being a druid that is) i find once you get 419 defense, everything you upgrade should be for the benefit of agility/dodge rating. My druid has 427 defense, 16000-17000 health (depends on if warlock has improved imp) health, 26k armor and a 42 percent chance to dodge. And that is all from 5 mans and questlines, i have no kara gear at all and i have tanked everything in kara just fine.
Wow. Im glad I found this site.
Although I don’t like being feral (I am balance> Love it)
this guide does help me start to look for balance gear that is good wthout raiding. (I hate raiding. Unless it was with a bunch of people i knew really well that were drama-free. Unfort. everyone I know that raids is a drama betch)
Anyway..thanks a ton!! Druids rule :)) One day we all must really get together and have a 100% druid party (1 bear, 1 cat, 2 balance, 1 resto/or whatever. that’d be cute!)
I like this Meta Gem better than the 18 Sta / Stun Resist.
http://thottbot.com/i25898
This is a nice Trinket as well, kind of low drop rate though.
Adamantine Figurine
Equip: Increases defense rating by +32 (13.5)
Use: Increases armor by 1280 for 20 sec.
http://thottbot.com/i27891
Drops from Blackheart the Inciter in Shadow Labyrinth.
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Thank you infinitely… this is a GREAT guide. I do /not/ quest… so to be informed as to exactly what I need to do helps a TON. I’m still wearing a green belt, and could use that Cinch one u listed… Still green, but higher than I’m wearing 😛 Also, I’m thinking it’ll be easy to find a group for BRS to do the quest there for the trinket as a lvl 70 tank haha
Thanks,
~*~*~Artilleur~*~*~ AKA- Shephard
I have used this post and similar to gear up for Kara, but I am wondering why no one has mentioned the now easy to get S1 arena gear. For myself, I use the helm and shoulder pads, which give me a lot more stats and a nice 2 set bonus of +35 resilience rating. Having resilence allows you to have less then 415 defense and still be uncrittable, as long as you have enough of each to mix-and-match them.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormrage&n=Shunai
I still have some upgrades I am working on, but my current gear makes me more than ready for Kara.
Enduring Chrysoprase is a bind on pickup gem from Heroic Old Hillsbrad. Good luck finding groups for that one, but it is a great gem!
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I have a crit immune feral a back piece I have that helped alot is the Cloak of Eternity +36 to Stamina and increases Defense by 23 it’s a BOE and a Tailor can make it for you I know I can
I understand that a great deal of the reason for mentioning Stormhearld is the stats — and the stats look great, until you do the math. Here is my math, please correct me where I am wrong (all this assumes a standard Feral Druid build in D.Bear Form): Stormherald, via its stats (39 str thus 39*2 AP) provides 78 AP, thus 5.6 DPS, and thus 5.6*1.45=8 TPS (the 127 DPS doesn’t matter on the weapon b/c weapon damage doesn’t effect feral-form white damage.) Earthwarden, however, provides a whopping 525 AP (and 24 skill). 525AP–> 37.5DPS–> 37.5*1.45 = 54.3 TPS. That is a difference of 46.3 Threat Per Second.
Over a 5 min fight that works out to 13,912.5 more threat from the tank, which translates to at least that much damage from your party members. If you have a 5-man, (Tank, Healer, 2 DPS, one lame tag along who doesn’t keep up his end of the bargin) that is 27,825 DPS from the two of them and, assuming the tag along does 1/2 their damage, another 13,912.5 damage. Thus, if you have Earthwarden and not Stormherald you are giving a decent group the option of doing about 41,737.5 more damage over every 5 min.
AP translates into threat, and threat always translates into higher damage from the DPS classes. AP is very very important, and Stormherald just doesn’t meet Earthwarden. Nor does it meet The Staff of Slumber, but i’m not going to do the math here. The only advantage of Storhearld would be the 39 agility, but that doesn’t even translate into a full 2% crit chance at lvl 70.
Love your post but I have a few concerns:
Getting the Verdant Gloves is VERY involved and deserves a little more emphasis imho. Questing like mad and running multiple instances just to get into Arcatraz in the first place will probably take days.
Also, the title of this post includes “without raiding” but many of your suggestions do involve raiding. I am looking for a gear primer to get into Kara, so the suggestion of gear actually from Kara doesn’t help me personally. In at least one place there is no suggested alternative, which I would love to see.
Ok so i got to the point where you go through Bot and Mech for the Arc key and it wasn’t so bad. Still tho, I think it should be emphasized that it’s not just “yet another quest line in Shadowmoon Valley” — more than the qualifier that is there currently at least.