Things are moving quickly at Conquest, which is a testament to Matticus and Company’s great leadership skills and the motivation of members to progress quickly. As such, Raiders have been tasked with providing loot wish lists for 25-man content. Of course, this is by no means an odd or novel request. Wish lists are a common expectation of many raiding guilds, but with information about the content we face being relatively fresh and untested, it’s hard to know where to start and how accurate your information might be.

New visitors to THM may not be familiar with my tendency to go a little overboard when thinking about which loot I want to pick up. Long-time readers already know that Matt’s request was the unintentional key that has unlocked Pandora’s Box.

For some, deciding on loot can be as simple as, “It has Agility and Attack Power, that’s good enough for me” /scribble

Honestly, that’s not necessarily a bad approach. You can’t go wrong, really, if you’re stacking Agility and Attack Power; it’s something all three specs can benefit from. Of course, Hit Rating needs to be considered, Crit Chance isn’t something to let pass you by, and Armor Penetration and Haste are great stats as well. But, after seeing a fair amount of gear from Northrend, it seems that Blizzard has taken these things into account and provided these things along with Agility and Attack Power, in abundance.

So with these stats all available in such copious amounts, how do you decide how to populate your wish list?

Content

This is the obvious answer: let the content determine what you pick up. If you’re a relatively casual player that will be doing mostly rep grinds and heroics, then these are the loot tables you need to be looking at as a source of upgrades. Likewise, if you’re in a guild that intends to raid, that content will provide the meat and potatoes, so to speak. A new caveat to that, however, is what kind of raiding your guild will do.

Remember all those jokes about “Heroic Karazhan”, when you were trying to zone in but the raid leader had accidentally left their dungeon setting on Heroic? Well, the joke isn’t quite so funny anymore… because there are Heroic raids in Northrend. Blizzard, much like Big Brother, has eyes and ears everywhere, and they heard all your commentary on Heroic Karazhan and took it to heart. Joke’s on you! So, if raiding is what you’ll be doing, you need to determine which set of raids you’ll participate in, because from 10 to 25 the loot changes somewhat.

Progression

From day one, PvE progression in WoW has been relatively linear as evidenced by raid tier armor sets (which is but one example). The previous Badge of Justice system from Burning Crusade circumvented this somewhat, but the general rule held true for the most part. For the typical player, this means ramping up gear by completing content whose difficulty is ever increasing. As such, this means that as you work your way through content, your gear needs (or wants) should and will change. Your wish list is ever a work in progress.

When people ask, “What gear/stats do I need to do Raid X?”, they’re often faced with a return question: “What content have you done so far?”. If you’ve completed the regular dungeons at the level cap, it’s safe to assume you’re ready to move into heroics. Taking that further, if you’ve done heroics, you can probably start raiding.

Sure, there are some roles that do require specific stats. For example, in times past, tanks had to make sure they were uncrushable and uncrittable to begin raiding. Because of combat mechanic changes, this is no longer the case, but you get the idea. There are certain “must haves”. For Hunters, this has never been the case. There were general guidelines that determined your degree of success, of course, but if you’d worked your way through the content, you could progress further.

That’s all fine and good, but what about Northrend stuff? We’ve been through Azeroth and Outland, and understand what was expected of us there, but this new continent is precisely that: new. With a new set of expectations, new content and new gear.

Dungeon Gear

Let’s follow Blizzard’s lead and work our way through linear progression to find the gear we need. You’re 80? Okay, start running Level 80 dungeons to find gear. These are the instances you’re looking at:

• Utgarde Pinnacle
• Ulduar: Halls of Lightning
• The Nexus: The Oculus
• Caverns of Time: The Culling of Stratholme

And here’s some items to keep an eye out for from these instances:

• Bow: Trophy Gatherer - Utgarde Pinnacle (Gortok Palehoof)
• Hands: Tear-Linked Gauntlets – Utgarde Pinnacle (Svala Sorrowgrave)
• Melee: Ymiron’s Blade – Utgarde Pinnacle (King Ymiron)
• Gun: Projectile Activator – Halls of Lightning (Loken)
• Legs: Leather-Braced Chain Leggings – Halls of Lightning (Loken)
• Wrist: Tornado Cuffs - Halls of Lightning (Ionar)
• Ring: Bjarngrim Family Signet - Halls of Lightning (General Bjarngrim)
• Back: Centrifuge Core Cloak - The Oculus (Varos Cloudstrider)
• Head: Headguard of Westrift - The Oculus (Cache of Eregos)
• Shoulder: Spaulders of Skillful Maneuvers - The Oculus (Mage-Lord Urom)
• Melee: Wyrmclaw Battleaxe - The Oculus (Cache of Eregos)
• Neck: Necklace of the Chrono-Lord - CoT: Stratholme (Chrono-Lord Epoch)
• Waist: Waistband of the Thuzadin - CoT: Stratholme (Salramm the Fleshcrafter)
• Melee: Meathook’s Slicer – CoT: Stratholme (Meathook)

You’ll notice these items don’t fill every armor slot you have. Use your judgement: craft what you can, grind rep for other things to fill gaps.

Heroic Dungeons

By now, we’re no strangers to Heroics, having done them to death in TBC, so moving into heroic dungeons in Wrath shouldn’t be too difficult for you. Remember, you’re going back and revisiting dungeons from lower levels tuned for 80, so you’ve got a wide range of possibilities open to you here for upgrades.

Head

• Plunderer’s Helmet - Utgarde Keep (Ingvar the Plunderer)
• King Dred’s Helm – Drak’Tharon Keep (King Dred)
• Helmet of the Shrine – Gundrak (Eck the Ferocious)

Neck

• Necklace of Arcane Spheres – Violet Hold (Xevozz)

Shoulder

• Massive Spaulders of the Jormungar – Utgarde Pinnacle (Gortok Palehoof)
• Spaulders of the Abomination – CoT: Stratholme (Meathook)

Chest

• Hauberk of the Arcane Wraith – The Nexus (Anomalus)
• Linked Armor of the Sphere – Halls of Stone (Tribunal Chest)

Waist

• Sovereign’s Belt – Utgarde Pinnacle (King Ymiron)
• Cord of Swirling Winds – Halls of Lightning (Ionar)

Legs

• Hollowed Mandible Legplates – Azjol-Nerub (Hadronox)
• Leggings of the Stone Halls – Halls of Stone (Sjonnir the Ironshaper)
• Azure Ringmail Leggings – The Oculus (Varos Cloudstrider)

Feet

• Dragon Slayer’s Sabatons – The Nexus (Keristrasza)
• Twin-Headed Boots – Violet Hold (Lavanthor)

Wrist

• Interwoven Scale Bracers - The Nexus (Keristrasza)
• Necromantic Wristguards – Drak’Tharon Keep (Novos the Summoner)
• Raging Construct Bands – Halls of Stone (Tribunal Chest)

Hands

• Gauntlets of the Plundering Geist - Ahn’kahet (Prince Taldaram)
• Handgrips of the Savage Emissary – Violet Hold (Cyanigosa)

Rings

• Mobius Band – CoT: Stratholme (Chrono-Lord Epoch)

Trinkets

• Sphere of Red Dragon’s Blood – The Nexus (Keristrasza)
• Incisor Fragment - Drak’Tharon Keep (King Dred)

Back

• Cloak of the Gushing Wound – Violet Hold (Erekem)

Melee

• Crypt Lord’s Deft Blade – Azjol-Nerub (Anub’arak)
• The Key – Violet Hold (Lavanthor)
• The Interrogator - The Oculus (Drakos the Interrogator)

Ranged

• Drake-Mounted Crossbow - Utgarde Keep (Ingvar the Plunderer)
• Titanium Compound Bow – Ahn’kahet (Herald Volazj)
• Amanitar Skullbow – Ahn’kahet (Amanitar)
• Pierce’s Pistol – CoT: Stratholme (Dark Runed Chest)

Raids

The progression from heroics into 10-man raids is a relatively smooth transition. I think that most players will find that as long as they have solid dungeon blues interspersed with a few epic pieces from heroics, entering smaller raid instances shouldn’t be too difficult. Some may even find that a transition from heroic dungeons straight into heroic raids is possible, and in some cases even preferable, which brings me to my own wish list.

Members of Conquest were told to develop wish lists of gear culled straight from heroic raid loot tables. This was predominantly to make life easier for members of the loot council, but it also got players thinking about what their upgrades are going to look like and which pieces may require closer inspection.

Of course, I’m not even 80 yet (Yes, I’m a slacker. So sue me.) so looking at these loot tables was a bit daunting. After all, I wasn’t sure what these items were intended to replace yet or what pieces I could easily get or craft through other means. As such, I posted a rather tentative wish list on the guild forums and decided to hope for the best, with every intention of editing the list once I knew more. As wish lists are, or rather should be, in a constant state of flux anyway, I didn’t feel particularly bad about that.

And so, without further ado, I present my own wish list from 25-man content. Of course, because some loot is shared from 10-man content, those items have also been included. We were also instructed to include multiple items for a given slot if applicable, so I’ve done that here as well.

• Head: Hyaline Helm of the Sniper, Blue Aspect Helm, Arc-Scorched Helmet
• Neck: Fool’s Trial, Gem of Imprisoned Vassals
• Shoulder: Upstanding Spaulders, Pauldrons of the Abandoned
• Chest: Chestguard of Flagrant Prowess
• Waist: Torn Web Wrapping, Depraved Linked Belt
• Legs: Leggings of Failed Escape, Leggings of Colossal Strides
• Feet: Crippled Treads
• Wrist: Slime Stream Bands, Armguard of the Tower Archer, Arachnoid Gold Band
• Hands: Gloves of Calculated Risk, Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets
• Rings: Sealing Ring of Grobbulus, Greatring of Collision
• Trinkets: Fury of the Five Flights, Bandit’s Insignia, Grim Toll
• Back: Drape of the Deadly Foe, Cloak of Mastery
• Melee: Betrayer of Humanity, Cryptfiend’s Bite, Silent Crusader, Torment of the Banished, Widow’s Fury
• Ranged: Arrowsong, Nerubian Conquerer, Accursed Bow of the Elite

You’ll notice that tier pieces aren’t on the list. This isn’t because I don’t want them, per se, but because they’re much easier to recall and reference. I frequently think of tier pieces as a “given” that they’re desirable, even as a nice fall-back if there’s something better that you can’t seem to pick up.

There’s a lot of ground to cover in Northrend, but just remember: the expansion has been out only a couple of weeks! Sure, there are folks already in the thick of raiding, but go at a pace you’re comfortable with. Don’t regret the content you missed in haste.