TseTse

I have this going over on the official beta forum too. http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/thre...340665&sid=1#0


The buzz is really going now... and folks in "llve" are increasingly sorta waking up to the reality that an expansion is on the way. There is a lot of tension, frustration, confusion, delight and exaggeration about TBC and it's reality in terms of existing gear. Guilds are making tough decisions. Folks are negotiating priorities.

Let's carefully share notes on this, ok? No exaggerations allowed. Let's come up with some honest guidelines on what we're seeing in terms of gear/items and how fast people replace them.

So, beta testers, go ahead and answer these questions as directly as you can:

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)

e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)

If you said no to any of those, please explain why and what you think is a more accurate statement.

 

TL-Seria

Just while leveling to 70, I have found an upgrade over warrior BP(+2 stamina), Legs (+32 stamina), Bracers (+14 stamina) and boots (+18 stamina)

The latter two items were actually green.


I have NOT upgraded Lionheart helm.

 

Quasar

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?

http://ctprofiles.net/77784 for details.
In summary, mostly blues. AV Exalted epics, one or two things from MC, couple from ZG, one from BWL, some Rank 8 PVP gear, AB belt, Black Grasp and Darkmoon neck. Nothing stellar, but about as good as I could get given my ability (or lack thereof) to really raid.

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?

65, almost 66. Replaced almost everything. Kept a few things like trinkets, Don Julio, Black Grasp, a couple elem/healer items. One important thing to note is someone at my level of gear probably could replace even more; I found myself having to choose between quest rewards (like a DPS ring versus a healer cape) and dungeon drops often, otherwise I would have replaced even more. Another thing to note is that I'm wearing a couple pieces of leather gear that were too juicy stats-wise to pass up for my older, weaker mail gear, and some cloth for my Elemental/Healing set. If I hadn't quit, I probably would have been close to level cap and 95% gear replaced.

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?

Things like the Zulian cape for the +hit despite getting much nicer overall capes.

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?

Nope, monetary influx exceeds expenditures including about 70g in respecs.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?

Of course. Did Underbog and Slave Pens repeatedly to get a couple pieces (still missing the chest from Underbog). Ran Mana Tombs a half dozen times for gear in there. Several Ramparts runs as well.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes

b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes

c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
No experience with either 67-70 gear or Tier 3

d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
Me? Yes. Decked out Tier 3 people? Some, depends on the class. Some classes will replace most, others some-much.

e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
Without rerunning instances, probably.

f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
No clue. I was levelling on the speedy curve from a few weeks back.

JUICE! Aww I'm sorry. Did... did anyone want some juice?

 

Revenj

 

GrizleyCQ

I think your class makes a huge difference in how fast your gear gets replaced. The addition of Agility and Attack Power on the same item is very attractive to rogues. On the otherhand, a warrior may gain signifigant amounts of stamina replacing say dreadnaught with greens, but in doing that he will shitcan his AC and so tank signifigantly worse.

Also there are the classes that have been historically underitemized, healing plate, melee chain etc. I imagine they will quickly replace all/most of thier items. Healers picking up more damage gear is pretty likely too.

 

Incoherence

Damage gear: mostly ZG and equivalents. Healing gear: mixed tier 2 and other stuff.

69. I've replaced nearly all of my damage gear (not all of it), and a couple of pieces of my healing gear.

Not sure that you'd really call it weaker, but especially with damage gear Blizzard seems to sprinkle everything with spell crit, which isn't particularly useful for me. I haven't found a cloak I'd wear over Cloak of Consumption until a 69 elite quest, and I'm still wearing Rockfury Bracers of all things.

As for healing gear, yeah, I'm struggling to keep 3/8 Transcendence. I'll probably have 8/8 when the expansion actually hits, which will make the decision that much harder.

No to both. (I haven't done much instancing at all.)

That's a bit optimistic. You'll start replacing tier 1 immediately. I've replaced tier 2 with instance blues starting in Blood Furnace, as well as a 68 quest green (which I mostly wear because it's a Red Pointy Hat and looks awesome), but most of the quest. And while there are a few pieces better than tier 3 running around, they're not particularly common, and you won't find them as greens.

Part of this may be that I'm generally unimpressed with the quest itemization, between the emphasis on spell crit and the overabundance of trinkets with an equip and use effect. There are some gems there, but there's also a lot of crap.

Well, based on the previous, I'd say this is true. I'm still wearing Gloves of Prophecy.

Sounds reasonable enough.

 

Axantucar

http://ctprofiles.net/4540735
Is what I was wearing when I transferred over several months back, mix of T2/2.5/3.

70.

So far, I've replaced my:
Neck (http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=646)
Cloak (http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=14)
Gloves (some stupidly overpowered green quest reward with random stats)
Belt (http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=15247)
Legs (http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=14936)
Trinket 1 (http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=2814 or http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=14845)
Ranged weapon (http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=11725)

Kind of. It's more of a combination of set bonuses and enchants, replacing head and leg slot items was especially difficult because of ZG enchants, and I also didn't know anyone who could enchant a lot of my gear for a long time. The BF 3 piece set bonus did factor in when I got some upgrades, especially when I was trying out some mutilate builds and envenom.

no

For a couple of things, yes. I wanted to get a good thrown item to test out deadly throw for example.

C and D are questionable, D moreso, the rest sound about right. I don't feel I've replaced most of my gear by 70, I'm sure I will in time.

Yes. (agreeing with this statement)
Yes.

 

◊ blindworld

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?

Healing:
8/8 Stormrage, Ring of Blackrock, Revered BoN Ring, Aurastone, Lei of the Lifegiver, blue trinkets, wavefront necklace, hide of the wild.
Feral:
Furor's Eyepatch, Mantle of Wicked Revenge, Malfurion's Blessed Bulwark, Blue bracers, zg 5 heads quest belt, gloves of the hidden temple, blue zg pants, hive tunneler's boots, don julio's band, band of the ogre king, counterattack lodestone, av exalted trinket, hammer of bestial fury, darkmoon neck, windshear cape, elementium threaded cloak.

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?

1 bar into 67. Finished all of the quests in Hellfire Penninsula, Zangar Marsh, Terokkar Forrest, and Nagrand. Instanced only to complete quests, roughly 1 run on each, a few 2.

Healing Set:
Replaced Aurastone Hammer and Briarwood Reed. I've seen upgrades for rings and my neck as well, but chose the feral reward instead. I've also replaced my Hide of the Wild with an instance drop.

Feral:
Cat: Replaced nearly everything. I'm using Mantle of Wicked Revenge, and Gloves of the Hidden temple still, but every other piece listed has been replaced in favor of higher dps items. One of the trinkets I have was a pvp reward for 30 marks of honor hold, which can be obtained in just a few hours of world pvp.
Bear: Still using Malfurion's Blessed Bulwark, Elementium Threaded Cloak and Hive Tunneler's Boots in addition to the cat gear I kept. I'm also using the AV exalted trinket in favor of a dps trinket for extra mitigation. I also have my unyielding maul on hand since I haven't seen any weapons with armor yet, but I haven't been in a situation where it was more favorable than the dps boost, and with http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=3267 the stam seems to be more valuable anyway.

All of the feral replacements with the exception of the 1 trinket have been quest rewards.

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?

The belt of preserved heads I used for a really long time. I'm currently using http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=1710 which I see as more of a side grade than a real upgrade. With either piece, I'm pretty much capped on +hit.

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?

Not at all. In fact, I transfered over with 800g, and I'm above 2100g now. Any greens that I AHed had buyouts of double the listed initial value, so that's with 0 price gouging.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?

Nope. I'm still amazed at how well I can solo dps as a feral cat, and have found quest rewards to be more than adequate.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes

b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes

c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
No experience with either 67-70 gear or Tier 3

d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
Me? Since I'm not really concentrating on healing gear, I don't think so, but it'll be just like the game was when people were first hitting 60. The first few 60s on my server were still running maraudon and getting upgrades, and there was only 1 or 2 UBRS keys on the server. Now people can hit 60 with 1/2 if not most of their tier 0 set or equivalent much faster. The more time that passes, the easier it will be to get upgrades from the higher level areas, so it's not a static number.

e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
I doubt it. The quest rewards will take care of places where you were weak, and most likely all of your MC gear. To replace BWL gear, it seems you have to run instances, although not necessarily the level 70 ones.

f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
It might be possible for people who have already done all the quests on the test server, and can prioritize doing multiple quests in one place at a time instead of doing one, then another and finding out it was a prereq for another quest to go back where you just were...

For the person who doesn't have beta experience, I'd lean more towards 150-200 hours, and even more if you like to read quest text, figure things out on your own, and explore each area.

 

Kody

1.) Mostly tier 2.5/3, though my necklace right now is Eye of Hakkar(terrible drop luck on aq40/naxx necks), offhand is Dragonfang Blade(lacking Maexxna's mainhand), and one of my trinkets is Blackhand's Breadth.

2.) At level 67 I've replaced my Deathdealer's Helm with a blue from Auchenai Crypts(req level 65ish), my Deathdealer Leggings with Leggings of Unending Assault(30agi, 45sta, 62ap - hard to pass up that hp), my Eye of Hakkar with a blue neck from a Nagrand quest(14agi, 21sta, 14hit, 28ap), and I also have two blue cloaks - one from the Windrock Matriarch quest(14agi, 19 sta, 14hit, 28ap) and the other from CoT: Durnholde(18agi, 19sta, 40ap) that I might use over Cloak of the Fallen God due to the ap/hp on them. I've also replaced Blackhand's Breadth several times over, once with Bladefist's Breadth and recently with a trinket from Nagrand that's 48 worn ap and 185ish activated. Oh and DFB has been replaced with Ceremonial Warmaul Blood-blade(thanks Gurgthock!), and is my mainhand Mutilate dagger atm.

3.) Nope, so far it's either a clear yes or no. Though I probably will keep my Bonescythe pieces for the 2/4 piece bonuses.

4.) Not at all, I've made far more gold than I spend repairing - I don't really die all that much other than when I get the crazy idea of trying to solo elite quests.

5.) I actually did run Underbog a few times trying to get The Stalker's Fang to replace DFB, but then decided to just hit 65 and do the Ring of Blood quests.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Yes.
b) Yes.
c) Yes.
d) Yes.

e) Yes.
f) No.

 

Wibble

http://ctprofiles.net/4541486
That's the gear I had when I first transferred; mainly T3, very good healing weapon and offhand.

I'm 68 currently (work conspires against beta time). I've not done a whole lot of quests in Netherstorm yet. The level I did gain was mainly through instance runs and some clean-up quests in Blade's Edge. I've replaced two pieces of equipment, and neither were T3.. I'll link them when I have a chance to verify them.

I've not gone out of my way to retain any set bonuses, no.

No. In expansion, gold is cheap!

My guildmates and I have run a bunch of instances repeatedly, but mainly for experience and quests. We haven't seen any cloth drops that are healer-focused--plenty of shaman, paladin, and druid healy gear, though!

Sure on a) and b), c) is yet to be seen for me. Unless something amazing happens in the next two levels to replace all of my gear, I would say no to d).

Answer to this depends on what kind of "level 60" items we're talking about. Mine won't be replaced soon.

Unable to answer, really; a lot of tweaking's gone on in the alpha/beta so I don't have a good overall metric for the ten levels.

 

Pyros

Hunter

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?
Full giantstalker, zg rings, blackhand/dm quest trinkets, onyxia necklace, ragnaros agi cloak, rhokdelar, brutality+fang of the faceless

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?
I hit 70. I replaced 6pieces of giantstalker, the bow, both trinkets, the necklace and the cloak.

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?
Sadly when I leveled to 65, there was no new talent/mechanics on hunters, so I kept giantstalker even tho I could have switched some pieces, since multishot was my basic dps shot for leveling. I broke the set at 67 tho, to replace leggings with the Haala legs and Thrallmar gem, Haala belt and Leather shoulders from Blood Furnace(hellfire 2nd instance)

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?
No, repair costs were never an issue, and I started the beta with 45g(selling my beaststalker set that was in bank, and other various stuff, I had 34silvers when I copied my char)

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?

I've completed every quest in the game, sadly due to population issues on euro servers, haven't got to run many instances. Didn't look for anything specific really, just took what I got questing.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
No, not for a hunter
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
Maybe some pieces would
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
No
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
Depends on what gear you start with really, if you're in full naxx gear, I doubt you'll change more than your trinkets, and maybe some stuff like cloak/neck/rings, but I doubt you'd break cryptstalker

e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
Depends on how you level, if you quest, you won't replace all of it, mainly because there's slots lacking any upgrades(bracers for hunters for example). If you level in dungeons like a lot of people will tho, you'll probably switch most of your gear if you're geared before AQ, and half of it at AQ level.
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
Less than that.

If you said no to any of those, please explain why and what you think is a more accurate statement.
As a not so well geared hunter, I ended up replacing a lot of my gear. However, it was mainly dps upgrades, I lost stamina in the process because there's not that many good hunter rewards from quests(they're either +dmg +str enhannce stuff, or straight +heal/+dmg elem/resto shaman gear) and the ones that do exist are full agi+ap with no stam on it. However, I only replaced most of it at 67+, from the elite quests in Nagrand(good cloak, good neck) and up. Before that, there was not really a lot of stuff worth breaking set bonus, especially since you have to consider that your current gear is most likely enchanted, while getting green stuff you're lvling enchanted feels like a waste of time. So in the end, due to enchants, you don't replace items that easily. The exceptions are trinkets, since you get awesome trinkets in the first 3-4levels that pretty much beat anything in the game besides kiss of the spider and saph trinkets. But enchants are really the big thing, I didn't replace my melee weapons because they both had 15agi, and replacing them with slightly better stats(but almost 20more dps on each) would have ruined my crit%, which was already taking quite a hit from the crit rating system.

As a conclusion, I'd say, if you're only questing, you'll replace tier1 by 70, you probably won't bother on tier2+ because of enchants, and you might end up switching only a few pieces. If you're dungeon farming for xp tho, you might end up replacing tier2 by 68, and tier2.5 on the way to 70. Tier3 will stay good until 70 easily, and some pieces, again because of enchants might stay the best pieces you can get for some time, until you can get new enchants and stuff(thinking of zg shoulder/head/legs enchants mainly). If you're a leatherworker or know one willing to give those ap/crit kits while leveling, you'll replace stuff more easily.

 

Fendryl

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?
T3/T2 Mix -- http://ctprofiles.net/16667

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?
L70, I've replaced my cloak, shoulders, ranged, brood-ring, and trinkets. I have 3 or 4 items banked that would replace my other gear if I enchanted it.

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?
Not necessarily weaker, however, I've been hesitant to lose either the 3pc DragonStalker bonus, or the 4pc CryptStalker bonus

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?
No, between being beta, and the lack of real 'die over & over again' progression content, and the significant cash gains (I'm about +2k from leveling to 70), repairs haven't been an issue.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?
The sporegarr quests for Coilfang - the cloak was an upgrade since shrouded mists hadn't been changed, and the mushroom is real nice for leveling up. Shattered Halls ring from killing Kargath. Also the Nessinger 2.0 quests for the new rifle. Currently running CoT:Dark Portal for a new bow, although there's a couple others better. I haven't seen a ton out of the current instances I'd consider upgrades yet though.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?
a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
- Yes
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
- Not so much
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
- Not so much
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
- Not been my experience for my hunter
e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
- I've seen a lot more upgrades on my mage, who was geared mostly in AQ20/ZG epics, and she's only 64. My hunter hasn't gotten very many upgrades at all.
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
- I hit 67 during the cap in a hardcore 4 day weekend's time, I got to 70 in basically the same time it took me to get 60-67.

 

henaki

Note I am using my Warlock for this
1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?
Blues Tier 1, I basically did not own rings (character was deleted/restored).
2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?
63, 8 pieces.
3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?
Yes, but only until I had two clear upgrades from Felheart.
4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?
No.
5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?
No
6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
Absolutely
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
Cannot say for sure, but a wishy-washy yes.
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
Have yet to experience any level 67 range content
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
No
e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
I will most likely not replace all gear, but a large majority of it.
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
Looks to be correct.

Gur - Level 64 Undead Warlock on Hellfire

 

◊ Oggie

Preface- I am leveling and maintaining three full sets of gear. My primary set on Beta was my weakest set going in, and my sets on live have changed dramaticly as well (resulting in another 3 sets to maintain). So please, please forgive me if I screw up or fail to remember certain specifics.

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?
Full tier 1/2, standard 5/3 spread, BWL healing gear. Enhance (primary set on beta) at a peg slightly below that.

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?
68.
For enhance I have upgraded weapons, rings, neck, BP, shoulders, leggings, boots, and trinkets. What's interesting is if I had my live gear (AQ40 pants, don julio's, one or two others) I would -not- have upgraded most of them. The real gems are the BoP DS LWing BP (65), blue socketed shoulders (64 quest), and trinkets (61, 64 quests).

For resto, I have replaced helm (66 elite quest line), weapon (HFC ramp), there's a good shield (HFC quest), fantastic leggings(arch ~64 quest), and I have seen various upgrades for at least one ring and two trinkets, though not as good as late AQ/early naxx or Rejuv gem.

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?
5 Piece EF. *sigh*

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?
Absolutely not. Money influx is very high, and it almost feels like they've somewhat lowered repair costs globaly.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?
Minimally only (1-2 runs), though there is an upgraded pair of pants, a nice weapon and one or two other things I want and would be rerunning for were it live.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes, though not the entire set. Certain pieces (I'm looking at you proph gloves) are well itemized and hard to replace.
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
This is a little high, I'd say you're going to be transplanting 3+ pieces of Tier 2 by 65 at least.
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes, though there are some pieces of tier 3 that will be swapped as early as 64.
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
Yes.
e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
Yes
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
In from too early in beta, I can't be certain.

 

Kerouan

Paladin: 6/8 Lawbringer, Judgement Helm/bracers. Aurastone Hammer/ZG shield. ~60 spell dmg.

Lvl 69 currently. Holy Build (45/8/7) I am still wearing my 2 Judgement Pieces (bracers/helm). Comprable items have dropped from questing, but stats have not been exactly what i'm looking for, enchant has been upgraded on the bracers. All lawbringer is replaced. Shield replaced practically instantly with a green quest reward at 60. Currently running 7500 HP/8200 MP unbuffed with ~450 spell dmg. I think its worth it to note that all my items have been replaced with solo Quest gear, not instance drops, as I haven't done anything past The Blood Furnace as far as instances go.

No, but as I mentioned, I have found comprable drops to a few things but haven't replaced the judgement yet because the enchants already on them make it moot.

No. Gold flows like water.

No, but I will when the expansion goes live. There are replacements for many of the pieces I'm wearing if I were to actually run instances.

Yes to all, but that is for ME personally. Many people will not replace much gear at all, especially raiders doing Naxx, until they hit 70 or close to it.

To me this seems to be the time where the casuals have the opportunity to close the gap with the raiders.

 

Fjord

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?
4 piece Dreadnaught, Widow's Embrace, Ashkandi

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?
67, replaced everything except the dreadnaught. All my wrath was banked by level 64 and Ashkandi was quickly shamed by a polearm quest reward.

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?
Continue to use dreadnaught helm over a superior blue because the taunt resist set bonus helps when tanking level 72s.

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?
Nah, money is basically unlimited on beta so I don't worry about any of that. Passing most greens and destroying all greys when I need room, I still make a fair bit of money.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?
A little bit, the loot tables are deep so I haven't successfully farmed anything yet.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no) yes
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no) yes
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no) yes
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no) yes
e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no) yes
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no) yes


Its not just the item levels which force the upgrades. The tanking gear has much more stamina and alot of the old DPS items get quickly outmatched with the ratings system. Socketed gear will give you exactly the stats you want for your build, in my case melee crit so you'll often wear it over gear with slightly better stats.

 

Rane

With the thought that a picture says more than a thousand words:

Me on Live:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/profile.html?1733787

Me on Beta (yea I'm no Photoshop genius, but it'll do)
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q267/Zseek/Rak.jpg
(just noticed I forgot my new gun, which is a http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=15110)

As for the direct questions
1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?
Combo of Naxx gear and AQ40 gear mostly. Definitely top-end gear stuff.

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?
I'm level 70 at the moment. I haven't kept an exact trackrecord, but I'd say a lot more than I initally expected, deffo more than 20 pieces altogether (tank and dps stuff)

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?
4/9 Dreadnaught for its Taunt effectiveness, this was especially handy back when the levelcap was 67 and we were fighting lvl 72 bosses. I guess I don't want to break it "just yet" but it's getting close now with Netherstorm rewards and TK drops flowing in.

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?
I duped like 6k gold with transfers and I got a lot of cash from leveling, so no, there wasn't much need.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?
Yes, definately, especially weapons. The other stuff just sorta fell into my lap while doing the instances more or less on a voluntary basis ;)

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
Yes
e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
Unless all you really do is non-quest related grinding, which would be stupid. But I haven't replaced some items, so I guess yes.
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
No, not with these current XP requirements, and I don't mind that in the least.

If you said no to any of those, please explain why and what you think is a more accurate statement.

 

Ayr

DPS: 3 Oracle, 2 piece blue PvP gear, 56 +dmg staff, assorted pvp +dmg items.
Healing: 2 piece T3, 3 piece T2, Benediction (droprates are a bitch), assorted AQ40 and Naxx misc healing gear.

90% into lvl 66
DPS: replaced the staff with the 85 +dmg Ring of Blood reward, replaced both trinkets, replaced shoulders, belt, cape, gloves, wand, possibly more. At least 8 items replaced.
Healing: replaced cape and wand.

DPS: no
Healing: kept 3 piece T2 and will keep it, have not seen any good greens for the slots I wear T2. I haven't really payed attention to healing upgrades though, so I might have missed some.

No. Repair costs are not a problem, there is a wealth of cash from quest rewards and greys, even more so in the Beta.

I don't feel anything I've seen so far (up to and including Mana Tombs) is worth rerunning just for the drops.
However there are a few select items that are worth spending extra time on, for example the Mark of Defiance trinket, which requires 30 Marks of Thrallmar, aka time spent PvPing.

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
DPS: there isn't any specific Tier1 DPS gear for priests. Some drops are better then MC random DPS gear, yes.
Healing: A few yes. Cannot say you can find a better replacement for every slot.
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
DPS: I will include T2.5 here, yes.
Healing: Including T2.5 and AQ40 randoms, no.
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
have not reached that level range yet
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
DPS: yes
Healing: no

e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
DPS: no (I will replace nearly all of my items)
Healing: yes (there are very few items I will replace)
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
yes

The survey is a bit skewed towards healing classes, as most of the gear they get from T1-T3 is healing gear and almost no DPS gear. Leveling is all about DPS though, so yes, there is an abundance of upgrades for that. Healing wise, there are few items that match the best T3 there is, so if you have access to those you won't replace them.

As far as I've seen from leveling up and looking at beta items, you won't replace any Naxx (or late AQ40) loot. The items that do drop are a good way to gear yourself up to almost the same level if you are not there yet.

 

Bubba

Is that a specific mod you're using that shows a percentage next to the hit/crit ratings on items? I really hated that Blizzard didn't just do that themselves, could you let me know which mod it is?

 

Ukerric

 

Compton2

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60? T2ish: http://ctprofiles.net/596264 also have AQR/Warblade, CotBD, ACLG (d'oh), Earthstrike (d'oh -- you'll see)

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far? Just hit 66.

I've replaced

Veiled Shadows Cloak with http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=250
NS Gloves with http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=4190
BHB with http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=2814 OR http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=419 (there are a handful of these better-than-ES active/passive AP trinkets; i'm seriously regretting the CC rep grind now)
Perditions with http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=5795
Ranged with http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=3097
For solo play, I'm using http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=417 over BoA alongside MDR.

And right after hitting 66, I grabbed the green vendor fist weapons available here: http://www.thottbot.com/beta?n=12035 (I've found that fist spec+BF/seal fate is an excellent questing grinding build)


3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons? Not really. It will take a lot for me to break the 3 piece BF bonus though.

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs? No.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items? No.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no) Greens, possibly. Blues, definitely in some cases.
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no) Through 66, very occasionally. The vendor fist weapons are much better than CoTBD for instance.
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no) Dunno.
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no) Dunno.
e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no) Yes.
f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no) I think this is posssible.

 

Fellwraith

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?
Rogue - full t2, some AQ gear (not a fan of breaking my 8 piece until I can get 3 pieces of DD and it's actually an upgrade)
Warrior - Mostly t1 and high end ZG/AQ20 Blues
Warlock - All t1 and high end blues

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?
Work's been kicking my ass, my raid attendance and beta play time is way down. I've gotten about 1 weekend of solid playtime in.

63 on the rogue - just my HoJ (2% crit + clickable 200ap every 1.5 min is huge) and my strikers mark (I wanted to try out the new throwing weapon finisher and I found a really solid sidegrade). I have switched to my hakkari warblade over my maladath. I haven't seen anything that easily replaces an iblis.

61 on the warrior (not many of our tanks got beta invites, this is all from running the first 2 instances) - I will replace everything with greens/blues, none of the Might items that I have are better than the blues/greens I'm getting, and the set bonuses aren't quite good enough to make it worth keeping.

60 on the lock - haven't played him enough to matter other than to mess around with the new talents. I will say that I'm going to keep 3 piece felheart for quite some time. I replaced my blood of the martyr with a "sorceror" green ring (has stam, int and spell dmg).

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?
Several items have been a small stat upgrade over my BF, but they don't have crit/hit and they aren't enchanted, which is a big deal. 8 piece BF is also something that I'm reluctant to break since it comes in handy for light healing and the proc is a reasonable dps boost. Once I break the 8 piece, the 3 piece will be the next decision point for me. I've been keeping the small upgrade items for when I finally do break the set. None of them are a big enough benefit for me to pull the trigger yet.

You will not find easy weapon upgrades. Armor probably has a few sidegrades, but all the weapons I've seen are inferior to t2 quality stuff.

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?
No way, gold is not an issue at all. 1 quest pays for 1 death, and there's A LOT of quests. Even if money were a problem, speed > bank account. The faster you hit 70, the better. There's no reason to be a miser and retard your leveling.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?
I will during release week. I found a great throwing dagger in coilfang reservoir that easily replaces my strikers mark (little more hit, dps, and ap). It was a very do-able instance at 62 in my gear with guildmates (and a healthy chunk of consumables I was trying to clear out of my inventory).

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no) Yep
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no) Not sure yet. Blues are a definite yes.
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no) Given the current trend, will definitely replace t2 at this point. Keep in mind this is a good 60-80 hours of playtime to get to this point.
d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no) No question.

e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
Yes, but it depends on how much you quest to hit 70. The quest rewards in hellfire are definitely upgrades over MC gear for most of the quests (even BWL gear for some items). It's possible you'd get unlucky with drops if you only level in instances.

I can tell you that most people will replace their red dragonscale protectors early. I'm going to get a set of green legplates for tanking early. My warrior benefits a lot from the early questlines.

f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
Yes but it depends on how much of that is rested and how well you know the geography/questlines. I hit 60 in 6 days /played on my warrior, but he was rested, I knew what I was doing, I usually had a buddy. I will probably hit 70 on him in an equally short timeframe as my friend levels up his alt shaman alongside me.

My main will probably take a little bit longer timewise, but not a lot. I plan on tearing through content with a "holy trinity" group most of the time. Having pre-established relationships with most of the guys in my guild is going to be a big leg up this time around. I'd be shocked if it took me more than 3-4 weeks of real time.

 

Bury

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?
See 2.

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?
Level 69. I've mostly replaced anything that has to do with stamina or pvp. If I spec 41 disc, I can hit 8k health self-buffed in a mish mash of TBC gear. But if I'm looking for spelldamage or healing, I find myself wearing a lot of old gear for PVE (which makes sense, since it's old PVE gear).

Healing: (I have 5pc faith on live, but only 2 on beta, so that's my base)
Halo of Transcendence -> Halo of Transcendence
Amulet of the Fallen God -> Amulet of the Fallen God
Pauldrons of Transcendence -> Pauldrons of Transcendence
Drape of Benediction -> Mantle of Vivification (new)
Robes of the Guardian Saint -> Robes of the Guardian Saint
Bindings of Faith -> Bindings of Faith
Handguards of Transcendence -> Handguards of Transcendence
Belt of Faith -> Belt of Faith
Leggings of Transcendence -> Leggings of Transcendence
Boots of Transcendence -> Boots of Transcendence
Ring of the Martyr -> Ring of the Martyr
Signet Ring (exalted) -> Signet Ring
Zandalarian Hero Charm -> Oshu'gun Relic
Rejuvenating Gem -> Rejuvenating Gem
Blessed Qiraji Augur Staff -> Blessed Qiraji Augur Staff
green +31 healing wand -> Soul-Wand of the Aldor

Shadow DPS:
Mish'undare -> Mish'undare
Choker of the Firelord -> Choker of the Firelord
Mantle of the Blackwing Cabal -> Destroyers' Mantle (new)
Cape of the Trinity -> Cloak of the Black Void (new)
Robes of Transcendence -> Kirin Tor's Apprentice's Robe (new)
Black Bark Wristbands -> Netherweave Bracers (new)
Ebony Flame Gloves -> Ebony Flame Gloves
Belt of Transcendence -> Firemaw's Clutch
Fel Infused Leggings -> Fel Infused Leggings
Boots of Transcendence -> Netherweave Boots
Signet Ring of the Bronze Dragonflight -> Signet Ring
Ring of Blackrock -> Signet of the Violet Tower
Zandalarian Hero Charm -> ZHC
Talisman of Ephemeral Power -> Glowing Crystal Insignia (new) / Occulus of the Hidden Eye (new) / Terokkar Tablet of Vim (new) / Mark of Defiance (new)
Anathema -> Chronoblade Dagger (new) + The Saga of Terokk (new)
Dragon's Touch -> Hotshot Cattle Prod of the Invoker (new)

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?
Yes. In the levelling instances, where tanks are iffy, I've found myself using 5pc Transcendence, even though I have strictly superior gear from pre-BC.

And, of course, 3pc Transcendence will always have a special place in my heart for healing. Even at 70. However I've replaced it for shadow dps as I feel I regen enough in extra VT damage to compensate.

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?
No, not at all. Gold is plentiful in BC, and even then, if I'm dying repeatedly, it usually means I'm doing something hard that requires my best gear.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?
Before the level cap was raised, I put some effort into running dungeons for Lightsworn Hammer and Sky Breaker, both of which I have but can't use since I'm level 70.

I also put some effort into rep grinds to hit Honor Hold - Revered and Aldor - Honored for tradeskill patterns. +6all stats chest and +25dmg/+15sta tailoring spellthread respectively.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?
a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
Yes

b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
Sidegrades, but not replace.

c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)
Rare sidegrades, but probably not.

d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)
At the moment I hit 70? No. After a while at 70? Yes.

e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)
Depends on where you start. You will find upgrades for everything if you start with greens/blues/MC gear. If you have higher level gear, then no.

f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)
This is possible, but not probable. You'd have to know where to go, where to grind, avoid the rush, and maybe use some consumables. And being a warlock helps, too.

 

TseTse

So, there are a lot more 70s now... especially those with more experience in the shadowmoon and other content. I'd love to see more responses at this point.

 

Glaurong

1. What range of gear did you have at lvl 60?

6 Dragonstalker, 2 Giantstalker

Nef ring, Ring of Wrath, Ony neck, Cloak of firemaw, Silithid Claw, Fang of the Faceless, Ashjre'thul, DFT, Blackhands

2. What lvl have you achieved within beta and how much of your active equipment did you replace thus far?

I am currently lvl 70 and I have replaced everything. Some because they were dps upgrades, some because they were slight dps downgrades but had a truckload of stamina.

I haven't been able to get enchants for a lot of pieces and should probably still wear a couple old things until I do but again, stamina concerns keep me in new junk.

3. Have you kept using any weaker pieces (in light of new pieces from Outlands) in order to maintain set bonuses or perhaps for other reasons?

I had no qualms about breaking set bonuses. My increased survivability from new stamina cost and increased armor from higher ilvl items more than makes up for it.

4. Have you "nerfed" what you actively wear in order to negotiate repair costs?

No, money is not a concern for me in the Beta. Besides transferring over with a ton of cash, at 70 quests are giving me 10g+.

5. Have you spent any effort trying to (re)run specific quests or dungeons in order to obtain new, replacement items?

I ran each pre-70 dungeon once or twice to complete quests. Once I have hit 70 I have started to run heroics. Quest rewards are too good to spend much time farming blue items in dungeons.

6. Would you agree to the following basic guidelines?

a) Leveling 61-64 greens/blues will transplant some Tier1ish pieces (yes or no)
b) Leveling 64-67 greens/blues will transplant some Tier2ish pieces (yes or no)
c) Leveling 67-70 greens/blues will transplant some Tier3ish pieces (yes or no)

Hard to comment that specifically on the first 3

d) By level 70 you will replace most of your current gear (yes or no)

Yes

e) You may not replace all of your lvl 60 items on the way to 70, esp if you level quickly (yes or no)

Maybe if you are currently in tier 3

f) You may be able to hit level 70 with 120 hours of effort (yes or no)

Can't say for sure, they changed the xp required per level this patch.

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