When I was a young shaman a month into level 70, Black Temple and Hyjal were considered “real” content. Karazhan was that fun instance that anyone running “real” content considered paltry (at this time, it wasn’t even run for badges of justice). To them, Captain Karazhan was an insult. To me, a struggling Resto Shaman who was afraid of running Heroic Slabs (sad, because Shockwave Truncheon was so beautiful), the heroic adventures who had loot off Prince Malchezzar were idols. I spent over a month after hitting 70 running heroics and level 70 instances for a motley collection of blue gear and iLevel 105 epics. Sometimes, I wake up with night horrors recalling my first times in Heroic Shattered Halls and Setthek. I learned a lot from my mistakes at that time, and lurking on the shaman forums taught me a great deal. (Also, Murderbot of Black Dragonflight -we’re that awesome- had an awesome BC resto sticky that I must have read religiously.)
I stumbled upon a Karazhan pug. We wiped on Maiden. (Our eventual victory got me a Shard of the Virtuous, though!) We wiped on Curator. We wiped on Shade of Aran multiple times. We called it after wiping on our third attempt on Terestian Illhoof after hitting the enrage timer for the third time…an enrage timer that WowWiki doesn’t even list because it’s -that- forgiving. (Something like 12 minutes.) We called it there, but I was hooked to raiding. Part of it might have been my topping healing meters (BC chain heal sup?), part of it might have been realizing that despite our wipes the fights weren’t so complex that I couldn’t make a difference (shade pooped on my comp though), and part of it might have just been running with another 9 people who were in the same awkward and afraid boat as I was, but Karazhan went being a scarier place than the Republican National Convention to being number one on my list of “things I want to do each week playing wow.”
My point isn’t that I conquered my fear of raiding, though. My point is that at one time, I suffered the same fear of raiding that a lot of new players have, and that while we might sneeze on heroic gear and say “10s are so easy a Geico Salesman could do it,” there is a legitimate and real fear of trying them. There was a thread on the forums yesterday asking about a “BiS heroic gear list.” Some laughs were to be had, as we assumed the guy was talking about Heroic ICC25 gear, when in fact he was talking about heroics five mans. It got me thinking, though, that while my server might spoil me when it comes to progression (Ranked 15th with 8/12 ICC25 Hardmodes, wut?), there’s a large amount of players playing now for who heroic five mans are the norm, who might not believe that Heroic raiding is ever going to be within their grasp but who still want to do their best when they step into a raid.
To that end, I took it upon myself to utilize Rawr and EnhSim to develop a BiS “Pre-Raid” list- that is, a list of gear to strive for without ever having to step foot into a raid. This is not exactly a “Heroic 5s” loot list, because “BiS Pre-raid” means “Best in Slot out of any gear available without raiding.” To that end, it includes craftable gear and Bind on Equip gear. While I totally understand that not everyone has the funds to buy BoE and craftable gear, this is the utmost “Best in Slot,” and you can make substitutions as you deem necessary. (For example, Boots of Living Scale simmed at 10-15 more dps than Spiked Toestompers, so you should be fine with either. Boots are the clear winner, though.)
The criteria I followed:
- I assumed the character was a Tauren with no professions. Racials and Profession Bonuses will add extra dps, but I wanted a gearset that would apply to everyone and could be tweaked from there. (On a totally random note, all the t9 gear is Alliance gear, because I totally forgot there was a difference until I was actually editing the links in here.)
- All gear choices were simmed with Standard Enhsim settings, assuming 200 latency. As a note, this includes both your internet connection, fps, and reaction time. Most of us aren’t actually playing at 200 latency.
- All Debuffs/Buffs were assumed. While this is a list of pe-raid BiS gear, the design is to make you the best you can be when you step into raids.
- Glyphs were Feral Spirit/Stormstrike/Flame Shock. Flameshock was a shoe-in due to the 4pct9, simming at a 60dps increase over the next competitor.
- Priority System and Spec are cookie cutter, taken from the Enhancement Sticky.
- All raid caps are achieved, assuming Imp. Faerie Fire/Misery.
- Just like I assumed you would have the money to buy BoE gear, I assumed the money for epic gems and the best possible enchants. I also assumed you would spend the time to level up reputations you would need.
- I assumed that you would spend on average a month gearing up. Without stepping foot in a ICC10/25 or a Weekly raid, your EoF intake would be 2 a day. Because of that, I thought a reasonable amount of Emblems of Frost would be 60. Everything else is Triumph/Craftable/Boe/Heroic Gear.
- There is not enough quality off-set gear to make up for dropping 4pc t9. (None of the iLevel 245 Emblem of Triumph gear is worth losing the 4pc for.)
- This is set to net you the best dps. It is NOT a gearscore set. I fully support getting gearscore items like the 245 EoT gear to use it to trick retarded people who use gearscore into letting you raid, but I do not support you than using those pieces in a raid.
- In theory, Enchant Boots – Icewalker is more paper dps than Tuskarr’s Vitality. However, it’s commonly accepted that having 8% runspeed takes the cake on any fight that isn’t Patchwerk (i.e., you need to move), so while there is a 15-20 dps loss not using Icewalker I kept to the conventional choice of Tuskarr’s.
Without further ado, my “Pre-raid BiS loot list.”
- Head: Nobundo’s Faceguard of Triumph, ReD Meta, Accurate Ametrine, Arcanum of Torment
- Neck: Wodin’s Lucky Necklace, Quick King’s Amber
- Shoulder: Nobundo’s Shoulderguard’s of Conquest, Quick King’s Amber, Greater Inscription of the Axe
- Back: Accursed Crawling Cape, Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
- Chest: Carapace of Forgotten Kings, Quick King’s Amber x 3, Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
- Wrist: Crusader’s Dragonscale Bracers, Quick King’s Amber, Enchant Bracers – Greater Assault
- Gloves: Nobundo’s Grips of Conquest, Quick King’s Amber, Enchant Gloves – Crusher
- Belt: Belt of Dragons, Precise Cardinal Ruby x 2, Nightmare Tear, Eternal Belt Buckle
- Pants: Nobundo’s War-Kilt of Conquest, Precise Cardinal Ruby x 2, Icescale Leg Armor
- Feet: Boots of Living Scale, Quick King’s Amber x 2, Tuskarr’s Vitality
- Ring 1: Band of Stained Souls
- Ring 2: Dexterous Brightstone Ring
- Trinket 1: Mirror of Truth
- Trinket 2: Herkuml War Token
- Totem: Totem of Electrifying Wind
- Mainhand: Cudgel of Furious Justice, Enchant Weapon – Berserking
- Offhand: Nighttime, Enchant Weapon – Berserking -Note that this simmed at ~2dps over Black Icicle, meaning that there will be little to no recognizable difference.
The end result of this gear combination says that your Maximum Theoretical DPS is 8488 DPS. You’ll have a little over 40% unbuffed melee critical hit, 4110 Attack Power, 142 Expertise, 375 Hit (Now you guys get the helm gem choice!), ~20.75 melee haste…and like 200 armor pen. Even with all that haste (736 rating in mostly 232 gear!), Haste is still simming as the most desirable stat, with an EP of 2.80.
There you go, future raiders! A BiS gear for all of ya’ll too. Hope it helps!