Yes, I did make it to 80 just a day after I posted my last article on working my way there. I got my Draenei Death Knight into the ranks of the ‘no longer slogging through the muck’. Sort of. I have a few things yet to work on. I’ll go into that more in a minute.
So I get to 80 and my friends promptly decide I need better gear and I need to do Heroics. Fortunately, one is a Blacksmith and he made me some better gear that would allow me to survive my first few heroic level dungeons. Then he, his wife and another friend promptly ran me, mad dash through 3 dungeons, 2 heroics and a Trial of Champions.
So now that I’ve made 80, my friend can no longer harp on that. He’s found a new thing to harp on. I must get better gear. Yes, there is this thing called Gear Score and it seems that it is part of what the Dungeon Finder uses to determine if you will survive certain level dungeons. So I must get all my gear to 200 level items or better. Ok….. This is done one of 4 ways, get it from drops in those heroic dungeons, get someone to make it for you, find it on the Auction House, or purchase it with badges.
Buying on the Auction House, well, I haven’t tried this except for gems. I suspect it can be expensive. Getting someone to make it for you, this has potential to be tricky. If they are a friend they might not charge you or only want help with the mats. If it’s custom, you may have to come up with the mats and a tip. Depending on the specifics of the situation it could get expensive. Getting the gear from the dungeons is nice because it’s like your bonus for doing your dungeon. Hey you already get paid. Purchasing with badges is a pretty good way to go; however, it will take some work. You get the badges by doing the dungeons. You will want to do a lot of dungeons and the weekly to get as many of these as you need. Still it’s all good experience. Trust me. I did a dozen random heroics this weekend. It’s good experience.
So, over the week since I made 80 I have faithfully run at least one random heroic a day and in some cases 2 or 3. And then at the weekend I managed five on one day and seven the next. I think seven might be my limit. That only because, by that time I wasn’t really on my game and had trouble just getting places. I have managed to get all but one piece of gear to 200. I still need to upgrade my braces. I have a couple of pieces that I’ve purchased with badges and they are higher than 200. That helps that gear score and makes me eligible for higher level dungeons and even some 10 and 25 man stuff.
A good site for really understanding how you’re doing is: Wow-Heroes. It shows you your gear, and it’s levels and any gems or enchants you have on it. It tells you where you got it from and lets you easily look for upgrades. It also, and this is the part I like, shows you a progress bar at the top that tells you what is recommended for you to be working on. It’s pretty easy to read this. I was happy when I got just a little bit of yellow on the bar and have been excited to see it progress. I’ve got a nice chunk of green as well as a nice chunk of yellow on the bar now. I’m very please with my progress.
And yet, I’m still not amongst the elite. I will need to get up to Ice Crown Citadel at 25 man level for that. And yet, that’s not all I need. I still need to level up my professions.
This is an even bigger challenge as a Death Knight and I’ll try to get to it in the next article.
Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.
