Upgrading to greens? Not so much
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 18th 2008 at 6:00PM
I have to agree with Lowangel: where's the upgrades? We all knew that the gear dropping in Northrend wasn't quite going to be as huge a jump as it was when we headed off to Outland, but I was only dressed in late Karazhan gear, and at this point, close to 73, I've upgraded one thing. I thought I'd get a little upgrade -- time and time again, I've picked up soulbound quest items, only to have to vendor them off because they don't have the hit I worked to get or the extra Agility on top of the Stamina I've already got.As much as I appreciate keeping the epics on, it is a little disappointing that I may not actually get new gear for ten levels (indeed, many of the folks who cleared the PvE content already were dressed in their old gear as well). Dressing yourself in clown greens is embarassing, but having no upgrades at all is a problem in the opposite direction. Bornakk says to be patient and that we'll find upgrades soon enough (and I have, to his credit, already seen a few nice rep items that I'd want, even if I don't have the rep to buy them yet). There are upgrades out there.
But so far, I've only hit a few sidegrades and hardly any clearly better gear than what I had before. How about you?
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Quests, Expansions, Leveling, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Mith Nov 18th 2008 6:04PM
Late tier 5 quality gear and only replaced one piece which was actually only a side-grade =[
Andrew Nov 18th 2008 11:21PM
Your 70 epics are going to function more like epics gotten at any level 1-69. If you twink out your level 40 with some epic pieces, they usually last longer than 3 levels. I ' ve been replacing most of my kara epics with blues from 73-75 dungeons, but I ' m still wearing some level 70 blues.
The greens won ' t be replacing many epics simply because they don ' t have the carefully allocated points that blues and epics do. Give it time.
Trippleye Nov 19th 2008 12:06AM
Well, I think we have to all agree tho...that alot of these greens look amazing...I've been tempted to toss an epic for a green just because of the way it looks
my2cents Nov 19th 2008 3:17PM
Can I ask what class/spec you're playing? I'm leveling my shadow priest. I started out in ~T5 equivalent gear (2.3 and 2.4 badge gear, frozen shadow weave, etc). At least it was considered t5 equiv.
But shadow priest itemization has changed quite a bit. Spirit and Crit were not very useful in the past, so my gear had almost none of either. Because of this, combined with my goal of increasing spirit as much as possible to aid leveling through spirit tap, I've replaced nearly half my gear at level 73. I lost about 50dps actually from the focus on spirit, but I have no mana problems and don't ever have to stop to drink while questing or in dungeons.
The irony is that I was originally very annoyed with the major changes to our itemization priorities. But it's turned out to be a lot of fun to find upgrades (or side grades) so early on. Especially since the spirit I'm collecting isn't nearly as much of a waste when I get to raiding as it was in TBC.
Naix Nov 19th 2008 9:40AM
I am going to hit Northrend tonight on my Deathknight. So everything I get is going to be an upgrade.
Taaran Nov 18th 2008 6:04PM
I've upgraded a few epics to dungeon blues -- might I suggest you try a few instances?
The quest greens always seem to be lacking a stat or two for someone in epics. But hey, they're greens.
Juneau Nov 18th 2008 6:11PM
This. My pala was in Kara purples and I've got some nice new shoulderpads, bracers, gloves and boots all from the first three dungeons. And I got some nice blue trinkets from Howling Fjord quest rewards. There are some nice items, you just need to know where to look.
ObiChad Nov 18th 2008 6:46PM
This is what I have found as well. While the regular quest reward greens and blues have not been upgrades, the instance drops and instance quest rewards, even in UK, have been comparable to my Kara epics. After doing Nexus and the spider one, I've replaced a few pieces now. I'd expect regular quest rewards to start being options around 75 or so, maybe in Grizzly Hills and certainly beyond. Personally I think that's a good pacing of item replacement.
Really in BC the stam change, and the lack of epic gear on the majority of the player base overall, is what made the upgrades comes so quickly. I much prefer the approach they have taken in Wrath.
Jamesisgreat Nov 18th 2008 7:28PM
@ Juneau - "There are some nice items, you just need to know where to look."
This is why I was hoping to get a few guides on decent quest rewards to look out for for different specs. For example - quest x in the howling fjord has a great helmet for a feral druid.
I'm sure we'll get these eventually, but sooner would be a lot more helpful than later....
conker87 Nov 18th 2008 7:47PM
Haste rating seems to be all the rage here (as Spell power, then healing/spell damage, was in BC). I have both green haste rating and ATK Power trinkets on both my Rogue and Paladin, upgrades of my Badge and ZA trinkets (I was a little disappointed about the ZA trinket though).
Also, both share the same cooldown, so no +Haste and +ATK Power uses at the same time. Boo!
Cody Kiker Nov 19th 2008 8:30AM
@ Juneau
http://www.wow-loot.com
bendak Nov 18th 2008 6:06PM
I'm at 76 and replaced my trinkets and my melee weapon (Icier Barbed Spear).. thats it. In TBC i was replacing freaking everything. Every quest reward I get is a sidegrade that looks ugly or a downgrade
Oh I also replaced my gun but that was made with engineering.
Trach Nov 18th 2008 6:20PM
Levelled to 80, done all the instances except the level 80 ones and barely replaced any of my gear, seemed to have an endless choice of legs and necklaces though.
Chimay Nov 18th 2008 6:07PM
My mage is at 71, and hasn't got any serious raid items (apart from one item from ZA). But still, he's owning every instance i've entered so far.
Any greens that dropped so far, even the Q rewards, didn't even come close to replacing my current gear.
Some of my guildies, who are in their late 70's or hit 80, are reporting the same... (They DID raid TK for example).
I like the idea that casual players would be able to perform in WOTLK. But it is a shame that they are still behind the raiders who will have the better gear for a really long time.
Galla Nov 18th 2008 6:08PM
Yeah I wont be replacing much of my gear until Naxx, and a few heroics.
KiwiRed Nov 18th 2008 6:09PM
I've finally started replacing items on my rogue (bracers and boots so far) with quest chain rewards from the end of Zul'drak, and a shiny new sword from Wyrmrest rep. I'm decked out in pre-sunwell T6 though, so I suspect I'll keep the rest until I start doing heroics.
On the positive side, the lack of upgrades means I've made quite a lot of gold from vendoring the un-needed loot.
Kerith Nov 18th 2008 6:09PM
I don't yet have the xpac (I know, but its on its way). My main has some T4 and T5 pieces, which I'm aware that I won't replace for some time. But I also have a 61 lock working his way through the Death Knight nightmare that is Hellfire Peninsula right now, and upon reaching 68, i'll take him straight to Northrend. An epic is an epic for a reason, even if you don't replace it for 10 levels. I didn't start playing until after BC was released, so when I went to Outlands, I replaced pretty much everything immediately. I only have one 70, so the other 9 toons I have coming up will have a much better time replacing items in Northrend that people that did serious raiding in BC.
darren Nov 18th 2008 6:41PM
I leveled a prot pally up right before Wotlk, hitting 70 on my first UK run. I can tell you that the quest and drop upgrades are on the same curve as the outlands are. That means that you won't be doing the vanilla->outlands jump where every item for your spec is an upgrade from what you have, instead quest greens may not be better than instance blues and you'll still vender a lot. As before, though, every few levels you'll rotate in new items with slightly better stats. I like this curve better than the "new expansion, all new items" curve of TBC for alt leveling - it just feels better paced.
Arktic Nov 18th 2008 6:12PM
I agree, I took this opertunity to respec from a Holy Pally to a Prot Pally, and have upgraded maybe 1-2 and swaped out a few more as not really an upgrade of gear, but an upgrade for Prot over Holy spec. If only I'd read the WoWinsider article earlier as I started in the Fjord rather than the tundra. Oh well, I'm having fun anyway, and looking forward to 80 when all my gear will get traded out.
Jack Spicer Nov 18th 2008 6:35PM
Yeah, don't focus on upgrades if you're wearing epics. Instead try to collect a set for a different spec.