Scattered Shots: Gear for Cataclysm leveling
by Brian Wood 
Sep 9th 2010 at 9:00AM
I'm getting an increasing number of requests to know what kind of gear we should be hoarding for leveling up to 85 in Cataclysm. A lot of hunters are still grinding through ICC and want to know if they should bother with four-piece tier 10, or if making that final push to armor penetration gemming is going to be worthwhile since those ArP gems will change to something else. And what will those gems change to, anyway? What stat are we going to want to stack in Cataclysm?
Well first of all, let me say this: We don't even have a release date for Cataclysm yet. We don't know when it's coming out, but we do know it's not going to be any time real soon. I had originally planned on waiting until Cataclysm was a bit closer before hitting this, but if the amount of emails I'm getting is any indication, people want to know now.
So join me after the cut to learn what you should be paying attention to now and how best to plan for your Cataclysm hunter leveling experience.
What we know: Gear conversions
Among the many changes Cataclysm will bring, we will be losing a bunch of stats on our gear. No longer will our hunter gear have intellect, armor penetration rating or attack power (though some things will still have AP procs). Every piece of hunter gear in existence is going to be retroactively changed and rebalanced. So your gear with ArP will have other stats increased to compensate for the ones you lost. Here's how:
- Attack power is mostly just vanishing into the ether. Our agility will now be giving us two attack power per agility instead of just one.
- The stamina on our gear will go up substantially.
- Our ArP rating will mostly turn into haste rating and in some cases will turn into crit rating.
- ArP gems become crit gems.
- Deathbringer's Will passive ArP is changing to crit rating
- Your tier 9 two-piece bonus is unchanged. Since Serpent Sting ticks can crit automatically in Cataclysm, the T9 two-piece set bonus is useless to you, so you might as well get your T10 four-piece, if you haven't yet.
It is not yet possible to calculate stat weights -- to say how 1 crit rating compares to 1 haste rating to 1 mastery rating. The coefficients and base damage of our shots are changing with every single beta build, sometimes drastically. Until those get locked down, we can't figure out the balance of stats.
Even if we could calculate stat weights, it wouldn't help you while leveling. Stat weights are all calculated around raid boss fights -- very long-duration, single-target, stand-still fights. When you're leveling, you'll usually be using only a handful of shots on any given mob. No matter how much haste you have, you will probably not get a single extra shot because of it in such a short time frame.
In general, you're probably safest going for agility over anything else. SV will also like crit, since it boosts their focus regen. Currently, some specs get a huge advantage from mastery, while others don't care much at all about it. We'll have to wait a bit and see how the mastery stat balances out when we're closer to release.
Oh, and you want hit rating. At level 85, it takes about 121 hit rating to get 1 percent hit. Sure, you only need 5 percent while leveling (so about 601 hit rating at 85), but within a few levels, you'll be desperate for hit rating just to stay at 5 percent. And remember that being at the hit cap is huge for pet aggro while leveling.
Gear upgrades while leveling
You will probably start replacing your ICC gear starting around level 83. You will probably replace all of your gear and certainly most of it.
Going through Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir and 5-manning in Blackrock Caverns and Throne of Tides, I got a bunch of blue gear that was almost as good as my ICC gear, but not quite. Usually it had more stamina, darned near identical stats, but no socket. It may be worth switching for those pieces, however, if mastery ends up being a sweet stat for your leveling spec of choice.
A big thing to keep in mind here is enchants. Right now, your ICC gear has enchants on it (I certainly hope it does, anyway). If you find a new piece of gear that is even a little bit better, remember that it probably needs that same enchant; otherwise, it'll be a bit worse. And then you'll be replacing it again in a few levels.
Currently, the quest rewards are not yet implemented in the higher level zones; however, blue posts assure us that we'll be getting lots of awesome upgrades from them. Certainly the higher level 5-mans have some really, really sweet loot in them that you'll absolutely want in a heartbeat.
The point here is that you will be replacing your ICC gear as you level. Not only that, but we're being told that we're not going to be able to start raiding until we replace all our questing/5-man gear with heroic gear as well.
When leveling, optimize like you're leveling
Do you remember when you were level 53? Leveling your way up to the level cap, burning through quests, doing dungeons. Try to think back a moment and remember how much attention you paid to optimizing your gear back then.
That's exactly how much attention you should spend to optimizing your gear for level 83.
Leveling is easy. As hunters, we have it even easier on the leveling front -- we do it without taking damage. We can plow through content. As we level, we're going to collect a bunch of gear. Take a look at it -- if it looks like a clear upgrade, take it. If it's on the fence, then flip a coin. Who cares? That gear will be gone again in a few levels, and the difference it makes to your leveling performance is much smaller than the impact of the randomness on your leveling experience. In other words: You won't notice the difference.
I leveled to 85 in the beta almost entirely in my level 80 gear only because the loot wasn't implemented yet. I did it through periods of hunter DPS being horribly broken, pets with only 6k health (and mobs hitting for 4k per hit). I had no problems. I wasn't at risk of dying; I wasn't at risk of failing to kill something. So don't worry so much about optimizing for leveling. Pay as much attention to it as you did while leveling in the first place: very little.
What to do right now
If you're working your way through ICC or ICC hardmodes right now and you're wondering whether to take the plunge to ArP gemming, or whether to get one piece of gear over another, my advice is simple: Do what you want to do right now. Enjoy the game right now. If it's worth it for you to go for it now, do it!
Don't worry about Cataclysm yet. It'll be a while before it comes out, and when it does, it'll be around for years. But you only have Wrath for a few more months. Make the most of it.
Scattered Shots is dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a hunter. See the Scattered Shots Resource Guide for a full listing of vital and entertaining hunter guides, including how to improve your heroic DPS, understand the impact of skill vs. gear, and getting started with Beast Mastery 101 and Marksman 101.
Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Scattered Shots
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Stoop Sep 9th 2010 9:16AM
I'm concentrating on getting alts geared enough to ease levelling. My hunter is in decent ICC10 gear for the most part, so I'm not sweating the levelling grind too much.
Bellaskye Sep 9th 2010 9:19AM
Thanks for this Frost:D it translates well to every class:D I did change out all my gear as i got it while leveling in Beta. I wanted to see how the new gear would interact with leveling. But the lack of enchants is a bummer:( Darn broken professions:P
Natsumi Sep 9th 2010 2:38PM
Are existing character's professions broken? My Warrior is a maxxed Enchanter, I'm curious if I get a beta invite (not likely but I can hope and dream :p ) and I copy her over will my current professions work?
Rob Sep 9th 2010 9:20AM
Good article. I wondering what kind of emails the author was getting. We know there is a huge gear reset, and we know leveling in general is pretty easy. You'll get greens or blues replacing your ICC stuff, maybe. Or maybe you'll keep it until 85. Will it really matter? If you want, you ICC people, don't take a single quest reward or dungeon drop. You'll be able to get to level 85 just fine, I'm sure.
Or....Just vendor everything, start naked, and see what you can grab along the way. That's fun too.
jackfinished Sep 9th 2010 9:54AM
That sounds crazy enough to actually be fun!
Netheral Sep 9th 2010 1:36PM
If you, as a hunter, vendor your ranged weapon, you can't really qualify yourself as a hunter.
It's just inhumane, sorry, inhuntery!
Natsumi Sep 9th 2010 2:45PM
You could still be a hunter if you're Beast Mastery :D
Rob Sep 9th 2010 4:39PM
Maybe get a grey weapon from deadmines or something?
Redielin Sep 9th 2010 9:38AM
It is really funny to me how much people want to worry about gearing for leveling, as if it is going to make a difference.
The first zones are going to be tuned around level 80 blues and greens. That means, if you are wearing epics now, you will have it significantly easier. Any epics. Naxxramas 25 epics, even. If you are wearing ANYTHING from ICC 25, you will basically run over everything in the first zone like a truck. By the second zone, you'll replace it all. At 83, the only difference between your ICC 25 geared toon and someone who's rolling hunter for the first time will be: achievements and vanity items.
As a healer, it really made me mad when people would wear BC epics into the first tier or so of raiding at the beginning of Wrath. If someone *really* knew what they were doing, and they had *all* sunwell gear, then it was probably fine. But people were stepping in with gear from Magister's Terrace Heroic -_-. Maybe something was actually a DPS upgrade and you never found anything to replace it. But the problem is Stamina. Your stamina just gets to be way too low when you do that. you *need* about 14k Health to survive the vortex on Malygos. When you're running in with only 10k, your DPS isn't going to matter because you're going to die, end of story.
In Cataclysm, that's going to matter even more. Although it sounds like they're normalizing our ICC gear for Cataclysm stamina levels (adding a ton more, in other words), there will still be a big stam difference between ICC gear and blues and greens while you're leveling, and the first gear you get at 85. That means Blizzard can balance mob damage around that stamina. You're going to be punished for low stamina a lot more in Cataclysm than you were in Wrath.
So to sum up: what gear should you get for Cataclysm?
It.
Doesn't.
Matter.
Jesse Felt Sep 9th 2010 11:44AM
It's interesting you mention healing nax in BC epics.... When I leveled my shaman I hit 80 toward the end of ToC being all that and I walked into ToC10 wearing heirloom shoulders, lvl 70 epic BoE helm, heirloom staff and the Lvl 60 Blue kilt from Ramps and healed it like a champ... lol
styopa Sep 9th 2010 9:38AM
Obsessing over 'is my gear good enough to level?' is silly, doubly silly for hunters.
You could step into Cataclysm in greens and quest blues and be FINE.
Anyone who went through TBC or WotLK knows that *very* quickly they will hand us quest items that will essentially guarantee that lvl 81's are fully geared and equipped for the world after lvl 80. Remember Hellfire peninsula, when random drop greens were better than some BWL gear?
As hunters, it's even easier. Last night I switched back to my much-beloved BM spec to level up my long-abandoned dinosaur. Want to hear something gross? I was SECOND on the dps meter in heroic AK. I'm not saying it was gross because I was second instead of first. I'm saying it was gross that I was second and:
1) I'd switched specs, pulled out the Tyrannosaur, and got into a group...he went through the whole instance at lvl 78 with NO TALENT POINTS.
2) not having been BM since geez, month 2 of WotLK? I didn't notice that I'd for some reason switched around the buttons on my BM bars for scorpid shot and arcane shot. I was a little surprised that I was able to hit arcane over and over with no cooldown, but i thought it must be some sort of talent resetting c/d or the crazy haste BMs used to have. It's only when I started noticing that despite putting serpent sting on a target, I'd look up and see SCORPID was on that I discovered my oops.
Seriously - a non-talented pet and a phail hunter using scorpid sting instead of arcane shot for probably 1/3 of the instance - and I was 2nd on the meters.
No, I think it's been so long since people leveled that they're forgetting - leveling gear is disposable; unless you're a crafter that can do it to yourself for free, there's no reason to gem it, to enchant it, or buff it in any way. You'll have something new in 2 lvls anyway.
Verine Sep 9th 2010 9:42AM
So all that hit on mark of supremacy might be useful? I hate missing.
RS Sep 9th 2010 9:58AM
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe get the the other hit trinket as well, the one with haste instead of AP. It sounds like both could serve us well atleast during the leveling.
RS
Frostheim Sep 9th 2010 1:34PM
Yeah, I use Mark of Supremacy in the beta... and was still struggling to get over 4% hit.
Firestyle Sep 9th 2010 10:02AM
Cataclysm kinda needs to happen fast or I might not be into it. I'm working on killing halion 25 HM and LK 25 HM, but that won't take 2+ months given how far along we are.
To be frank, the Echoe Isles/Operation Gnomeregan events were less than spectacular and took less dev time than Brewfest. Furthermore, it was very pale in comparison to a scourge invasion and some cool undead killing gear. Nonetheless, It was fun for the 1 hour it took to complete
That being said, it's really poor planning on their part for this to take any longer than early November.
Jinx Sep 9th 2010 10:34AM
It's much less than 1 hour's worth content. More like 15 minutes, including the preperation/waiting phase.
I wasn't sure it was done even after I got the feat.
Alexa Sep 9th 2010 10:46AM
Negativity is a b@#*%.
Seriously, Blizzard doesn't "need" to do anything faster, just because elite guilds are clearing the hardest content. As has been mentioned ad nauseum on this site, WoW isn't exclusively for the people at the top (just like it's not exclusively for the people just starting out).
If people are still enjoying and playing the game, then they are doing a good job.
I'm working on killing heroic Sindragosa on my 10 man team. Does that make me elite? No way. Does it mean that I will probably kill the Lich King on heroic by the time Cataclysm drops? Yes, probably. But there are tons of *other* things to do in WoW, because eat glass on hard modes.
Firestyle Sep 9th 2010 10:52AM
Not really trying to be negative - but 10 months on a single raid is a very long time. Look at it this way, we had Naxx/Maly/Sarth for 7 months (not counting leveling time), Ulduar for about 4 months, ToC for about 4 months, and basically pusing 12 months on ICC + pretty purple dragon. Pardon me for indicating that this is an exceptionally long time without content.
Noyou Sep 9th 2010 12:53PM
@Firestyle
To: Mr. Cranky pants, it was not the "scourge-like" event. That event will be when 3.9 drops and If I read it right will involve elementals. It will be cataclysmic indeed (well mostly because I think that's when our talent trees will get reset-oh what fun that will be on 6 80's).
Cyonisper Sep 9th 2010 1:08PM
@Firestyle
You think that this is only going to be a 1 time event?
Heavens No.
In the next few weeks we will most likely see other event s turn up which will have more to do with Deathwing.
At the moment, you are reading the post of a player who doesn't do ICC hard modes, heck I have just barely seen past Plague 1/4th.
I played back in the days of MC, I raided through the longest and most boring content in game for months, farming for a piece of gear which 5-10 other people would also roll on... a nightmare to say the least.
I agree, content is moving at a slow pace, but keep in mind we have 3 holidays around the corner (And I'm sure at least one of them has had an update) giving you something to do while you wait for Cata.
Maybe that's boring to you? Ok then... perhaps you should try something else for a Month or two...
But regardless, my point is we will have something to play with to keep us entertained while we wait for El Grande Grind. Just sit back, pop open a cold one, and enjoy the game.