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.

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