Arcane Brilliance: Gearing your mage up for the Raid Finder in patch 4.3
by Christian Belt 
Jan 7th 2012 at 2:00PM
Patch 4.3 has been with us for a good solid month now, and I sincerely hope that by now we've all escorted our mages through a good portion of the new content it offers. As all the best patches do, 4.3 has ushered in a fresh tier of gear and a new progression hierarchy to follow in getting said gear. Best of all, we have a whole new gearing tool to play with in the Raid Finder.
If you happen to be one of those mages who looks at his item level and finds it still languishing somewhere below the minimum requirements to join the battle to vanquish Deathwing, I believe a gearing guide is in order. Without further preamble, I present Arcane Brilliance's Handy Guide to Shiny Things, patch 4.3 edition.
The goal
To qualify for the Raid Finder, you need to have an average item level of 372. This is totally doable, even with a freshly dinged level 85 mage clad in quest reward hodgepodge, and it's doable without a whole of time and effort expended. The aim of this guide is to take you from those leveling greens to raid-worthy purples in as little time as possible.
Pre-heroic gearing
Your first stop on the gearing ladder is the normal Dungeon Finder. You may have already been using this as you leveled to 85, but before you can begin gearing in earnest, you have one barrier to entry, and that's the item level 329 requirement to queue for heroics. Honestly, at this point in the expansion, this section on the gearing expressway is little more than a speed bump. So hop back in there a few more times. It really shouldn't take you long to grab some nice high-level blues to fill your most lacking slots.
If you've gained any reputation with the Cataclysm factions at all while leveling (and frankly, it's tough not to), hit up their various faction vendors and purchase whatever they offer that will help you. Crafted gear can also work wonders for a new level 85 mage, so either befriend a tailor, hit up the Auction House, or learn to sew. Whatever you do, though, don't spend too much time or money getting anything pre-heroic. You'll be replacing it so quickly it's ridiculous, and your only goal here is to cobble together enough gear to get into those heroics.
The real prize in the random normals -- the only thing of any lasting value -- is justice points. With each normal 5-man run, you'll also be hauling in fair chunks of this currency, which you can now use to purchase item level 378 gear. Not only are you vastly improving your gear level average and getting yourself ready for the 4.3 5-mans, you're already getting Raid-Finder-level equipment.
As soon as you feel up to it, you should also hit up the Firelands quest lines, which begin in your faction's home city and Mt. Hyjal. Much of the epic gear you can grab there requires very little work to obtain and will greatly assist you in becoming heroic-worthy.
Random heroics
Your next goal involves random heroics until your item level is high enough to enter the new patch 4.3 5-man instances. The magic number here is item level 353, and it really shouldn't take long. All of the purple drops in the two troll instances are item level 353, and you'll be picking up some upgrades in even the older heroics -- but again, the main reason we're here is to pick up stacks and stacks of justice and valor points. Keep using your justice points on patch 4.2 badge gear while you save up your valor points for the occasional fat piece of item level 397 sweetness.
Valor point gear
With time put in, there are numerous slots you can fill with valor point items. A full list:
- Head Hood of Hidden Flesh 2,200 VPs
- Chest Robes of Searing Shadow 2,200 VPs
- Wrist Chronoboost Bracers 1,250 VPs
- Hands Clockwinder's Immaculate Gloves 1,650 VPs
- Waist Tentacular Belt 1,650 VPs (By the way, this is absolutely my new favorite adjective: tentacular. I think it should be used by sportscasters to describe athletes. "Bob, that blocked shot was just amazing. That young man is simply tentacular!" Also, I'm 99% sure that when you describe an article of clothing as "tentacular," I don't want that article of clothing anywhere near my crotch. Or maybe I do? I'm extremely confused now.)
- Feet Kavan's Forsaken Treads 1,650 VPs
- Back Nanoprecise Cape 1,250 VPs
- Finger Seal of the Grand Architect 1,250 VPs
- Neck Opal of the Secret Order 1,250 VPs
- Trinket Bottled Wishes 1,650 VPs (Incidentally, this is also what I call A1 Steak Sauce.)
- Wand Hungermouth Wand 700 VPs
By now, you should more than geared enough to start farming the newest 5-mans in the game for all of the item level 378 loot that drops therein. What to look for:
End Time
- Chest Robes of Fate From Murozond
- Hands Archivist's Gloves Quest reward from Archival Purposes
- Legs Time Traveler's Leggings From all four Echoes
- Staff Jaina's Staff From Echo of Jaina
- Head Cowl of Highborn Sorcerors From Mannoroth and Captain Varo'then
- Feet Slippers of Wizardry From Queen Azshara
- Trinket Foul Gift of the Demon Lord From Mannoroth and Captain Varo'then
- Off-hand frill Orb of the First Satyrs From Peroth'arn
- Shoulder Mantle of False Virtue From Archbishop Benedictus
- Waist Chillbane Belt From Arcurion
- Back Drapes of the Dragonshrine Zone drop
- Finger Ring of the Loyal Companion Quest reward from To Wyrmrest
- Dagger Fanged Tentacle From Archbishop Benedictus
- Staff Stalk of Corruption From Archbishop Benedictus
- Wand Writhing Wand Quest reward from The Twilight Prophet
And on to the Raid Finder ...
Once your average gear level is high enough, read up on the fights and jump directly into the Raid Finder. Deathwing needs killing, and you're just the mage to give him what he needs. Warlocks also need killing, but I don't need to tell you that. You're a mage.
Every week, Arcane Brilliance teleports you inside the wonderful world of mages and then hurls a Fireball in your face. Start out with our recent beginner's guide to being a mage, then check out our three-part State of the Mage columns on arcane, fire and frost. Don't forget to look at some of the addons your mage should probably be using.Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Cody Jan 7th 2012 2:10PM
My problem with gearing doesn't come from a lack of knowledge or skill. It's a lack of motivation. I stopped playing for a while kind of early in the expansion due to time constraints. Now, I've come back but with Pandaland just around the corner, I sit around and wonder what's the point of taking the time to gear up my mage to do the raid finder if I'm just going to wind up replacing my gear within like 2 levels when the new expansion hits.
eakin3 Jan 7th 2012 2:27PM
It's a game. Play because you enjoy the experience or save your $15 a month. The point of the gear is to be a means to complete the content you want to do, not the final end in and of itself.
Utakata Jan 7th 2012 4:02PM
@eakin3
Even though that is essentially correct...I somehow, I can't help but think this is a bit of the tail wagging the dog. The old RPG idea is is that you venture into dungeons for adventure and rewards, including gear. Not the other way round. For this reason of pre-gear stacking has taken some of the magic out of the game IMO.
Cody Jan 7th 2012 4:44PM
@eakin3
It's not that I'm not having fun playing the game. I still love to explore and collect mounts and achievements and dungeons and pvp are still fun for me but I just don't feel motivated enough to actually go out and collect gear that I'm going to replace soon.
Maybe I'm just lazy :/
Skyrei Jan 7th 2012 5:53PM
I wouldn't worry about the up coming expansion replacing your gear. You likely have several months before it's out.
Snuzzle Jan 7th 2012 6:10PM
You likely have quite a bit of time before Pandas. We're not even in Beta yet. Id put MOP a good 6+ months out.
Eyhk Jan 7th 2012 8:31PM
Even in RPGs, you can always get in over your head. Think of it as the level grind, except it's your gear level, not character level. And if you havent experienced the content, what more adventure is there to ask? Unless you aren't interested in the game at all, but then why are you here? Admittedly, the game has had much more of a gear focus than before, but it has always been that way to some extent. I think it is more of ourselves that have changed, the been there done that attitude that sucks the fun out of the game. I've been playing since the original beta and I've found that taking a break for a raid tier or two usually does the trick. Thankfully with the heroics and badge system, it's not as hard to catch up as it was before.
Methuus Jan 8th 2012 11:30AM
And, for some people, there's also the transmorg factor now.
If someone really likes the look of the tier 13 techno-mage gear, they might run just to collect enough pieces for future transmorgification purposes.
mbeck Jan 10th 2012 1:22PM
Soon? You must have a warped sense of time ... we are WAYS away from MoP - at this point, there is no way to see it come out before half a year from now, likely closer to 8+ months. Regardless, to hold of gearing for anything more than 4 weeks out is doing a great disservice to yourself and any guild / friends you run with. It has become so easy to get up to the basic current ilevel and make playing so much easier and fun.
Scuac Jan 7th 2012 2:11PM
Excellent article as usual. And if you leave out the lists of specific gear, this guide can be applied to any class, not just mages. I'll be using it for my soon to be 85 priest.
jangel66 Jan 7th 2012 2:13PM
and stay away from pvp gear no fail mages here and hero is not your personal cool down
johnny.ramos1 Jan 7th 2012 2:21PM
I know its shunned upon but it helps to get into the new heroics with a couple of new 377 ilvl PvP gear. you dont wanna be decked out in PvP gear but i think 1 to 2 peices is acceptable.
Arrohon Jan 7th 2012 2:35PM
Eh, I wouldn't completely rule out full pvp gear for heroics. Make sure your dps is acceptable (15k should be fine)before queuing, and don't enter LFR before you're hit-capped AND consistently pull at least 20k.
Rimar Jan 7th 2012 2:40PM
I made the mistake of making the blue pvp gear for my disc healer.. At the time, the primary stats were far superior to my pve quest gear.. However its the little things that got me and my mana regen while healing dropped to basement level. I quickly discovered I was unable to heal 5-man any more.
Since the new heroic 5-mans came out, I have finally been able to reverse that setback (plus the valor point gear and jp gear).
Blue pvp might be just fine for other classes but priests who heal need to steer clear of it.
Chris Gonzalez Jan 8th 2012 1:01AM
I dunno. As a fresh mage at 85 wanting to gear up as fast as possible, a full 377 set doesn't seem like that much of a slight against other PvE players. The only thing the Vicious Fireweave set doesn't have is Hit. Sure, rings, trinkets, and your necklace won't make up for the 17% optimal spell hit you need, but you can enchant/eat food to get as high as you need too. Other than that, you'd still be doing decent DPS, and since it's "just 5 mans", doing "decent" DPS is more than enough to get your justice and valor points.
Arrohon Jan 7th 2012 3:00PM
Don't use pvp gear for tanking or healing. That's just a disservice to you and your group. Your tanking stats will be too low for tanking, and healers will have too low regen.
AltairAntares Jan 7th 2012 5:53PM
Blanket statements one way or the other are silly. As long as you are acknowledging that resiliance does 0 for your dps when comparing gear stats its fine to use pvp gear if it is actually better than you're current gear.
Scott Jan 7th 2012 6:04PM
No, don't use any pvp gear unless you have a slot or two (say shoulders) that just won't drop for you and you can't afford to buy with vp or jp... and you are replacing a green or a 333. Please do not game the ilvl and be another fail mage. My mage will be watching for you to kick you from LFR or maybe even LFD.
And for the love of all that's holy, gem your sockets and enchant your gear.
Jebediah54 Jan 7th 2012 7:13PM
Really PvP gear isn't that much worse than PvE gear since the core stats are much more important than the secondary stats, (haste, crit, mastery, and even hit) just make sure that your ultimate goal is to have full PvE gear. Running heroics without a single piece of PvE gear is fine as long as you know mostly what you're doing and are not just spamming arcane blast no matter the spec or mana level.
But please, if you're a tank or healer at the most have 1 or 2 pieces of PvP gear before going into the dungeon finder and if you do, try to have everything enchanted.
Britty Jan 7th 2012 7:46PM
One or two PVP pieces are fine. I've seen mages in mostly PVP gear pulling at least 15k in the Hour of Twilight instances easily. I just made my significant other drop his 333 shoulders for the PVP shoulders until the PVE ones drop. Seriously, gaining 101 intelligence + crit was far more beneficial for his DPS than the secondary stats he lost.(mastery and haste)
It's just when you're a tank or a healer, and have more than a few pieces it ends up messing with the group. Can't speak for healers based on experience. I only had one PVP piece for a short while in the beginning of Catacylsm. ((314 green wrist -> 358 PVP until the pve piece dropped for me in Grim Batol)). It didn't impair me. Then again, it was just one piece and an INSANE upgrade.
For tanks...Tanks with no gems/enchants I find are easier to heal than tanks mixed in PVE DPS/PVP gear. ((Both should be no-no's for tanks though, and I wish I didn't experience both of those examples several times a week)) However, both make my healers cry. If you can't afford it, at least get cheap gems or something. The +20 stuff from Wrath is better than nothing...