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I’ve recently decided to level up my Shaman, changing his main spec from Enhancement to Restoration. Thanks to World of Warcraft patch 3.3, I can queue for random dungeons as a healer while I’m out questing. I put together a quick guide for itemizing a Resto Shammy using nothing but crafted items or bind-on-equip gear. The only exceptions are trinkets and the Shaman relic. Upgrades for these slots can be found by running the Venture Company dailies in Venture Bay.

Before reading this guide, please be aware of some assumptions:

• This guide is intended for players leveling up in Northrend, in preparation to run heroic dungeons
• Yes, I realize that there is better gear from quests and dungeons
• You are going to use only the best available gems and enchants
• The prefix/suffix random BoEs might be better in some cases, but ignored because of their uncertain availability

Here is the breakdown by slot. There are some cases where crafted items from Burning Crusade recipes are viable for leveling, especially Leatherworking’s Netherfury set. C = crafted, WD = world drop, DQ = daily quest. Now, on with it!

Head

Helm of the Lightning Halls (WD, 80)
Stormhide Crown (C, 78)
Duskweave Cowl (C, 75)
Nerubian Helm (C, 74)

Neck

Blood Sun Necklace (C, 75)
Crystal Citrine Necklace (C, 70)

Shoulder

Epaulets of Market Row (WD, 78)
Duskweave Shoulders (C, 77)
Nerubian Shoulders (C, 73)

Back

Wispcloak (C, 80)
Cloak of the Moon (C, 74)
White Remedy Cape (C, 69)

Chest

Revenant’s Breastplate (C, 80)
Stormhide Hauberk (C, 78)
Dark Nerubian Chestpiece (C, 76)

Wrist

Stormhide Wristguards (C, 78)
Bracers of Sizzling Heat (WD, 75)
Bracers of Havok (C, 69)

Hands

Stormhide Grips (C, 78)
Duskweave Gloves (C, 76)

Waist

Sash of Jordan (WD, 80)
Stormhide Belt (C, 78)
Netherfury Belt (C, 67)

Legs

Stormhide Legguards (C, 78)
Netherfury Leggings (C, 67)

Feet

Scaled Icewalkers (C, 77)
Netherfury Boots (C, 69)

Finger

Titanium Spellshock Ring (C, 80)
Runed Mana Band (C, 80)
Ring of Northern Tears (C, 78)
Shadowmight Ring (C, 77)
Sun Rock Ring (C, 70)

Trinket

Arcane Revitalizer (DQ, 74)
Goblin Repetition Reducer (DQ, 74)

Two-Handed Weapon

Zabra’s Misplaced Staff (WD, 77)
Lola’s Lifegiving Branch (WD, 71)

Main Hand Weapon

Titansteel Guardian (C, 80)
Cudgel of Saronite Justice (C, 77)
Melia’s Magnificent Scepter (WD, 75)
The Essence Focuser (WD, 70)

Off-Hand

Zom’s Crackling Bulwark (WD, 80)
Faces of Doom (C, 77)
Saronite Protector (C, 73)
Crystal Pulse Shield (WD, 69)

Totem

Totem of the Bay (DQ, 74)

My raid group has hit a virtual wall over the last few weeks, and I’m struggling with trying to figure out why. Is it because of the holidays? Is everyone more interested in playing with the new patch 3.3 toys? Is it me? Could it be me?!? Well, it has to be something because we are stuck.

Not only are we not accomplishing our goals for the night, we’ve been unable to successfully fill out a complete raid of ten players. We’ve had a couple of new folks join us recently, and I assumed that the new blood would invigorate our group and allow us to push forward. However, just the opposite has happened; we’ve slowed down, almost to a complete halt. Here is a list of reasons why I think we’re not able to progress, but I don’t have a good solution to combat these issues.

Farming Emblems: A Raid vs. LFD

Prior to patch 3.3, geared players could be enticed to run older raids because they were deemed as good sources for emblems. Nowadays, I think it’s more time-efficient to chain-run random heroic dungeons. My raid team runs for only two hours and can realistically only clear two wings of Naxxramas in that time frame. That’s only six or seven emblems per player. I’ve timed some of my recent heroic dungeon runs, and they take about forty minutes each (yes, I know, I go too slow). If one of those heroics is the daily, you could accumulate nine to fifteen Emblems of Triumph, and two Emblems of Frost in the same time frame. Of course, this assumes that one of those random dungeons is not the Oculus.

Stale Content is Stale

With each patch, the older content becomes less and less desirable. Despite Blizzard’s best efforts, players aren’t interested in regularly running Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, Ulduar, and the first couple of bosses in Vault of Archavon. Unless the player knows with absolute certainty that the raid group will be able to faceroll through the dungeon, it’s not interesting. Now, one would think that a challenge would be enough to engage players, but, in my experience, it’s just the opposite with World of Warcraft.

I’m going to be implementing my own rewards system this week, offering up some of my crafting services to players that attend our events for the week. I’m hoping that this small incentive will keep everyone intrigued enough to show up and complete the raid. If not, there’s not much I can do to make the content more interesting than it already is… or isn’t.

A Wider Gear Discrepancy

A new patch brings us many things: new dungeons, quests, content, bosses, and horrible frame-rate lag. More than anything else, though, we’re showered with multiple tiers of new gear. Unless you can control how everyone in your raid plays when you’re not raiding with them, players are going to gear up in different ways. Some players can play all the time, and may raid with multiple groups. Others may mix up their allocated play times with heroic dungeons. Other players may only log in for your raid — and your raid only — for their source of gear.

This will continue to be problematic because the difference between your geared-out players and your weakest links will force you to make some tough decisions. If you try to incorporate older content, the players with all the gear will stop showing up. If you cater to the gear-score winners, you have to start excluding players… players that rely on your raid group for experience, loot, and, quite possibly, fun.

Planning

All of the above is making it a real chore to plan and coordinate raids. You certainly can’t please everyone all of the time, but I’m finding it difficult to even please some of the people some of the time. You know me, I’m all about pleasure, but I’ve been feeling a lot of frustration trying to schedule events that make the most sense for my group, and deal with holiday schedules at the same time. I’ve put a lot of effort into organizing this raid group, and don’t want to go on a hiatus. I want to be able to make the event interesting enough for players that play all the time, and enjoyable for new players just starting out. A challenging balance, I know, but it has to be possible. Right?

So I’ve learned that I don’t tank fast enough. I know I’m probably more of a conservative player, but even I know when I’m pulling packs of mobs at a decent pace… especially since the “Molsan Method” was named after yours truly. However, what I didn’t know was that PUGs formed by the glorious “Looking for Dungeon” tool expect an even more rapid pace. Chain pulling, zerging, and engaging bosses without mana are now standard.

Halls of Lightning – I Don’t Have All Day

In my last two random heroics, I was called out for my slow and lazy approach. In Halls of Lightning, I pulled the first group with Avenger’s Shield. While that was on cooldown, I pulled a stray mob with Exorcism. My tanking abilities were immediately questioned: “Why are we killing unnecessary mobs and pulling with Exorcism?” I stopped to think about this. Am I doing it wrong? While contemplating justifying my skills and approach to tanking to this complete stranger, the person decided to quit the group, leaving us with a “lol I don’t have all day. thanks. bye” parting shot.

Since they were DPS, they were replaced by my friend, LFD, in a matter of seconds with a new person. After we buffed the new guy up, I went ahead and pulled the next pack of mobs, General Bjarngrim, and his adds. We then continued on, skipping the other three corners of the platform, and breezed through the rest of the instance. We stacked up on Loken, took him down with no trouble, and disenchanted all of his loots. I apologized to the group for taking too long.

The Nexus – I Have a Raid Starting in a Minute

I figured that these kinds of people are few and far between… right? Wrong. In The Nexus, we were moving right along, having taken down the first three bosses with little effort. We had a great pace going; there were no deaths and lots of shards passed around (not by me, but by the aforementioned LFD). As I headed down the hallway towards Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, a player asked, “Can we please hurry it up?” I asked, “Why?” and the player responded with, “I have a raid starting in a minute.” Now, me being the literal person that I am figured, “Gee, no way we can finish this thing in under a minute. I hope he doesn’t bail on us… oh wait, he’s DPS, and there are probably fifty DPS players in line for a random.” I confidently told the group, “Ok, I’ll pick up the pace. Let’s go.”

I skipped a few Crystalline Frayers and let the rest of the party deal with them while I headed for the boss. I patiently stopped to tank the elites, and then moved right in on Ormorok. Without any trouble, he went down; we then proceeded into the tunnel, hopped down, and headed towards Keristrasza. We decided to stack up in front of Keristrasza, and we smacked her around regardless of how intense her Intense Cold was (it really wasn’t that intense). Before I could finish typing, “Sorry I took so long” for the second time, the hardcore raider rolled greed on everything, and quickly left the party. I’m going to setup a macro for my apology… I wonder what the macro syntax is for targeting the top whiner of the party? “/target QQ?”

It’s going to end up taking me two years, but I want to complete the “What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been” achievement. I missed out on “Brewfest” in 2008, and didn’t take the other world events seriously until recently. With World of Warcraft’s “Feast of Winter Veil” starting next week, I want to make sure that I’m prepared to complete the “Merrymaker” achievement.

One of the requirements for this achievement is completing “Fa-la-la-la-Ogri’la” in Blade’s Edge Mountains. “Complete the Bomb Them Again! quest while mounted on a flying reindeer during the Feast of Winter Veil” you say? No problem! Let me fly over to Blade’s Edge on my reindeer and… hey, I can’t pick up that daily quest! Oh, right, I have to complete a whole series of Ogri’la quests in order to unlock it.

1. Speak with the Ogre

You can pick up this quest by speaking with V’eru in Shattrath City. Travel to the Lower City, and locate Grok at 64, 68.

2. Mog’dorg the Wizened

Grok instructs you to head out to Blade’s Edge and find Mog’dorg. He’s at 55, 44.

3a. Even Gronn Have Standards

Travel to Terokkar Forest and find Slaag, Son of Gruul at 20, 17. Take him down and loot “Slaag’s Standard” for the quest.

3b. Grulloc Has Two Skulls

Find Grulloc, Son of Gruul, around 60, 47 in Blade’s Edge and defeat him. Be prepared to kite him around a bit during his enrage phase. After Grulloc loses his last hit point, look on the ground for “Grulloc’s Dragon Skull,” and pick it up.

3c. Maggoc’s Treasure Chest

Maggoc, Son of Gruul (yes, another son), wanders aimlessly around the south eastern portion of Blade’s Edge. His path begins at 57, 63, and ends around 67, 74. After he’s defeated, pick up his treasure chest for the quest.

4. Grim(oire) Business

After turning in all three quests, Mog’dorg asks you to retrieve Vim’gol’s Vile Grimoire. Head out to 76, 31 (near the bridge to Netherstorm) and find the Vim’gol the Vile summoning area. After dealing with Vim’gol, pick up the grimoire off the ground for the quest.

5. Into the Soulgrinder

Another group quest! Take the grimoire to 60, 24 in Blade’s Edge, and use it to initiate the summoning ritual for Skulloc. You’ll be dealing with ghostly mobs for around two minutes prior to Sulloc’s arrival. Retreive Skulloc’s Soul and return it to Mog’dorg.

6. Ogre Heaven

At this point, the Ogri’la quests should now be unlocked. Pick up this quest, and fly over to 28, 57 in Ogri’la. Chu’a'lor will be waiting for you.

7. The Crystals

Loot five Apexis Shards from random mobs in the area.

8. An Apexis Relic

Find one of the Apexis Monuments in Ogri’la, and use an Apexis Shard to complete the “Simon” game.

9. The Relic’s Emanation

Same as the previous step, but you’ll have to complete a longer sequence.

10. Our Boy Wants To Be A Skyguard Ranger

After Chu’a'lor’s three quests are complete, find Torkus. He’ll instruct you to return to him with a Unstable Flask of the Beast. At 33, 41, you can exchange ten Apexis Shards for a flask.

11. A Father’s Duty

Unsatisfied, Torkus now needs a Unstable Flask of the Sorcerer. With ten more Apexis Shards in-hand, head over to 54,10, and exchange them for a flask.

12. The Skyguard Outpost

Chu’a'lor is now ready to give you quests again. Find Sky Commander Keller at 27, 52 in Ogri’la and turn in this quest.

13. Bombing Run

This quest is given out by Sky Sergeant Vanderlip. She should be right next to Keller. Mount up on your epic flying mount (come on, you have an epic flying mount by now, don’t you?), and complete the bombing quest.

14. Bomb Them Again!

Finally! This is the quest you need for the achievement. Use some Preserved Holly to transform your flying mount into a reindeer and complete the bombing quest again. Preserved Holly can be retrieved as a quest reward from Metzen the Reindeer, or from The Hero of the Day.

I’ve been waiting for this patch for five years. Far and away, my favorite feature of World of Warcraft patch 3.3 is the new “Looking for Dungeon” interface. It’s more than an interface, though, it’s completely changed how I play the game.

Azjol-Nerub

When I first signed on last night, a tank from my guild was asking if anyone wanted to run a random dungeon with him. I joined him in a party as DPS, and we were inserted into Azjol-Nerub. Right away, we headed down the ramp and started pulling. I buffed everyone along the way. The first boss went down with no problem, and we began chatting about the viability of a dual-wielding, tanking Blood spec for Death Knights. The other bosses went down easily, and I had my first two Emblems of Frost.

Utgarde Keep

I then partied up with a friend of mine, and switched back to my main spec (Protection). We put ourselves in the queue for a random dungeon and were selected for Utgarde Keep. During the run, I noticed something interesting about the party members for these cross-realm dungeon groups: nobody talks. Now, I’m a big fan of no talking, but this was a little strange even to me. The only chatter we had during our UK group was a question about who was tanking, and why the Hunter wasn’t rescued while inside a frost tomb (which I didn’t mind since I still needed the achivement).

Forge of Souls

After a fast and successful run, we decided we would do another random dungeon. In under two minutes (maybe even one minute), I was prompted to enter the dungeon. After clicking the button, a loading screen appeared that I didn’t recognize. It was for the Forge of Souls! I panicked for a second since this was new to me, but wanted to see the new content so we went forth in hopes of obtaining victory. The instance was really cool, and gave off a great perception of depth. It was a mixture of the Nexus and Utgarde dungeons, sprinkled with the Icecrown look and feel. We ended up taking down both bosses in one attempt, and both were fun fights. I did feel bad for the Hunter that refused to move and died in Bronjahm’s vortex. Actually, I didn’t.

Gundrak

Still partied with my friend, I figured why not keep going while we’re hot. Next up was Gundrak; not one of my favorite instances to run, but at least it wasn’t Drak’tharon Keep. While the first three random dungeons were quick, painless, and quiet, we had our first taste of a real cross-realm PUG. About three-quarters of the way through, our Shaman healer started to get pushy and was telling me to keep pulling because he had to leave soon. During the Gal’darah fight, it seemed as though he was distracted, and let two of the DPS die. We prevailed, though, and completed the dungeon. He said, “sorry,” rolled need on the Frozen Orb, and quickly left the group. Who ninjas Frozen Orbs these days? Sheesh!

Caverns of Time: Stratholme

My friend ended up logging for the night, but I wanted one more shot at a random dungeon… especially since the dailies had reset. I wanted a break from tanking, so I switched to Retribution and entered the queue. I watched for several minutes as the estimate to enter the dungeon was frozen at a five-minute wait. It was getting late, so I swapped specs and went back to Protection. I re-entered the queue as a tank and almost immediately found a group. A minimap configuration problem, pushy and undergeared players, wipe with only three minutes left to engage Mal’ganis, and me pulling the gauntlet without talking to Arthas in “Caverns of Time: Stratholme” later… I was done.

Conclusion

In summary, I picked up twenty-three Emblems of Triumph, six Emblems of Frost, over eight-thousand Knights of the Ebon Blade reputation, and well over a hundred gold in profit (not counting Dream Shards and Abyss Crystals). Needless to say, I’m super-pleased with this feature. Time will tell, though, if my luck and success with the groups was due to the fact that the patch was less than twenty-four hours old, or if it was because Blizzard has finally solved the “looking for group” problem and implemented it in a way that everyone loves. You can count me in on the latter.

My second Paladin just hit level 80 over the weekend, so it’s time to start itemizing for a fresh level 80 Holy Paladin. As with my Death Knight gear checklists, I will be targeting pre-raid gear sources in this series. You could also classify these as “non-raid” or even (gasp!) “casual” upgrade lists. I didn’t say “welfare” though.

Like most players these days, you’ll find very significant upgrades in the regular and heroic version of the Trial of the Champion dungeons. For your head slot, you’re in luck as the best pre-raid helm is available in the regular version of ToC. If you prefer to farm Battlegrounds rather than instances, the Deadly Gladiator helm is a nice pickup, even for PvE.

1. Helm of the Bested Gallant
   Trial of the Champion - Champion’s Cache
2. Deadly Gladiator’s Ornamented Headcover
   PvP - 49,600 Honor
3. Helm of Purified Thoughts
   Argent Crusade - Exalted
4. Brilliant Titansteel Helm
   Blacksmith - 540 Gold
5. Titan-Forged Plate Headcover of Salvation
   PvP - 40 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor
6. Helmet of the Constructor
   Heroic Utgarde Keep - Skarvald the Constructor
7. Faceguard of the Hammer Clan
   Heroic Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom – Jedoga Shadowseeker

Current prices obtained from Wowecon as of this post.