Confused about what gear is for resto and which is for balance after the changes to spellpower, spell hit, and spell crit? Guest author Graylo of Gray Matter graces our glen with a guide to gauge the gear guaranteed to gain glory and greatness! 
Boy Scouts in Northrend: I am TOO Prepared!
Published on August 27, 2008 by Phaelia 
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I don’t know about you, but whenever I set out to create another alternate character – even the occasional Sunday morning dalliance on the Horde side – I like to be as prepared as possible. I think because I don’t yet understand the class or how it plays, I try to give myself every possible advantage to reduce the amount of time spent running back to my body (maybe that’s why I gravitate toward Night Elves). I’ll sew up backpacks, purchase THE perfect non-combat pet to complete my character’s ensemble, and send a care package with 100 gold to get her started off on the right foot – or hoof, as the case may be.
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This paradigm of preparedness can similarly be applied to your first journeys into Northrend. Here are a few steps that you can take now to help make the transition as smooth and fun as possible:
- Clean out your bank and inventory.
Bag space is always helpful while questing, so get rid of anything that you no longer need. (Eee! Not my Armani Boots of the Bandit! *clutches*) A few things you can safely toss include:- Specialized mana/health potions. You aren’t going to need the Coilfang or Tempest Keep variants of healing or mana potions. Assuming you don’t need them for guild raids, you can safely dispose of them. The same is true of zone-specific flasks.
- Quest items. Get rid of these, either by completing their associated quests or abandoning them.
- Reputation items for factions with whom you are exalted. Sell these if you can since they will have little value once Wrath goes live.
- Certain off-spec items. If you’re a Restoration Druid, you can safely toss out any off-spec Balance gear that’s of a lesser tier than your primary Restoration set. You might want to save any items that have an abundance of spell crit or spell hit for evaluation after the change to spell power.
- Stock up.
On the other side of the fence, there are a number of items you should consider collecting before the expansion:- Tradeskills. If you have any production tradeskills, stockpile the essential materials for the recipes that can still provide skillups past 375 before the prices go through the roof at release. Everyone can benefit from storing some Netherweave to make bandages, for instance, and using your surplus will allow you to save your Frostweave cloth for skillups (or selling for obscene profits) later on.
- Consumables. Consider stockpiling a few stacks of your favorite elixirs. These stack to 20, so 2-3 stacks is probably sufficient. Don’t forget to consider what type of fish you’ll want to bring with you to instances. Along these same lines, collect a few stacks of fish that will be useful to your primary leveling spec. If you’re planning to go Balance, good choices are [Golden Fish Sticks] or [Poached Bluefish] (both grant spell power).
- Item enchants. Collect a few of the cheaper item enchants (like armor kits) to use on items that would be upgrades over your existing gear if enchanted.
- Fish hooks. During my brief forays into the starting zones, I’ve discovered that – while not incapable of fishing without a lure – I don’t appear to be able to catch anything. Fishing also seems to be taking considerably more successful catches to improve your skill on beta than in live, so try to account for this and collect more lures than you might otherwise.
- A riding crop. Riding crops work as item-based enchants in the expansion. Right now, you must apply them to your mount before you memorize it or you won’t be able to apply it later. Since you won’t initially be able to use Flight Form in Northrend, you’ll want to save a Riding Crop to apply to your Frost Saber or Kodo.
- Purge your quest log.
Get rid of the dozen or so quests you have left from Blade’s Edge Mountains, Netherstorm, or Shadowmoon Valley. Even if these quests could potentially yield experience once the expansion goes live, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to spend any more time in Outland once Northrend is available. - Buy a sturdy pair of boots and a warm coat.
It’s cold in Northrend. Consider a pair of [Ear Muffs of the Hierophant]. - Spend your Arena points.
These won’t carry over once you’ve reached level 71, so start planning how to spend them optimally and plan how many weeks you’ll need to play to acquire any items you still want. - Create a checklist of addons.
Go through your addons directory and make a list of those addons you want to make sure to have up and running in Northrend. Separate them into "MUST HAVE OR I CANNOT PLAY" and "This make my life easier" categories. For those in the former category, scope out some alternatives in case your favorite isn’t up-to-date and available on day 1. Set aside a bookmark folder with links to the places you can download the latest versions. - Research and complete achievements.
If you plan to participate in the Achievements system, there are many that you can complete before the system is made live. A good example of these are the exploration achievements which should be fairly simple to complete with Swift Flight Form. Obviously, this is a fairly "fluffy" step to prepare, so do the more constructive things listed above first. - Plan your spec(s).
Although the upcoming 3.0 content patch will come with a free talent reset, you may want to use a different talent spec for leveling. You may also want to plan another talent spec for instancing (ex. if you plan to level Balance but suspect you’ll be healing in instances). Having both of these fleshed out will make accepting an instance invite but a Teleport: Moonglade and Summoning Stone summons away! You can plan your specs via WoWHead’s WotLK talent calculator. - Winterize your mount.
Frost Sabers should be fine, but Kodos are indigenous to the plains and may have trouble. - Reserve your Death Knight name.
If you’re planning to make a Death Knight, nab the name you want before the trillion other players create their Death Knights. Try to avoid choosing names like "Fluffykins" or "Squigglebottom" to avoid being smote by Arthas. - Get Maps.
Install a map addon that allows you to toggle the fog of war (ex. Cartographer or Mappins). If you’re the type of player who likes to have something in your hand, you can print maps for the WotLK zones through Curse.com. 
Bind abilities.
Abilities like the once-again insta-cast Soothe Animal, while previously not useful in a raiding environment, will serve you well in Northrend. Consider how you’ll make it – and other abilities like it – accessible. Don’t forget to save a spot for Revive!
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*hugs* .-= Softi´s last blog ..Dum di dum di dum =-.
Excellent article as always. One nitpick tho, once you train the next rank of FA, all Netherweave bandages become gray.
A dummy question: how do you “reserve” a name? Do you create an alt with that name and delete it to create the DK?
Hmm… Very good point, I should reserve my name.
Also, tree_mafia ftw!
Planning talent specs.. sounds great. With my tree-spec, I know exactly what I want. Yet I plan to do solo questing as Moonkin. Any ideas on how to spec? I haven’t paid attention to what’s going on in the balance tree since level 60 and are really overwhelmed by the new talents. What should I pick for leveling?
Death Knight name? Why, Gnekromantik of course. Gnekrophilliac is apparently too long. Sadly Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were both taken. And here I wanted to make a two-man guild called “… are Death Knights.”
@ Rav- Yes. Lvl 1 alt with desired name. Allow to collect dust. Delete right before you create your DK.
My DK will be named Mortis. I haven’t decided on the race yet, though I am actually leaning towards Dranei or Nelf on the Alliance side. Horde will probably end up being Tauren, although the idea of a Belf DK sounds pretty cool.
Heya Phae! I never can seem to get into the beta anymore; either the server is down, or I’m raiding. Go figure! In any case, I wanted to mention that at level 70, I’ve so far managed to take down level 77 mobs with a very low amount of life lost (10% or less, mostly) and even with a two pull, the kills are easier than killing an elite at this level solo.
This is of course with full t6 and feral, so it shouldn’t really be THAT suprising, but I figured that everyone would like to know just how well their gear is going to hold up in Wrath. A side note, however, is that those in t4 are likely to find signifigant upgrades within two levels, judging by the quest rewards I’ve seen.
Also: the ring of blood 2.0 apparently has a blue staff that is better than the Zergling-on-a-stick from Illidan, and it’s blue. Get ready to enjoy lewt =)
Kais last blog post..Hewo? I has a Beta Key!
I have heard mention of the ability to have two specs and alternate in wotlk? Is that true? Sorry, I don’t read much wotlk news
Trying not to OD before launch. That would be tremendous news though as I am already dreading the level grind as a resto.
Another good thing would be loading up on any inscription materials that we can farm now. Anything in the game today that will sky rocket in value once the patch hits and people start power leveling inscription? Kind of pre-wotlk true, but almost fits the theme.
Thanks for yet another great article!
Phae, awesome article as always! It really gave me some insight on what to do come November!
THough i have one concern, maybe other people have the same concern. I am a main healer for my guild, so no doubt they’ll need me to heal for instances along the way to 80. But i KNOW i can’t lvl resto, or even partial resto balance. I tried it a few months ago, and i just couldn’t do it. So i plan on lvling Feral. How can i manage to remain a viable healer, but also do a huge amt of dmg up the feral tree?
This is my last main hookup with the new expansion, i just dunno what to do!
~Archmera
Actually, regarding that item about clearing the quest log, I’m actually planning on doing the exact opposite.
The day before expansion hits, I’m setting my hearthstone to Orgrimmar (or whichever town is closest to the zep to Northrend). I am then going to head on over to The Island of QD and complete without turning in every single daily quest on that island.
When the expansion hits I’ll just then go ahead and turn in the 10 or so quests at QD before heading for Northrend. ^_^
I’d also suggest what Minmon said. Complete like 20 quests in shadowmoon and return them when the expansion is out.
Other thing: Inscription. Lot of people will be inscribes. They will all need herbs for their profession (inscription will may be out before the expansion). So now my primary occupation is buying herbs and stockpiling them up. I have 3 alts full of herbs. When the inscription is up I’ll be selling them for blushing profits.
Nice round-up Phae!
From what I heard though, it seems that to level First Aid past 375, you’d need Frostweave (the new Wrath cloth of choice) immediately. Apparently, Heavy Netherweave Bandages are greyed out at 375 already.
It could be that they reverse the change to allow First Aid to have a few points of benefit from the ol’ netherweave, but it could be they want to have a solid “break point” at 375.
Another thing I will do (as a Shadowpriest) is evaluating all that old healer gear with Spirit on it. Once the content patch goes live, some of it may actually be better than the old DPS gear.
I know a lot of Paladins who are now stacking up on Warrior gear to get themselves a head start, so my tip would be to look through your old “gear up” wishlists, and evaluate again if some things could be replaced with something better that you previously ignored. Especially if your class has seen significant overhauls in playstyle and/or stat requirements.
Natarumahs last blog post..Northrend mapviewer
I keep seeing people ask similar questions to what Shawn asked. My question is why is everybody so against respecing? When I do arenas (once per week) I respec to my arena healing spec. Then, after 10 games, I hang out and look for a heroic or a raid to heal. Maybe for a day or two. Then I end up going back to feral so I can do some tanking for instances that I want to grind for certain items or what have you, also because I just took up tanking and am finding it really fun. So, I respec twice per week, at a minimum. This costs 50 gold per, or 100 gold total. Which at level 70 with decent gear is equal to one hour of doing SSO dailies.
I guess I just don’t get what all the fuss is about. I mean I would enjoy being able to switch specs without going to Moonglade and paying, but seriously, what else are you going to spend money on after you get your epic flyer? I don’t understand you guys with the “Oh noes I have to pay to respect for leveling”. Can somebody help me out? Am I missing something? No offense to anybody that is worried, I just don’t understand it.
@Copey
Well, if it stayed at 2x week I think most people would be happy. If you heal in raids, then tank in heroics and then go respecc for PvP (which a lot of people do) it is already three times a day. That costs quite a bundle.
But I think that’s not the main reason, but convenience. Being able to switch faster and easier is what attracts most people to this option, as is the fact you might not need to go to a capital city for it.
Druids and mages may have ways to get there quicker, but for others it still means blowing an hour’s cooldown.
Other than that, no respeccing is not the end of the world. But some people might feel more secure if they could have a second specc as a failsafe.
Natarumahu wills last blog post..Priests and the flock
Are engineers really getting a Army Knife?? Omg Im going to make one! But wait… doesn’t the icon look like a buzz saw? And flint and tinder is in it??
They should definately make a Golbin Army Knife… That fails 15% of the time you try to mine, skin, create a fire, or create your items (without using the materials, of course). That extra randomness was always great fun when using a Goblin item.
One more comment: One can never be prepared enough to go through the horrible grind of leveling a paladin again, especially after the relative easy of leveling a hunter, warlock, and druid. I think I may cry when I see my experience bar again, even though everyone states that ret paladins will be dealing ridiculous amounts of damage, I just don’t have the gear to level as ret (*cry* hopefully early quests will give me what I need).
@Rav: Thank you for the correction. I didn’t even think to look at my First Aid, yet, so I hadn’t noticed that! And yes, that’s exactly the way you would reserve a name.
@Hokuto: Hahaha… definitely the best part of being Balance. If only I didn’t have to look like an overstuffed purple turkey!
@Myna: I would recommend trying out a deep Balance spec (deep enough to get Improved Moonkin Form) and seeing how you like it. Then spec back to Resto for healing.
Maybe this would make a good future article!
@Ninjasuperspy: That’s a kickass name. I wanted to reserve Dahlia, but unfortunately, that was taken. I ended up settling on Azaelea. Cute idea with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. There’s actually a guild on beta called “Death Knights Who Say Ni” — I giggled.
@Yggdrasil: Another good name. I’m SHOCKED that wasn’t already taken by some Undead Rogue. I’m pretty sure my DK will be a Night Elf if only because they have the option to get their hair colored magenta when they go to the barber shop (it’s not a color available at creation, though).
@Kai: It was great to see you online again last night, and glad we could add you to the guild! I’m impressed you’ve had so little difficulty with higher level mobs. I got my feathered butt handed to me by a 75 in Grizzly Hills. I just couldn’t seem to land any spells on him (it probably helps that I have NO spell hit). I’ll stick with things closer to my level, I think. You’ll have to tell me more about this Ring of Blood 2.0 later!
@Shawn: It is true that they’ve mentioned the ability to have a second spec that you could switch between, but it’s not clear how that will work and whether it will be implemented before release. If it is, I’ll probably take Boomkin as my alternate spec for those nights when my raids have too many healers. Balance is looking quite fabulous as of the latest changes. Good point about Inscription materials, too, altho I was trying to keep that on the DL so I could hoard them all myself.
@Archmera: I wouldn’t enjoy healing as a Feral-specced Druid at all. There’s simply not enough synergy in terms of healing output. Have you considered using this time to farm up a respeccing fund to carry you through?
@Minmon: That is another option, and it sounds like you aren’t the only one planning to do that. However, I think they try to discourage this by making the quests in Northrend give significantly more exp than the quests in TBC do, so it may not be as effective as you are hoping. Still, every little bit helps!
@Ghostboci: I’m doing the same. I have a little Draenei Paladin I leveled to 15 specifically so she could wear a pair of blue overalls. She has wildflowers in her hand and holds all my herbs. ^^
@Natarumah: Thanks for the tip about First Aid. I’ve since updated the article to remove that suggestion since it turns out it won’t be effective. And you also make a great point about considering gear with different stats. I wrote this mainly from my own perspective, so I’m not aware of any new stats that I’ll want to emphasize (while spell crit will be more helpful than it was before, it’s still less attractive than +Healing).
@Copey: I think the increasing costs to respec is one of the main reasons people are hesitant to do it. Not only are they spending money on the talent change itself but they feel like they “shouldn’t” be doing so because Blizzard effectively penalizes you for doing so too quickly. Naturally, once you’ve hit the 50g mark, you probably don’t care, but I suspect it’s one of the psychological, contributing factors to people’s reluctance to frequently respec.
@Tiagantar: Yes, they are! It’s an awesome item, too. It comes with just about everything you could ever need, including cables!
@Halfalthaia: I’ve often thought that the new, awesome engineering goggles should blind you 15% of the time.
Good luck leveling your ret paladin. I haven’t paid much attention to the red rewards (the ones I can’t equip), but I’m sure you’ll have some options.
@Archmera
51/10 Berserk/Nature’s Grace/Naturalist spec at 70, Omen of Clarity at 71, 4 piece gladiator gear. Glyph of Healing Touch, and maybe also Glyph of Rejuv.
Even without the rejuv glyph, you still get 1.0 sec HTs and 1.8 sec Regrowths, which is adequate for healing most things. Mana regen goes into the toilet, but dungeons were never really that much about regen anyway.