GM Doesn’t Always Mean “Great Mind”
“Dear BRK … our Guild Master is a level 80 hunter, (name redacted to protect the guilty). However, for some reason, he is clinging to his pre-wrath level 70 epics like a baby clings to its mothers teat. He has thankfully upgraded some items, like his weapons, but even them not too far. We have no idea what to say to convince this change, and our other top hunter is at his wits end trying to help our fearless leader. Being Christmas time, we thought maybe our guild should give him a gift — he did after all give every one of us a box of nice wrath gems cut to our specs, an armor upgrade, and some armor kits. We need a gift to give him, but to be frank, I am a Paladin; I don’t know hunter business. That is BRK’s department. Any suggestions? (Name redacted to protect the innocent).”
Let’s break him down, piece by piece, and see what upgrades are immediately available.
Helm: Gladiator’s Chain Helm. The best part of this is the four-piece set bonus. However our subject isn’t wearing four pieces, only three. The next best part is the Meta Socket. He’s got it stuffed with a Relentless Earthsiege Diamond, which is nice for PvE, but not what one usually nabs for PvP nowadays. We think a Powerful Earthsiege Diamond or a Persistent Earthshatter Diamond is a better fit. (You may like the RED for PvP, we can see that.)
Bottom Line: He’s not wearing the GCH for PvP; he’s in love with the Meta Socket.
Let’s find something better, shall we? Plunder’s Helm is the best non-engineering PvE helm for a non-raider, but that requires some luck. Let’s boogie to the Auction House and nab a Swiftarrow Helm. Sheesh, for both PvE and PvP this is an upgrade over the GCH. Unless you’re running heroic Utgarde Keep every other day to try to get the PH, there’s no way to justify not upgrading to the BoE leatherworking helm ASAP.
Neck: Shattered Sun Pendant of Might. It was one of the best hunter-amulets outside of Sunwell, period. No longer. You want an easy upgrade, we’ll give you a freakin’ quest reward: The Severed Noose of Westwind. This is available to both Alliance and Horde, The Admiral Revealed. The SSPoM’s proc may have held your eyes through BC, but the SNoW kicks it in the bajoobies.
Shoulders: Gladiator’s Chain Spaulders. Again with the old-n-busted PvP loot, eh? Take a whiff of Swiftarrow Shoulderguards, sitting pretty in an Auction House near you. Oh, you don’t want to shop for gear? OK, do your rep-grind with the Knights of the Ebon Blade and snag a Spaulders of the Black Arrow. No excuse, foshizzle.
Cloak: Skyguard’s Drape. Is it possible he has this equipped for the slo-fall? Maybe, so we won’t start cracking skulls here. But the upgrades are basically too numerous to count. Any leatherworker in Northrend can make a Cloak of Harsh Winds for two donuts and a cup of coffee. There are rep-rewards and heroic drops and even better leatherworking products he can grab, as well.
Chest: Felstalker Breastplate. At this point, we wondering what’s going on, if maybe we’ve been set up. There are greenies that drop in Howling Fjord that are better than this. Swiftarrow Hauberk, now, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 gold.
Wrists: Vindicator’s Chain Bracers. We could make this post real quick and just demand everything get upgraded with Swiftarrow-gear, and if we did that, the Swiftarrow Bracers would be immediately purchased in the Auction House. We’d love to recommend a heroic drop, but we’re beginning to think that heroics just aren’t in this hunter’s immediate future.
Hands: Dragon Stabler’s Gauntlets. /cheer!! A read Northrend upgrade! Are the Swiftarrow Gauntlets better? Yes they are. Are there heroic drops that’ll look nice too? Yes there are. But go ahead and save a little money and don’t bother upgrading these. This is real, honest to Elune, good Hunter loot. Of everything we’ve seen so far, this is the last thing that should be upgraded. /praise!
Waist: Belt of the Black Eagle. It’s good, but the Swiftarrow Belt is better, but we’re going to ask you to get the Giant Ring Belt from the Sons of Hodir. These folks are a long grind to get exalted, and as long as you’re going to do it, you might as well save some gold and get the nice rep-reward mail belt.
Legs: Merciless Gladiator’s Chain Leggings. They were nice in their time, but their time is up. Since our hunter is Alliance, he needs to get his happy butt to Dragonblight, do some quests, and nab a Wrynn’s Leggings of Foresight. The Horde can get the Warchief’s Leggings of Foresight instead. Swiftarrow Leggings? Well of course.
Feet: Cleated Ice Boots. There ya go, Cochise. You know what to do, don’t you. Like the gloves, leave these alone and concentrate… everywhere else.
Ring: Angelista’s Revenge. It’s a beauty; we have one in the bank. But there are eight blue upgrades before Naxx. Here, the Signet of Bridenbrad is a quest reward in Icecrown.
Ring: Band of the Kirin Tor. OK Mr. Moneybags, all that Swiftarrow gear we said you could delay? Buy it tonight. Blowing 8k on a ring and running around with a Felstalker Breastplate? That’s firing-material.
Trinket: Bloodlust Brooch. Now the thing to remember in WotLK is that trinkets with Agility are rare. They will have one big, specific stat and a really nice proc. Like the Fury of the Encroaching Storm, for example. Notice the proc-cooldown is only one minute, not two? Go do a Howling Fjord quest and swap the BlB for the Storm, pronto.
Trinket: Skyguard Silver Cross. Yes, we used our into Black Temple. Our trinket-luck has always been terrible. First Mate’s Pocketwatch kicks the cr@p outta the SSC. Quest away.
Ranged Weapon: Roc-Feathered Longbow. If you can afford a Band of the Kirin Tor, you can afford a Nesingwary 4000. /harumph
Melee Weapon: dual Savage Cobalt Slicers. You got the melee weapons right all by yourself? Well good! Save these, they’ll last you a while as you upgrade all your other gear. /applaud!
OK unnamed emailer, there’s our recommendations for helping your GM quickly upgrade his gear to minimum, level-80 hunter-standards. Hope this helps, and keep those emails coming.
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33 Responses to “GM Doesn’t Always Mean “Great Mind””
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Urge to pop TEJ mode rising. Urge to tell that hunter to reroll pacman rising.
(On the other hand, I’m still using CVoS because I haven’t seen *ONE* t7.10/25 protector token OR sartharion/malygos25 helms)
If he was able to blow 8k on the Kirin Tor ring, he should be able to spring for http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43131 (Eaglebane Bracers). Made by leatherworkers and extremely cheap. These will take him into Naxx, easy.
Oh Paladin…
Verily verily head over to Maxdps.com, and look over the gear there ranked by list for a hunter.
There are better options in many slots than what Brk offers, and the prices are coming down on them.
[Aviary Guardsman's Hauberk]
[Eaglebane Bracers]
[Belt of Tasseled Lanterns]
[Giantmaim Legguards]
[Boots of the Terrestrial Guardian]
[Virulent Spaulders]
All can be found in the AH, and are upgrades to what is listed above.
happy shopping!!!!
“Melee Weapon: dual Savage Cobalt Slicers. You got the melee weapons right all by yourself? Well good! Save these, they’ll last you a while as you upgrade all your other gear. /applaud!”
Until the nerf in the next patch >.< By then he’ll hopefully have upgraded to something better. Honored with wyrmrest is pretty easy for the Fangs of Truth or if he’s going to be grinding Ebon rep anyway, grab the Runeblade.
Isn’t that list of upgrades far short of the hit you would need to run Heroics? Maybe Heroics aren’t in his future, as BRK said, but after a round of upgrades from this list, that’s the next stop for gear. Too bad BRK can’t get paid for character audits.
Jalana, Medivh. /joke Now you all can make fun of me, too. Just like on Howard Stern!
I’m almost 80 and worrying about the gear upgrade process as well. My LW friend offered to make me the entire Swift Arrow set free of charge
However, my goal is to start 5-man Heroics soon. I’m still in Northrend greenies, so this set would be an upgrade. It stacks some nice pve stats like agi, atk pwr, int, and crit, but OBVIOUSLY lacks the needed hit rating (and haste and armor pen too).
Assuming that I have good quality hunter playing skills, could I equip this set and hold my own in entry level 5-man Heroics? I’m thinking that I could get back a chunk of hit rating in my rings, neck, trinkets, and my jewelcrafting ability. Might this do the trick, or will I be ridiculed as a noob trying to get groups for heroics in a rare pvp starter set?
@ieatkittens
The swiftarrow set isn’t really that great. Take a look at the items I listed. Other then the legs, all the other pieces should be 50 to 200G each, and would be a great starter set for heroics.
Fearstalker pretty much named avery piece of gear I own or have owned. Please elaborate on what is going on with the patch nerf and Savage Cobalt Slicers
The slicers, along with a few other crafted weapons, are having their stats adjusted to match their ilevel.
The new stats:
+30 Agi
Increases hit rating by 20
Increases attack power by 40
The stats as they are live right now:
+44 agi
Increases hit rating by 29
Increases attack power by 60
Net loss:
-14 Agi
-9 hit rating
-20 AP
The Slicer nerf hurts quite a bit for me, but I will have the Fangs soon enough I guess. Thanks for the list of gear upgrades available. I’m a LW and can make the Swiftarrow stuff easily enough. …I just need to level still. Ugh, NEED MORE TIME TO PLAY AND LESS TIME WORKING. lol
They should really implement a trade up program!. Insert old item for random gift.
Or how about a scroll of Disenchant for the items that can not be sold….
Would make me happier then typing “delete” for the 20 or so items wasting space in my bags ATM.
“Bajoobies” I actually did a double-take when I saw this… That’s the weirdest word I’ve ever heard.
don’t forget a scope on either the bow or the gun.
If you have slicers that aren’t soulbound yet – SELL THEM NOW! I was lucky enough not to have equipped mine when I read about the nerf and made abou 10g off my resale.
It’s always interesting to see a good list of gear available to the non-raider. I must say, however: I don’t care if the money fairy drops down from the skies of Outland and gives me ten times the money I just spent on flying training and mount…I am not gonna spend GOLD on a freakin’ GUN. *shudders delicately* Ick. Give me a cool looking bow (like http://thottbot.com/i29152) any day over some boomstick.
/agree with Bojangles, definitely need a scope to go with that beautiful Nessingway 4000.
I was so dissapointed, my hunter got to 67 and got a sweet blue gun from the Nagrand Nessingway quests, I spent 60g for a +12 scope on it, and then discovered that lvl 67 green guns/bows have about 20 more DPS on them. I just give up that beauitful gun though.
Another few options, from purely crafted gear, would be the following:
Razorstrike Breastplate (likely to be more cost effective than the Aviary Guardsman’s Hauberk, although the AGH is definitely better)
Dragonstompers (some decent +HIT on them)
Ice Striker’s Cloak (at least until Embrace of Sorrow in normal Halls of Stone drops)
otherwise, Fearstalker pretty much nailed it. [Eaglebane Bracers] are, I think, the single best pre-raid bracers in game (not counting PvP gear)
You can augment the Swiftarrow set with rings/necklace/weapons/etc.
I was able to obtain enough +hit from other items to put me well over 200. However, once he does a couple of heroics; he’ll quickly replace a few of the Swiftarrow items.
Z
Sadly, if he’s already got the Kirin Tor ring it means his faction is high enough that the Swiftarrow Shoulderguards would be a waste of time. The Kirin Tor Quartermaster has a pair of shoulderpads with the /exact/ same stats for a mere 28g, which is a fair bit cheaper than any leatherworker can make the Swiftarrow shoulders.
If the person is asking what to *give* the hunter for Xmas, wouldn’t it be better to have a list of *BoE* gear that they could give, rather than quest rewards etc? It sounds like the hunter in question may not want to do those quests because they like their old epics
Hmmm … if he’s currently *wearing* the Felstalker Breastplate then that means he’s actually a Leatherworker. No need to go to the AH to buy all those Swiftarrow items, he can dang well make them himself.
Also, unless there’s an epic gem I don’t know about then the Jagged Ice Band kicks Signet of Bridenbrad.
The questline is more interesting too. That Bridenbrad thing is just one fedex after another =(
I am trying to post a quite long, but well thought out reply on the topic, but your stupid AI bot thinks… I am spamming. Sort it out m8.
Let’s try again… posting in consequent replies.
Hi there BRK. I’ve been visiting your site a bit, and have found quite a lot of useful info. On said topic, I have some different suggestions. Here they are, I might be talking crap though, I am so new to this -4 months in wow.
Back: Cloak of holy extermination (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44216) is a quest reward in Icecrown.
Neck: Choker of the betrayer (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39652) is another quest reward in Zul Drak.
Head: Eviscerator’s facemask (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43260) is created by leatherworkers.
Hands: Eviscerator’s gauntlets (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43436) is also created by lw.
Chest: Razorstrike breastplate (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43129) another lw item, is mentioned in a comment above.
Legs: Mentioned above is also the excellent giantmaim legguards (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43458) made by lw at 440. And I will let you in at my secret here. I made those for 30g and sold them for 750g. 30g is what i paid for a frozen orb (don’t do heroics myself), and farmed all the rest of the mats in a few hours. Hah!
For your wrists try giantmaim bracers (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43459), another 440 lw product. Be aware that all 440 recipes are found in Dalaran and cost 2 arctic fur each.
Shoulders: How about the great trollwoven spaulders (http://wow.crafterstome.com/recipe/trollwoven-spaulders.html)?
For your waist, trollwoven girdle, 440lw item (http://wow.crafterstome.com/recipe/trollwoven-girdle.html).
Feet? 2 lw crafted choices for me, either eviscerator’s treads (http://wow.crafterstome.com/recipe/eviscerators-treads.html) or swiftarrow boots (http://wow.crafterstome.com/recipe/swiftarrow-boots.html).
Gun? Can’t argue with Nesingary 4000+scope+16 crit gem+8 atk power.
Two handed melee? Try Icier Barbed Spear, as a quest reward.
Trinkers I won’t mention, I am not 2 happy about what I got right now, though death knight’s anguish isn’t 2 bad.
Take care, hf.
Mistake. Cloak of holy extermination is not a quest reward. It’s a rep reward.
Seems that BRK’s AI needs AI, eh?
Virulent Spaulders are the highest DPS shoulders short of Cloak of the Gushing Wound, pre-Raid.
im sorry if this is a stupid question but whats the advantage of duel wielding the savage cobalt slicers over the whale stick harpoon. Im currently using that with the plus 85 attack power enchant on.
Thank you for this post. I found it beneficial as well.
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