Newbie Gearing in 5.2

Hey all,

My Pally finally hit 90 a week before 5.2, so I'm currently in the midst of what feels like a million different rep grinds with no clear path through them.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/l ... lla/simple

Given I'll most likely be reliant on LFR for raids and my only other source of purp requires an expediture of my limited valor, I have a few questions:

1. Is it worth bothering with the original faction grinds with a view of gearing up or should I focus solely on KTO and O:SW?
2. Where should I prioritise my valor purchases?

Thanks for any help, joining this expansion two patches in feels quite intimidating.

The Island quest reputation faction sells the rewards for gold (honoured in 3 days) that are 476 item level and 496 at revered. Just by turning up with 1250 VP, the Shado-pan Offensive will hand over a 522 necklace with haste and mastery; hitting friendly (save a shado-pan commendation if you loot one from the final quest) will give you access to 522 rings, trinkets and bracers.

With the raid drop mat from T14 becoming available for Valor, the 496 craftables should be coming down in price. The 476 world drop BoEs should also drop in price with the ready availability of vastly superior gear from Valor.

Fetzie wrote:With the raid drop mat from T14 becoming available for Valor, the 496 craftables should be coming down in price.

Do you seriously assume people are going to pay valor for that at this point in the game? It's quite easy to become friendly with Shado-Pan without killing so much as a single raid boss, so even casuals got quite a few pieces to buy there.

Thanks for the advice, I'd missed that some of the KTO items were available for gold. If there's one upside to doing twenty dailies, a heroic and a scenario a day, it's that I'm not short of cash!

From my reading of wowhead, it's only a 476 belt that you can buy from KTO for gold. Their dailies might be worth it for the coins and amount of elder charms they provide (esp. from the treasure scenario), as you can use them for extra rolls in LFR.

I am not sure it's worth grinding any old reps on your alts, unless you need them for professions. Keep an eye on Tol Barad and Wintergrasp, though. With 476 honour gear, they are a very attractive source of starter gear for alts. I capped honour with them on my alts before the patch; since then, it's been very hard to get in the battles - I guess the pvpers are gearing up for the new season.

ulushnar wrote:Hey all,



1. Is it worth bothering with the original faction grinds with a view of gearing up or should I focus solely on KTO and O:SW?

Have a look at the (not yet updated for 5.2) failsafe guide. Even though a long grind there are two purples available as questrewards.

econ21 wrote:From my reading of wowhead, it's only a 476 belt that you can buy from KTO for gold. Their dailies might be worth it for the coins and amount of elder charms they provide (esp. from the treasure scenario), as you can use them for extra rolls in LFR.

I am not sure it's worth grinding any old reps on your alts, unless you need them for professions. Keep an eye on Tol Barad and Wintergrasp, though. With 476 honour gear, they are a very attractive source of starter gear for alts. I capped honour with them on my alts before the patch; since then, it's been very hard to get in the battles - I guess the pvpers are gearing up for the new season.

They have 496 items available for a few slots at revered.

econ21 wrote:I am not sure it's worth grinding any old reps on your alts, unless you need them for professions. Keep an eye on Tol Barad and Wintergrasp, though. With 476 honour gear, they are a very attractive source of starter gear for alts. I capped honour with them on my alts before the patch; since then, it's been very hard to get in the battles - I guess the pvpers are gearing up for the new season.

Oh this isn't an alt, it's just taken me a long time to work up any enthusiasm to play the game again.

Fetzie wrote:They have 496 items available for a few slots at revered.

My understanding (from wowhead and wowpedia) is that they cost valor now. There was a time on the ptr when they were blue and cost gold, but then Blizzard announced a change. Still, they could help reaching 480 ilevel if 5.0 LFR is not kind.

Hopefully my bear will get to level 90 soon and I think I will follow the OP in focusing on the new factions. SPA is the big one and if your raiding this tier is slow, then you will be very constrained in what particular items you can spend your valor on. However, there's (just) enough gear available at each rep that you won't waste valor and what you can spend valor on will be much better than LFR drops.

There is a case for grinding old reps to get more choice over what slots you can spend vps on, but given the time investment and the vast superiority of 522 gear over 489 (or 496), it's not persuasive for late comers.

I think I may have to blitz some PvP though. As as failsafe for what does not drop from LFR, that 476 honour gear is extremely attractive.

EDIT: Drat, just remembered my bear is my enchanter. 5.0 rep grinding, here I come!

Alternatively to doing the dailies, if your server is not to populated, you could farm the new troll rares that spawn across Pandaria. A few friends of mine leveled several reputations on their alts from Neutral to Revered in one afternoon.

Also, for the Shado-Pan Assault, keep in mind that trash DOES provide rep up to 2999/3000 neutral, and there are a few quests that provide Shado-Pan Assault rep as well (the ones where you need to summon bosses with the 3 stones). If you can join a rep farm group to cap out neutral, and then do the quest, you're friendly, which provides a few more options.

My understanding (from wowhead and wowpedia) is that they cost valor now. There was a time on the ptr when they were blue and cost gold, but then Blizzard announced a change. Still, they could help reaching 480 ilevel if 5.0 LFR is not kind.

They were on the vendor for gold last night.

Thels wrote:Alternatively to doing the dailies, if your server is not to populated, you could farm the new troll rares that spawn across Pandaria. A few friends of mine leveled several reputations on their alts from Neutral to Revered in one afternoon.

You can even save them and send them to alts. I'm working on saving 20 August Celestial tokens for my mage so I can craft the bag without being 90. It's exactly 42k rep to go from 0/3k Neutral to Exalted, each token with the commendation and guild perk gives you 2200. It takes just over 19 tokens (41800) to get exalted.

Surprisingly, I was able to "champion" a faction on my alt for a MoP reputation below 85.

Fetzie wrote:They were on the vendor for gold last night.

Well, I am at the vendor right now and they cost valor. The 476 belts are for gold; the 496 cloaks and rings for valor.

Yeah, everything except the belts appear to cost valor. Still, got the SPA neck and the KTO belt last night. Thanks everyone for the advice, trying to see a clear path through the options is kinda hard at times.