Cute Fuzzy Meow

It seems that lately I get a lot of questions about professions, things along the lines of “Hey, I’m playing a ____, what are the best professions for that class?” While I would always encourage you to play whatever profession you find most enjoyable, I realized that I didn’t know of an easy place to see an overview of each profession and what perks it provides. While some of them are obvious, sometimes the real benefits don’t show up until later levels. I’ve tried to compile a list that is comprehensive enough to be useful, but without including every single detail of each profession so there are too many details. I haven’t included gathering professions because they are fairly simple, but I may add them later. For the time being, skinning = crit, herbalism = self heal-over-time, and mining = more health. I hope this helps people out!

Alchemy

Description: Use herbs to create potions, elixirs, and flasks. Also, transmute metals and elementals into different types.
Specializations: Potion, Elixir, or Transmute master. Grants a random chance to create more of that type of item, up to 5 extra. It’s a random chance to happen, not garaunteed.
Quirks: For many Northrend recipes you have to use Northrend Alchemy Research on a 3 day timer. Some recipes from the Burning Crusade aura you learn by making other potions, and some transmutes you can only learn by transmuting Saronite into Titanium.
Passive Perk: Mixology: Increase the effect and duration of flasks and elixirs. So your passive benefit is based on what flask or elixirs you use. Most raiders use flasks, so usually this will be spell power, health, or attack power.
Other Perks: Alchemist Stones (Mighty, Mercurial, Indstructible) provide +40% effect on health and mana potions, but only if you have one equipped. Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion are infinite use Bind on Pickup potions. Also, Flask of the North is usable in Arenas (unlike most flasks/elixirs) and is infinite use, so you can use it for a boost while soloing!
Making Money: At 450 Alchemy you can take Eternals plus rare gems and transmute them into epic gems. You can also transmute “Diamonds” — uncut meta gems. Elixirs, Potions, and Flasks all sell well, too.
Interactions With Other Professions: At low levels, leatherworking requires Shadow Oil and other alchemy-created potions and elixirs. Oily Blackmouth, Firefin Snapper, Glassfin Minnow, and Pygmy Suckerfish from Fishing are used to create various oils. Herbalism provides the herbs used for Alchemy. Mining provides the metals you can transmute. Jewelcrafting uses the gems you transmute like epic gems and meta diamonds.
Fun Items: Pygmy Oil, if you drink about 7-10, turns you into a Voodoo Gnome. You can learn the recipe for Gurubashi Mojo Madness from the stones at the Edge of Madness in Zul’gurub, then use the Mojo to summon a boss. The bosses cycle each summoning.
Classes/Roles: All. As long as the flask or elixirs you use are your best stats, it’s ideal. As most flasks are attack power, stamina, spell power, or mana regen you will usually have sub-optimal effects.

Inscription

Description: Scribes can mill stacks of 5 of a type of herb into pigments that they turn into inks. Then they take these inks and create glyphs, scrolls, offhands, and Darkmoon Faire cards.
Specializations: NONE.
Quirks: Except for three purchasable techniques and one drop, most of what you learn comes from Minor Inscription Research, Major Inscription Research, and the world drop Book of Glyph Mastery. Inscription Research is on a 20 hour cooldown.
Passive Perk: Master’s Inscription of the Axe, Crag, Pinnacle, and Storm. You can also trade Ink of the Sea (common lv 70 ink) for any lower level ink, or trade 10 for the uncommon Snowfall Ink.
Other Perks: Scrolls of Recall allow you to return to your hearth just by using a scroll!
Making Money: You can sell Glyphs, Offhands, Darkmoon Faire Cards (or complete decks and sell the trinkets from them), and Runescrolls. Runescrolls of Fortitude cast a slightly weaker version of Power Word: Fortitude on the entire raid and can be sold to anyone. Glyphs are dirt cheap, but the market takes some time to learn how to adapt to.
Interactions With Other Professions: Enchanters love Armor Vellum and Weapon Vellum. When you cast something like Enchant Weapon – Spellpower on a Weapon Vellum you get Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Spellpower, which you can then sell on the auction house or mail to other characters.
Fun Items: Rituals of the New Moon is a book you can learn to make by finding the Technique from the Silverbrook Villagers, Trappers, Defenders, and Hunters in the Grizzly Hills. Upon creation it random chooses a wolf colour and each time you use it it makes you that colour. Also, for a good time, try using Scrolls of Recall that you are too high-levelled for just to see where they teleport you to.
Classes/Roles: Any, as long as the Master’s Inscriptions work with your statistics. So not ideal for everyone. Also, Scrolls of Recall are less useful for a mage (teleport) and shaman (Astrall Recall).

Leatherworking

Description: Leatherworkers create leather and mail armor along with armor kiits. Most physical dps and tank cloaks are also made by Leatherworkers. Also makes a few normal bags (not as many as Tailoring), the 32-slot Inscription Bag, the 28-slot Leather Bag, the 32-slot Mining Bag, and quivers/ammo pouches.
Specializations: Tribal, Elemental, and Dragonscale. These used to dictate some special patterns you could learn. Most of the Bind on Equip gear has had its specialization requirement removed and in Cataclysm these specializations are going away.
Quirks: There are many types of leathers and scales which are required. Also, you can convert some leather up. Several scraps make a light leather, several of those make a medium, then heavy, then thick, then finally Rugged. In Outlands, Knothide Scraps become Knothide Leather, and Knothide Leather becomes Heavy Knothide Leather. In Northrend, Borean Scraps become Borean Leather which become Heavy Borean Leather.
Passive Perk: Fur Linings are super-powered wrist enchants for Attack Power, Spell Power, Stamina, or resists.
Other Perks: Nerubian Leg Reinforcements and Jormungar Leg Reinforcements are physical dps and tank leg enchants that are the same as the epic crafted Leg Armor Kits but are self-only and incredibly cheap.
Making Money: Drums of the Wild are not Bind on Pickup, have 50 charges, and cast a weaker version of Gift of the Wild on the raid. Drums of Forgotten Kings are the same but with a weaker version of Blessing of Kings. Icescale Leg Armor, Earthen Leg Armor, and Frosthide Leg Armor can be sold to other people.
Interactions With Other Professions: Skinning provides the leather used in almost all Leatherworking recipes, and Leatherworkers create Trapper’s Traveling Packs (28-slot Leatherworking Bag) for skinners to put leather in. Iron Buckles are made by Blacksmiths and are used in many low-level leatherworking recipes. Alchemy provides some agility elixirs and shadow oils used in Leatherworking. Most items created by leatherworkers can be disenchanted by an enchanter. Leatherworkers make Pack of Endless Pockets (32-slot Inscription Bag) for Inscriptionists. Leatherworkers make Mammoth Mining Bags for Miners.
Fun Items: Leatherworkers can learn to make Gordok Ogre Suites to allow players to transform into black ogres if they complete the quest in Dire Maul North.
Classes/Roles: All, though stamina, spell power, and attack power is probably less than optimal for most classes.

Blacksmithing

Description: Blacksmiths use metal bars and stone to create mail and plate armor and weapons. Also creates shield spikes and weapon chains.
Specializations: Armorsmith and Weaponsmith, with Weaponsmith also having Mace, Sword, and Axe specializations. They are all going away for Cataclysm.
Quirks: Sharpening and Weightstones do not work on items above item level 165. Specializing is essentially worthless right now.
Passive Perk: Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves allow you to add one socket to your gloves and bracers. This socket is a prismatic socket, so whatever gem you put into it will automatically match it. If the item has no sockets before you add one, and therefore no socket bonus, a socket bonus is not added by using this spell.
Other Perks: None.
Making Money: Beyond the gear and weapons, you can make a good amount of money sell shield spikes and weapon chains. Also, every time anyone gets a new belt they need a Blacksmith to make them an Eternal Belt Buckle to add a socket to their belt.
Interactions With Other Professions: Mining provides the metal and stone used by Blacksmithing. Blacksmithing makes Iron Buckles used by low-levelled Leatherworkers. Jewelcrafters can prospect ore to get gems used by Blacksmiths. Jewelcrafters also create the gems you put in those sockets you add to your gear. Enchanters use the Metal Rods created by Blacksmiths to create their enchanting rods.
Fun Items: Not many, but there’s always the Kittenblade (Lionheart Blade). It has the vague shape of a kitten, but you can upgrade it several times to create the Puppyslaer (Lionheart Executioner.)
Classes/Roles: Everyone! You can find a gem for almost any stat and most combination of two stats, so adding sockets to gear makes this one of the very best professions for everyone.

Jewelcrafting

Description: Jewelcrafters make necklaces, rings, and cut gems for use in socketed gear. Jewelcrafters also learn the prospect ability, which destroys 5 of a type of ore to generate gems. Does not work on all ores.
Specializations: None!
Quirks: To learn your Northrend patterns you are forced to do dailies to get Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens, then you spend those on the recipes you want to learn. On a 20 hour cooldown a Jewelcrafter can make an Icy Prism which can contain all sorts of rare to epic gems.
Passive Perk: Dragon’s Eyes (Cataclysm: Chimaera’s Eyes) are special gems. You are only allowed to have three of them, but they are super powered versions of red gems.
Other Perks: Jewelcrafters can create special trinkets that are good starting gear.
Making Money: Gems sell well, and prospecting is a great way to get them. You can also sometimes sell cut gems for more than uncut gems. Some necklaces and rings also sell.
Interactions With Other Professions: Tailors create Bag of Jewels 24 slot Gem bags. Blacksmiths require gems for their “Add Socket” abilities. Blacksmiths and Engineers need gems, and Jewelcrafters can use the Prospect ability to get them. Alchemists can take a rare Northrend gem, combine it with a 20 hour cooldown and some eternals, and create an epic Northrend gem. They can also combine elementals and uncommon gems to create uncut meta diamonds.
Fun Items: The Jewelcrafting trinkets summon a metallic or gem small companion pet when you use them!
Classes/Roles: Everyone, this is probably the best profession for most classes as you basically pick your stat bonuses.

Enchanting

Description: Enchanters destroy uncommon, rare, and epic items to create dust, essences, and shards using the Disenchant Ability. Then they add enchants to weapons, cloaks, chest pieces, wrists, gloves, boots, and rings.
Specializations: None.
Quirks: Mana Oils only work on certain items, and do not work on heirlooms nor level 80 gear.
Passive Perk: Enchant Ring Assault, Greater Spellpower, and Stamina.
Other Perks: None.
Making Money: By putting enchants on weapon and armor vellums you can sell them on the auction house to make money.
Interactions With Other Professions: Tailors can create Mysterious Bags (32-slot Enchanting Bag) for Enchanters to put their materials in. Some professions like tailoring and leatherworking can use some enchanting materials in their recipes. Enchant Gloves – Gatherer adds +5 to Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning and works. Enchant Gloves – Angler provides +5 Fishing to gloves for Fishing.
Fun Items: For a very enjoyable experience levelling up herbalism, try combining Enchant Gloves – Advanced Herbalism on a pair of Herbalist’s Gloves for +10 Herbalism to any class that can wear leather. Toss it in a Tauren with their herbalism racial for some very easy flower-picking.
Classes/Roles: All roles, but with the only options being spell power, stamina, and attack power this is probably not ideal for any of those.

Tailoring

Description: Tailors use cloth which drops from humanoids and the undead to create cloth items, shirts, cloaks, bags, and flying carpets.
Specializations: Moonshroud, Ebonshroud, and Spellfire. Talk to the trainers in Lower City, Shattrath to specialize when you have the appropriate skill. While all tailors can create the Shadow, Holy, and Spell clothes, when you create the cloth that matches your specialization it creates two per cast instead of one.
Quirks: In Northrend you can talk to the trainer to learn Northern Cloth Scavenging, a passive ability which causes humanoids to drop more cloth for you. In a group, after someone loots a body, sometimes you will then be able to loot extra cloth off of it. Only works on humanoids and undead who drop Frostweave Cloth.
Passive Perk: Swordguard Embroidery, Lightweave Embroidery, and Darkglow Embroidery. Lackluster, but they exist!
Other Perks: You can add cheap epic leg enchants for healers and casters to your own pants at the cost of just a thread with Sanctified Spellthread and Master’s Spellthread. You can also make Flying Carpet mounts for yourself. Note that if you drop Tailoring the mount stays in your spell book and counts for achievements but you will be unable to cast it.
Making Money: While some cloth gear sells, the specialty cloth and bags usually sell. Glacial Bags are in high demand as the only crafted 22 slot bag. You can also create Sapphire Spellthread and Brilliant Spellthread to sell to casters and healers. The highest warlock soul shard bag, the Abyssal Bag, is made by Tailors, also.
Interactions With Other Professions: Tailors can make many specialty bags for professions, including the Emerald Bag, Mysterious Bag, and Bag of Jewels. Some tailoring patterns require herbs, provided by Herbalism. Starting with Outlands and then Northrend, you also create Imbued Bolts of cloth which require dust provided from Enchanting.
Fun Items: While I was tempted to point out the Black Mageweave gear and how trendy they are on Role-Playing Servers, who can resist the Blue Jumberjack Shirt?
Classes/Roles: Healer, Caster, and Physical DPS all have embroideries, but they often don’t compare to others. For many physical dps classes, this is the worst choice that provides at least some bonus.

Engineering

Description: Engineers use a combination of metals, gems, and creativity to make wacky gizmos. Guns, scopes, and ammo are created by Engineers. Engineers can make Flying Machines for themselves and motorcycles for everyone.
Specializations: Gnomish and Goblin. The difference is a few gizmos between each of them, and if they can make epic arrows (Gnomish) or bullets (Goblin) at level 80. Engineers can also Scavenge high level mechanical mobs to get parts, schematics, and other items. Also, a lot of fun, wacky gizmos.
Quirks: It can be very difficult to specialize and train if you are below neutral with the Steamwheedle Cartel. Also, the parts for motorcycles are sold in limited supplies and cost about 12,000g.
Passive Perk: Many, many passive perks. The interesting gizmos of the past have become enchants in the present. Mind Amplification Dish provides 45 stamina to a helm and allows you to mind control people. Nitro Boosts provide 24 crit rating to boots, and let you get a speed increase for a few seconds. Hand-Mounted Pyro Rockets allow you to fire rockets every 45 seconds. Hyperspeed Accelators provide 340 haste for 12 seconds on a minute cooldown. Reticulated Armor Webbing provides 885 armor to gloves. Personal Electromagnetic Pulse Generator allows you to confuse mechanical units or detonate decoys. Flexweave Underlay provides 23 Agility (or spell power from the Springy Arachnoweave) and a parachute cloak. Frag Belt gives you an AoE on a cooldown. Finally, working Saronite Bombs into your rotation is another dps boost.
Other Perks: As if the main perks weren’t enough, the secondary perks almost overshadow them. You can use gizmos to teleport to most places in Northrend with Wormhole Generator: Northrend. Or go to Area 52 or Everlook or even Outlands! Teleporting around isn’t enough for you? How about making Jeeves, your own Personal Butler? He is a bank, repair vendor, and guild bank on a 1 hour cooldown. He also allows anyone to repair, and other engineers to use all of his features. Almost as fun as Jeeves is MOLL-E, which places down a portable mailbox. Mana Injector Kits (also Health) can be used to turn a potion into an injector which gives you more health or mana. While we’re at it, why not just making yourself a Turbo-Charged Flying Machine Control. You can also make your own Titanium Toolbox (32 slot Engineering Bag) instead of worrying about finding a tailor or leatherworking to make you a bag like most professions.
Making Money: Arrows, Bullets, Scopes. You can try to sell motorcycles but they cost so much people usually do not want to tip. Also, this is the perfect profession to entice those pet collectors with a menagerie of little mechanical monsters: Mechanical Squirrel, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, Lifelike Mechanical Toad, Lil’ Smoky, and then the amazing Pet Bombling!
Interactions With Other Professions: Alchemists make rocket fuel for low-level recipes. Engineers make Salt Shakers to purify salt for Leatherworkers. Jewelcrafters can prospect ore to get the gems Engineers need.
Fun Items: Do I even need to list any? The whole profession is awesome! Well, I suppose there is the Gnomish Poultryizer, which allows you to cast Polymorph: Chicken. Also, the Wormhole Generator for Northrend can sometimes have a hidden option show up to go to a secret room with a secret vendor. Oooh.
Classes/Roles: Everyone, often being the best choice for PvP or near the top for dps classes. Slightly weaker options for tanks, but still options. With the current stamina and armor trend in tanking, they may be better than I’m giving them credit for.

Congratulations! You now have your first level 80 character. You have beaten Casual World of Warcraft, and are ready to move up in the world. Without every monster giving you experience, where do you go? How do you continue improving your character without the comfort of the level system? Well, allow Kvn to help you out. When I hit level 80, there are always a few things I look at on a character. First, I look at ways of improving and customizing that character. Second, I look at ways of improving all of my characters. Let’s look at the individual character first.

Dungeon Finder and the Gear Grind

If you read my article complaining about Gearscore, you probably know that each item in the game as its own item level which determines the kind of stats it is allowed to have. The more diverse an item, the more stats it gets overall. You’ve seen this while you levelled, but not in the great diversity you are about to. Gear at level 80 is often divided into tiers based on the item level of the gear that drops there. Over time, as new raids are introduced, older tiers are phased out a bit to make it easier for new players to get a handle on things. When WotLK was released, Tier 7 was the highest content. You had your Tier 7 set and items ranging from about item level 200 to 213. Then Ulduar was released, and it was a huge raid with a lot of content that released the Tier 8 sets and item levels of 219-226. That’s all in the past, but if you see those sets and gear around, now you know where they came from and why they were the “new awesome thing” a year ago. Let’s look at the here and now.

Emblems of Triumph

Perhaps it is easier to talk about Emblems before we go any further. Emblems of Triumph are the “easy” Emblems to get, and you can get them almost anywhere. When you do a heroic dungeon, each boss drops an Emblem of Triumph. If you do the Frozen Halls dungeons on normal (Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection), each boss drops an Emblem of Triumph. When you do the weekly raid quest, you get 5 Emblems of Triumph. And finally, when you use Dungeon Finder to run a Wrath of the Lich King heroic, every time past the first (which gives you the next type, Frost) gives you two bonus Emblems of Triumph. Emblems of Triumph are going to be your bread and butter. While you will probably run the Frozen Halls dungeons and Trial of the Champion many times to try to get various items, you can use the Emblems of Triumph to fill out your gear. Here is an overview of what you can purchase with Triumph, along with suggestions.

• Reputation Commendations For the price of one Emblem of Triumph you can purchase 520 reputation with the various Northrend factions. I do not recommend doing this, as the factions you can choose from are all factions with easier options. The choices are Argent Crusade, Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, Sons of Hodir, and Wyrmrest. Most of which have tabards that achieve the same purpose, except Hodir. Hodir has dailies that grant a lot of reputation along with a quest series that begins you at Revered.
• Ranged Weapons and relics. For 25 Emblems of Triumph, you can purchase a wand, throwing axes, ninja stars, idols (balance version & cat/bear version), librams (dps & healer), sigils (dps), and totems (caster & melee). If you are a shaman, druid, death knight, or paladin I suggest you spend your first 25 Emblems of Triumph on your relic slot. Relics will not drop in any of the 5 man dungeons or the Tier 9 and 10 raids, so this is your best use of triumph badges.
• Tier 9 Shoulders and Gloves for 30 Emblems of Triumph each. As a fairly easy and short raid that is commonly pugged called Vault of Archavon (covered later) can drop gloves and pants for tier sets, most people start out by spending 30 Emblems of Triumph on their Tier 9 shoulders. I’ll explain Tier sets later, but you may notice that these tier sets are 232 item level while the non-set items you can purchase for more are 245. The deciding factor when it comes to slots that offer both is how good the set bonus is.
• Tier 9 Helms, Chestpieces, and Pants for 50 Emblems of Triumph each. Slightly more expensive than the shoulders and gloves, many people enjoy the feeling of getting four pieces of Tier 9 for the set bonus. As mentioned before, the deciding factor is set bonus and lower item level versus the non-set pieces costing more and having 245 item level.
• Non-Set Shoulders cost 45 Emblems of Triumph but have better statistics than the set piece shoulders at 30. As the set is only 4 pieces, you have one slot left to buy a big piece of gear for, and shoulders could be one of those slots!
• Non-Set Helms cost an incredible 75 Emblems of Triumph each but have better stats than the set piece helms. As with the shoulders, even if you want the four piece set bonus that leaves you with an open slot, and the helm could be it.
• Trinkets of several flavors: Melee, Caster, Healer, and Tank for 50 Emblems of Triumph. Trinkets are one of the hardest slots to itemize, so these can be a good use of your badges if you can’t get your Frozen Halls Heroic or Trial of the Champion normal trinket to drop. The healer trinket here is often frowned upon due to the large amount of intellect, so make sure it is the right choice for you.
• Rings of several flavors: Caster/Healer 1, Caster/Healer 2, Strength DPS, Agility DPS, and Tank at 35 Emblems of Triumph each. Most of the dungeons contain rings of some sort, but these are 245 item level and can go a long way if you are having bad luck. The crafted rings made by Jewelcrafters are only 200 item level (though not poorly itemized) and the Dalaran Signets are extremely expensive.

Phew, a lot of gear, right? Even if nothing drops for you, you can fill out every one of your slots; except your primary weapon, belt, wrists, pants, cloak, and necklace. You can find those in dungeons, though, although it can be hard to find a solid cloak for most classes. You can also “downgrade” your badges and purchase the Tier 8 and Tier 7 quality items for slots like cloaks and necklaces.

Emblems of Frost

Emblems of frost are the best emblems for Wrath of the Lich King. There is a limit for non-raiders as to how many you can get per week. The first time you use Dungeon Finder for the day to do a Wrath of the Lich King heroic, at the end of it you get two frost. That’s 14 per week. The weekly raid quest is usually puggable, and gives 5 Frost and 5 Triumph. That’s 19 per week. Vault of Archavon’s frost boss drops 2 Emblems of Frost on 10 and 25 man, so we’re up to 23 per week. With items being so expensive, it takes a long time to get gear from Frost Emblems. When you start raiding later, Icecrown Citadel and Ruby Sanctum’s bosses on 10 and 25 man both drop Emblems of Frost. Each one can also have a random special quest that offers another 5, but those run the gambit from trivial to extremely difficult. The first time you do the quest series for the Frozen Halls dungeons you will pick up a few Emblems of Frost from the quest. Now, what should you spend your Emblems of Frost on? Well, I have a few suggestions.

• Ranged and Relics for 30 Emblems of Frost each. With the low cost these can be very tempting, but most of the relics are not major upgrades from the Emblem of Triumph versions. A good example is the Sigil of the Hanged Man. It takes awhile to stack, and fully stacked it counts as 219 strength. The Emblem of Triumph version is the Sigil of Virulence, which grants 200 strength with no ramp up time or stacking. So on any fight where you move or cannot attack a boss, the Triumph version is a big dps increase over the expensive Frost version. This was the last thing I purchased with my Emblems of Frost.
• Cloaks for 50 Emblems of Frost of various flavors: Tank, Strength DPS, mp5 Healer/Caster, Spirit Healer/Caster, and Agility DPS. If your tier set is not worth acquiring, the difficulty of getting cloaks can make these very tempting.
• Tier 10 Gloves and Shoulders. Vault of Archavon’s latest boss can drop Tier 10 gloves or pants, so avoid purchasing these two items. The shoulders are a popular choice since they are cheap and you usually want to get your Tier 10 set bonuses sooner rather than later. Note that the tier 10 you can purchase is 251 item level and not 264. Unlike Tier 9, however, you require the 251 Tier 10 piece in order to upgrade it to the 264 version, so if you want your set you will need to purchase these items!
• 264 iLevel Belts and 264 Ilevel Gloes are available for 60 Emblems of Frost. While they can be pretty good, belts and gloves are usually not impossible to find from the Frozen Halls dungeons so you probably already have a solid one. Some belts may be better for some classes than others, however.
• 264 iLevel trinkets (Melee, Tank, Healer, and Caster) are available for 60 Emblems of Frost. Even at this point trinkets are a pain to get. In a perfect world you would be using the Ruby Sanctum and Icecrown Citadel Heroic’s trinkets, but you may end up needing one of these.
• Tier 10 Chestpiece, Tier 10 Helm, and Tier 10 Pants are available for an incredible 95 Emblems of Frost each. As with before, Vault of Archavon can drop the Tier 10 pants and gloves from the frost boss. I do suggest getting the helm or chest piece (whichever is the bigger upgrade).
• 264 iLevel Chestpieces are available for 95 Emblems of Frost. While the set bonuses go a long ways, if the set bonus is lackluster these chest pieces can be worth picking up. Also, you only need four pieces for highest set bonus, so you can use this for the last piece if needed.

Tier Sets

A quick word on Tier sets. Tier 9′s 232 version is purchased with Emblems of Triumph that you get from most raids and heroics for 30-60 Emblems of Triumph each. Vault of Archavon (10)’s fire boss also drops the pants and gloves. The 245 version of Tier 9 is purchasable for 45-75 Emblems of Triumph and also one Trophy of the Crusade which drop from Trial of the Grand Crusader (10 and 25) and Trial of the Crusader (25). Vault of Archavon (25)’s fire boss can drop the gloves and pants. Finally, the 258 version of Tier 9 only shows up if you complete Trial of the Grand Crusader, at which point 2-4 Regalia of the Grand Conqueror / Protector / Vanquisher. You only need to turn the Regalia, no need for Emblems of Triumph. While the 232 Tier 9 can be purchased in Dalaran from the appropriate leather/mail/plate/cloth vendors, if you want the 245 or 258 versions you need to head to the Argent Tournament grounds in Icecrown.

For Tier 10, all three types can be purchased in Dalaran or just inside Icecrown Citadel from the appropriate cloth/leather/mail/plate vendors. The cost for the 251 version is 60-95, and you need the 251 version to purchase the 264 version. Vault of Archavon (10)’s frost boss can drop the gloves and pants. The 264 version has an interesting cost, requiring the 251 piece and also a Vanquisher’s Mark. The Vanquisher’s Mark drop off the final wing bosses in Icecrown Citadel on heroic 10, normal 25, and heroic 25 mode. You can also get the 264 version of the pants and gloves from Vault of Archavon (25)’s frost boss. The final 277 version requires the 264 version and a Heroic Vanquisher’s Mark that drop off the last boss of each wing of Icecrown Citadel 25 heroic.

Phew, okay, so now you know where your gear upgrades come from. Next, let’s talk about reputations and why they matter.

Reputations

Northrend has several reputations you have probably run into as you quested. Some of them are pretty forgettable, but a few of them matter. Remember that for the Horde/Alliance Northrend factions you can gain reputation by not wearing a tabard in Northrend dungeons. It will give the basic reputation gains first, then at max exalted it switches to Valiance Expedition, Explorer’s League, Frostborn, and then Silver Covenant (as an Alliance example). For the other factions, when you hit friendly from quests you can purchase a tabard that converts Northrend dungeon reputation into that faction’s reputation. The factions without tabards are Sons of Hodir, the Kalu’ak, the Ashen Verdict, the Oracles, and the Frenzyheart Tribe. While the Ashen Verdict reputation is given by running Icecrown Citadel, for the others you will need to do dailies. Oracles and Frenzyheart are mutually exclusive, as being friendly with one puts you hated at the other. You can switch at any time, resetting your reputation with both. The non-daily quests for the Kalu’ak and Sons of Hodir factions will put you at Revered, so the rep grind does not take too much time. The benefit of the Kalu’ak is a penguin small pet and an epic fishing pole. The real benefit of the other reputations, however, is for the enchants.

Helm enchants are found at each faction and are Bind on Account. Once one of your characters can purchase them, you can send them to your other characters. They do not require the reputation to use on alts, but they do require level 80. Depending on your needs, here is what each faction offers for helm heirloom enchants. The Argent Crusade offers the Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector for tanks. The Kirin Tor offer the Arcanum of Burning Mysteries for casters. The Knights of the Ebon Blade offer the Arcanum of Torment for physical dps. Finally, the Wyrmrest Accord offers the Arcanum of Blissful Mending for healers.

For shoulder enchants, you should seek out the Sons of Hodir. Back in The Burning Crusade, you could gain reputation with the Aldor or Scryers for shoulder enchants. At Revered, the Sons of Hodir offer you a level 80 version of those Burning Crusade enchants, but they are Bind on Pickup. At Exalted, the Sons of Hodir offer the best shoulder enchants (outside of Inscription-only) and they are bind on account, as seen here: Greater Inscription of the Axe / Crag / Pinnacle / Storm. The quest series to unlock them begins with “They Took our Men!” in the K3 Inn in Storm Peaks, and a full write-up on it can be found in the article I Speak Newblett Hodir Edition and part two.

Other Fun Things

While gear and enchants and getting ready for raiding can take up a lot of time, there are a lot of other things I like to do with characters at 80. The Argent Tournament offers a squire who can serve as a bank, along with dailies that grant a lot of cash. You can also pick up titles related to the crusade (“Crusader K’vn”) or to the various cities (K’vn of Orgrimmar, K’vn of the Exodar) and tabards/mounts related to each city. If you want fun stuff, this is the place to go. Speaking of mounts, there are many achievements with mounts as rewards. Collect 100 mounts for a Dragonhawk, or complete the dungeon or raid quests for a proto-drake. I usually try to get a land mount and air mount related to my character, along with a real title. In fact, if you have friends, there are many multipassenger mounts you can pick up at 80. Sons of Hodir sell a cheap 3-person mount. The Kirin Tor sell an expensive 3-person mount with vendors on it. Engineers can craft you a motorcycle that holds a passenger.

Okay, I just wanted to give a brief overview of how to get started at 80 improving your gear and customizing your character. I know we have some newly 80 Fuzzlets and I hope this helps a little bit!