how i get teh gearz?

[Montague]

Ret paladin-you do ok in PVP if you have a really high damage 2hander. No one wants you in PVE.

With the Ret tree changes, this isn't QUITE as true as it once was.  There's some utility in having at least one Ret Spec Paladin in a PvE group, especially if you have other paladins.

For raiding they are considered "passable" mostly because they can do OK damage, but more for keeping other judgements up. They are still not very wanted in 5 man instances though.

Assuming equal gear, a Ret paladin in the proper raid melee group provides more overall damage to the raid than a rogue in that group, taking all contributions into account. Taking more than one gimps the raid though.

5-man heroic instances you're correct Ret pallies like other non-healing hybrids aren't welcome because of lack of CC.

[Jayce]

In a similar vein to the original post:  I just re-upped, and this time I'd like to get the speedy-crow-form for my main.  Cash is the biggest issue.  I've already done all of the non-instance quest from the BC zones.  Which seems to imply that I'll need to do some cash grinding.

It's been awhile since I was subbed and I don't know what "daily quests" are (other then it's a quest you can do once per day), although I seem to recall reading that they are good for cash.  Cany anyone recommend a decent (not too grindy) source of cash?

Druid is an alchemist (transformation speicalist), if that helps.

There are lots of ways to make cash that don't involve grinding, though grinding helps if you are starting from a low point. 

With a transmute spec alchy, you can work your Sporeggar rep to Revered (I think) and get the recipe for transmute earth to water.  Earth is dirt cheap (3g ish on my server) , but water sells in the 20 range.  You can also do the same with a discovered recipe for earth to life.  If you proc either one of those transmutes, it's bonus time.

You can also do daily quests for about 100-150g per day (at 70) if you do them all.  Check out wowwiki for info on those.  If you have any quests left over from leveling, that's gravy.

[Tale]

Fishing for Essence of Water at the pools in Azshara made me rich pre-expansion, so if the value is holding up it's probably even easier now that nobody plays in Azshara. Need 300 fishing +100 lure +rod bonus +enchant to make it worthwhile. Once you learn where all the pools spawn, as a druid with water form you can easily do clockwise circuits and fish them all out. Easy to get there from TBC zones (port to Moonglade and fly to Azshara). A few fishing trips per day, 2-10 EoW per trip plus other sellables you fish up.

[Koyasha]

In a similar vein to the original post:  I just re-upped, and this time I'd like to get the speedy-crow-form for my main.  Cash is the biggest issue.  I've already done all of the non-instance quest from the BC zones.  Which seems to imply that I'll need to do some cash grinding.

It's been awhile since I was subbed and I don't know what "daily quests" are (other then it's a quest you can do once per day), although I seem to recall reading that they are good for cash.  Cany anyone recommend a decent (not too grindy) source of cash?

Druid is an alchemist (transformation speicalist), if that helps.

On dailies: Unfortunately the most profitable series of dailies is locked behind a 5000 gold entry cost - the Netherwing series.  The other dailies you'll be able to do are Skettis (2 quests, good to do), and Ogri'la (after you kill the Sons of Gruul, 5 man bosses you will need assistance with).  These, plus the cooking quest if you have cooking, a bg daily if you feel like it, and a dungeon or heroic daily will put you above 100 gold a day.  If you can supplement that with the tradeskill methods others have been mentioning, you'll be well on your way to unlocking Netherwing within a few weeks.  Most important thing of course is to spend nothing you don't absolutely need to, and be diligent in doing your dailies every day.

The Netherwing series, for the record, is profitable not because of higher cash rewards from the quests but because the mobs you need to kill - and you tend to need to kill a LOT of them every day - drop considerable quantities of grey cash loot you can sell for an additional 10-30 gold each day.

[Fordel]

I know a few people that just kill the Flayers in the mine for that stuff. Skinners mostly. No shortage of skins in that place :).

[Typhon]

Thanks much for all the suggestions.  My druid is also a 375 chef (and fisherman), so I'll look into the cooking daily also (and new fishing daily?  thought I saw something about a fishing daily coming).

Looks like only way to get sporeggar rep up higher then I'm currently at is through pug instances (kind of all by myself on this server).  Guess I'll also try my hand at PvP dailies, although I get frustrated trying to play against folks in deep grape when I'm in green/blue.

[Phred]

[
You can also do daily quests for about 100-150g per day (at 70) if you do them all.  Check out wowwiki for info on those.  If you have any quests left over from leveling, that's gravy.

Unfortunately I recently found out that to get sent to the Netherwing outpost and do their quests, you need epic mount training. It's too bad because the netherwing dailies are a very sweet source of cash. By the time I got exalted on my main I had enough extra cash to buy epic mount training for an alt. Most of my cash was from the Netherwing dailies though an amazing amount was also generated by skinning stuff in the mines while doing the quests in there.

Note however that skinning alone doesn't generate that good cash, you need leatherworking to make the good money for your skins.

[WindupAtheist]

Terrokar >>>> Zangarmarsh.  70 here I come, eventually.

[Tarami]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but this thread alone convinced me I have no reason whatsoever to resub. The only way to play is to play moar.

[Montague]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but this thread alone convinced me I have no reason whatsoever to resub. The only way to play is to play moar.

Depends. There's a treadmill, that's for sure. If all your interested in is the destination then yeah it's all work, but you don't have to play 12 hours a day to make progress.

Which reminds me, its AV weekend. Time to get some gear.

[Dren]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but this thread alone convinced me I have no reason whatsoever to resub. The only way to play is to play moar.

What you should be reading is that there are several different paths a person can take depending on what they like.  If all you are worried about is lvl 70 and the best gear you can get, then yeah, you're gonna have to catass.

I'd suggest that goal in an MMO is warped to begin with.  I'm not sure why one would expect the game to be any different.

[Jayce]

Looks like only way to get sporeggar rep up higher then I'm currently at is through pug instances (kind of all by myself on this server). 

There is a repeatable quest at friendly to kill naga.  It's sorta grindy, but it's better than running pugs.  It's called "Now that we're friends..." and the repeatable followup is called "Now that we're still friends..."

[Phred]

Looks like only way to get sporeggar rep up higher then I'm currently at is through pug instances (kind of all by myself on this server). 

There is a repeatable quest at friendly to kill naga.  It's sorta grindy, but it's better than running pugs.  It's called "Now that we're friends..." and the repeatable followup is called "Now that we're still friends..."

750 rep per run through too. I used it to get revered on my alchemist.

[Typhon]

So weird, I just ran through there yesterday looking for that quest and it wasn't offered (i.e. I didn't see a yellow ! over any of the little fungus heads).  maybe it's because it's hidden because my level is too high.   I'll go look again, because I do want that recipe.

[Dren]

Looks like only way to get sporeggar rep up higher then I'm currently at is through pug instances (kind of all by myself on this server). 

There is a repeatable quest at friendly to kill naga.  It's sorta grindy, but it's better than running pugs.  It's called "Now that we're friends..." and the repeatable followup is called "Now that we're still friends..."

750 rep per run through too. I used it to get revered on my alchemist.

I did some of that and got bored.  So, I went to the good ole AH and bought a ton of those flowers you gather in Underbog.  You turn in 5 at a time for something like 750 or more rep.  I bought a stack of like 100 for 200 gold or something.  I think I got lucky, but I'd spend 300 gold to get revered.  You more than make it up with the transmutes you can do and that level of gold is chump change if you are doing daily quests, etc.

You can make primal waters from earth.  Earth is everywhere and easily collected while mining.  You have a good chance of making two waters if you are transmute specce'd.  So, you'll make anywhere from 15 - 30 gold per transmute/day.  Hell, on my server waters go for 30+ gold, so I make more than most (from the sounds of it.)  Once I get a primal earth I can make it into a 30 g sell or possibly a 60 g sell.

Yeah, get that transmute now.

*Edit:  I didn't need anywhere near 100 flowers.  I'm using the left-overs for alts.  It will probably cover 2 alts.

[Typhon]

Nice, I didn't realize those flowers were sellable.  Thanks!

[Fabricated]

Terrokar >>>> Zangarmarsh.  70 here I come, eventually.

Nagrand is epic ignoring the awful Nesingway grind quests, but the rewards for doing all of them are pretty good. Blade's Edge is...ehhh. Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley are awesome provided you have a flying mount and not so fun if you don't.

[Jayce]

If you miss the Hellfire Peninsula fighting THE MOTHERFUCKING BURNING LEGION, you'll enjoy Shadowmoon Valley.

[Chimpy]

If you miss the Hellfire Peninsula fighting THE MOTHERFUCKING BURNING LEGION, you'll enjoy Shadowmoon Valley.

There is some of that in Netherstorm too.

And if you are into molesting blood elves, you get a lot of that there as well.

[Paelos]

I loved all the quests where I got to kick elves right in the crotch as an alliance.

[Trouble]

They're adding loot that's a bit worse than tier 6 (Black Temple/Hyjal) quality loot on the badge vendor. You can get badges from heroic bosses and raid bosses, as well as a few new methods in the next patch. This is your best route to getting high quality loot without raiding, although it'll take some time to earn enough badges.

[Tale]

There is some of that in Netherstorm too.

Where the hippies are in bubbles.

[WindupAtheist]

So I can go do battlegrounds and get the season 1 set, by paying honor and the marks you get for doing each particular one?  Because I guess the season 1 and 2 ret pally sets are getting buffed/adjusted with 2.4, and season 1 seems like a good first objective for post-70 gear.

I don't really care if I get curbstomped in PVP for a while as a fresh 70.  It's only WoW PVP, it's not like it hurts.  And at least I won't be getting owned by people 30 levels higher than me, so it's still less painful than just plain old "whoops ganked while questing" PVP on my old server.

[Arrrgh]

So I can go do battlegrounds and get the season 1 set, by paying honor and the marks you get for doing each particular one?  Because I guess the season 1 and 2 ret pally sets are getting buffed/adjusted with 2.4, and season 1 seems like a good first objective for post-70 gear.

I don't really care if I get curbstomped in PVP for a while as a fresh 70.  It's only WoW PVP, it's not like it hurts.  And at least I won't be getting owned by people 30 levels higher than me, so it's still less painful than just plain old "whoops ganked while questing" PVP on my old server.

You can BG now for honor points, and you can also join or start a newb arena team and let the arena points begin to trickle in.

Some season 4 gear has appeared on test though so you might not want to spend any of your new points until you know if season 4 is going to start with the patch. If it does there will be new and better toys to buy, and the old toys will cost less.

[Dren]

Yeah, if you have any points right now from either BG's or Arena's, save them unless you absolutely need an upgrade.

2.4 will change things quite a bit.

Continue PvP'ing though.  It takes quite some time to build up what you will need.

However, just because you are lvl 70 doesn't mean you won't get stomped like a lvl 60.  The difference between a lvl 70 fresh off their last "DING" will get royally creamed by a fully PvP gear equiped lvl 70.  There are all kinds of varying levels in between those extremes, but just be ready to increase your humility levels by quite a bit.

You will suck for a long time.

[Xanthippe]

Save them for 2.4?  I'm hearing rumors of a Memorial Day release for that patch, which is quite a ways off.

[Ingmar]

These are your non-raid gear paths:

- Questing: If you did every outdoor group quest in Outland, you'd have a reasonably decent set of blue gear that is just a cut below the 5 person dungeon level. It would have some holes in it, and its actually harder to get groups to do outdoor group quests than it is to do dungeons, mostly, but it is an option.

- PVP: either you can arena and get really nice gear really slowly (unless you win a lot, but you won't, with starter gear), or you can do BGs and get not-as-nice gear much faster. This is, other than being a blacksmith, your absolute best path to a good 2h weapon, which is pretty essential for a ret paladin.

- 5 man content: There are plenty of retnooby blue drops in the various level 70 5 mans. In addition, running these will get you reputation boosts with the 5 dungeon factions (Cenarion Expedition, Honor Hold/Thrallmar, Keepers of Time, Sha'tar, Lower City.) In 2.4, a full 5 piece set of basic PVP gear for most specs (it has resilience and a lot of stamina, not so hot on the damage stats) is being added to these factions. None of it requires anything higher than revered and a lot of it is available at honored.

- Rep grind/dailies: A lot of gear is scattered around on various reputation vendors, some of which are very easily grindable, some of which require somewhat more complicated prereqs and dailies, etc. Browse through the reputation section of wowhead.com and see if there is anything that strikes your fancy, then target those factions.


Oh and if you do plan to run a lot of dungeons, make friends with a shaman. Windfury totem turns ret paladins from 'meh' on the damage meter all the way up to 'very effective.' I'd go so far as to say that only warriors see a comparable gain in DPS from just that one totem (and you'll love to have strength of earth in the mix too.)

[Ingmar]

Fishing for Essence of Water at the pools in Azshara made me rich pre-expansion, so if the value is holding up it's probably even easier now that nobody plays in Azshara. Need 300 fishing +100 lure +rod bonus +enchant to make it worthwhile. Once you learn where all the pools spawn, as a druid with water form you can easily do clockwise circuits and fish them all out. Easy to get there from TBC zones (port to Moonglade and fly to Azshara). A few fishing trips per day, 2-10 EoW per trip plus other sellables you fish up.

Unfortunately this won't work - essences (of all types) are pretty valueless post-expansion.

[Phred]

Fishing for Essence of Water at the pools in Azshara made me rich pre-expansion, so if the value is holding up it's probably even easier now that nobody plays in Azshara. Need 300 fishing +100 lure +rod bonus +enchant to make it worthwhile. Once you learn where all the pools spawn, as a druid with water form you can easily do clockwise circuits and fish them all out. Easy to get there from TBC zones (port to Moonglade and fly to Azshara). A few fishing trips per day, 2-10 EoW per trip plus other sellables you fish up.

Unfortunately this won't work - essences (of all types) are pretty valueless post-expansion.

Ya my auctioneer says they are down to 1.85 - 2.50 now. Last expansion's top end ingredients are mostly this expansion's junk. They added essences to elementals in place  of mote drops a few months after the expansion was released and from what I understand most ppl just throw them away when they find them now. I got caught with a lot of essences banked due to not thinking it out in advance but next expansion that isn't gonna happen. I plan to dump all excess primals a week or two before the next expansion releases.

[Arrrgh]

Save them for 2.4?  I'm hearing rumors of a Memorial Day release for that patch, which is quite a ways off.

Depends on how fast he accumulates points, if season 4 starts with 2.4, and how long it is till 2.4 hits. It could easily be less than Memorial Day. If he's the I want it now type and the possibility of have gotten better gear for the same amount of points if he'd waited a bit doesn't bother him then there's no reason to wait. I just wanted to mention the possibility.

[Xanthippe]

Ya my auctioneer says they are down to 1.85 - 2.50 now. Last expansion's top end ingredients are mostly this expansion's junk. They added essences to elementals in place  of mote drops a few months after the expansion was released and from what I understand most ppl just throw them away when they find them now. I got caught with a lot of essences banked due to not thinking it out in advance but next expansion that isn't gonna happen. I plan to dump all excess primals a week or two before the next expansion releases.

I recall that the first 2-3 months after TBC, those pre-TBC high end mats were selling for more, actually, because nobody had time to farm them and the new mats were still in short supply.  The new mats were going for far more.  So, while I wouldn't stockpile them, I would not dump them on the market before the expansion either.  Just sell them a little at a time over a month or two.

[Dren]

Save them for 2.4?  I'm hearing rumors of a Memorial Day release for that patch, which is quite a ways off.

Depends on how fast he accumulates points, if season 4 starts with 2.4, and how long it is till 2.4 hits. It could easily be less than Memorial Day. If he's the I want it now type and the possibility of have gotten better gear for the same amount of points if he'd waited a bit doesn't bother him then there's no reason to wait. I just wanted to mention the possibility.

Yes, sorry.  I was talking from my own point of view, which is a slow gainer of points and honor.  It takes me a long time to build up what I need, so for me to wait a month or two more isn't a big deal.

I got my weekly points yesterday and was 10 ponits short of the lowest Tier 3 piece I could obtain.  It has taken me 4 weeks to get to that point.  I really only look to arena points getting me a few really nice pieces here and there over the long haul.  So, I'm going to make those points count big time!  The rest will be picked up with honor and marks.  I don't mind blowing those since they come in at a fairly good pace.

[Ingmar]

Ya my auctioneer says they are down to 1.85 - 2.50 now. Last expansion's top end ingredients are mostly this expansion's junk. They added essences to elementals in place  of mote drops a few months after the expansion was released and from what I understand most ppl just throw them away when they find them now. I got caught with a lot of essences banked due to not thinking it out in advance but next expansion that isn't gonna happen. I plan to dump all excess primals a week or two before the next expansion releases.

I recall that the first 2-3 months after TBC, those pre-TBC high end mats were selling for more, actually, because nobody had time to farm them and the new mats were still in short supply.  The new mats were going for far more.  So, while I wouldn't stockpile them, I would not dump them on the market before the expansion either.  Just sell them a little at a time over a month or two.

Primals will likely maintain more value than essences just because there's a wide range of recipes that use them that should remain useful at least partway into the next expansion. It will likely be very dependent on which primals you're talking about though. It is hard to say what will happen - Blizzard may abandon them entirely for new recipes, like they did with essences, or they may hang around in a couple recipes like large brilliant shards in the +150 hp enchant.

[Phred]

I recall that the first 2-3 months after TBC, those pre-TBC high end mats were selling for more, actually, because nobody had time to farm them and the new mats were still in short supply.  The new mats were going for far more.  So, while I wouldn't stockpile them, I would not dump them on the market before the expansion either.  Just sell them a little at a time over a month or two.

Ya maybe I'll try that instead. or sell half before/half after.

[Jayce]

On a side note, Phred fails at quoting.