Fairly new to wotlk, some gear orientation questions

[Stavri]

Hello, for most of my WoW playing I've been doing TBC and i quit the game a little before Wrath was released on retail. I've recently decided to give the expansion a go and i've been reading up on both leveling and talent/speccing guides as well as stat priority etc. The one thing that seems to be eluding me is a good guide on starter gear, mainly weapons. I plan on rolling a warrior dual spec - pvp arms and pve prot. But everywhere i checked i could never find a good idea on starter weps (at lvl 80) for either spec. From what I've read, you can't buy pvp weapons with honor like on TBC and it doesn't seem like blacksmithing provides that option like with the Lolherald mace line. Could you please link some good entry level purps for both specs (or lacking such prior to Naxx, blues) that would do the job.

Thanks and cheers.

[CelticLordaeron]

It's not a grind in wotlk..make a few friends and run or get a carry in icc 5 man's for 219 epics.

[Jhenna0]

PvE in wotlk isn't like on TBC, you don't need to finish Naxx to do Ulduar. Lordaeron's latest raid released is ICC, so very few people do Naxx/Ulduar, some still do toc tho for trinkets and some gear pieces.

PvP weapon is only for the ones with a decent arena rating already unfortunately, so your only option is to get a weapon in PvE. If you're gonna tank then you should ask your group members if you can roll on a arms weapon too.

PvP gear: you can get furious gear set with honor or emblems of triumph, like TBC I guess. You can try get "Savage Saronite" gear set too, its a crafted set that gives some resilience (theres also some off sets around like neck rings from JC and back from tailoring etc). These are usable before lvl 80, so stopping at lvl 79 and farming bgs is also an option if you want to reach lvl 80 with furious set ready. A easy weapon for this bracket is the one from Amphitheater of Anguish (AoA) quest chain (wotlk's version of Nagrand's Ring of Blood).

Some gear pieces can be found on AH, however, I don't recomend spending more than 500g on items around ilvl 200.
This is because you can replace most (if not all) of those items in dungeons fos pos hor and toc, those 4 dungeons will be your main source of gear untill you can raid.

recomended gearscore (gs) for those dungeons (from my experience)
toc fos pos normals can be done as fresh 80 ........................................... toc drops ilvl 200 epic ............. fos pos drops ilvl 219
toc heroic and hor normal require alil more requires maybe 3.4k gs .... drops ilvl 219 (or 213 for toc, dont remember)
fos pos heroics requires maybe 4k gs .................................................. ...... drops ilvl 232
hor heroic requires 4.5k gs. .................................................. ...................... drops ilvl 232

GS addon is very present in wotlk, its useful if you know how to use it.

wotlk has alot more dungeons available, and the heroic version of them can be done with a recomended starting GS of 3k, however, they drop ilvl 200 rare rarity items, and one ilvl 200 epic on last boss, its low gear so its not really worth it. I think TBC has a system like this too, dungeons released later to help players catch up - make older dungeons not really worth doing.

You will also need to do daily heroic (grab daily "Proof of demise" in violet hold) to get 2 emblems of frost.
Do weekly (try do "Flame Leviathan must die" because it barely requires tactics or gear) to get 5 emblems of frost.
And when you get 5k gs you will be able to do VOA Toravon, drops 2 emblems of frost in both dificulties. Also drops hands and legs from gear sets from both pvp and pve (ilvl 251 from 10men and ilvl 277pvp + ilvl 264pve from 25men) also drops pvp off sets that are easily obtained with honor.
With gear abit higher than 5k with best gems and enchants, you're ready to take on ICC (maybe).

Low geared prot warriors are tougher than most people think, if you compare all tanks with +/- same low gear, warrior is best (it evens out at higher gear). So don't be afraid to join a dungeon if you are close to the GS I recomended.

Drop lists:
toc: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Trial_of_the_Champion
fos: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Forge_of_Souls
pos: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Pit_of_Saron
hor: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Halls_of_Reflection_loot