Hello everyone This is Ardawulf here with a guide for people that are new or just want to know and want to gear themselves to be able to join for ICC gearing runs, This guide will focus on getting you as high as 5.2k+ GS.
After hitting level 80
You want to start by doing RDF(random dungeon finder) till you get enough gear to join for RDF HC(random dungeon finder heroic), If you're playing as DPS you will notice that the timer for getting into RDF normal is very high and sometimes it can take more than 20 min to find a group but luckily there is a method to bypass this, You can use one of the methods below:
A) Try to do quests in northrend after hitting 80 as much as you can each quest gives you gold which we need for the next part of the guide.
either you can get this gold by doing every quest or just do argent tournament dailies each day to get gold from it.
B) (recommended) Make an alt with herbalism and mining and start gathering herbs and mines in storm peaks and icecrown the reason that this is a better method is you get a lot of gold and also you can use this character to gather materials for your main because you do not want to have gathering professions on your main and you can use the stats boost for raiding.
Ultimately if you can just spam RDF as tank or healer it will be faster but I recommend to always have an alt for gathering regardless.
After gathering some gold you can start buying ilvl264 items from AH(Auction house) to get geared faster for RDF HC and you can also use this gear for longer till you find a good replacement.
Ideally you do not want to buy legs,chest,helm,gloves,feet beacuse you can buy Item tier set 9(T9) with your emblems of triumph but you don't need 5 of them to get set bonus so for example for warlock you can get the chest which is Merlin's Robe and rest tier set.
For standard heroic dungeon finder, you will need approximately 180 average item level.
Items you can get from AH to get geared faster
Cloth gears + weapons and miscellaneous(Ring,Neck) from lowest price to most expensive ones(current prices on Icecrown server):
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Leather gears + weapons and miscellaneous(Ring,Neck) from lowest price to most expensive ones(current prices on Icecrown server):
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Mail gears + weapons and miscellaneous(Ring,Neck) from lowest price to most expensive ones(current prices on Icecrown server):
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Plate gears + weapons and miscellaneous(Ring,Neck) from lowest price to most expensive ones(current prices on Icecrown server):
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After getting to RDF HC
Start by saving emblems of triumph to buy your tier 9 sets After you're done with that you have to do these things each week:
* Join for VoA 10 and 25 man each week to get your tier 10 set items (even if you're low just say you're 5K gs and they will invite you they don't care)
*Every day do one heroic RDF to get emblem of frost these are used to buy T10 set pieces
*Look chat for ICC rep farm, it doesn't require gear to join just you go inside ICC and kill some mobs to get your finger which is 277ilvl BiS item for you
*Try to get into groups for ToC 10 and ToC 25 to get some items from there as well
*If by everything you're doing you're still missing GS to join for raids then consider buying some gear.
*By now you can start doing ICC 10 normal and later ICC 25 normal
Thank you for reading this guide if you like it share , like and comment if you want to add something please do
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How to gear up in wotlk after 80 (Complete version)
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thanks bro appreciate it
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Its a good guide, only one problem with it - you said join VoA at 5k gs, the thing is, no one will accept you to join any ****ing raid unless you are 5.7 gs + achiev. There is Simply no way to gear only because people will only accept geared players to raid groups. If you ask them what they recommend, they'll link you to an item from another raid which you will never get because you are low gs and no one will accept you yet agaun
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Great guide. Though I just noticed a minor error. For gear set effects, you need helm, shoulders (instead of feet that you stated), chest, legs, and gloves. So you can go ahead and buy any ilvl 264 feet gears from AH no problem.
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Great guide, unfortunately you forgot one thing. You need ICC 25 gear to get accepted into ANY RAID.
The only way to get geared for raid in current state of icecrown is to get gear for coins.
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Yeah, most of the PUG leaders will only accept 5.7k GS + achievement, because it’s easier for them that way. They don’t know if you actually know what you’re doing, and gear can compensate for some mistakes. Also, higher GS usually means the player has already been in some raids, or at least is an adult who can buy gear—unlike some kids.
But sometimes, you can catch someone who accepts lower GS, mainly in chill alt runs or late pre-reset raids (Monday, Tuesday).
Also if you have time to play consistently, best option is joining good guild that is progressing. They will accept you with a lot lower gs if they know you are a good player or wont mind teaching and boosting you a little, because its investment into the future for them. But sometimes people play irregularly and cant or dont want guild, ok.
If noone accepts you into PUGs and you are without the guild, then just start your own raid. I know it’s easier said than done, and it’s definitely a lot of work, but you can start ICC even with a 5k GS character. Accept a mix of high-low GS players (you’ll need at least one high GS tank and one high GS healer) and go for ICC 10 Normal. Get your Emblems of Frost and buy T10 gear right away with the reputation for BiS 277 ilvl ring as side dish. Just don’t reserve anything, be kind, explain everything, and run a chill raid that helps you and others get out of the low GS trap.
I did exactly that with my feral druid alt, and we managed to kill 8/12 on my first try—with a 4k GS mage in the group. (His friend, a 6k GS ppal/retri, was part of the deal—I accepted them as a package. The mage never messed anything up, and we geared him through the run, so his average DPS was over 5k by the end.)
If you’re new to raid leading, I’d recommend first trying some weekly Q raids like Naxx, ICC rep farm or VoA (in rep farm and VoA you can ress whatever you want). After a few successful smaller raids, go ahead and try ICC.
And if you dont have the knowladge, set up and/or skill to play and lead the raid like that, there is still hope for you. You can get some higher gs PvP gear to boost you into some first raids. You can get basicaly free honors by doing Wintergrasp weekly Q, or you can actually join WS battle, or random BG. With honor you can buy 264 ilvl offpieces. For some classes (feral, war and so on) PvP gear is just too big of drop in performance, but some classes like DK perform okay with it, even trough some raid leaders still dont like to see it.
Sidenote on why some classes shouldnt use PvP gear and for some its kind of okay or even advised? Well feral, war, hunter and classes like that get huge boost from all stats like ARP, while unholy DK or retry paladin doesnt benefit from ARP too much, and a lot of PvE gear they can get is ARP gear. If you replace 232 ilvl PvE ARP gear with 251 or 264 PvP gear you will actually do more dmg thanks to higher crit and STR, even trough resil is wasted stat in PvE for DPS it will still end up better. And for tanks like blood DK are PvP items even better. They offer a lot of stamina, sometimes even more then PvE tank items of similar ilvl and they actually benefit from resilience. If you are 5k gs half-*** tank and you are not defense capped (540 deff), you can look how much crit hit reduction you get from your deffense and get to your desired 6 % crit immunity using some resilience which also reduces crit hit chance. You will maybe get 4 % from you PvE tank gear trough deff stat, and 2 % from few high ilvl PvP items that can replace your lowest ilvl offpieces.
Now when we know PvP gear can be sometimes kind of okay in PvE performancewise and also leaders sometimes wont check for it in lower PvE raid content like ToC or ICC 10 normal i may add haw you can efficiently get 232 (honor) or even 251(arena point) PvP set items (head and chest) to greatly boost your overall gs. If you have partner, or second account you can join 2s arena every week with 4 chars in team and play 5 games on 2 of them and second 5 games on the other 2. In that way you can get your weekly arena points (and 251 ilvl set pieces by extension) for up to 4 chars at the time with nearly no work, because you just need 10 games of your team played and to be in more then 30 % of them. You dont need to win any of them, just go for 10 games and after a week you will get 261 AP on every char. So after 4 weeks worth of AP using that method and few random BGs you can have your 251 ilvl PVP set chest and head both offering 430 gs.
Another sidenote, why do you want to buy PvP head and chest instead of other set items? Because you dont want legs and hands that can be obtained (in superior ilvl) from VoA 10 and 25 in both PvE and PvP versions, while shoulders offer smaller gs boost. Shoulder also can be bught as T9 or T10 with EoT or EoF cheaper then head or shoulders and casters can get their 264 ilvl shoulders as BoE for few golds from AH.
So i would say the 5,7k gs + achiev requeremnt to join any PUG raid is here, thats sad reality, but there definetely are ways to progress without spedning coins and by extenision real money. Sure 500 gs boost by buying 284 ilvl weapon for 23 coins is also option, and its a good option if you have money and only limited time for games. But if you dont have money to spare or are against any pay to win, there are ways to progress, even to progress efficiently and there is actually lot of them.Edited: April 29, 2025
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For anyone diving deeper into WoW private servers, I found a helpful resource that sorts servers by expansion and rating—worth checking out for comparisons and updates.
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This is the best advice in my opinion.
If you find a guild large enough and with quiet people, then you can already get decent equipment from the dungeons and with the emblems you initially buy set 232 and some 245 items.
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what's the resource?
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yeah it's a truly sad reality that most public raids require 'insensible' gs + achievement which automatically hinder newbies joining raids to gear up, after toc & voa. As if newbies/low gs aren't allowed to upgrade. it has happened to me for quite some time until recently I've met a few RLs who welcomed lower gs to join ICC 10 & 25. Quite rare occasions though. Otherwise, dead end for me. Didn't expect this to happen, especially for a veteran returning player like me, when I started playing this game again after nearly 20 years. Back then, public raids were more sensible & friendly. Good old times. How time flies.. :)
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This guide forget to mention that once you hit lvl 80, you can also acquire PVP GEAR wich allows you to gear up even faster.
Also Rdf in normal version, is completely dead. so no, you can't just hit that button and hope it will turn into gold.
what i would recommend you do instead when you ding 80 :
- go to the Auction House, and SELL all your stuff. especially the HASTE potions you just got. pick a gathering profession either herbalism or mining. SELL EVERY DAMN ORE. don't bother smelting it. the goal is to make GOLD.
- click on your "y" button to see how many point of achievement you have. if you don't have 1000 yet, go explore and get the world explorer achv.
this will allow you to start as soon as possible collect points on warmane website, with wich you can get free gear on the store.
- check your interface, display by pressing "esc" and make sure *show item lvl * is selected and click ok. item lvl will show on your gear now. this is important to have when trying to gear up, as higher item lvl means better gear.
- if you want to start having fun and do some pvp without waiting to be BiS in every slot, then the best ways is to go to Wintergrasp. there, you can gear up for PVP pretty fast. make sure you do the weekly quests there, as they give GOLD and HONOR.
- Always replace the gear with the lower item lvl first. Once you have around 3400gs, you should be able to do Heroics RDF now. GRIND this for emblems of triumph ALL DAY LONG then go get your 4/5 gear set at the vendors in dalaran.
IF you have some friends and want to go even faster, try the Forge of Souls/ Pit of Saron wich is located in the icecrown map. there, you will get the best gear you can have before raids. i don't recommend going there alone, since the only peope that goes there are usually already in groups. also the less gear you have the less chance they will pick you up.
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