gearing up in 3.1

[Anelya]

Hey, so i haven't played this patch before and i wonder what i should do now that i hit 80. I play a mage and i plan to do both pvp and pve. If anyone could point me to a guide or explain some stuff here i would be grateful

[Dozorto1]

PvE:
prio is to get a guild, which will streamline the whole process

As a fresh 80, keep doing quests from reputaion chains to get gold and an acces to faction items. Those, along with BoEs bought on ah will allow you to jump into RHC train. Heroics reward you with emblems, which you exchange for items in dalaran. Dungeons and quests (as a mage, dungeon waiting time is long, so you might just as well make some profit in between) give gold, which is spent on more boes. At roughly 3.5k gs you can join naxx/voa/OS.

Don't do walk-ins, it's a waste of time. Maxed reputations (kirin tor, hodir, ebon, wyrmest and argent) will give you items/gold to acces RHC.
Joining a guild is THE move. To help it: make sure you know your class, you have pve spec, two raiding professions and at least a 'I-watched-it-on-YT' experience of raid encounters.
gl hf