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"Easy to get" Mage gear at 80 (arcane spec)

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Post by Lorkin

I put together a quick list of easy to get gear for my wife's mage. Easy to get meaning either BoE, quest rewards, crafted, low repuation rewards, PUG OS, easy Heroics, etc. Pulled some from that Elitist Jerks Non-Raid guide. Please let me know if I'm missing any "easy to get" pieces.

Head: ~~Hat of Wintry Doom~~
Neck: ~~Sky Sapphite Amulet~~ or Titanium Spellshock Necklace
~~Shoulders: Dark Runic Mantle or use the Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle that she has~~
Cloak: ~~Shroud of Dedicated Research~~ or Deathchill Cloak
Chest: Ebonweave Robe
Bracer: ~~Black Duskweave Wristwraps~~ or Azure Cloth Bindings
Gloves: Ebonweave Gloves
Belt: ~~Sash of the Wizened Wyrm~~ or Plush Sash of Guzbah
Legs: ~~Black Duskweave Leggings~~
Feet: Cleric's Linen Shoes or Sandals of Crimson Fury
Finger: ~~Runed Mana Band~~ or Signet of the Hopeful Light
Finger: ~~Titanium Spellshock Ring~~ or Wyrmrest Band
Trinket: Forge Ember or Sundial of the Exiled
Trinket: Mark of the War Prisoner or the Discerning Eye of the Beast that she has
Weapon: ~~Titansteel Spellblade~~ or use the Dignified Headmaster's Charge that she has
Offhand: Telestra's Journal or ~~Wand of the Violet Citadel~~
Wand: ~~Wand of the San'layn~~ or Rod of the Fallen Monarch

From Heroics/OS

Neck: 10 OS for Circle of Arcane Streams
Bracer: H VH for Azure Cloth Bindings
Gloves: H Nexus for ~~Gloves of Glistering Runes~~
Belt:H AN for ~~Sash of the Servant~~ or H UP for Girdle of Bane
Legs: H HoL for Woven Bracae Leggings
Ring: H UK for Annhylde's Ring or 25 OS for Wyrmrest Band
Ring: H CoT for Band of Guile
Trinket: 25 OS for Illustration of the Dragon Soul
Weapon: H Occ for Staff of Draconic Combat or 25 OS for Staff of Restraint
Wand: H AN for ~~Rod of the Fallen Monarch~~

She's arcane spec, and a bit of a nut over crit rating. I see a lot of arcane mages with haste, is this the prefered stat? There seems to be a lot of epics with haste value on them. Thanks for the help, I'm not too familiar with cloth caster gear.

Post by 220531

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Post by Lorkin

Haste is far, far, far superior to critical strike rating for arcane mages.
Can someone explain to me (or point me to a post explaining) why haste is so important for an arcane mage? Isn't the main spells Arcane Blast, Arcane Barrage, and Imp Magic (Arcane) Missle procs? ABarr is instant, and AB is 2.5 sec cast time. Does haste really improve raid damage over crit? I guess from a melee perspective (Fury warr reference) it's the opposite, Crit > Haste.

Edit: Forgot to add wowhead's weight search for Arcane Mages

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Post by 161859

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Post by brrobid

If you can get ebonweave robes, you can get spellweave robes. Arcane doesn't need nearly the hit rating that fire specs need, so, depending on your other gear, you can potentially drop the ebonweave in favor of spellweave. Same goes for the gloves.

Personally, I've found that anything from Kirin Tor, Wyrmrest Accord, Argent Crusade and Ebon Blade at any rep level are "easy" to get. Run enough heroics and you'll be exalted in no time. And have plenty of emblems for that gear too.

I haven't found it difficult to load up on pre-raid gear from EJ's list at all. My biggest problem was getting enough hit for a fire spec, without destroying my spell power, haste and crit. I gave up and went Arcane for the time being.

Post by Lorkin

Forgot to ask, what's the general mage reputation path to take? I'm assuming Kin Tor first? What's a good order and level to get the rep's up?

For example, for tanking warriors you want to hit Argent Crusader and Wyrmrest Accord to revered first. Then probably Sons of Hodir. I found Knights of the Ebon Blade and Kin Tor to the optional for tanks.

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Post by Madmick

I haven't found it difficult to load up on pre-raid gear from EJ's list at all. My biggest problem was getting enough hit for a fire spec, without destroying my spell power, haste and crit. I gave up and went Arcane for the time being.
That's because fire sucks balls. I've tried a bunch of different specs with different gears equipped, and it's just unplayable in PvP. This really !@#$es me off, because I didn't name my guy Starmind because he dreams of ice cubes. Throwing fire in people's faces is my fantasy; one I'm willing to pay for to the tune of $15 a month. WTF, Blizzard?

Post by Achloryn

I haven't found it difficult to load up on pre-raid gear from EJ's list at all. My biggest problem was getting enough hit for a fire spec, without destroying my spell power, haste and crit. I gave up and went Arcane for the time being.
That's because fire sucks balls. I've tried a bunch of different specs with different gears equipped, and it's just unplayable in PvP. This really !@#$es me off, because I didn't name my guy Starmind because he dreams of ice cubes. Throwing fire in people's faces is my fantasy; one I'm willing to pay for to the tune of $15 a month. WTF, Blizzard?

you're comparing pvp to pve... stop it.. lol

no but seriously.. i wouldn't consider fire "unplayable" in pvp, its just that most mages DON'T pvp as fire.. but that's off the topic of the thread.

@brrobid, fire gear is much more gear reliant to do well with it, but when you get the gear to perform fire well, your DPS will really open up in comparison to the other specs. Arcane appears to actually fall behind as you start moving into ulduar gear, even so much as getting to the point that frostfire will pass it as you get into ulduar gear.

Post by brrobid

@brrobid, fire gear is much more gear reliant to do well with it, but when you get the gear to perform fire well, your DPS will really open up in comparison to the other specs. Arcane appears to actually fall behind as you start moving into ulduar gear, even so much as getting to the point that frostfire will pass it as you get into ulduar gear.

Yeah, I've read all the stuff about that from you guys who are already there. My guild is at the "farming heroics/entering raids" stage, so my gear is going to be "arcane" for a while yet.

Yeah yeah, I know .. it's been out 6 months now :)

We're mostly just a bunch of casuals, with families, jobs and occasionally differing schedules. Only recently have we gotten enough of us to ding 80 to fill out a raid on a weekly basis without pugging. We've already lost a couple of our more hardcore types to guilds in Ulduar. But, the pace works for most of us, and we're getting there .. if slowly :)

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