Patch 3.2 is going to come out - tomorrow!. And typically I have a shiny loot list for you to tear up, digest happily and take you through the rest of your day.
And I do...
kinda sorta. The thing is...that list is incomplete. It doesn't have all the Naxx gear, all the Ulduar gear, and is missing a lot of the 3.2 gear because it's not on Wowhead.
And it's significantly harder to do a gear ranking without the gear being in the ranking system.
That being said, I can make some early pointers to get you through the next couple of days. We do know a few things that'll make it a bit easier:
- The trial of the Champion is the new 10 and 25 man raid. And in the first week...one boss will be available. That boss will be the deadly "Not one but TWO Jormungar" Northrend Beast encounter. So...we'll only focus on that loot for right now.
- The trial of the Crusader is the 5-man instance. It will drop Champion Seals on heroic difficulty as well as Emblems of Conquest. It will also be in the rotation for the daily heroic. All items that drop from it are ilvl 213, and are significantly better-itemized than a lot of Naxxramas gear. And because almost all of it has been previewed, I can actually talk about almost all of it; this article will focus on it quite a bit.
- While there won't be new arena gear for a bit that you can get with arena rating(that'll be happening soon) there will be new Wintergrasp rewards and a new Wintergrasp boss. All evidence points to that boss dropping Relentless-level PvP gear. Even if he doesn't, the new Titan-forged gear is still competitive and often better than what you can get via emblems of conquest, at least for bears.
- While there are some very sexy new craftable pieces, you can't get them in the first week; they require both a rare drop to happen and a rare orb from the bosses to happen.
- There will be no hard mode raids available for the first week. Or really, the first 5 weeks.
- Epic gems are coming out - and they will cost honor (10k per gem), emblems of heroism (20 for the red,yellow and blue, 10 for the green, orange and purple), can be prospected from Titanium Ore and can be transmuted once a day by an alchemist. Note Alchemists must transmute all 5 other types before they learn how to transmute reds.
- Because the maximum amount of emblems of triumph you can earn in the first week is 18 (2 per raid boss on any difficulty), you cannot mathematically buy any T9 gear in the first week. So don't worry about it! You should, if it drops from the raid boss, try and get the Trophy of the Champion if possible - you absolutely will want tier pieces. But you don't need to worry about it too much.
Anyway, from that we can actually start looking at gear a bit. Again, these aren't perfect ratings that are mathematically super awesome; these are basically me eyeballing things and telling you what to look for on the loot tables. I'll do the math when wowhead's been updated.
This will also be for bear and cat - I'll give a 'ranking' for each in slot, based on what I know of the item tables (and if I can do it, based off of the loot ranking I've used in the past). Also, the first item listed is the alliance version of the piece, the second is horde. They're identical save the name and model of the item.
25-man Coliseum:Leggings of the Broken Beast/
Legwraps of the Broken Beast (legs) - drops from 25-man Northrend Beasts.(#1 cat, #1 bear)- these are almost exactly the same as the T9.245 legs - same stamina, same agility, same AP, and same hit rating. They're slightly better than the T9 for cats because of the haste, but cats want that 2p and 4p bonus (at least so far), so it's not like it's a big upgrade. I'd still roll on these anyway if possible for bear; they will beat every single item from Ulduar that you can think of. Depending on how you do your set bonuses though, you may want to skip on this for cats. They're a significant upgrade over most things in Ulduar (not over
hardmode Yogg's legs though) and they may not be worth losing out on a set bonus if you have to.
Drape of the Untamed Predator/
Cloak of the Untamed Predator (back)- drops from 25-man Northrend Beasts (#2 cat, #20ish bear) - these have the highest base agility so far on a cloak, and have significant crit, haste and AP. What they don't have are sockets, making
Drape of the Faceless General significantly better. Still, good cloaks are hard to find, and this is a good one. For bears, of course, it's useless.
10-Man Coliseum:Acidmaw Boots/
Acidmaw Treads (feet) - drops from 10-man Northrend Beasts (#6 bear, #4 cat). This is currently the best foot option available for cats; while there will be others down the road, this is the best at the first week's inception. They're a bit weak simply because of all that hit and expertise - for some cats, they'll be great, but for others it'll be a waste. On the Bear side, they're not quite as good overall as
Runed Ironhide, but they're a great threat piece and will remain so for a while.
Collar of Ceaseless Torment/
Collar of Unending Torment - (neck) - drops from 10-man Northrend Beasts (#3 cat, #20ish bear). This ranking isn't super great, but note that the neck does beat out most things from Ulduar and only loses to
Seed of Budding Carnage and
Pendulum of Infinity. Heck, and that 'loss' is by a whopping .4 points or so. It's definitely a nice piece and may be better than anything short of hard modes, given that the other piece that is known doesn't have armor pen. Obviously for bears it's not that useful.
Wintergrasp:Titan-Forged Leather Leggings of Triumph (legs) - obtained from 40 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor (#30ish cat, #7 bear). These aren't the best ever and aren't as good as T9, but they are better than any piece in Ulduar save
Leggings of Cunning Deception (hardmode Yogg-25) and are better than the 232-level T9 gear. That being said, they're not that significant of an upgrade over Conqueror, and are worse than Furious Legs. Only get it if you're really desperate or have WG marks to burn.
Titan-Forged Armwraps of Triumph (wrist) - obtained from 15 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor (30ish cat, #8 bear) - much like the legs, these are decent and better (barely than some pieces in Ulduar, but not as good as the hardmodes in Ulduar, not as good as other pvp pieces, and not really exciting.
Heroic Trial of the Crusader (5-man):Mark of the Relentless (ring) - obtained from heroic trial of the Crusader (bad for cat, #6 for bear). This is a pretty solid tanking ring, especially given that it's so low item level. It beats out everything save
Fate's Clutch. If you're wondering why, it's simply the socket - a blue socket in a tanking ring that also gives stamina? It's just a huge stamina ring for bears, basically. It's just barely better than
Leviathan's Coil and doesn't have big armor, so it might be a situational thing, but you should likely grab it unless you have two rings that can have more stamina than this.
Treads of Dismal Fortune (feet) -obtained from heroic trial of the Crusader (#8 for cat, #13 for bear). A shockingly decent piece, again. Not stellar for bears - Ulduar gear beats it handily, as do Polar pieces and a few Naxx pieces - but for cats, it's about 10% below Runed Ironhide thanks to that great socket. If you've been unlucky, this isn't the worst piece.
Mask of Distant Memory (head) - obtained from heroic trial of the Crusader (#17 for bears, #13 for cats). This isn't that bad either. It's actually better than the T7.25 head for bears, and better than the T8.10 for cats. Don't kill yourself to get it, but consider it if you're not super well geared.
Armbands of the Wary Lookout (wrist) - obtained from trial of the Crusader (#14 for bears, #6 for cats). That's right - while these are about 10% better than the
Valorous gear token turnin bracers for bears, they're great for cats; they're better than anything in Ulduar save
Fluxing Energy Coils. They're very good and shockingly well-itemized. If you're looking for something to drop in the 5-man, this is your piece - at least if you're a cat.
Ancient Pendant of Arathor (neck) - obtained from heroic trial of the Crusader (#40ish for bears, #10 for cats). A serviceable cat neck, it's not nearly as good as the
conquest-badge neck (about 20% worse) - so don't bother unless you're really hurting for a good piece here.
The Warlord's Depravity (neck) -obtained from heroic trial of the Crusader (#40ish for cats, #20ish for bears). Really, just don't - there are plenty of other pieces that are better.
Marrowstrike (weapon) - obtained from heroic trial of the Crusader (#30ish for bears, #20ish for cats) - This is on par with many of the weapons from Naxx-25 for cats; it's around Black Ice/Inevitable Defeat levels. If you need something around that level, this is a good piece to try and grind. For bears, note that there are a lot of other options that are better and easier to get, such as the
Champion Token weapons.
Normal Trial of the Crusader (5-man):Gloves of the Argent Fanatic (hands) - obtained from normal trial of the Crusader (20ish for bears, 20ish for cats). Not horrible, but there are better
obtained from Emblems for both. Only if you're really desperate.
Leggings of Brazen Trespass (legs) - obtained from normal trial of the Crusader (20ish for bears, 15 for cats). Oddly decent for cats. Still, better can be
found for Emblems.
Shoulderpads of the Infamous Knave (shoulders) - obtained from normal trial of the Crusader (20ish for bears, 15 for cats). Oddly decent for cats. And until you get enough
Triumph emblems to get Duskstalkers, these may be your best bet, sadly, for cat. They're only slightly worse than T8.10 shoulders, if you're curious.
Belt of Fierce Competition (waist) - obtained from normal trial of the Crusader (20ish for bears, 12 for cats). This was another surprise, though vendors have
a better belt that's easily obtained. Still, if you're broke this isn't a bad piece given the armor pen.
Uruka's Band of Zeal (ring) -obtained from normal trial of the Crusader (40ish for bears, 30 for cats). Even with all the ring problems I've had I'd still turn this down. Just badly itemized for either. Skip it.
Banner of Victory (trinket) - obtained from normal trial of the Crusader (50ish for bears,?? for cats). I'm not quite sure how valuable this is. It's not nearly as good as (for example) Grim Toll; it gives 84 consistent armor pen instead of about 150 armor pen over time. However, the proc rate, if it's similar to Grim Toll, may make this better than or at least equivalent to Darkmoon Card:Greatness. I'd definitely grab it if you're running this and/or are under the armor pen cap, and I'll try and figure out how great it is later. Rawr, for instance, ranks it as #5 behind Mjolnir, Grim, Comet's Trail and DM:G, and about 40 points higher than Mirror of Truth.
The Black Heart (Trinket) - obtained from normal trial of the Crusader (?? for bears, 50ish for cats). Another one I'm not quite sure how good it is. While it gives less stamina than
Royal Seal of King Llane, the proc is exceptionally nice against hard-hitting mobs. Currently the theorycrafting says that the proc rate/cooldown is around 10 seconds for 45 seconds, meaning that you'd get roughly 1700 armor from this. Rawr ranks this as better than any trinket currently in the game. Definitely go after this one.
Anyway, hope that helps for either tomorrow or next Tuesday. A longer list will be coming, honest. :)