With the dropping of 4.0.1 onto the live servers (our servers are still down at the time of writing, current ETA 1600 European time), we have the merging of badges into a single currency and the chance to grab frost gear is the best ever. However should you splash out on that shiny 264 set?
Realistically I would have to say “no”, my experience within the beta is with three toons of various gear levels.
Korenwolf – Paladin Tank
He’s the best geared toon I have, rocking in 264 and 277 ICC25 gear, he’s tanked Arthas to a kill on 25 & 10 man more than once. Currently he’s sat in Deepholm and SWMBO and myself are levelling as the traditional “tag team paladin” combo, though slightly different to previous expansions in that we’re Prot/Ret rather than Prot/Holy this time.
How much gear has he replaced, very little to be honest. The way things are looking I’m not expecting to change much until the back end of this zone or possibly in Uldum.
Namtar – DPS DK
My deathgnome, her best gear is in dps and for levelling it’s where I have the most fun when running melee solo. She’s mostly in badge gear, with the odd drop but not much else. Part way through Hyjal she’s replaced a decent chunk of the gear.
Wubbalina – Destruction Warlock
Full badge gear with a couple of raid drops. Entirely happy in ICC10 but not topping the meters. She’s replaced pretty much everything at the start of Deepholm (levelled through Vashj’ir)
Next steps
I have a mage over on the beta who’s mostly in Wrath questing and blue iLevel 200 drops, she’s currently at the start of Hyjal and I have to admit that mages aren’t my best class (as you can probably guess from her gearing). She’s going to be a no-brainer, I cannot see me turning down any of the quest drops to be honest and she’ll be in Cata greens and blues by the end of the first zone, if not earlier.
Should I spend my points now?
My money is on “no”, unless your toon is rocking seriously good gear now then it’s probably just as effective to sit on your points until level 85 and then splurge on the justice gear to pimp up your toon for dungeons and entry into heroics. The exception of course is if you have a specific need to boost your gear for something specific (mashing LK, Yoggie, etc etc).
Until then, kick back, relax and it’s only 55 sleeps until the Cataclysm hits.
