So as a returning player I was told to do the “hunt”? and super bloom. I did those, got a quest to do X mythics and you get a “cache”. Are there any other things I can do to get better gear or is it just spam keys hoping to get in and then hoping RNG favors me? So much has changed I’m not sure what the correct process is when trying to get great gear to be able to raid. Thanks for your help and time. Have a wonderful week. <3
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There are 3 weekly quests in the emerald dream that give 441 gear. Sounds like you did one of them with superbloom, theres another to plant 5 seeds and another to earn rep there. Those are both in the main camp there. You can also do the world boss there, but good luck getting loot from that.
The rewards from previous patch world events like the suffusion camp or dreamsurges or researchers under fire or time rifts have had their gear updated to be in the 420s I believe. Emerald Dream questlines will also get you 418ish I think gear as you go through them.
Depending on how you value time vs gold, you can also just buy 418-424 gear off the AH to fill on gaps.
Its pretty easy to get to 425-430 from the open world stuff. After that, yeah its pretty much just running dungeons or lfr. You can also turn 30 whelp crests into an enchanted whelp crest via work orders from enchanters which a crafter can use to make 447 gear that doesn’t need a spark. And at this point you can get 3 sparks to use for crafting 463 gear. (I usually do weapons first with these)
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well timewalking is an especially good way to gear a fresh 70. Additionally if you go east of valdrakken every hour on the hour you can do the time rift event (search “rift” nearing the top of the hour in custom group finder) and you can use the item you get from your first time rift to upgrade your weakest gear slot to make your character closer to the threshold to do LFR
Brain lets out smoke as gears can be heard crunching What spark what for whelp who wha…I…what? This is so different than before.
I got a few pieces for cheap from the vendor, but not enough. >.<
Oh sorry, I guess my brain took “returning player” as returning after already having played dragonflight at some point.
Crests are a new upgrade component, similar to valor in the past. You can use them to upgrade the item level of gear, they have different tiers and upgrade limits based on the level of the content you run. Sparks are a time gated crafting component. You can craft endgame quality gear, but it requires these sparks as a component and you only get 1 every two weeks. If youve gotten a “splintered spark of dreams” that’s what those are for.
Having said all that, you can absolutely just run dungeons and raids this expansion and gear that way. There are no systems to keep up with or hoops to jump through.
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Good grief that’s a lot of change. I did some BFA bit of SL but before last major expac was WoD. So I came back and I see every thing and I’m just like…“where’s the -you are here- map so I can not be lost.”
Timewalking if you’re a tank or healer, camp out in Superbloom if you’re a dps (or do both) and just do everything there until you exhaust everything, you’ll end up with an entire set of Adventurer 418 gear plus some 441s I believe.
For the hard quests, like the ones that award the 431 ring or whatever it is, just look for groups in the custom group finder or create your own, I had to create my own but people joined rather quickly, the key is having a proper title so people know what they’re joining into. You only need like 3 people for it, helps if you have a tank though.
Another thing you don’t really see stated much, is just downgrading your key to +2 and +3 repeatedly and hosting those keys, people will join, trust me. They are effortless, nothing to lose keys and you can start getting the currency and gear you need to push forward doing that. Currently doing that on my BDK alt, I’m not downgrading my own key: which brings me to my next tip: When searching out keys, literally just type “+2” into the search and hit enter, it will show all keys that begin with a 2, so you will get 20 keys, but you’ll also see +2s. It’s probably more effective to search +3 since not many people are running +30 keys lol.
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Type 1 2 3 in the search and you’ll only get 2’s.
It always shows one below and one above if you put a single number in. So if you type 12, your results will be 11 - 13. But if type 11 12 13 it will only show 12’s because only 12 meets the +1 -1 rule for all 3 numbers.
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Yeah you can be kinda creative with the search bar.
This is what I do when breaking into m+ on a new alt. Any search will show keys 1 above and below, so a +3 search will give you 1-3, and when you’re ready to start farming wyrm crests, searching +12 will give you all wyrm-level keys without having to deal with the 2nd affix yet.
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Thanks I did a +8 earlier with lower end gear and did well. It’s just managing to find good groups who will take you in. I’ve been spam applying into lower keys. I get one eventually the only issue is about 75% of the keys haven’t given me any gear and when it does it’s for the few items I managed to get filled by the purple caches. RNG tiny toe to the door frame. x.x
This is Blizzard’s way of getting you to run the raid and farm crests for gear upgrades.
Normal raids will basically invite anyone and it might be quicker to run lower keys and upgrade with crests than running higher ones and hoping for a drop. It is always good to run 1 high key that’s outside your comfort zone for the vault though.
"Dear Blizzard,
Please stop…I just returned to the game not long ago. I just would like good gear. Please be merciful unto me. You didn’t even explain how these things work and just threw us into the fire.
Sincerely,
Overwhelmed returning player"
Yeah I’ve no idea where to go to even use those to upgrade, how to do it or even what all gives crests / items/ runes/ doodads/ tokens/ trinkets/ odds and ends / whatever to do all this. x.x
Any Gear Upgrade vendor will do it. There is one in the building in Valdrakken with the dummies and PVP stuff. The currency exchange vendor is in Emerald Dream, I forget the name of the main camp, but the portal takes you there. The portal to ED over by the Transmog building kinda.
I wouldn’t worry about the crests. I would just play the game, do my desired level of content, then see what crests I obtained later. Being “gear upgrade” driven will drive you mad when you first return to the game in my opinion.
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Fresh 70? Here’s some tips. All ilvl shown here is base, and can be bumped by an additional 22 ilvl (except for Hero/Myth tracks, explained below) with the upgrade system.
Battleground PvP (ilvl 415 honor, 454 conquest):
-Get full honor, than start queueing from BG Blitz. Get the initial quest from Malicia in Valdrakken, at the PvP vendor area, then the follow up.
-Take other BG quests if so inclined.
-It’s a lot of conquest just for participating, from the quests. Then each BG Blitz win = 50 conquest, and each loss is 25 conquest.
-PvP now auto bumps your gear to at least ilvl 450 on random BGs, and 472 on bg blitz.
PvE only
Once a week for base 441 gear (sometimes you get it slightly upgraded), all on the Emerald Dream, which is the latest zone:
-Superbloom: you get gear from the quest, dewdrops from the event, and a seed from the final boss.
-Dream Rep. Weekly (1500 rep. Superbloom alone drops a 1000 rep token)
-Seed Planting Weekly (plant 5 seeds, acquisition is easy on main due to somnuts, which are random treasures on the map, but a PITA on alts due to a bug, if your main is over renown level 10. You gotta rely on quests, rares and WQs to find new seeds)
-World Boss: Aurostor (quest name Hiberation Heroes) has a chance to drop good gear (454 IIRC) and almost always drops a seed.
Every hour, but the best outcome is semi-guaranteed only once a week:
-Time Rift (for trinkets): Located between Valdrakken and Tyrhold. Check the map.
At the same time, you can queue for Heroics/Timewalking for ilvl 428 gear.
Then, if you’re so inclined, you can hop on the M+ treadmill. M+ 2-6 are complete cakewalks at ilvl 415+.
M+ gear mainly comes weekly from the vault, don’t expect to get much from it directly.
As I said in other topics, too much information on the game is unfortunately outside of it.
To upgrade gear, some special NPCs are available.
One of them is located in the PvP area in Valdrakken.
Just talk to him, put the gear there, and upgrade if you have the necessary currency, it’s not hard.
There are 6 tiers of gear now, with different ilvl:
Explorer (415 base) > Adventurer (428 base) > Veteran (441 base) > Champion (454 base) > Hero (467 base - only goes up to 483) > Myth (480 base - only goes up to 489)
All upgrades need a new currency, “flightstone”, which you get from a lot of sources, end of dungeon, some quests and WQs, planting seeds etc.
To upgrade to ilvl 437, flightstones are all you need.
From 437 to 450 you need an additional currency, Whelpling Crests. (from most mundane stuff, end of heroic/TW dungeons etc.)
450-463, you need drake crests (drops in epic seeds sometimes, some events in the world)
463-476, wyrm crests (drops in normal raids and mid level M+, 12 IIRC)
476-489, aspect crests (drops in heroic+ raids and high level M+, starts at 16 IIRC)
You can google DF S3 chart gear for a visual chart of the above.
Tip: Don’t bother upgrading gear from upgrade tracks you don’t expect to use for long. Never upgrade explorer gear, choose wisely which adventurer gear to upgrade, and focus on using your flightstones/crests on veteran+ gear, unless you’re drowning in flightstones.
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This needs to be pinned and on a “welcome back to WoW guide” some where.
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