as a returning player, fresh 120
what is the bare minimum checklist I must achieve before I can participate in the various pvp things without getting my posterior handed to me by better geared players?
The BEAR minimum? Play guardian! 
8 Likes
I would say at least unlock the neck essences and get a few of those.
The checklist is pretty big.
However make sure you do the following:
- Follow through with the Nazjatar quest chain at least up through Magni’s quest. He’ll give you a quest for Essences which are a huge source of power, and will also boost your neck to 35 + grant you the 55 iLevel that used to come from reps.
That should be your #1 priority. Don’t touch anything else in the game until you do that.
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You want to hit Neck 65 ASAP so you have access to all 3 essence slots. Doing your emissaries daily, islands, world bosses, etc weekly, and you’ll reach it pretty quick.
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In the meantime, see which essences are good for you and try to focus on content that progresses those. There’s 3 power ranks and a 4th cosmetic. Most of them are pretty good by Rank 2, and are generally easy to get too.
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Consider doing Mechagon daily for Cyclotronic Blast at Revered.
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PvE. You aren’t getting useful gear from PvP. M+ is a great source of gear especially if you have geared friends that can funnel you pieces.
(To clarify, PvP gear is decent to supplement other sources. Try to get your weekly Conquest cap done for your free piece and weekly chest + AP, but don’t expect to run bgs for a few hours and walk away feeling strong.)
3 Likes
It’s actually currently bugged and isn’t working. You’ll get the neck boost to 35, but the 55 ilvl isn’t working. I made a ticket to Blizz last week about it. They addressed it by saying yes they know its messed up but don’t currently have any answers for it and to try looking again later…
that’s the state of the game we’re in for alts…
TLDR; Don’t do any alts, expect an easy gear-up, or expect a catch-up mechanic to work. They’re too busy working on Shadowlands and Classic to actually make their game work as intended.
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that was legitimately laugh-out-loud funny…
When was this, out of curiosity?
I know it was bugged at first for boosted characters but it got fixed a week or so later for me. I just had a char go through that quest chain a week or so ago and I’m pretty sure I got all my iLevel.
Regardless it should still be the first thing they do for the other reasons, and if it is bugged again it’ll probably automatically get fixed whenever they get around to it.
Literally like last week on Tuesday or something. I did the Korrak’s Revenge to get my warlock to 120 instead of leveling through zones. I made the ticket and that was the answer I got. I cannot talk to Magni in Silithus or in the Heart Forge for the extra ilvl I am supposed to recieve for having the rep grind completed on my main.
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I forgot this wasn’t automatic…
NVM guess it is my alt lock has a 461 neck.
Same. My Rogue only had level 35 and nothing could be done to increase it besides normal AP farming. My boosted Druid had insta 55 neck though.
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yea its sad that Blizz cares so little about fixing this that they just said “meh, check again later”
its not. I literally made a ticket about this. Blizz’s literal response was this, summed up:
“yea we know, try again later”
This is exactly what i thought of when I read the title too.
Join a PvE guild and run M+ then yeah.
Re roll bear druid is bare min