What does 'prepping' a char for SL mean?

Casual here, so maybe this is a stupid question. I keep seeing people say they’re prepping characters for SL. What does that mean, other than leveling them to 120? Won’t the borrowed power going away mean that any lvl 120 will be ‘ready’ for SL, or am I missing something?

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I think it means they’re getting them filled with gold to buy gear and enchants at max level. Also getting them to a good gear level so they can plow through questing fast.

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For me it’s leveling a alt I plan on maining because I switched mains after BfA.
Going back to my roots and going back to maining a DK, done with Warlock forever.

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Being 120, having a certain amount of gear to make it easier to level from 50 to 60, gold for materials, everything else is mostly just fluff. Maybe running old content before the squish breaks a few things like soloing Legion raids before hitting 60 or getting mounts that will be reduced to <1% drop rate after the patch drops.

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Mostly acquiring gold and getting your gear in a good place so you can tear through SL content. Also means cleaning out your bags and bank vault of stuff no longer relevant.

I would think trying to get the best armor of this expansion so leveling in SL goes easier/smoother when fighting things

Get to max level, honestly, you gear up in quest greens at the start of an expansion.

This is what I think when I hear “Prepping” for an expansion.

  • Getting a good bit of gear on your main to make initial questing as quick and easy as possible. Stronger character means faster starting experience.
  • Research and familiarize yourself with class changes and any changes/macros you may need to make. PTR is a good place to prep WeakAura changes or set up macros in advance for changes that are coming so on launch you can easily copy/paste stuff to your live character. It’s also a good time to consider if you will be changing mains or not in the expansion.
  • Making sure you have professions up to snuff/the professions you want. This one is not AS important as it use to be ever since they split each expansion’s professions into their own thing though. For gold maker’s, however, its good to plot out what professions they want to have for gold making. For example, the 5% EXP gain gem had its ilvl requirement removed in the Beta and will probably be a hot seller for people leveling new toons with SoO heirlooms.
  • Making sure you have collected the things that will be going away when the pre-patch/expansion hits. Things like the Brutosaur, Ahead of the Curve/Cutting Edge, the Horrific Vision’s Faceless title, etc. Wowhead does guides on stuff like this to make it easier to see what will be going away come pre-patch.
  • Build up a good supply of Gold so that at the start of the expansion you are all set for things like crafting materials, profession training, consumables/enchants, etc. as well as any fun things you may want from vendors or other players.
  • Getting alts ready for the expansion with supplementary professions. For example, my main is a Crafter/Crafter but I have a druid alt that is both Herbalism and Mining.
  • Cleaning out your bags and banks of stuff that will no longer be relevant to make sure you have as much open space as available (totally didn’t steal this from Silverhorn who posted below me because I actually forgot about this)
  • Clean out your quest log, finish any quests you had been holding off on and get rid of everything that is unnecessary so you have a fresh quest log to work with for the expansion!
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Cleaning bank and filling pockets with gold to be ready to go when expansion drops.

People can also stock some utility potions and flasks but that’s tryhard too much.

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To me it’s mostly moving my characters to Stormwind and emptying their bank.

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Leveling them. Getting some gear for leveling. Getting professions up to sell stuff on auction house on expansion launch. Doing quests to get xp on launch day. Stuff like that.

for me it is dumping old mats and items to make room for new stuff to hoard:

  • offspec azerite gear
  • champion equipment
  • item components (like the gaze of n’zoth & battle bot pet parts)
  • nerfed items (like bear tartare, last expansion)

For me it means getting the transmogs, titles, and mounts I will be using for that character. Cleaning up bags and bank etc. Maybe stocking up on some consumables that will continue to be relevant.

Basically just working on things that carry over to the next expansion.

Other than having all my alliance alts at 120 and as many horde alts as possible, it means getting stuff done that’s going away with shadowlands prepatch, like the mad world achievement and getting the brutosaur.

It really doesn’t meaning anything.

All it really means if finishing up what you can in the previous expansion.

So farming as much gold as possible, finishing out achievements, or leveling alts to max level you haven’t done so with yet

To prep a character for the next expansion I;

Level them to max if they aren’t already.

Gear them to an ilevel I feel will help at the start of an expansion.

Take them to the bank and empty their bags. Mats and BoEs get put into the Guild Bank, but everything else is stuck into their bank.

Change their Hearthstone to Stormwind.

That’s about it, as far as I can remember.

But this usually applies to whichever side I’m playing for the expansion.
Except for my Tailors. They’re trapped in the Garrison making bags for eternity.

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To me it just means doing everything I can to ensure a smooth transition. That and tying up loose ends but this expansion has felt like one giant loose end so I’m not as keen on that.

Parking it near ICC and logging out until launch day.

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Creating a number of transmog outfits so I look and feel cool as I progress through the madness.

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My prepping will be making sure their bags are empty lol and making sure they all have deep sea bags :heart:

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