Wingood gearing up on BoJs and heroic 70s

Now that Wingood has reached level 70, I’ve decided to take a break from questing for a moment in order to obtain a few idols for his general benefit. One thing that Wingosa never got to experience was grouping up while levelling. In total I think she had 3 groups in the whole time she levelled, with the group in Nexus being the most embarassing: When we were wiping on the the mage, the paladin DI’d the priest, to which I stated “Yay for priest bubbles”. At that point, I was laughed at, asked how much I’d ebayed the character for, etc. For someone that was on their first character that had soloed (or been run) up to that point it’s a perfectly valid mistake to make .

Wingood on the other hand has been receiving whispers all through levelling from people wanting him to tank or heal (but never to dps). If I join any LFG queue within 10 minutes I will have a group, if I’m not in any LFG queue I will often have at least two whispers an hour requesting my services. I’ve now run UK at least three times, and started Nexus at least three times (never have managed to finish it due to other commitments or wiping). Never had any major problem in either role, but never seen all that much drop for feral or leather drop for resto. Have seen plenty of spellpower mail drop, which would be good for the ele or resto shaman if their was ever one in the group. Have seen plenty of mail drop, which would be good if their was ever anything more than one DK or warrior in the group (never been with a paladin). But if I was a rogue, almost nothing would have dropped, and if I couldn’t wear cloth I would still be in pre-bc gear for my resto.

I have since decided that I would like to upgrade my idols to be something a bit more appropriate to tanking and healing than the quest reward from level 61. The Idol of the Wild, a green item received as a quest reward for Colossal Menance (level 61 quest in Hellfire Peninsula) simply states: “Increases the damage dealt by Mangle (Cat) by 30 and the damage dealt by Mangle (Bear) by 52.” This idol is currently being used across all specs, and it is completely useless for restoration specs and minimally useful at this level for either feral form, hence my decision to replace it. So looking at the “various” sources of idols, there appears to be very few choices:

1. Very late level quest reward (feral cat form only).
2. 30 Venture Coins (3 dailies in Venture Bay, requires level 74).
3. Emblems of Valour, Emblems of Conquest, Emblems of Triumph (WotLK heroics and raids)
4. 20 Badges of Justice (Burning Crusade heroics and raids)

Of these options at level 70 only one option exists: Badges of Justice. Soon Venture Coins will become available that can be traded in for some nice idols which I will likely use at end game for a while until plenty of emblems are spare. The stats on both the relevant Venture Coins and Badge of Justice idols are below:

• Idol of Terror (BoJ): Your Mangle ability has a chance to grant 65 agility for 10 sec.
• Idol of Perspicacious Attacks (VC): Increases the damage dealt by your Maul ability by 120 and Swipe ability by 24.

• Idol of Budding Life (BoJ): Reduces the mana cost of Rejuvenation by 36.
• Idol of Pure Thoughts (VC): Increases the periodic healing of Rejuvenation by 33.

Looking at these idols, I’m thinking the highest priorities will be Idol of Terror for levelling and tanking up until my mitigation is not an issue, as the extra agility converts to ~1% dodge, increased crit (1%?)and 130 armour whenever it procs. Once mitigation is no longer an issue though threat will be the major factor, for which damage of Maul and Swipe is a major contributor, so at that point the Idol of Perspicacious Attacks will become very important. For restoration, Idol of Budding Life will help while mana restoration is still an issue, but at the point that mana restoration becomes a non issue the Idol of Pure Thoughts is obviously superior.

Now, obviously the Emblems of Conquest/Triumph idols are far superior, but as I will already require about 400 of these just to buy the 2 tier sets (tree and bear, ignoring cat form) I am not looking forward to farming more of these for the idols until the rest of the gear has been bought and gemmed. As such, the Venture Coin idols will probably serve me until about when Icecrown is released when Emblems of Triumph become easy to obtain (with the new Dungeon System).

So yeah, have been running heroic rampants, blood furnace and Isle of Quel’Danas for the BoJ’s, all three of which I was able to tank and heal without issue, with a Zul’Aman raid coming up tonight. Zul’Aman should help with gear and will make levelling easier, and will result in enough badges to get my first idol! Now the choice … I’m thinking Idol of Terror.

Looking forward to it.

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