Congratz, now what do you do? It’s a dilemma I struggled with for a while after hitting 70; it was almost a let-down. I guess that’s why so many people start alts after they level their first 70. You want to go back to what’s familiar and knowing what to do.
But, I was wrong; there are tons of things to do when you reach 70. It’s just not as structured as it was when you were leveling. And there aren’t really instructions on where to begin, so I am going to try and help you get started.
I think the first thing you have to decide is what direction you want to go. Do you want to PVE (raid) or do you want to PVP (battle grounds and arena)? That’s not to say you can’t do both cause I guess you can. It’s just that I’ve learned you can’t really be very successful or contribute as much if you raid with PVP gear and PVP spec and vice versa, you can’t PVP well with PVE gear or PVE spec.
Your Spec and What It Should Be
I leveled as a frost mage. Frost is great for leveling and I’ve heard it’s the best for PVP. But I decided I wanted to raid Kara and other instances so, I had to change my spec. I did a lot of research, there is tons of stuff on the web, and I asked a bunch of mages a million questions to determine what would be best for me. So do your research (a lot of research) and ask questions (a lot of questions). You will soon discover what would be the best spec for the direction you want to go.
Your Gear and What it Should Be
Gear is another thing you have to think long and hard about. It’s time consuming to acquire, it can be expensive to make and sometimes allusive to find. It took me months to get my spellfire and spellstrike gear. I either had to make it myself or have it made for me by someone else which can be expensive. Took forever to farm the mats and in some cases a whole lot of gold to buy off the AH. But if you want to raid you’ve got to have good gear before you can do any instances or Kara for the first time. Yes, you can get some good gear in the heroic instance and Kara but if you have not invested the money and time in good gear to begin with you will not be going to any of them at all. Your gear is an important factor in determining the contribution you make during a fight. And groups are not going to want you without good gear since you and your inferior gear may be the cause of them wiping……and wiping means spending gold on repairs. Again, research; ask questions from people you know about the best gear you can get for the direction you want to go.
Getting this better gear may be a hard one. Some of it you can make yourself which brings me to professions, very very important!!! If it wasn’t for my tailoring I would not have my gear. A lot of it I can’t hire someone to make for me because it’s bind on pickup (soul bound). So if I wasn’t a tailor and didn’t make it for myself I wouldn’t have it. Which means choose a profession that will benefit YOU when you hit 70, for example: Priests, Mages, Warlocks—absolutely have to do tailoring to get good gear; Leatherworking for rogues and druids; blacksmithing for warriors, pallies and enhancement shaman’s; engineering for all classes, especially hunters. This is how you get some of your purple gear relatively quick (well sort of quick since you have to farm the mats and sometimes that can take a while). So even though I hated to do tailoring and making all that stupid stuff in the beginning it has paid off 1000 times since I hit 70. So think about the future not how boring it is now making that dumb orange shirt or those awful leather pants.
Other ways to get gear range from hiring someone to make things for you---you get the mats and they will make whatever for a nominal fee. Many items you can secure from doing battle grounds and acquiring badges that you turn in for gear. And of course there is talking some guildmates into doing an instance with you to get that upgrade you need. Check on the AH for an item or two…..but they will be expensive, probably; which brings me to acquiring gold…..
Getting Gold and Doing Dailies
No, a gold vendor is not the way to go. However, dailies are…… Dailies are quests for 70’s. There are 25 of them that you can do each day and they pay an average of 10 gold a piece. Although 6 of the quests are with the Netherwing faction and in order to get attuned for them you have to have an epic flying mount which = 5000g (hardly an amount many of us have when we reach 70---LOL). But there are daily PVP, daily heroic dungeons, daily cooking and fishing quests and other dailies scattered all over Outlands, plus new dailies in Nagrand and Terrokar (these aren’t as easily accessible though); but, the dailies in Blades Edge Mountains can be attuned within maybe 15-30 minutes with a good group from the guild. There are also dailies in the new area of Shattered Sun Offensive which have no attunement requirements and are relatively easy so you can get started on these right away. Now, doing dailies is not just about getting gold either; it’s also about acquiring reputation with the different factions in the game. This becomes extremely important because when you become revered and exalted with a faction there are a lot of “perks” that become available to you, gear and other neat things. And every time you do dailies you get gold and reputation, which is a really good thing!
OK, guess that’s about it for now I hope you have an idea about what you need to start thinking about and doing. I know it’s a lot. Should you have any questions please let me know, I wish you good luck and give me a holler if you have any questions.
Carynn (Calyopie)
Guild Master – Lunatic Assassins
