June 8, 2023

The Alts Gear Up Guide in Dragonflight 10.1

Owning a geared-up, high-level alternative character is a big advantage. It allows you to learn more professions, switch roles for dungeons and PvP, and overall spice up the gameplay. However, new characters start from scratch, meaning you must upgrade and arm them. To this end, here’s the alts gear up guide in Dragonflight patch 10.1.

Some tips help you do it faster and less painfully. Fortunately, leveling alts isn’t something Blizzard frowns upon. In fact, there are many features specifically designed to help you grow secondary characters. Patch 10.1 has a few of these additions, but it’s still a chore. Hopefully, you’ll have it a little easier after this guide on how to gear up alts in Patch 10.1.

Leveling your Character

The new Season 2 areas, where most of the 10.1 action is going on, are only accessible to level 70 characters. If you have a spare hero with a high enough level: good for you! If not, you can rush it with a few reliable methods. For instance, there’s the Nokhudon Hold leveling, one of the fastest ways to get to level 70. And if you don’t have much time for it, you can buy a Dragonflight boost and have it done for you.

You can also do it manually. Besides regular grinding, several bonuses help increase the XP inflow. They are:

The Darkmoon Top Hat or WHEE!. They are buffs you get from the Darkmoon Faire that award an XP bonus of 10% for an hour. They don’t stack, sadly.
The War Mode. You can enable the PvP fights with other players. It paints a big target on your back but gives you 10% more XP from quests and mobs.
The First Craft Bonus. Crafting your first item as a particular profession gives you a massive XP bonus. You can repeat that 30 times by unlearning the trade and learning it again.

It’s a proper grind, but with enough concentration and a plan, it won’t take too long. It’s made even easier if you have friends that will carry you through higher-level activities. A few days of intense playing are usually enough to get you to level 70. And if you’re alone, solo gearing alts in Patch 10.1 is doable. But there are always like-minded individuals looking for companions.

Gearing Up in Season 2

The specific reason for leveling your character is because Zaralek Caverns, Valdrakken, and The Forbidden Reach are all high-level zones only available at level 70. There are plenty of gearing opportunities here, but the main ones are the Season 2 upgrade NPCs found in these areas. They are instrumental in gearing up alts in WoW 10.1.

The S2 equipment is the most powerful, coveted equipment in the game. You can reach the current maximum ilvl of 447 only through utilizing them. You need to obtain the top items from the Season 2 raid and Mythic+ dungeons, upgrade them using the Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests and then enchant them.

The level threshold for this Season’s raid is also 70, although the higher difficulties require even more than just this number. This raid is challenging, which is another reason to buy a boost. The Mythic+ dungeons are also a good source of this loot. Moreover, it’s from these activities that you get the upgrade resources necessary to gear up alts for raising in 10.1.

Upgrading Equipment

To upgrade gear, players must farm Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests. The former is a universal currency, used to upgrade any item. The higher the level, the more you require. The latter, though, is divided into four categories. Each is more valuable and rare, used for increasingly more powerful upgrades. Basically, the way to gear up alts for Mythic+ in 10.1 is by slowly progressing through the quality hierarchy.

They can be farmed simply by completing the dungeons and raids, but also from other activities. Quests, world bosses, and treasure chests award some amount. The most valuable Crests, however, can only be obtained from Mythic+ dungeons and Mythic raids. You can learn more about them in this Flightstones and Crests guide.

At the moment, it’s important to note that S2 upgrades are done by four specialist NPCs, including Cuzolth (Zaralek Caverns), Erza (Valdrakken), Corxian (Valdrakken), and Researcher Beneflare (The Forbidden Reach). The upgrade procedure is pretty simple, but there is a big nuance.

The Season 2 equipment is divided into several quality categories. Upgrading an item from the lowest to the highest category is impossible, but you can improve the equipment in the same class. Therefore, you’ll have to work your way to the highest tier through several Mythic+ or raid attempts.

Discounts

The best way to gear up alts in 10.1 is by using discounts. With it, you don’t even need to claw your way to the top gear. If your main is already suited up with the best armor, your entire account will get the discount. Basically, all your Flightstone upgrades will be 60% cheaper.

It has several nuances. Firstly, you need a valuable item equipped on your main. It should be in its designated slot. All other items below the equipped item’s ilvl for this slot will be 60% cheaper to upgrade (with Flightstones) account–wide. Blizzard basically lets you upgrade the spare items cheaper, making gearing up alts for Dragonflight 10.1 much easier.

The Shadowflame Crests have a similar discount. It’s not account–wide, but you can still decrease the costs of your upgrades with it. It likewise covers lower-level improvements. The discount is 100% off most of the way until you start reaching the current ilvl, at which point the cost slowly increases.

The baseline price to refine a piece of equipment depends on the slot and the planned level. Trinkets will be much cheaper than breastplates. You also can’t do too many costly enhancements at once, because there’s a cap of 2000+ Flightstones per character (increased with each week).

Summary

Gearing up alts for PvP in 10.1 is a popular activity among the more invested WoW players. Getting a squad of alternative characters with different specializations makes the game more exciting and creates many different opportunities. Fortunately, boosting alts is easier than ever, now that 10.1 has arrived. And you will need a few good alts.