The War Within gearing guide: Fastest ways to increase your ilvl
Let’s discover the fastest ways to increase your main and alts ilvl with our The War Within gearing guide!
Table of Contents
When the new expansion releases, players have many things to keep them busy in the game: class changes, story content, new dungeons, etc. When all of this is done, the gameplay loop stabilizes, and players start to do their usual activities in the new environments.
Getting gear is one of the aspects of preparation for even further content, as better gear equals easier time clearing content. Or be able to clear it at all. This is why we at WowVendor created this The War Within gearing guide. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
Gear categories and item level range
As you probably know, gear is split into categories that define its item level range and the content that drops it.
- Explorer. iLvl 558–580. Received from World Quests, Tiers 1–2 of Bountiful Delves, and Normal Dungeons, Rare gear drops (sold through Auction House).
- Adventurer. iLvl 571–593. Received from World Quests, Weekly World Events, Tiers 3–4 of Bountiful Delves, Heroic Dungeons.
- Veteran. iLvl 584–610. Received from Renown Rewards, Weekly World Events, Tiers 5–6 of Delves, Mythic Dungeons, LFR Raid Bosses, Great Vault Rewards for Delves Tiers 1–3 and Heroic Dungeons.
- Champion. iLvl 597–619. Received from World Bosses, Tiers 7–11 of Delves, Mythic+ Dungeons (Key level 2–6), Great Vault Rewards for Mythic Dungeons and Delves Tiers 4–6.
- Hero. iLvl 610–626. Received from Mythic+ Dungeons (Key level 7–10), Heroic Raid Bosses, Great Vault Rewards for M+ Dungeons Keys 3–9 and Delves Tiers 7–11.
- Myth. iLvl 623–639. Received from Mythic Raid Bosses and Great Vault rewards for Mythic+ Dungeons (Key level 10).
How to upgrade your gear
Every gear track has a number, like Veteran 1/8. The Veteran means the item level range, while the number is where this piece of gear is within that range. Both Veteran and Champion gear pieces may be iLvl 603, but Champion gear will be better as it can be upgraded to 619. While the Veteran’s limit is 610.
You can upgrade your gear using special currency: Harbinger Crests and Valorstones. These are rewarded for clearing various content.
- Weathered. Used to upgrade Adventure and Veteran gear. You can receive them from World Quests, Outdoor Treasures, Delves, Heroic Dungeons, and LFR Raid.
- Carved. Used to upgrade Veteran and Champion gear. You can receive them from Weekly World Events, World Bosses, Mythic Dungeons, Mythic+ Key 1–3, and the Normal Raid.
- Runed. Used to upgrade Champion and Hero gear. You can receive them from Mythic+ Key 4–8 and Heroic Raid.
- Gilded. Used to upgrade Hero and Myth gear. Mythic+ Key 9+ and Mythic Raid.
Once you want to upgrade your gear from the previously mentioned categories, you will need to find two Vendors in Dornogal. Cuzloth will upgrade your gear, and Vaskarn can exchange your crests. Bot these vendors will wait for you in the Mythic Aspiration shop at /way 51.8 42.1 coordinates.
To find out more about Valorstones, Crests and how to obtain them, read our:
Upgrade discount
In The War Within expansion, an upgrade discount mechanic was added. If you meet some conditions, upgrading costs will be cut by a third. For any item slot, once you obtain a certain item level, future upgrades will come with discounts up to that item level. This will inevitably save you a lot of currency and time farming it when gearing your alts. The Valorstones discount is Warbind-wide, while the Harbinger Crest discount is not Warbind-wide until certain achievements are earned. Here are the achievements for each type of crest discount:
- Harbinger of the Weathered: Obtain ilvl 593 item in every armor slot.
- Harbinger of the Carved: Obtain ilvl 606 item in every armor slot.
- Harbinger of the Runed: Obtain ilvl 619 item in every armor slot.
- Harbinger of the Gilded: Obtain ilvl 639 item in evert armor slot.
Catalyst
Catalyst is used to convert any PvP gear and PvE gear of Veteran rank or higher into Tier Set items. This means you can transform Head, Shoulders, Hand, and Legs armor via Catalyst and get powerful buffs for your class.
To use Catalyst, you need to charge it with Harmonized Silk. You get this currency at the beginning of the Season and one more every two weeks. Keep in mind that you can only accumulate 8 charges from Harmonized Silk on one character.
Entry-level gearing activities
If you only leveled your character to 80 and wondered how you are supposed to gear in Season 1, we recommend taking a look at this section of the guide. Because further gearing ways we discuss will be too painful or even impossible to do without preparation.
Siren Isle catch-up gear
With the release of the 11.0.7 patch on December 17, players can get new catch-up gear from the Siren Isle. This gear starts at Veteran 1/8 ilvl 584 and can be bought from Argarom at the Floatsam Shoal for new Flame-Blessed Iron currency. This currency can be obtained by completing different activities like excavations and defeating rares. To learn more about it, read our 11.0.7 overview. Here are all the catch-up gear you can buy and its cost:
- Rings, Cloaks, Wrists, Necks – 105 Flame-Blessed Iron
- Trinkets, Feet, Waists, Hands, Shoulders – 140 Flame-Blessed Iron
- Helms, Chests, Legs, Shields, One-handed weapons, Off-hands – 175 Flame-Blessed Iron
- Ranged weapons, Two-handed weapons – 350 Flame-Blessed Iron
Renown rewards
The most accessible gear pieces one can get are from Renown Vendors. Depending on the faction, raising your Renown to levels 7–8 opens access to Chest, Shoulder, and Helm slot items. Each of them costs 2600 of Resonance crystals.
- Council of Dornogal. Provides a Shoulder slot piece. Requires to reach Renown Level 7. The vendor is Auditor Balwuz (39.2; 24.2) in Dornogal.
- Hallowfall Arathi. Provides a Chest slot piece. Requires to reach Renown Level 7. The vendor is Auralia Steelstrike (41.2; 53.0) in Mereldar.
- Assembly of the Deep. Provides a Head slot piece. Requires to reach Renown Level 8. The vendor is Waxmonger Squick (47.2; 32.8) in Gundargaz.
These are the only three pieces of gear available in Preseason from Veteran gear track. Since Renown is quite easily farmed, especially if you are actively leveling alts through your Warband. Getting these items should not be a problem.
There is also another Renown reward. This is a trinket called Nerubian Pheromone Secreter. It still has the high item level, although it’s not on the Veteran track. You can get it from The Severed Threads faction after reaching Renown 6.
Explorer gear
The lowest gear on the track, but still can be quite useful, as it is easy to get in most cases. The reason for that is that this gear is awarded for some of the easiest world activities and can be sold on Auction House. Such gear can be easily upgraded to iLvl 580 using just Valorstones. This item level is enough for many people in Preseason, especially if you don’t plan to do early high-key Mythic+ or Heroic raids.
There are also nice trinkets that can be useful and better than other options to fill the slot. We are talking about iLvl 577 Darkmoon Card Decks. There are 4 decks: Symbiosis, Vivacity, Ascension, and Radiance. Each provides unique bonuses, and some can be useful even later in the Season.
The biggest problem with these can be the price. As the primary way of getting them is buying from the others on AH, prices can be the real stopper. Since these items are Bind on Equip, you can use your Warband bank to transfer such items from your alts on other servers. Use this information to find cheaper options.
Heroic dungeons
Dungeons are known as classic content when it comes to leveling and gearing. Heroic dungeons in preseason provide the highest item level accessible after the Renown rewards and random weekly event drops.
With the changes to the Mythic+ progressions, Heroic dungeons became more relevant. They replaced the first 10 keys of the old M+. Now, they are a proper way to prepare for early Raids and current Mythic plus. In Season 1, the starting iLvl of such gear is 580.
The only downside of doing dungeons to get gear in The War Within is that you have to play with other players. If you’re a DPS player, this may lead to long queues. We recommend farming with your friends or guild members for quicker results.
Low Tier Bountiful Delves
These delves are different from normal Delves, as they reward you with Bountiful Coffers in the end. These can be unlocked with Restored Coffer Keys. Bountiful Delves scale from 1 Tier up to 11 Tier. Such Delves reward varies from ilvl 561 with 2/8 upgrades on the Explorer track up to ilvl 603 with 3/8 upgrades on the Champion track.
In order to prepare for further gearing, we recommend you farm 1-3 Tier Delves. This will help you to gain an overall ilvl of 571 and higher, so continuation of your adventure becomes easier.
To find out more about Delves and their rewards, check our other articles:
Weekly World events
After reaching a new level cap of 80 and a certain level of Renown in some cases, a character can participate in Weekly World events. These rewards include many things, such as Renown, currencies for upgrades, and, more importantly, the gear. These events are crucial, as they fuel your gearing process in several ways, direct and indirect.
For participating in those quests, you will receive caches with rewards that include all the mentioned above. And even though the general item level of the gear is on the Adventurer track, sometimes you may get lucky and receive a Veteran piece.
Another important item from those caches is a Restored Coffer Key for the Bountiful Delve chests. These chests also include gear rewards, but you can get a limited number of these weekly keys.
- Spreading the Light. This event takes place in Hallowfall. The only requirement to participate is Lv. 80 of your character. This is the first event you can do if you don’t have the necessary Renown. It is especially great to get gear for those who just finished the Main Campaign. The reward for completing the main objective is a Radiant Cache. It includes a piece of Adventurer gear with a chance to grant a Veteran one, 50 Valorstones, a single Restored Coffer Key, and 5 Carved Harbinger Crests. Each additional objective completed grants an extra Lamplighter Supply Cache, 200 Resonance crystals, and some reputation with Hallowfall Arathi.
- Theater Troupe. This event takes place in the Dornogal, on the Isle of Dorn. In this event, players have to help the theater hands with the play and complete various interactive objectives. The reward for that is a Theater Troupe’s Trove. Like the other weekly World Events, it contains gear, a Key for Bountiful Delve chest, currency, and reputation. An additional reward, based on the crowd’s approval, grants a bag with extra currencies.
- Awakening the Machine. This event takes place in Gundagaz, Ringing Deeps. It requires you to have Renown 3 with The Assembly of the Deep. This one is more combat-oriented, as the goal is to protect an NPC from waves of mobs that become harder. Successfully completing the event grants Awakened Mechanical Cache. It includes similar rewards to other Weekly Event chests but also has a low chance of dropping a rare mount.
Doing Weekly Events is a great way to farm gear and prepare for further gearing.
Crafted gear
Another option that is on the table, but it’s the least accessible one. There are good pieces of gear one can craft, but it requires time and money. This is more of an option for either rich players or self-sufficient crafters.
If you’re not a crafter yourself, you can ask Guild members, your friends, or commission other players to craft you the desired piece of gear. If you decide to go this route, you should use some Wethered Harbinger Crests to get a Nascent Weathered Harbinger Crest. These can be enchanted for later use in crafting Rare (blue) recipes, increasing the item level of the resulting gear up to 590. Adding on top of that Sparks of Omen, which are granted for doing a weekly quest, you can raise the item level of Epic (Purple) recipes even higher to iLvl 606. You can upgrade such crafted gear further if you plan to do high-end content, with crests from Season 1 for even better item levels. So, crafted gear is a nice option for those who can afford it.
Sparks of Omens
Sparks of Omens are The War Within Season 1 main ilvl boosting component for crafting. Adding Spark of Omens to your Epic (purple) quality gear while crafting can increase the starting ilvl of the item up to 597. Using these sparks is essential for better gear crafting, as without them, ilvl of the crafted gear leaves much to be desired. Recepies upgraded with Sparks of Omens can be viable during end-game and even BiS for some classes. To make sure which gear can be the best for you, check our The War Within BiS lists for all 13 playable classes in Season 1 guide.
One Spark of Omen can be made from two Fractured Spark of Omens. You can obtain one Fractured Spark of Omens every week from various activities (weekly quests, dungeon runs, raid boss kills, etc.), so make sure to complete them in time.
Overall preparation recommendations
We have the following The War Within gearing recommendations for preparation before further gearing:
- Do World Weekly Quests to accumulate Renown, Keys for Bountiful Delve coffers, and a chance to get Veteran gear.
- Buy 3 Renown rewards when you reach the necessary level.
- Farm Heroic dungeons to get the gear for the rest of the slots.
- Use Weathered crests to upgrade your Adventurer and Veteran gear.
As alternatives, you can consider the following:
- Get the Adventurer gear from Tier 1–3 Bountiful Delves. Faster than Heroic spam. The drawback is that it spends precious keys you can use later when the Season starts.
- Buy and upgrade Explorer gear from AH. This may require some Valor Stones farming. Still a decent and easy way for those who don’t plan to optimize in Preseason.
- Craft gear using Weathered crests to buy enhancing reagents for crafting. For those who have professions, or crafter friends, or a lot of money to afford commissions.
Your goal should be Champion gear. Delves are easier to do, as they can be done solo or just with a friend or two. And do not forget to check your weekly Great Vault!
With full Champion gear, you can consider continuing your further gearing, which we discuss in the next guide section.
Advanced gearing activities
Further gearing includes activities that require some gear already and can be too hard if you haven’t prepared. We recommend gearing with these ways when you at least reach ilvl 590. Otherwise, this can become a painful and even impossible journey.
Nerub’ar Palace raid
Raiding is one of the most efficient ways of gearing in The War Within Season 1. Defeating bosses in Nerub’ar Palace will let you get gear up to ilvl 632 (639 if you are fortunate). You can also get your Tier Set items here and even very rare gear like Void Reaper’s Warp Blade, Wings of Shattered Sorrow, Sureki Zealot’s Insignia, and Seal of the Poisoned Pact. But this activity requires high collective effort and knowledge of the raid. If you do not want to search for a guild or a group, you can join Looking For Raid (LFR) in Group Finder. You need ilvl 567 to enter the first and second wings in Nerub’ar Palace via LFR. Otherwise, aim for ilvl 603 if you want to conquer Normal difficulty. And be prepared to be at least ilvl 609 to complete Heroic raid and 622 to complete Mythic raid if you decide not to use LFR. But in this case, we recommend joining a guild. Otherwise, beating Heroic and Mythic raids might be almost impossible during the first weeks after their release.
Here is some information about possible ilvl of the gear in the current raid:
- LFR. iLvl 584–600.
- Normal. iLvl 597–613
- Heroic. iLvl 610–626
- Mythic. 623–639
To learn more about the Nerub’ar Palace raid, check our:
Mythic plus dungeons
Mythic plus dungeons are more challenging than Heroic ones but also reward you with much better gear. Gear from these dungeons scales from M0 to M+10 level and varies from ilvl 593 with 4/8 upgrades on the Veteran track up to ilvl 613 with 2/6 upgrades on the Hero track. Mythic plus dungeons can be very challenging and require good skill and group in order to succeed. We recommend you start visiting M0 and continuing with M+2 and M+3 after you reach at least ilvl 590-593. As it should be enough to complete them. Once you feel more powerful — try higher Keys. If you are unfamiliar with this type of content, we recommend that you study our The War Within Mythic plus guide for newbies.
Higher Tier Bountiful Delves
As we mentioned in the preparation section, these delves are different from normal Delves, as they reward you with Bountiful Coffers in the end. These can be unlocked with Restored Coffer Keys. Bountiful Delves scale from 1 Tier up to 11 Tier. Such Delves reward varies from ilvl 561 with 2/8 upgrades on the Explorer track up to ilvl 603 with 3/8 upgrades on the Champion track. This can be used in Season 1 as an alternative to Mythic plus dungeon farming.
To find out more about Delves and their rewards, check our other articles:
The Great Vault
Great Vault is an awesome feature that awards you extra gear options each week for just playing the game. All you have to do is meet specific quotas to unlock additional pieces. You can only pick one per week. There are three categories, and each can add three items to your weekly selection. You can also obtain Tier Set gear from the Great Vault, which will definitely be important for your build.
- Raids. Requires you to defeat 2/4/6 raid bosses.
- Dungeons. Requires you to complete 1/4/8 dungeons.
- World. Requires you to complete 2/4/8 Delves or World activities.
What is great is that the maximum item level of the gear you can receive through the Vault can be higher than anything dropped in related categories. For example, the highest iLvl for Delves is 603 Champion 3/8, but in the Vault you can get 616 Hero 3/6.
The item level depends on the completed activities’ difficulty/tier/key level. The higher they are, the better the item level will be.
Crafted gear
As we mentioned in the preparation section, crafted gear is another option that is on the table, but it’s the least accessible one. There are good pieces of gear one can craft, but it requires time and money. This is more of an option for either rich players or self-sufficient crafters.
If you’re not a crafter yourself, you can ask Guild members, your friends, or commission other players to craft you the desired piece of gear. If you decide to go this route, you should use some Wethered Harbinger Crests to get a Nascent Weathered Harbinger Crest. These can be enchanted for later use in crafting Rare (blue) recipes, increasing the item level of the resulting gear up to 590. Adding on top of that Sparks of Omen, which are granted for doing a weekly quest, you can raise the item level of Epic (Purple) recipes even higher to iLvl 606. You can upgrade such crafted gear further if you plan to do high-end content, with crests from Season 1 for even better item levels. So, crafted gear is a nice option for those who can afford it.
Sparks of Omens
Sparks of Omens are The War Within Season 1 main ilvl boosting component for crafting. Adding Spark of Omens to your Epic (purple) quality gear while crafting can increase the starting ilvl of the item up to 597. Using these sparks is essential for better gear crafting, as without them, ilvl of the crafted gear leaves much to be desired. Recipes upgraded with Sparks of Omens can be viable during end-game and even BiS for some classes. To make sure which gear can be the best for you, check our The War Within BiS lists for all 13 playable classes in Season 1 guide.
One Spark of Omen can be made from two Fractured Spark of Omens. You can obtain one Fractured Spark of Omens every week from various activities (weekly quests, dungeon runs, raid boss kills, etc.), so make sure to complete them in time.
Plan your BiS gearing
Best-in-Slot gear is the one you will be finally looking for. This will provide you with better performance and results in any activity. To find out more about BiS gear and where you can look for it, check our The War Within BiS lists for all 13 playable classes in Season 1 guide.
Overall gearing recommendations
We have the following The War Within gearing recommendations for you:
- Complete raids, Mythic plus, or Bountiful Delves with your friends, other players, or solo.
- Consider reaching Great Vault goals to get the most out of the items it offers.
- Use crests to upgrade obtained gear.
- Convert your gear pieces into Tier Set items, which boost you hard if Tier Set passives are active.
- Continue farming renown to get more currency to upgrade your gear.
- Don’t hesitate to buy crafted slots if you can afford them.
- Always try aiming for your BiS gear.
Conclusion
And this is it for WoW The War Within gearing guide. We hope it provided some insight into The War Within gearing. As you’ve seen, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but we hope the information above can prove helpful on your gearing journey. With this, we wish you luck and better drops as you prepare your character for the epic encounters WoW offers. Happy hunting!
Which way do you think is the best for gearing out of all we mentioned? Do you plan to min-max your gear and get all BiS items for your character? Let us know in the comments!
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