30s Solo PvE Question - "Conan, what is Best in Slot?"

[Thrano]

"To outheal the dungeon boss,
mitigate 90% of its damage
and reflect its targeted spells back at it."

Greetings and well met... twinkers? Is that a term?

I have recently returned to twinking 30s (the late Legion stat squish killed my interest in it) after learning about Blizzard "normalizing" the ilvl curve and me assuming that something will be borked enough to do funny stuff as a 30 Warrior main.

Now thanks to my own research on WoWhead, the adventure guide (which proved to be much more useful than the former) and some threads on here I already sniffed out the best gear options available.

Now I'm facing to paths and would require some insight from you guys to help me decide on the way forward - in terms of PvE soloing:

To set the scene: Current ilvl 115 gear is available at 30s through epic dungeon drops (Classic), dungeon quest rewards, ICC25H and the usual WoD WF epics.

Now I am reasonably okay with dragging my twinks through ICC on a weekly basis, but the lure of WF+socket+tert is great, despite me dreading running hundreds of the same four dungeons until the next balancing patch.

My question is: Is it worth going for WoD epics over ICC25H?

ICC gear generally has more sockets, which allows the doublet bonuses to stack higher than having one socket per WoD piece.
However ICC gear sacrifices a significant chunk of it stat budget for those sockets (I math'd up a rough estimate and it seems to primarily affect primary stat and secondary stats, not stamina).

I would really like to solo the odd dungeon here or there and slaughter my way through Tanaan and/or Suramar, so I'm trying to eek out the most survivability out of my chars.

I'd love it if you guys had some thoughts or insight on this matter.


Bonus question: What's your over-under on Blizzard putting the hammer down on the SL doublet bonuses?

 

[norcal313]

Farm ICC, get 115 geared, then solo dungeons with your 115 geared 30. Heck, find another 30 to duo the dungeons if soloing is too slow. Feel free to add me, if we can arrange it I'll run with ya.

I ran a 30 paladin through ICC and got her helm, neck, chest, cloak, bracers, 2H sword, legs, 1 ring, and 1 trinket last week. Ran again this week and got gloves, belt, and used a BoE 115 ring she picked up. Trinkets are the only thing I'd grab from elsewhere for now, but I like Deathbringer's Will for the fun aspect. Eventually I'll start doing solo dungeon runs, assuming she can hang, but the best gems are stupid expensive on the realm I got her sitting on. I should have just leveled a 30 on Aerie Peak where I got a maxed JC from Legion. Oh well.

My biggest problem is getting all the primordial saronite to drop for my 30 and not my higher level. Can't seem to control who gets them to drop and they're not tradable.

 

[Thrano]

Farm ICC, get 115 geared, then solo dungeons with your 115 geared 30. Heck, find another 30 to duo the dungeons if soloing is too slow. Feel free to add me, if we can arrange it I'll run with ya.

I ran a 30 paladin through ICC and got her helm, neck, chest, cloak, bracers, 2H sword, legs, 1 ring, and 1 trinket last week. Ran again this week and got gloves, belt, and used a BoE 115 ring she picked up. Trinkets are the only thing I'd grab from elsewhere for now, but I like Deathbringer's Will for the fun aspect. Eventually I'll start doing solo dungeon runs, assuming she can hang, but the best gems are stupid expensive on the realm I got her sitting on. I should have just leveled a 30 on Aerie Peak where I got a maxed JC from Legion. Oh well.

My biggest problem is getting all the primordial saronite to drop for my 30 and not my higher level. Can't seem to control who gets them to drop and they're not tradable.

I'm in the midst of dragging my warrior through ICC right now. Deathbringer is actually really good I think. 88str/132crit or haste is really powerful imo.

Luckily SL gems are really cheap here, so I got those no problem. The selfheal is insane, looking at 200+ hps passive on full ICC gear.

Don't get your hopes up for Shadow's Edge. Ilvl 35, completed the quest yesterday. Shadowmourne can't say, but since it also is technically a quest reward from an in-raid quest it might not scale up. Primordial Saronite is tradable, was only 7g a piece on the AH here. And I could trade it from my higher lvl character no problem.

Personally I can't imagine running all those WoD dungeons forever and ever and ever.

 

[norcal313]

I'm in the midst of dragging my warrior through ICC right now. Deathbringer is actually really good I think. 88str/132crit or haste is really powerful imo.

Luckily SL gems are really cheap here, so I got those no problem. The selfheal is insane, looking at 200+ hps passive on full ICC gear.

Don't get your hopes up for Shadow's Edge. Ilvl 35, completed the quest yesterday. Shadowmourne can't say, but since it also is technically a quest reward from an in-raid quest it might not scale up. Primordial Saronite is tradable, was only 7g a piece on the AH here. And I could trade it from my higher lvl character no problem.

Personally I can't imagine running all those WoD dungeons forever and ever and ever.

Since the character I ran my 30 through ICC is not on the same realm, I got a message stating the primordial saronite was not eligible to be traded. Doesn't make sense to me, since it dropped in the same raid, but w/e.

Shadow's Edge is just a step towards Shadowmourne (and the subsequent quest). Even if it procs lower, I'd still do it for the heck of it. Wowhead shows it level 30 req and 115 ilvl so I'm going to keep at it.

On a side note, tossed some cra gems on the paladin as ret had a tough time soloing SBG so I switched to prot and had no problems soloing, just slow. Prot is stupid easy. If I can get some WF procs I'm sure ret will be far better with the increased str and some leech tertiary.

 

[Thrano]

Since the character I ran my 30 through ICC is not on the same realm, I got a message stating the primordial saronite was not eligible to be traded. Doesn't make sense to me, since it dropped in the same raid, but w/e.

Shadow's Edge is just a step towards Shadowmourne (and the subsequent quest). Even if it procs lower, I'd still do it for the heck of it. Wowhead shows it level 30 req and 115 ilvl so I'm going to keep at it.

On a side note, tossed some cra gems on the paladin as ret had a tough time soloing SBG so I switched to prot and had no problems soloing, just slow. Prot is stupid easy. If I can get some WF procs I'm sure ret will be far better with the increased str and some leech tertiary.

Hehe, slow it is. I did some some thinking on the WF vs ICC gear topic and with SL gems granting passive self-heal for each slot (as long as each piece has different gems) it might be better for soloing. Looking at 2100+ heals per tick with full ICC gear (plus running speed at cap, probably), that should make up for lost stats.

I did consider doing Shadowmourne, but it's a pain and even if it is 115, Glorenzelg would probably be the better choice because the procc on SM is... kinda meh nowadays?

 

[norcal313]

Hehe, slow it is. I did some some thinking on the WF vs ICC gear topic and with SL gems granting passive self-heal for each slot (as long as each piece has different gems) it might be better for soloing. Looking at 2100+ heals per tick with full ICC gear (plus running speed at cap, probably), that should make up for lost stats.

I did consider doing Shadowmourne, but it's a pain and even if it is 115, Glorenzelg would probably be the better choice because the procc on SM is... kinda meh nowadays?

But it's orange.

The str loss from ICC gear is definitely noticeable. Super regeneration may keep me alive to do large pulls, but consecrate does lousy damage at 30.

As for the difference between Shadowmourne (15 dps, 20 str, 21 stam, 11 crit, 11 haste, 3 sockets and +1 str for socket bonus) and Glorenzelg (15 dps, 14 str, 30 stam, 20 crit, 11 haste, 2 sockets and +1 str for socket bonus) you're basically trading off 6 str, a socket, and a mediocre proc for 9 stam and 9 crit. I'd take Shadowmourne, but at 30 it's not going to make or break us.

This assumes it procs 115 for a level 30 completing the quest. If anyone has done it post update let us know!

 

[Sponsor]

Just thought I'd throw in the fact that gems are region wide (NA wide). Not realm specific anymore. So you're mistaken in saying your gems are cheap or expensive on "your realm". You're just illustrating how subjectively rich/poor you guys are (lol).

Anything that stacks is region wide.

 

[Thrano]

But it's orange.

The str loss from ICC gear is definitely noticeable. Super regeneration may keep me alive to do large pulls, but consecrate does lousy damage at 30.

As for the difference between Shadowmourne (15 dps, 20 str, 21 stam, 11 crit, 11 haste, 3 sockets and +1 str for socket bonus) and Glorenzelg (15 dps, 14 str, 30 stam, 20 crit, 11 haste, 2 sockets and +1 str for socket bonus) you're basically trading off 6 str, a socket, and a mediocre proc for 9 stam and 9 crit. I'd take Shadowmourne, but at 30 it's not going to make or break us.

This assumes it procs 115 for a level 30 completing the quest. If anyone has done it post update let us know!

Well then put +3 str gems in the sockets which is a net positive for strength. I get your point, I just really don't want to farm WoD dungeons xD

And gems are region-wide. Huh. Next thing you'll tell me this has been a thing for years and I've been living a lie.

 

[norcal313]

Just thought I'd throw in the fact that gems are region wide (NA wide). Not realm specific anymore. So you're mistaken in saying your gems are cheap or expensive on "your realm". You're just illustrating how subjectively rich/poor you guys are (lol).

Anything that stacks is region wide.

Guess I shouldn't have bought the brutosaur.

I think objective is a better word. My 30 is alone on Dethecus so just about everything is expensive for her.
[doublepost=1678017234,1678017185][/doublepost]

Well then put +3 str gems in the sockets which is a net positive for strength. I get your point, I just really don't want to farm WoD dungeons xD

And gems are region-wide. Huh. Next thing you'll tell me this has been a thing for years and I've been living a lie.

I feel ya.