With level 70s part of the problem, unless you're in a raiding guild already, is the whole question of %26#8220;what do I do now?%26#8221;. You know you need to upgrade your gear and make it better, but the question of %26#8220;Where do I start?%26#8221; comes to mind.
I've got some guildmates in my small social, non-raiding guild who are hitting 70 or recently hit 70 and are asking this question, so I thought I'd write a little about what I do, myself.
Introducing The %26#8220;Be Imba!%26#8221; Website
If you're a hard-core raider, you probably already know about this site - I learned about it back in April, but I'm still finding a lot of people who don't know about it, so I thought I'd start by sharing the information:
http://be.imba.hu
This site is a %26#8220;PvE character tuning%26#8221; site for level 70 players of World of Warcraft. If you're below level 70 you can't use this tool yet.
If you have a 70 (or know someone else who is one), go to that site and do a search on your character by filling in the basic form you'll find below the banner ad. (EU or US?, what realm? what character name?)
Then click on %26#8220;Query Report%26#8221; (for me on my Mac, hitting return in the character name field doesn't activate the search, only a click does), and give it a moment to generate your report.
If the server is overloaded, you'll need to come back at another time to check your report. Try when it's not so busy. I suggest doing it in the morning.
Once the report comes up, you can look over it and find a whole whack of interesting information about your character:
- How many %26#8220;low level%26#8221; items do you have that need upgrading?
- Are your enchants the right ones or are there better ones for your class?
- Does your spec check out for being good for PvE or PvP or quest grinding?
- Do you have enough hit or spell hit for raiding for the spec you've chosen?
- What level of instances are you geared for?
How To Use The Information To Guide Advancement
Now that you see all this information, how can you use it to improve your character?
My strategy has been simple:
1. Knock out all the %26#8220;Warnings%26#8221; about my character.
1. Use the site's linking to figure out where I need to go to get my next upgrades of various pieces of gear.
My Hunter was the last toon I looked up on Be Imba! in order to go through this upgrade process, and I went from 1467 AP and 44 ranged hit to 1800 AP and 143 ranged hit just by re-gemming and getting the various enchants that they recommended a Hunter get on the site. (my crit is still low at under 20%)
How Others Use Be.Imba
... mainly to see if you're geared.
I use it quickly to see if the Kara PUGmates I'm in a group with are geared or not geared, and same with Heroics PUGgers. It's an easy way to avoid players who say they want a %26#8220;badge run%26#8221; but aren't geared enough to properly contribute to such a quick, successful run.
So, look yourself up first and see what it's saying about you! :)
My Toons On Be.Imba
In closing I thought I'd leave a link to my toons as well. I don't think my Hunter will ever catch up to where the Priest and Mage are, but I'm pretty happy where they all stand and what I can do with each of them now :)
Frost Mage
Holy/Disc Priest
MM/SV Hunter
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