My Emblem of Frost priority list
I thought I’d share with you my “shopping list” for Emblems of Frost. It’s not a BiS list, and I’m not telling you this is what you should do with your badges; I just think it’s valuable to see how other people are prioritising their spending. It helps when you’re weighing up your options. I always like reading what other people intend to do with theirs.
+30 chest
-4 gloves (+5 if sanctified)
-60 shoulders
+18 legs (sanctified)
- 74 head
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Thanks, Keeva! Seeing this shopping list is certainly food for thought for those of us who have been negligent about putting together a full one of our own. I was a little curious since I don’t see the druid heal-y idol on the list. Any particular reason why not?
Taz´s last blog ..…and to all a Good Night!
It’s only marginally better than the Triumph idol, so it’s low priority for me.
I’ll pick it up – but it will pretty much be the last thing I grab, I think – at least while acquiring Frosts is still a slow process. Very low priority.
Kind of what I figured, but I thought it never hurts to ask.
Taz´s last blog ..…and to all a Good Night! 
/nod, I agree, the new idol’s a rather small sp boost over the 245 idol, yet requires time to “get going” (stack up to full power) making most other badge items a better option for early purchases.
Shoulders will probably be my last of my tier set purchases, I’m looking at the haste on the offset 10-man piece to help boost up my rating!
Before you snag that circle of ossus, consider that the Professor fight (released today) will drop almost the exact same belt in leather form:
circle of ossus
92stam 92int 64spi red/blue=7sp
sp122 haste80
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50069
professor’s bloodied smock
92stam 92int 64spi red/yellow=? (probably 7sp)
sp122 haste80
Everyone’s priority lists should be personal, shaped by the gear they already have and the gear they acquire in ICC so far. For me, I picked up the 264 leather haste gloves, so I made the decision to break my t9 set and get the 251 t10 shoulders. This left me almost haste-neutral and increased my spellpower by a decent chunk to offset the loss of the t9 4pc bonus. I’m fortunate enough to have double solace and in a very short queue for the abacus, so the next item on my list is the token 264 body.
My list is pretty similar to yours. I already bought the Circle of Ossus and the T10 gloves. I’m thinking I may go with the T10 pants next since it has haste and would also give me the 2 piece bonus.
I’m a little torn on the trinket. Like you, I’ve had pretty bad luck with trinkets, but I’ve been trying to hold out for some of the 25 man trinkets. Beru has the trinket from the Gunship battle in ICC and the heal from it definitely puts out a noticeable number. 179 sp is nice too!
I’m trying to hold out for that and a Solace of the Fallen. Hopefully I can get lucky and not have to spend frost emblems on a trinket.
Verile´s last blog ..Plagueworks – Overview
From my point of view if you are raiding 25 man icc it might be wise to prioritize the tier pieces as you will have access to tokens to upgrade them and the off set slots will get filled fairly quick with raid drops.
Also if you are raiding icc 25 you probably have an icc 10 group which will also speed the off set slots gearing a lot.
Honestly, I would not spend my new frost badges on the Trinket or ANY of the ICC vendor items. Your questioning 12 MP5 difference that has a less chance of sustained SP from Lunar Fury. It only took me a split second to remember how much it proc’d then I was like… yeah pass.
As far as the other epics on the vendor – PASS. Really pimpy belt drops off Professor Putricide (Professor’s Bloodied Smock) and although he is a final gated boss – I’m sure he will be down for most guilds in 1-2 lock outs, if they don’t decided to run 10-mans to test strats and 1-shot in 25man. (Yes! I have high-quality hopes.)
As far as T10. Why? Rejuv is overhealing all over the place and I am for sure not going to tell people in my raid group “wait on my HoT’s!” After giving them the ability to crit and basically the time between ticks reduced to the point w/ haste to be even stronger then it was before… I would wait until they nerf T9 or buff T10 – regardless I love my T9. Love.
It’s going to hop on someone on full duration, which if it works like the other smart heal items (Abacus for example) it will most likely hop on someone who is getting spam healed up on anyway…
As Virile said, I was lucky enough to nab our first Abacus, it ends up being about 4% of my overall healing, which really isn’t bad for a proc. It’s a nice trinket, so grats to everyone that is able to nab it up!
But…Lady RNG is fickle, and we’ve not seen a second one yet. And have only seen a total of 4 Solaces (2 normal, 2 heroic). I think if I was sporting an iLevel 200 trinket, and had the opportunity to invest in one that is significantly better, based on just the value of the spell power increase alone, I probably would have done so too.
As for how I’m going to spend my badges, I honestly just don’t know yet. I’ve ~150 in my possesion, and I’m just sitting there holding onto them, like I’m Scrooge McDuck counting my gold. I’m just so hesitant to buy anything yet, with so much unknown. I haven’t broken my 4T9 yet, and probably won’t break it for 2 10 at the 251 level, as they peices aren’t a huge upgrade stat wise until I get 264 tokens.
I guess I sorta figured I’d let others pick up set tokens and grab mine when they aren’t so high in demand, and nab up non-set pieces for now.
Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh, too many decisions to make! (afk head exploding).
Beruthiel´s last blog ..Getting GRID Ready for Icecrown’s Plagueworks
There aren’t too many interesting emblem items this time around. Of course, I’be been extremely lucky with trinket drops, so that rules Purified Lunar Dust out.
I bought the Vestments of Spruce and Fir first, because it was a direct upgrade over the chest from TotC. I will eventually be getting the tier pieces once I get the tokens to upgrade them, but for now I will hang on to my 4t9 bonus.
Jasyla´s last blog ..Druid Gear Wish List
Nice list, Keeva, it makes me think more about the items on my list… the belt and the chest are both way up there, I got Sliver off Marrowgar 10, so I’m not so hot on the Lunar Dust now as I was last week. But since I’m in the crafted 245 chest with crit, the haste bump oh the Vestments of Spruce and Fir would be lovely, the same could be said for upgrading my Belt of the Winter Solstice. 25s are a rarity for me, though, and I’m not likely to be running ICC25s with any reliability, so I can only seriously consider 10-man and badge items.
::sigh:: so much gear, so many choices! My BIG happy lately is having the Blessed Cenarion Boots crafted yesterday, they are SO awesome, and I’ve seen nothing in the loot lists thus far that are so perfect for restos as they are. I am pretty darned sure I’ll be wearing these boots into Cataclysm and I’m very happy about it.
Yeah, I admit, my rogue and warlock who gave up their frost badges for the primordial saronite arent too pleased, but Kayeri IS my main. 
Jurik: I’d rather grab stuff with emblems than wait for the drop; plus, I don’t have to spend points on it. I’d rather have the points available to grab tokens or other gear.
Verile: Since we’ve only been back to 25s for a short while, there’s a long list of healers seeking Solaces. I figured it was best not to wait for it
Euqsarrat: As I said, the belt and chest are BiS regardless of hard modes, tokens etc – so that’s why I’m prioritising those. I’ll still be chasing tokens, and by the time I manage to get one, I think I’ll be ready to grab T10. As for 10s – I’ll definitely grab any small upgrades – but this is my shopping list for “best available right now and facilitating my BiS set later”, I suppose. I wouldn’t turn down an upgrade – but I’ll still be aiming for these items.
Orbitz: It wasn’t so much the mp5 but the spellpower. I may have been better getting a different piece for a bigger nett upgrade – but I felt my trinkets were weak and wanted to patch that hole first. As above – I’d rather buy a badge belt than wait for a drop – it may seem like a waste, but this way I save my points for other upgrades that aren’t available through grinding heroics. I’ve been so unlucky with particular items – so I’d rather not bank on RNG to give me what I want. I’m not the kind of person who hangs onto emblems hoping that bosses will drop what I need – I want to upgrade as early as possible. The belt is BiS, why not grab it immediately? RNG has not been kind to me in the past – my trinket slots will attest.
Beru: I’ve seen one Solace
And sitting on badges isn’t a bad idea. The T10 (base) pieces are barely an upgrade, some are a downgrade – I’d be tempted to sit until I had tokens, really.
Jasyla: I wouldn’t have bought the trinket if I had better ones, definitely. I chose the belt over the chest because it was a nice upgrade and I happened to have 60 badges last night
But the chest is definitely next.
Kayeri: My two other druids usually do heroics each day, they’ll definitely be donating saronite later
Technically, the heroic Putricide leather belt will be the best in the slot (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50705) in 3.3. The same is true for body: the vestments are a really strong contender, but 277 sanguine silk robes are slightly better (I can’t wait to hear crying clothies if we try to cast lots on them)
Since the belt is leather haste/spirit, I believe moonkins will be opting for the leather badge belt which is haste/crit (but I’m no moonkin expert, so I could be wrong). Your only real competition for the drop is other trees; depending on how your DKP system works, that probably makes it a pretty cheap item overall.
If you’re upgrading from a low-ilvl belt (232) or a crit belt, I can understand prioritizing the badge belt, but otherwise I think most druids should gut it out for another week of badges and grab the badge body first, or just immediately upgrade to the T10 hands, and hope to score on Professor in the meantime.
Circle of Ossus is BiS out of available gear (including this week’s released content). Who knows when we’ll see the heroics, let alone have the belt drop (according to my luck in the past – not for a while – and then I have to compete with the other trees). I’ll grab the silk robes once no other clothies need them. I always include cloth in my gear searches!
The reason why I went belt before chest is because the belt was quite a good upgrade, whereas I only just recently picked up the heroic Shattered Fellowship robes from TOC. It hurts to swap out brand new heroic gear!
Otherwise I probably would have gone with chest > belt.
For reference, if I had taken the chest first, I would have gained:
1int
1sta
10haste
3 spellpower
over taking the belt upgrade instead. So – barely a difference; and this way, I don’t have to give up my pretty robe so early
At any rate, the BiS list that I have created for myself only lists available gear. It has no heroic gear on it – because we can’t get to that. It only has the first 7 normal boss loot. As bosses open up, and finally, as we get access to heroics, I’ll revamp my list to encompass all of the “true” BiS gear.
I just don’t see any sense in working from a list that is 80% unavailable gear. For the time being, I’ve ignored everything with a (H) next to it, and gone down the list to the next available items.
I should have clarified this in my post – that when I say “this is BiS” I am really saying “this is BiS out of all available gear”.
Keeva´s last blog ..My Emblem of Frost priority list
Are any of the new craftable items on the BiS list?
I have been thinking of using emblems of frost farmed on my alts to buy the primordial saronite to get some of those patterns.
Blessed Cenarion Boots (leather spirit/haste) are appropriate for resto druids this patch, and are currently BiS.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49894
The only better boots than these are the 277 ilvl Plague Scientist’s Boots, which won’t be available until heroic Festergut is released.
The crafted legs are trumped by T10, which is haste/spirit in that slot.
Note to self:
Read Keeva’s blog BEFORE purchasing new belt. In a moment of pure noobishness I purchased the leather belt instead of even looking at the cloth option … and fitted and eternal belt buckle to boot
On the plus side the stats on the belt buckle go nicely with the tier 9 set which is loaded with crit. So my rejuv crits left and right … given I no longer get to raid I suppose it not that bad.
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