Getting ready for KaraFollow

Hey im a level 68 mage, currently soloing to 70, but also trying to slowly get ready to get into some raid groups. Obviously I want to get ready to enter Kara. (gnome, allied to scryer if that helps) I will be using the standard raid spec 2/48/11, or some small variation of that, but you can see where im going. I have a few questions that I would really appreciate if you guys could help me with:

1) what should my stats be before I even consider going to Kara, most notable +spell hit, +spell damage, mana pool, etc.
2) suggestions on what gear would be helpful to hit these points, (currently a tailor of about 330 so tailoring gear is possible). Trinket selection.
4) enchants? Gems?
3) any other advice you may feel is helpful.

Thanks guys, and yeah im new to high end content please avoid calling me the noob i already know i am. Thanks again for the help.

Edited, Jun 24th 2008 11:00am by ShiftORama

Yes, that is what you should shoot for. Expect it to take several weeks before you are kara ready. However, I wouldn't forget about kara until you have that gear.

The first thing you should work towards is the spellfire set. It will bump up your damage and crit significantly, letting you start raiding before you otherwise could. Use the gems that have both +hit and +dam on them, generally ignoring the set bonus. The problem with spellfire is the last of stam, making it really easy for you to die. Once you start doing heroics and get +hit and +stam gems, you can use those for set bonuses and also increase your health. Its up to you though.

Other than that, you can go with a 10/48/3 spec after about 700 +damage. For the first half of kara, that is plenty. More is always better, but i prefer pure fire than going fire/arcane. I really discourage the Icy Veins built, since at this level of raiding you don't need that fast of a damage output. I found when I tried it that I couldn't even pop the cooldown, I would pull hate anyway. Clearcasting is much much more useful.

So, for first half of kara, this should be your minimum:
700 +fire damage
100 +spell hit
25% fire crit, unbuffed
7.5k mana (pure fire spec)
7k health

The second half requires better stats, but you CAN limp along with the above, as long as you aren't the only major ranged dps.

As an alternative, you may want to grind out exalted with the Shattered Sun.

At Revered, you get Archmage's Guile

and then Shattered Sun Pendent of Acumen at Exalted, along with a ton of gold.

Do not buy the title though, complete waste of money. You'll get a title when you attune for Black Temple anyway ;)

I have the title on both my 70s and I'm very happy with it. It's the only title they are likely to get and as for Black Temple, chances are they'll remove the attunement at some point.

You can select title from drop down menu on character menu (where it show gear and stats).

My advice to not purchase the title was based on his still gearing up for Kara, with the inherent assumption that at that point he probably doesn't have his epic flyer yet. Down the road when money isn't such an issue, buying titles for 1K gold falls into the same category; not such an issue.

I would also recommend that you do Arenas, as the rewards for the time spent are well worth it. 10 matches a week should take well under an hour (as little as 30 minutes is possible), and will give you a major upgrade every 9 weeks or so. While the gear you'll get isn't the best for PVE, it's still better than almost anything else you can pick up at that point.

For an overly simplistic comparison, look at the T4 hands compared to the S4 hands (6 weeks, and guaranteed)

Brutal Gladiator's Silk Handguards and Gloves of the Aldor

The gladiator has:

+37 stamina
+1 Int
-19 spirit
+7 crit
+9 damage
-17 hit

It also gives a 50% chance to avoid interruptions when casting Polymorph, which while situational, is useful. I also gives 23 resilience, which while almost useless in PVE, does decrease damage does by DOTs and mana drains (39.4 rating per percent)

Remember, of course, that these arena pieces aren't replacements for their PVE counterparts, but rather are excellent at helping to supplement your other gear, until you get them. They can also help realistically unlock PVP, as right now it has a pretty stiff entry gear requirement, since so many have large amounts of Arena gear.




Note: For my calculations on how long it takes to get arena gear, I assumed a purely PVE geared mage + 1 (rogue, another mage) in 2v2, with an arena rating of 1200, which he should be able to get, even with a raid spec.

Your Arcane and Frost are fine. You don't need Impact completed. I have the same build but I have 1pt in Impact, 3pts in Playing With Fire, and Dragon's Breath.

Muahahaha!!! *hijacks*

The real answer is that your stats can be a good deal lower than mentioned earlier and you can do fine in Kara. The real question is how good do your stats need to be to get someone to take you.

Once again we see pre-Kara stat inflation. Mostly the stats requested are just bias.

I recently started Kara with these unbuffed stats:
Spell Damage: 550
Spell Crit Prime form: 21%
Spell Hit; 54
Hp: 6880
Mp: 8220

I joined the guild at 70 on a random solicitation. We cleared Kara on my first run with them. They'd all been there many times (as had I on another server). After 2 kara runs, and a Mag run (2 weeks) my stats are:

Spell Damage: 752
Spell Crit Prime form: 25%
Spell Hit; 119
Hp: 7350
Mp: 8135

Yeah I was not the only ranged DPS. We had a great tank and a great heals. I didn't have access to heroics before I joined the guild except in pugs and I generally find them a waste of time. But I've been raiding since June of 2005 and I know how to play my class and raid. By chance I bumped into a guild that was looking to add some players and weren't real concerned about a specific gear level. They gave me a try, found I can play, and are helping me to gear up. I've been to Mag and Gruul. I'll be in ZA next week. Why did they bother? They get someone who is on time, prepared, understands how to follow coordinated tactics, and generally brings NO drama to raid attempts.

Interestingly the stats I started with are somewhat better than the entry level stats for Kara when it came out. Shockingly, when BC was introduced, we started in Kara in non-heroic Blues and the random Green that was better in some regard than the Blues avaiable for that slot. Sure we did heroics once people made revered but as as adjunct to raiding not as a precursor. Since then we have seen people raise the bar for entrance while the instance gets EASIER. On my old main I did Kara within a month of the release of BC and IMHO it was harder. Kara is the ENTRY LEVEL raid for lvl 70's, where we teach new raiders how to raid. The combination of spellfire and spellstrike recommended here will hold a fire or arcane mage well into T5 content. Do you really think that its a good idea to tell someone that they need gear to start the raid progression that they won't replace until at least 5 raid levels later? Come on guys. Who among us would have wanted to raid where the helm, pants, gloves, belt, and chest you STARTED WITH were better than everything that dropped? As a guild officer I've done that to build a guild, but I was hardly starting. Raiding is more than about the gear, but the anticipation that you might get something sweet is always nice.

To the OP: You are level 68. Start looking now for a raiding guild that is still willing to help players get ready. Find the right one, and you'll be able to start Kara within a couple of weeks of making 70.


Edited, Jul 6th 2008 4:16pm by MrFredII