Gearing my new 70.Follow

Ok, I've had my 70 for a while, but this is my first 70, and so all I've been doing is running people and dailies. Now, I want to do some stuff for myself. I have the basic set of rep gear (Opportunist's), and I figured that would be good enough. Then, I was running Mechanar for Sha'tard rep, for the pants, and the Tunic of Assassination dropped. I saw it, and wanted the whole set. I am in the process of getting the set, when I was told of Wastewalker's. That set is next on my list, after the Assassination set. Is there any other decent PvE sets after these that I could use? I've had my eye on Deathmantle, but I have no idea where to get the marks, though I've heard 25-man raids. Also, other people say to skip sets, and just go for badge gear. What gear should I try to get?

Thanks,

Kamikun, 70 Sub PvE NE Rogue on Echo Isles.

Welcome the the upgrade Hamster Wheel! You are doing what many of us have done... picked up what the could and tried to upgrade as better gear came into our radar.

The general order of upgrades that Blizzard designers put forth for us at 70 was this at the Burning Crusade exapansion: Assassination Set (regular dungeon drop set), Wastewalker Set (heroic dungeon drop set), Netherblade (introductory or "tier-4" 10 and 25-toon raids), Deathmantle (advanced or "tier-5" 25-toon raids). With the subsequent added content we got tier-6 Slayers armor... and the so-called badge gear which was put in mainly as a help to raiders to get into the later progression content. The badge gear is generally considered to be tier-5.5 in quality (well, some pieces anyway).

Unless you have access to a raiding guild, it's pretty unlikely you'll get access to anything other than Wastewalker and Badge gear (and possibly tier-4 gloves and helm from Karazhan) as it's pretty impossible to PUG the 25-toon raiding instances. So most players who do not raid will advise, rightly, that the badge stuff is pretty damn good. And it is. Gemmed and enchanted properly the badge chest, belt and legs are fantastically awesome for how easy they are to get. Just running heroics offers up the badges you need, and some heroics are stupid easy to complete even with a PUG (SP anyone?). Also, check in Lower City with the ethereals for the heroic daily quest. That's 2 extra badges and whichever instance it is will have plenty of eager folks in LFG ready to join ya.

Hope that helps... Good luck and gratz on the ding!