What badge gear to pick up first? (Enhancement)Follow

Me right now: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Ursin&n=Tanakyll

As you can see, I'm finally hit-capped (after switching in some ToC 5-man bracers for my Naxx ones), but my Expertise is still low. A lot of that hit, though, comes from my leather pieces (gloves and helm).

-I have enough badges to pick up my tier helm and get the 2-piece set bonus, however this would drop me down below hit cap as the helm has no hit on it at all.
-Alternatively, I could buy these pants, which not only have tons of hit rating, but also have some pretty red and yellow sockets.
-I have some mail gloves from Ulduar that my current hit rating does not allow me to switch to, but with more hit rating I should be able to wear them.

So, here are my options as I see them right now:

1-Go for the set bonus, try not to worry about the hit rating too much.
2-Get the pants, and save up for the helm next--they'll more than make up for the loss of hit.
3-Get the pants, equip the gloves, and see about adding a bit more hit rating while saving up for the helm.

I'm thinking I want to go with option 3 right now, but maybe the set bonus is really worth the loss of hit?

Also: The Brewfest trinket is an upgrade over the Meteorite Whetstone, yes? Haste confuses me.

It's more that most of the upgrades I find have ArP--I'm not going for it by any means, it's just...there. <.< I blame the Hunters.

The gloves give me a boost to Agi, and extra AP from the Int--and Haste + ArP vs nothing is a plus, too. They're an upgrade, if only because I have crappy gear right now. Likewise, the Banner trinket was an upgrade from a blue trinket, and I keep it for the chance on hit.

In any case, I wasn't really asking about ArP--I know better than to stack a stat that only influences about half of my damage--but whether or not the 2-piece set bonus for t8 is awesome enough to be worth dropping down under hit cap temporarily. I apologize if that wasn't clear.

No worries, I've been a little crabby today, I didn't mean to snap at you.

Regarding the helmet: I know, I know. But I am lazy, and also tend to get roped into whatever the guild is running as soon as I log on. I haven't even done my Hodir dailies in a week or so, so of course I haven't tried to find the time to do the starter quests and get up to Friendly. At least I pick up the KotEB rep tokens when i do the regular dungeon daily? xD

Hmm...if I go for the pants now, I can make it a double goal to get the rep for the enchant and the badges for the helm at the same time...

Edit to add: I did look at Rawr, I'm just hesitant to use it. There was this idiot Enhancement Shaman in my old guild Alliance-side, and while it might just have been a case of a retarded kid being retarded, he swore up and down that Rawr told him to use a caster dagger in his main hand. 0.o Then again, I do use be.imba to make sure I've got the right enchants going, and it got angry at me and said I should get 60 spellpower on my offhand instead of the extra weapon chain I use for +hit. So...yeah.


Edited, Sep 23rd 2009 8:23pm by isyris

My first EoT purchase for my shaman was actually the trinket (+128 hit, +512 haste rating on use). (I went with the +haste one because it's basically the equivalent of an extra potion of speed every two minutes, and no enhancement shaman would turn up their nose at a Potion of Speed.) For EoC gear, I went with the neck and relic totem followed by the head and chest, then the belt and gloves. Once I had those, I actually traded down a bunch of EoC for EoV to pick up the bracers and would still be grinding heroics for EoC to downgrade for boots, but I just can't bring myself to do it right now.

The T9 pieces for enh. shaman are nice (despite the fact that the alliance ones look like ****** I was browsing the iLvl232 pieces today in search of my next emblem upgrade and found that the pants are the biggest upgrade of the bunch compared to T8. I also picked up the T9 gloves (just last night, actually) and am about 27 emblems away from the pants (D:). I actually scored a shiny new iLvl242 heroic physical mail dps helm last night in heroic ToC10 and have it fully augmented and ready to go, but I'm waiting until I have another piece of T9 gear before I break my 4pc T8 set bonus.

I'm kind of disappointed with the weapon itemization for enhancement shaman right now pre-Trial of the Crusader (very nice axe and mace from Anub'rakan). Altogether too much low delay garbage floating around in raids for T7/8, and Aledar's Battlestar is a myth as far as I'm concerned.

I know people are often inclined to go for the "big" upgrades with their emblems, but it really pays to look at the neck, rings, and relic totems as well. I'll be upgrading my relic totem fairly soon (226 -> 245 version).

Don't forget to use your KotEB tabard while doing the heroics!