New 80 Resto DruidFollow

Run heroics, buy T9 from the emblems of triumph, run more heroics until you've got all you can use from EoT.
Use your emblems of frost to buy the things you need most from that/you can't get from anywhere else.

Once you get some gear, run the 3 newest heroics (Forge of Souls, Pit of Saronn and Halls of Reflection) until you have all gear you need from there.

Keep running 1 heroic a day for the 2 frost emblems, and do the weekly raid each week for the 5 extra emblems to gather stuff from there.

What Aethien said.

Each different badge can be turned in for a different ilvl of gear. Frost being the best, followed by triumph, conquest, valor and heroism.

There are a couple of items you may want to grab by downgrading emblems (turning triumph into conquest into valor for example), Idol of Awakening, Disguise of the Kumiho, and perhaps a trinket depending on your luck with drops. Some of the druids that geared more recently may have some good ideas as well. Each vendor should allow you to downgrade an emblem 1 tier at a time, however you'll mostly be turning in the triumph badges you get for gear.

But ya, getting geared is mostly an emblem grind, just doing the old 5-mans until you have enough gear to take on raiding. Once you get the 4pc t9 set bonus (the set you can buy with triumph emblems) and a decent regen idol/trinket you should be more than ready to give ToC-10 a try.

Edit:

Just outside of the Crusader's coliseum in Icecrown you can turn in emblems of triumph for ilvl 232 tier 9 pieces (the "Malfurion's" set). They cost either 30 or 50 emblems a piece.

Edited, Mar 21st 2010 11:39am by someproteinguy

You can also buy them from the Leather & Links store near the South Bank in Dalaran.

Get four pieces of T9 (ilvl 232) and the remaining gear from wherever you can. The four-piece set bonus is just too sexy to pass up on. Rejuvenation able to crit = win.

In general, it depends on how much you like the 4t9 bonus (and to a lesser extent the 2t9).

For my healadin, I got all offset pieces because both t9 bonuses are crap. OTOH, hunters keep the 2t9 bonus until they can get 4t10 with one piece upgraded via token. I expect that your access to crafted/BoE gear (i.e. $$$) has an impact as well. For my cat, it's not even an issue since rawr has the t9 shoulders just as good as the offset (due to itemization).

That said, I believe that resto is a spec that 4t9 is particularly good. It shouldn't be that hard to back up and fill, since except for shoulders the offset pieces are all "filler".

In the end, you'll end up with nothing to spend triumph on other than 4t9 plus offset, and that's what you'll have - then you'll be accumulating them by tens and twenties while pursuing frost emblems. You're just doing it in the opposite order.

I know I have a crafted ilvl 245 leather chest that I want to keep. I guess I should work on replacing head, shoulders, legs, and gloves. That's only 160 emblems. /sigh

Time to keep grinding on heroic pugs I suppose heh.