Pimp My Shaman

It took a while (a little under 4 months to be precise), but finally my alt, Zinglet (Scublet..) finally reached level 80 yesterday. Overall, the process of levelling again wasn’t as painful as I had predicted and certainly not as mind numbing as I remember levelling Zing to be. This is probably purely due to the fact that when levelling Zing, I was desperate to change mains where as this time, it’s an alt. Never the less, I did believe levelling the same class again would be more painful that it ultimately was.

At this point in the game, it is incredibly easy to deck out a new level 80 character in style and this is exactly what I had intended to do. She has had multiple BoE epics in her inventory for many, many levels as I’ve diligently checked the auction house multiple times a day for those items I really wanted.

So, want to really pimp your shiny new shaman? Read on 😉

Please note: This is designed as a list of high level, BoE items that you can buy straight from the auction house. I’ll touch on BoP’s in another post.

Jewellery

Starting with the jewellery items, there are some really nice BoE’s around for these slots. Availability of them can vary however and at least one of the following took me a long time to find.

Neck

The Blood Queen’s Crimson Choker drops from, obviously, Blood Queen Lana’thel in 25 man, normal mode Icecrown Citadel. It’s a very good neck and as such, you’re mainly going to be hoping for pick up groups that raid role all BoEs and for someone to then sell it.

The price on this one is going to vary enormously. My server has a distinct lack of decent pugs and as such, the only one I’ve so far seen on the auction house was 22k. More populated servers should (hopefully) find this for a lot cheaper.

If you’re looking for a cheaper BoE altenative, there is the crafted Titanium Spellshock Necklace. Quite conveniently, this has a red socket which in true twink style, you’ll be gemming with a runed cardinal ruby.

Rings

The first obvious choice here is the upgraded Dalaran caster ring.

The price of this is dependent upon your reputation with the Kirin Tor. If you can’t wait and want to buy it straight off, the base ring is 8,500 gold and fully upgraded, you’re looking around 12k. If you don’t need hit however, this ring is unlikely to be replaced until well into Icecrown Citadel.

For the second ring slot you have a couple of options. Firstly is the Ring of the Darkmender, a BoE drop from Lord Jaraxxus in Trial of the Crusader 25 man. Secondly, is the superior Marrowgar’s Frigid Eye. Another BoE drop from Lord Marrowgar in 25 man normal.

The price difference, at least on my server, isn’t huge between the two rings. I opted for the Marrowgar’s Frigid Eye as both my shaman’s now have this (it’s part of Zing’s resto set) and as I can’t do twenty five man raids due to our ten man strict status, having this as a BoE option is lovely.

Once again, there is a much cheaper, crafted caster ring available in the form of the Titanium Spellshock Ring.

Trinkets

There are a couple of Darkmoon Faire trinkets that might be of interest. Firstly, is the caster version of the noble’s deck.

Secondly, is the illusion deck which, ignoring the awful effect, gives a nice, base spell power increase.

Armour

Shoulders

There’s little available in regards to BoE epic shoulders. The Stiffened Corpse Shoulderpads are a BoE drop from Icecrown Citadel, but you do have wasted stats in the form of spirit. That said, they’re a large chunk of spell power with sockets and a decent socket bonus.

I personally didn’t bother with these and will be going straight for t9 emblem shoulders. However, if you’re set on decking out in full BoEs right from the start (or you want to be Icecrown passable at least), these can be considered.

Cloak

There are a couple of options available here also and again, their price bracket varies. Firstly we have the Cloak of Displacement dropping from 25 man trial of the crusader.

The price again will vary hugely from server to server but a few thousand feels about right. The advantage of this cloak is that it has hit rating.

The second option is crafted, this time from tailoring and comes in the form of the Deathchill Cloak.

Chest

By far the best option here is to have the Merlin’s Robe crafted (or buy it from the auction house.) It was our best in slot prior to tier 10, despite being cloth and will comfortably see you into Icecrown.

Bracers

Once again, we look to tailoring to provide these amazing BoE bracers. Again, these were best in slot for elemental shaman’s before Icecrown was released and you’ll still see many using them well into the instance.

Weapon

There are a few options for the main hand slot ranging in price enormously. The first option is to acquire a Battered Hilt from the auction house. Upon completing the quest chain, the shaman reward is the Hammer of Purified Flame. Once again, if you’re looking for an item to see you into Icecrown Citadel, this would be it. The prices on these are still quite high on many servers. They vary on my home server from around 11,000 upto 15,000 gold.

Of the cheaper, crafted varieties we have the Titansteel Guardian and the Titansteel Spellblade. While the mace has higher spell power, the dagger comes with a nice splashing of hit rating which is generally a concern of newly levelled shaman.

Off-hand

Really good BoE off-hands are basically none existent. You can pick up Zom’s Crackling Bulwark very cheaply and while it’s far from amazing, it serves a purpose at this stage.

Belt

Again here we look to an Icecrown BoE drop. The Belt of the Blood Nova. This appears to be a fairly common drop and is certainly seen on the auction house a lot at reasonable prices.

Again, it’s not ideally itemised due to the MP5 but it does have both high spell power and high haste and will see you comfortably into Icecrown when you replace it with our best in slot, Waistband of Despair.

Legs

Fortunately for any newly levelled alt, crafted legs are available from Icecrown Citadel and crafters are quite abundant at this stage. The cloth leggings, Leggings of Woven Death, are better itemised for an elemental shaman than the Lightning-Infused Leggings, but the difference is very slight. Due to my vanity, I opted for the mail leggings as they match the look of the shaman t10. It should be noted that your best in slot set might include the t10 legs (due to their hit) but they will still carry you well into Icecrown Citadel (and all the way if you so wish.)

Boots

Once again, the Icecrown Citadel crafted boots are close to best in slot for many and this includes elemental shaman’s. The Earthsoul Boots are by far your best option here and can only be replaced by a very slight upgrade from Lady Deathwhisper heroic.

Conclusion

So there we have it. If you have gold to burn and want to dress your new shaman up like a barbie doll, this is how. If you want to (almost) walk straight into Icecrown Citadel with your guild then this will put you well on that road. Quite minimal emblem farming can be done to fill in the gaps (I’ll come to these in another post).