How to Gear Up Fast in World of Warcraft The War Within Season 3

Patch 11.2 and Season 3 have just landed, and a lot of players are still gearing up to get their characters ready for the endgame. This is not exactly the easiest process, so to help you out, we’ve put together a guide with the best ways to boost your equipment and quickly push past 700 […]

Patch 11.2 and Season 3 have just landed, and a lot of players are still gearing up to get their characters ready for the endgame. This is not exactly the easiest process, so to help you out, we’ve put together a guide with the best ways to boost your equipment and quickly push past 700 ilvl this season. 

Here, we’ll go over gear basics, catch-up methods, and options for both solo and group players, but if you ever want to take a shortcut, you can always buy a WoW boost and get geared by pros in no time. 

How Gearing Works 

There are several types of gear in WoW, each coming with its own upgrade track and item level range:

• Explorer: ilvl 642-665
• Adventurer: ilvl 655-678
• Veteran: ilvl 668-691
• Champion: ilvl 681-704
• Hero: ilvl 694-710
• Myth: ilvl 707-723

Gear from Explorer to Champion has 8 upgrade ranks; Hero and Myth gear only have 6. To rank up a piece, you’ll need Valorstones and Ethereal Crests. Crests come in different varieties (Weathered, Carved, Runed, and Gilded), and which one you need depends on the type of item you’re upgrading. Ranking up Explorer gear only requires Valorstones.

Starting Out

The very first thing you need to do is level up to 80. If you’ve played previous seasons, chances are you already have a maxed-out character, but if not, questing and running dungeons (or a WoW boost) will get you there without too much trouble. 

While leveling or right after you hit 80, you should start working on reputation quests. Renown rewards will give you crests and Restored Coffer Keys, which are special items that unlock Bountiful Delve rewards (more on that later). If you’ve already leveled Renown in earlier seasons, you won’t be able to pick up those rewards again.

Completing the new K’aresh campaign will give you your first real gear boost with a set of ilvl 642 gear. After the first three chapters, you’ll also unlock the 694 ilvl Reshii Wraps cloak, this season’s artifact. It can be taken to 730 ilvl using Ethereal Strands, which drop from pretty much any endgame activity.

To raise your ilvl further, we suggest you do the following: 

• Grind reputation with K’aresh Trust for upgrade currency. At Renown 7, you can also pick up a Veteran 668 ilvl piece.
• Do Dornogal weeklies for Veteran-track pieces, Restored Coffer Keys, and Coffer Key Shards (100 of those can be combined into a key)
• Unlock the Ecological Succession weekly quest. It gives you a cache with Veteran gear, upgrade mats, and more Restored Coffer Keys.
• Get the Titan D.I.S.C Belt if you don’t have it yet. Completing the first quest from the Titan Console in Dornogal rewards you with a 691 ilvl belt, and follow-up quests will  to upgrade it to 701 ilvl.
• Beat the new World Boss Reshanor each week for a Champion-track item.
• Do World Quests for extra gear, crests, and Valorstones. 

Gearing Up in the Endgame

Once you’ve completed the campaign, grabbed your Reshii cloak and Titan belt, and followed at least some of the steps we listed above, your item level should already be sitting around 660. Now it’s time to dive into real endgame content.

Dungeons

If you’ve got a team (or don’t mind pugging), dungeons are the best way to start working on your endgame gear upgrades. 

Heroic dungeons will give you 665 ilvl Adventurer gear and 678 ilvl Veteran piece in the Great Vault. Next up, you can grind Mythic 0 Dungeons for 681 ilvl Champion gear and 691 ilvl gear in the Vault. After that, you can start pushing Mythic+ keys. 

M+ rewards range from 684 Champion to 701 Hero gear from chests, with Great Vault loot going from 694 Hero to 707 Myth. Keys from +2 to +6 drop 10-18 Runed Crests; +7 and higher give 10-20 Gilded Crests, depending on the key.

Here are the three most important keys to keep in mind:

• +6s will give you 694 ilvl Hero items, 18 Runed Crests, and a 701 ilvl Hero Vault reward.
• +7 keys still drop 694 ilvl Hero gear, but you start earning Gilded Crests. 
• At +10 keys, loot only gets a small bump, but the real upgrade comes from the Vault with a 707 ilvl Myth piece. 

If your group is up for it, it’s better to push +10s, but if not, focus on farming +7s, as they offer the perfect balance between challenge and rewards. 

Season 3 also brings back Tazavesh as a mega-dungeon with Hero track loot up to 701 ilvl. If every member of your group has the Street Smart buff and nobody dies during the run, everyone gets a Myth-track piece at the end. Even though there are no timers or affixes, it’s going to be a tough challenge, so if you don’t have an experienced group, you can always get a Tazavesh Deathless WoW boost and get carried by pro players.

Delves

If you’re more of a solo player, Delves are your best bet for gearing up. Your main goal should be to push up to Tier 8 Delves as quickly as you can. At that level, running Bountiful Delves will reward you with 684 ilvl Champion gear (upgradable to 704), Runed crests, and a 694 ilvl Hero piece in the Vault.

You can complete four Bountiful Delves per day. To actually claim the rewards, you’ll need to unlock the Bountiful Coffer chest at the end of each run using a Restored Coffer Key. 

Delver’s Bounty

Delver’s Bounty map is a special item that guarantees a 694 ilvl Hero piece at the end of a Tier 8+ Delve. You unlock it at Rank 2 of the Delver’s Journey, which is a progress bar tied to your Delve runs. Points are earned by running Bountiful Delves, opening Bountiful Coffers, and turning in the Key to Success weekly quest (once per account per week).

Once unlocked, Delver’s Bounty can drop randomly in Delves, or you can get it guaranteed through an item called Shrieking Quartz, sold by Sir Finley Mrrgglton. Using this item inside a Delve will spawn a special Nemesis boss, which will drop a Delver’s Bounty once defeated.

Raid

Here’s the loot you get from each difficulty of the Manaforge Omega raid:

• LFR: 671-678 Veteran gear + Weathered Crests
• Normal: 684-691 Champion gear + Carved Crests
• Heroic: 697-704 Hero gear + Runed Crests
• Mythic: 710-717 Myth gear + Gilded Crests

Great Vault raid rewards now scale to the highest boss you’ve killed on that difficulty.

Crafted Gear

Crafting is another good option to raise your ilvl all the way up to 720 ilvl. To make gear, you’ll need Sparks of Starlight and Enchanted Crests that can be bought from Syenite and Llande in Dornogal.

Since crafting is pretty time-consuming and expensive, we recommend making items only with Enchanted Gilded Crests. You can either craft yourself if you have the profession or place a crafting order for the piece you want, providing base mats, an Enchanted Gilded Ethereal Crest as an optional reagent, as well as stuff like Embellishments for special effects and Missives to fine-tune your secondary stats.