As I worked my Frost Mage to 70, I did a lot of reading and researching on gearing needs for running Heroics and gearing needs for maybe, perhaps, on occasion, filling in for someone in a Karazhan raid some day.

Shadoweave Tailor - Frozen Shadoweave set

So, when I hit 70 I started working on “epicing” out my equipment set, using the 3-piece Shadoweave set as the basis of it all.

I fished ALL 38 Primal Water in Nagrand myself since they sell for around 25g each. (Collection of Poached Bluefish for my Mage and Grilled Mudfish for my up-and-coming Rogue is restocked as well) I transmuted about half of the cloth myself, but relied on the cooldowns of others with materials I bought from the Auction House for the rest.

Socketting My Gear

I socketted up my gems with semi-expensive ones (~35-55g each) first - dumb move, because I ended up replacing a bunch of those after finding out they were best for 25-man raid teammates, or PvP players. Now I’m using the “cheap” gems (1-3g each) that are better tuned for what I need - +damage above all else, bug +crit over +hit, and ZERO +spell penetration (except as wanted for PvP gear).

Filling In The Gaps

The Shadoweave set only fills in three slots, so I had to do some research and learn from others about where to fill those. Soulcloth Gloves was easy and I got it done before my first Shadoweave piece, but my attempt at getting the PvP bracers Vindicator's Silk Cuffs was fouled by my confusion and I bought Vindicator's Mooncloth Cuffs instead, so I need to PvP more than I had planned (that’s okay, it’s a great skill-builder to fight while dancing).

I see there’s a nice epic 1h Mage Sword that’s reputation for Exalted with Thrallmar… and a nice wand in Heroic Underbog…

Heroic Statistical Goals

All I’ve been aiming for in gearing up for Heroics is to get to 500 frost damage. Fortunately my gear gives significant Stamina as well, so I’ve got nearly 6.5k health unbuffed before I decide on enchants to go on top of my +damage +hit or +stamina gems.

And, that is where I was when I got into my first Heroics group that went through the daily Heroics dungeon of the day, Blood Furnace. I went in with 6.7k hp unbuffed and came out with 6.9k, and went in with 464 frost damage and came out with 650.

But that’s another entry for another day!

Tags: alterac valley, arathi basin, blood furnace, daily heroic, Dungeons, epic bracer, epic equipment upgrades, eye of the storm, frost mage gear, frozen shadowweave, gearing up for heroics, gearing up for karazhan, gemming, grilled mudfish, heroic blood furnace, heroic underbog, how to socket gear, karazhan, level 70 mage gear, mage, mage gearing tips, mage pvp gear, mage statistics, my first heroic, nagrand, poached bluefish, primal water, shadowweave tailor, socketing my gear, soulcloth gloves, tailoring, tailoring specialization, thrallmar, underbog, vindicator's silk cuffs, warcraft dungeons, warsong gulch, world of warcraft, wowwebstats