Friends!

I have been meaning to make this thread for a long time, but have put it off until this morning's guild chat conversation. This thread will discuss the most efficient ways to use your resources, primarily badges and money. Please note at the start that what the "best" or "most fun" way to spend your badges is a matter of opinion and perspective, but efficiency is a scientific measure. You may begin rolling your eyes now.

The advice herein makes several assumptions:

1) You want your character to get the best gear possible for whatever role you play.

2) You don't like the idea of wasting 6-20 Heroic runs' worth of badges, nor 60+ dailies' worth of money.

3) You prefer to avoid self-inflicted head trauma.

If these assumptions do not apply to you, feel free to stop reading now! The point of this thread is not to force anyone into anything, or divert anyone from what is the most fun path for them, it is simply to give sound advice to those who are interested in how to best and most efficiently gear up their character. There is a lot of opinion in this thread, and if you find yourself disagreeing with my line of reasoning, you can take it or leave it. I've given this a lot of thought, though.

I'll be speaking from my own perspective when it comes to specific examples, because that is all I know. I'll try to give some general rules that will apply to all. This is also all written with an eye towards the content that we are running right now, and likely to be in the future.

Rule #1 - Do not waste badges on stuff that is no better than items you can reasonably expect to get off bosses.

We are at a place in the lifecycle of TBC and the progression of the guild where it is fairly safe to assume that many of the better badge rewards are the best item that you'll have access to for that particular slot until WotLK launches and no one cares anymore. I take for granted that no one wants to spend 50 badges on something that the you end up replacing shortly thereafter.

Is that possible? Sure, a tank could buy the Faceguard of Determination, only to replace it with the Eternium Greathelm that drops from Opera in Kara. The Faceguard actually has some stats that are superior to the Greathelm, but the Greathelm as more Armor, Defense Rating, and probably sexiest to a tank, gobs more Stamina. And it's cheaper to socket. Did I mention it's free?

"But Fed!" you say. "I don't like to rely on drops!"

Fair enough. But we are farming the heck out of Kara. If you want to get exalted for the best version of your Violet Signet (and I assume just about everyone does), you'll be seeing a lot of Operas. I'll admit I've never seen a Wolfslayer Rifle, but that can only drop off of 1/3rd of Opera encounters - I've seen tons of Eternium Greathelms.

And let's not forget that there are T4 helms in Kara, as well. So you have two chances per Kara to get something comparable or better (I haven't evaluated all T4 helms, mind you) to what you would spend 50 badges on. This same line of thinking applies, btw, to the Warpstalker Helm, another 50 badge reward. In its case, there are two helms in Kara (on Aran and T4 from Prince) that are better than what you would otherwise waste 50 badges on. As a general rule, nearly every item from before 2.3 is not worth spending badges on. Happy to answer specific questions about this one.

Rule #2 - Do not throw away gobs of money on crafted or BoE epics that you'll replace soon anyway.

Again, I take it for granted that no one wants to just throw money away, either in WoW or real life. Going back to my tank example, you could spend loads of cash on a crafted Helm of the Stalwart Defender - which is at best a sidegrade of the Eternium Greathelm. Instead, you could spend something like 30g for a Felsteel Helm (get the gloves too, btw), which will serve you very well until you see an epic helm in Kara.

This also goes for the Bracers of the Green Fortress, which are comparable to a drop off of the very first boss in Kara. Going back to Rule #1, I wouldn't get the Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx for the same reason, although they are better in a few areas than the ones from Attumen (Vambraces of Courage).

Rule #3 - Know what you are gearing up for (at this point we see there is no rhyme or reason to the Rule order ).

Unless you're a tank, you probably aren't going to be strenuously inspected and gear-checked in order to get into Kara. So don't blow a gasket trying to "gear up" for it. Please, be prepared, but don't feel like you have to blow a zillion badges and gold on gear that is worse than stuff that drops in there. Kara is on farm. It exists to gear you up. Dungeon blues, rep epics, and maybe crafted items that are truly good will do you just fine in there. Those of us who have all we want out of there will be thrilled to have someone show up who can actually use the upgrades.

With that in mind, let's focus our badges and gold on getting you items that will last you into 25-mans and ZA:

Rule #4 - It's cool to blow mad cash on something if it's gonna last you the rest of the BC era.

There are some crafted items that really, truly rock. The easiest examples are the Engineering Goggles. Those things are far better than anything dropping in Kara, Gruul's, or the as-yet-untouched Magtheridon's Lair. There are some helms that drop in ZA that are comparable to the normal Engineering Goggles, though, so think about it. We haven't downed the boss that drops the plate tank helm in there, for example, but the plate healing helm drops off of the very first boss. Additionally, the default goggles can be upgraded to completely, insanely uber goggles if you have even more money to drop on the recipes, which are dropping in the Sunwell and going for around 10,000g on the AH. If you ubgrade those before WotLK, I'll eat my hat.

Rule #5 - Spend your badges on the strongest items possible.

Seems obvious, but there are tons of items you could buy that are worse than / comparable to what drops in Kara, or other Badge rewards. On the other hand, there are some awesome items you can get that you have no reasonable expectation of replacing until WotLK. For example, there are both 2.3 and 2.4 plate tanking pants that are better than any that drop from any boss that we have downed. That would obviously be a smart thing to spend badges on, because you have no other way of getting something as good or better. I'll say that again, a little differently - the best use of your badges is to spend them on something that is the best item you can possibly get for its slot.

I also suggest that you buy the more expensive items first, so that your badge purchases accelerate as you move down the line, but that's a matter of personal taste.

Rule #6 - Itemlevel, schmitemlevel, and higher badge cost doesn't make something better.

Another starkly obvious one here, but you have to evaluate the gear itself for the stats you want. It is widely believed that the 2.4 Tankadin chest is less desireable than the one from 2.3. Same thing with Tankadin boots - the 2.3s are better than the 2.4s.

Well, I've rambled on here quite enough, in a very disorganized fashion. I'm sure I've left some things unsaid, and said some things that were far too obvious to merit discussion. And please remember, I'm just trying to help. If you don't agree, or don't like it, it didn't cost you a thing.

In summary:

Make the most of all your resources - badges, gold, whatever. Get the best item you can for each slot. Don't spend badges or gold when you can get something comparable from a boss drop or rep reward from a faction vendor.