Invasive Gearing.

I think this is the easiest time I've had getting geared for raid.

         Seriously.  Between garrison raids, Apex crystals, heroics, and having a blacksmith on my garrison it hasn't been that hard to get to ilevel 632 where I'm sitting right now.  My Pally seems to be doing good dps and I'm feeling happy with him.  I have only finished two or three heroics and I'm doing fine and happy.

        Legendary ring is going to be my focus this week.  I still need to get a couple of bands to pop it up to the 680 ilevel.  This will also be my last week off as I'm going to throw us into the frying pan next week and start raiding.  Mwha ha ha.

      At this point only my hands and one trinket are not ilevel 630 or higher.  I still need a couple of enchants, but those are coming along and I will buy the ones my mage can't make by next week.  As much as I don't like the profession system this time round, I do have to mention that you can just pull your alts up and through to about halfway through Shadowmoon valley, and then have a decent profession base to work with.  My shaman has made the 640 neckpiece I'm wearing, and she is only level 91 as of yet.  I've had to mail her some ore, but I get so freaking much from my level 3 mine I normally have a ton to spare.

      Other then that, I can't say enough about doing the daily Apex crystal grind.  It normally takes an hour or so, even quicker if you get in a group. (Group finder list is great for this.)  But there are a ton of 630 pieces you can get in Ashran by trading in 4000, or 3000 of those crystals.  After you buy the piece you can even get the upgrade for even more Apex crystals... then there is yet another upgrade you can get for the piece for, you got it, even more Apex crystals.  You can through the apex grind get a bunch of gear up to the 665 (I may be off a little on that) ilevel pieces.  Basically, 3rd tier level purples for a little work.

     I can't say how much I love garrison invasions.  So far I've earned about one a week by doing my crystal dailies.  These are awesome because you can invite a couple of guildies in, go crazy blowing baddies up, and if you can get gold rating (which I have 2 out of 3 times) you get a bag with a chance at a purple in it.  I'm sporting a ilevel 645 helm from one of these.  Gold doesn't seem to hard to get either, as long as the people you invite in are consistent on blowing crap up, it's attainable.  Honestly the only time I didn't get it, I dc'd a couple times at the beginning of the fight and wasn't able to be there for a bit of it.  I am not sure if these adjust difficulty to the amount of people you have present or not, but there is no reason not to give a couple of guildies or friends a chance to get some gear.

     Level up your followers too, I haven't gotten any pieces worth replacing what I'm wearing yet, but the heroic mission you put them on can score you some ilevel 630 gear as well.  Don't just get one follower, but get a few up past ilevel 615, and then you can start getting stuffs there.

     Really, there is not much reason to not get your gear up past 630 to start raiding.  There are so many paths they have given us, including heroics, to get the stuff you need.  Heroics themselves seem a little tougher this time round.  As long as you pay attention though, it doesn't seem so bad.  I won't lie, I think Blizzard will give the heroics a nerf eventually, just ever so slightly.  I have a lot of groups just falling apart and not making the end.  Not because it can't be done, but because people are impatient and tend to jump ship after one wipe.  You get people constantly jumping in and out, and it makes life a bit harder.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on this week.

Lag/Lazyeye