Pre-raid gear

[Spottedcow]

I realize that there is a thread that lists out pre-raid BiS. It's not realistic, however. Sure, I could spend several thousand gold on "xxx of Frozen Wrath" on nearly every slot and another grand on a pair of Freezing Bands. And/or I could grind to exalted with every pvp faction. If I have enough time between when I hit 60 and when I start raiding to grind up 3k gold and 3 exalted pvp factions, I will shoot myself in the fricking head. So in the interest of having a realistic shopping list for 5 mans, what are some good pieces I can reasonably expect to get in 5 mans (i.e. I'm not running Mara 100 times for epic dagger off Princess) for Winter's Chill PvE?

[varth]

*taken from warlock class forum, but most of this list is good for mages

Head: Crimson Felt Hat, Felcloth Hood, +41 "of Shadow Wrath"
Neck: Tempest Talisman, Dark Advisor's Pendant, Orb of the Darkmoon
Shoulder: Burial Shawl, Felcloth Shoulders, +30 "of Shadow Wrath"
Back: Heliotrope Cloak, Amplifying Cloak, +21 "of Shadow Wrath"
Chest: +41 "of Shadow Wrath", Robe of Winter Night, Robe of the Void
Wrist: Sublime Wristguards, Dryad's Wrist Bindings, +21 "of Shadow Wrath"
Hands: Hands of Power, Gloves of Spell Mastery,Felcloth Gloves
Waist: Oddly Magical Belt, Belt of the Archmage, Frostwolf Cloth Belt
Legs: R8 Pants, Skyshroud Leggings, Flarecore Leggings
Feet: Omnicast Boots, Maleki's Footwraps, +30 "of Shadow Wrath"
Ring: Band of the Unicorn, Underworld Band, Eye of Orgrimmar / Maiden's Circle
Trinket: Burst of Knowledge, Eye of the Beast / Briarwood Reed
2H: Staff of Jordan, Rod of the Ogre Magi
Main Hand: Witchblade, Blade of the New Moon
Off Hand: Umbral Crystal, Spirit of Aquementas, Tome of Shadow Force
Ranged: Bonecreeper Stylus, Skul's Ghastly Touch, +23 "of Shadow Wrath"

[Ana]

@up has lots of shadow damage, here are some fixes that fit a mage and/or alternatives to what varth posted (sometimes better, sometimes slightly worse but sufficient in general):

Shoulder: Boreal Mantle (Warder Stilgiss, BRD Vault)
Back: Stormpike / Frostwolf cloak (AV honored I think)
Chest: Freezing Lich Robes (Ras, Scholo)
Feet: Dragonrider's (Gyth/Rend)
Ring: Songstone of IF (= Eye of Orgrimmar for Horde)
Trinket: Eye of the Beast + Briarwood Reed definitely, anything else sucks atm
Main Hand: Mind Carver (DMW)
Off Hand: Tome of the Ice Lord (AV exalted, I know rep grind sucks but this is really bis until Naxx unless you get shadowflame)
Ranged: the wand from Korrak quest (assuming they didn't break it AGAIN)

[Lazermon]

I realize that there is a thread that lists out pre-raid BiS. It's not realistic, however. Sure, I could spend several thousand gold on "xxx of Frozen Wrath" on nearly every slot and another grand on a pair of Freezing Bands. And/or I could grind to exalted with every pvp faction. If I have enough time between when I hit 60 and when I start raiding to grind up 3k gold and 3 exalted pvp factions, I will shoot myself in the fricking head. So in the interest of having a realistic shopping list for 5 mans, what are some good pieces I can reasonably expect to get in 5 mans (i.e. I'm not running Mara 100 times for epic dagger off Princess) for Winter's Chill PvE?

MC isn't exactly famed for its plenty of caster loot, it can go several weeks before you will see a single item drop at all (had a 5 week drought myself). You will have several months on you to grind stuff on the pre-raid list and it's possible you wont even have seen a Choker of the Fire Lord drop at all. I'm not saying it wont take time to grind your gear, but I'l assure you, getting your raid gear will take plenty of time too. If I were to recommend anything, it would be to get rank10 and AV exalted, and when youre bored with the pvp, grind gold in dm east. Yeah it sucks the mage pre-bis is all hell to acquire, but hey, atleast it gives you something to do other than raidlog.

I've been raiding on this server since like what, march? Only thing I've got to show from MC is a choker of Enlightenment. Sure can't be raiding vanilla if the only thing you want out of it is pixels, cause you aint getting many of em.

[Spottedcow]

MC isn't exactly famed for its plenty of caster loot, it can go several weeks before you will see a single item drop at all (had a 5 week drought myself). You will have several months on you to grind stuff on the pre-raid list and it's possible you wont even have seen a Choker of the Fire Lord drop at all. I'm not saying it wont take time to grind your gear, but I'l assure you, getting your raid gear will take plenty of time too. If I were to recommend anything, it would be to get rank10 and AV exalted, and when youre bored with the pvp, grind gold in dm east. Yeah it sucks the mage pre-bis is all hell to acquire, but hey, atleast it gives you something to do other than raidlog.

I've been raiding on this server since like what, march? Only thing I've got to show from MC is a choker of Enlightenment. Sure can't be raiding vanilla if the only thing you want out of it is pixels, cause you aint getting many of em.

It's not that you're not correct; our T1 set is pretty lame and the oddball pieces are few and far between. But I'll be dinging 60 shortly and I'd like to be able to go into raiding ASAP with gear that will allow me to perform. I've noticed one thing that has been brought to Nost from retail is the mentality that you need to outlevel and outgear content before anyone wants to go anywhere with you. And it's not impossible to research via AoWoW and find the best 2 or 3 instance drops in each slot to assemble a workable set of gear in a short time-frame. But it's not easy, because there are still plenty of pieces listed there that aren't in the game yet here on Nost and a few items that have slightly different stats than they do in game. Sites like WoWHead are completely useless because the stats have been shifted so much. So that's why I'm asking here; it's not that I want someone else to do all the work for me in finding the gear I should be looking for, I just want whatever help people can offer in setting a good baseline of gear priorities.

[Ana]

And you have all slots covered in previous 2 posts. You should be good

[Spottedcow]

And you have all slots covered in previous 2 posts. You should be good

Yup. I appreciate the help guys!