WoW Classic Early 60 Gearing Guide - Casters!

Hey dudes. Silvite Soltis here. And today, I've got another gearing guide for you.

After seeing the great reception to my priest gearing guide, and getting feedback from several people, I decided to keep making these types of simplified gearing guides to help those of you who want to raid, but don't want to spend weeks and weeks tracking down each pre-raid best in slot item. I also want to make sure this guide is as accurate as possible with what items will be available at launch, so for this reason I've decided to continue with a general caster gearing guide since that's the information I have most readily available.

Before getting into it, I would just like to say that this guide is by no means a best-in-slot walkthrough, and each caster class has its own niche items that players should consider trying to get beyond what's written here. Hell, if you manage to get tons of gold early on, you can probably just buy enough decent gear from the auction house. However, as a general "get geared quick" guide for those of you who want to do some dungeons, I think it does the job well.

So without further ado, let's gear some casters!

Step 1: Run BRD as soon as possible (essentially level 50 and up)

Just like in the priest gearing guide, you should run BRD as soon as possible. A lot of great items are available for casters, just like for healers. The difference, however, is that you can start doing Detention Block and Arena runs much earlier, since there's only a few items deep in the dungeon that are good for caster DPS - robes from Emperor Dagran Thaurissan, boots from Golem Lord Arglemach, and the trinket from Ambassador Flamelash. I'd recommend setting your own groups up for Detention Block and Arena farming as early as level 50 so that mobs still award decent exp, but it's really up to you.

Here's a list of all appropriate items from BRD that casters can make use of:

Head
Chief Architect's Monocle from Fineous Darkvire.

Shoulders
Kentic Amice from High Interrogator Gerstahn.

Back
Spritecaster Cape from Houndmaster Grebmar.

Chest
Robes of the Royal Crown from Emperor Dagran Thaurissan.

Hands
Silkweb Gloves from Hedrum the Creeper (Arena Event). This is better for healers though.

Waist
Ban'thok Sash from Ok'thor the Breaker (Arena Event) (HAS HIT ON IT!!!).

Feet
Omnicast Boots from Golem Lord Arglemach.

Finger
Cyclopean Band from Ok'thor the Breaker (Arena Event).

Trinket
Burst of Knowledge from Ambassador Flamelash.

Main Hand
Kindling Stave from Pyromancer Loregrain (has crit chance on it, but no spell power).

Offhand
Enthralled Sphere from High Interrogator Gerstahn.

Ranged

Pyric Caduceus from Pyromancer Loregrain (Good for fire mages, but really just a wand for anyone else. Not useful in MC, however!).

Step 2: Do these quests (before 60)

When you're not running BRD and as you get closer to level 60, try to complete the quest chains ending with "In Dreams," "It's Dangerous to Go Alone," "The Battle of Darrowshire," and "Order Must Be Restored" (Alliance) or "The Scarlet Oracle, Demetria" (Horde) for the quest rewards. All four items you get as a reward are solid items and considering the lack of any caster neck drops in BRD, it's a good idea to fill it this way. If you managed to get the cloak from Houndmaster Grebmar, you can skip "In Dreams," or choose a different reward (shadow priests can snag the ring reward for healing instead, for example).

Getting the wand, Stormrager, might be particularly difficult around the beginning of WoW Classic, but considering the general lack of good wands pre-raid, it's a worthy goal to pursue.

Useful Quest Rewards:

Neck
Archlight Talisman

Back
Shroud of the Exile (again, you don't need this if you got the Spritecaster Cape from BRD)

Offhand
Spirit of Aquementas

Ranged
Stormrager

Step 3: Do LBRS (and work on your Seal of Ascension)

Ok, so you've gone through BRD and done some quests. You're probably around level 60 and ready to hit up the end-game dungeons like Strat and Scholo, right?

Well...not exactly. After looking through loot tables and comparing items in Strat and Scholo, I found that there's really a better option for casters - Lower Blackrock Spire.

Now, LBRS doesn't have all that much going for it in terms of items for casters, but it DOES give you a shot at two different wrists (which are always a pain to find), and some absolutely OP gloves and legs - neither of which are found in BRD. If you consider the lack of overlap on loot between bosses - meaning you COULD get lucky and win like 5 items in a run - you can probably see why it's such a good idea to run LBRS.

While in here, make sure to have the quest to get your Seal of Ascension too, as it will help immensely in Step 4! Also, if you're Horde, make sure to have the quest "Warlord's Command" as well, so that you can work toward a nice trinket later on.

Items you should aim for in LBRS:

Shoulders
Sunderseer Mantle from Crystal Fang (Rare spawn near Mother Smolderweb).

Wrist
Magister's Bindings from trash mobs.
Funeral Cuffs from Shadow Hunter Vosh'gajin.

Hands
Hands of Power from Quartermaster Zigris.

Legs
Skyshroud Leggings from Highlord Omokk.

Main Hand
Trindlehaven Staff from Overlord Wyrmthalak. Not great, but something to aim for while trying to get the Seal of Ascension.

It's also worth noting that mage tailors can also snag the pattern for Robe of the Archmage off trash here, which could cover their chest slot if it's still bare after the next step...

Oh, and one last thing before you go onto the next step. If you're Alliance, after killing Overlord Wyrmthalak, you'll receive an item that starts a very short quest chain. Make sure you do this chain before going on to step 4! You'll thank me if you're still missing a trinket...

Step 4: Do UBRS

Alright, you've braved two dungeons and done a bunch of quests. Hopefully you managed to get your Seal of Ascension, which will be a great boon for you going forward. Time to hit up the big one...UBRS!

Upper Blackrock Spire has a TON of items for casters. The only issue, however is that some of them are locked behind events (like Solakar Flamewreath) or the rare spawn Jed Runewatcher. Still, if you're the lucky owner of a Seal of Ascension, you can set up the group and make the rules of the run, so...yeah.

Here's a list of all useful caster items in UBRS to shoot for. Fill in the blanks in your armor as best as you can, or pick up some upgrades if you're lucky:

Head
Starfire Tiara from Jed Runewatcher (rare). Fun fact, I used this on my priest way back in the day!

Neck
Tooth of Gnarr from General Drakkisath.

Shoulders
Devout Mantle from Solakar Flamewreath (the Rookery Event). Good luck fighting the priests (and paladins) for this...

Chest
Tier 0 Chests (Devout, Dreadmist, and Magister's) from General Drakkisath.

Waist
Dustfeather Sash from Solakar Flamewreath.

Legs
Spiritshroud Leggings from The Beast.

Feet
Dragonrider Boots from Warchief Rend Blackhand. (Edit: drops in PHASE 2)

Finger
Flaming Band from Pyroguard Emberseer (for Fire Mages).

Trinket 
Briarwood Reed from Jed Runewatcher (rare).

Ranged
Serpentine Skuller from Jed Runewatcher (rare).

Note that you can check to see if Jed Runewatcher is in the dungeon by running up the first stairs and spamming a /target Jed macro. If he doesn't get targeted, he isn't there! And it's worth doing this too, as his loot table consists of only of these 3 caster items!


If you made it through all of BRD, LBRS, and UBRS several times, congratulations! You should be at least somewhat geared up! However, if some loot still eludes you, here's one last thing you could try...

Step 5: Filling in the blanks - Stratholme and/or Auction House

If you're sick of lava, orcs and dragons, it's probably a good idea to shake things up a bit. And what better way to do this than to head over to everyone's favorite plague-ridden, still-on-fire dungeon? That's right, the last stop for this gear guide - assuming you STILL don't have have a main hand weapon or just REALLY want a neck with spell hit - is Stratholme! Well...Strat Live at least.

Strat Live is great because the last boss, Balnazzar, drops a great neck, a dagger (which is a bit underwhelming to be honest), and, in Phase 2, some shoulders! It's also super-easy to find a priest to heal for this dungeon, as many of them will be farming it for the Truefaith Vestments pattern.

Combine that with the fact that you can possibly pick up some good BoEs and crafting materials for gold, and it's a nice way to finish off a couple of possibly-empty slots:

Neck
Star of Mystaria from Balnazzar (HAS HIT!!!).

Shoulders
Shroud of the Nathrezim from Balnazzar (Phase 2).

Waist
Grimgore Noose from Timmy the Cruel (note that he only spawns in the courtyard outside the Scarlet Bastion after killing all of the Scarlets outside).

Feet
Magister's Boots from Hearthsinger Forresten.

Main Hand
Gift of the Elven Magi from Balnazzar.

While you're in here, you could also try for the Postmaster's Set (Head, Finger, Feet, Legs, Chest) - Tedious event, but there are 5 possible items and all are quite good for casters - especially the helm! However, since this guide is about gearing fast, you're probably not going to want to run around messing in the mailboxes...

Once you're all dungeoned out, hit up the auction house for any high level greens or appropriate blues that could be used to finish off any remaining gaps! But even with any gaps at this point, you should pretty much be good to go in MC and Ony! So bring on the whelps!

Final Thoughts

I hope you found this caster gearing guide useful. It was a lot of fun to sift through and analyze all the dungeons' loot to create this for you all. Here at the end, I feel that I should also mention that there's still a ton of items in different dungeons that are really great for individual caster types - like all the shadow damage gear in Scholomance for spriests and warlocks - but as this guide is a general overview, it didn't feel right to focus on them specifically. If you'd like a BiS guide for your class, there are like a million out there to choose from. But if you followed what I laid out here, you should be good to go!

Anyway, that's all for today. If you enjoyed this guide or found it useful, follow my blog by adding yourself to my email list! And check out my videos over on YouTube for more content! Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for updates, but until next time - and WoW Classic...

Take it easy! ^_^



Special thanks to vanillawowdb.com and Tig's Vanilla Priest Heal BiS List for providing me with items, patch data, and general reference for this guide! Also a special thanks to my patrons over on Patreon!