If you need any help, I am more than happy to offer up my knowledge. I've done all the fights up to Sin. Of the hard modes I've done, I only know Marrowgar and lootship, which is no different from regular lootship.

Good to know. I'm still working on my gear. Unsure how I'm going to actually manage 5.3k gs without having ICC gear, but I'm doing my best. If I can convince someone sane to actually run the group, I might actually get to see it before Cata hits.

SUFFER, AS YOUR PATHETIC MAGIC BETARAYAYAYAYSHHGUGHS YOUUUGHGHOOOO

If you aren't running the 5 mans, I suggest doing that. They obviously don't have upgrades for every slot, but it'll help boost your gs. 25 man ToC gear will usually help as well. I would also suggest watching the trade chat like a hawk for either icc 10/25 (25 preferred because its a helluva lot easier to go by unnoticed if your dps isn't so amazing but not complete crap) that is looking for any able bodies and not being really picky about who they get. You might not get far but running even the first four (which is basically impossible to screw up...except maybe Saurfang (dps race)) will still get you some decent upgrades.

Sargeras wants 5k gear score for everything from normal mode Ulduar on up, most days. I at least got a 3d zerg last night because my friends ran it. Which was kind of ironic, since they then turned around and asked for 5k gs and achievement from everyone else.

Jeeez. You should move to Eonar if you want low gs requirements for icc, and practically none for everything else. I think the most people ask for (unless they're doing hardmodes) is around 3-4k gs.

5 mans. Get the 232 set for your class. Frozen Halls for jewelry, weapon, and if you need it, offhand.

What class DO you play actually, I could be more helpful if you told us that.

Fire mage at the moment. Prot pally when I have the time to gear her up too. I've been doing five mans, but no luck with drops, really. I have a Seethe. Using a Naxx mp5 offhand to replace my Talisman of Nightbane, since Seethe was better than the 219 staff I had even without an offhand at all. Boots are 200 blues, buying the 226 badge boots if I don't get a drop before then. Cloak is 200 blue, buying a 219 eventually, if I don't get the frost badges for Volde's first. Should have that in another week and a half or so.

My mage has only been 80 for a week, so it's not really a huge deal that I'm not ICC geared yet, but heroics get old after doing 50+ badges worth a day.

So true. If you have the money, I'd suggest giving the AH out browse. ICC has quite a few BoEs, and of course there are always craftables on the AH. Just to give fair warning, the Shriveled Heart almost never fckin drops. I ran Halls of Reflections so many freaking times on my s-priest that when it did drop and this pally wanted it for os, I almost flipped out on him.

I'm saving for epic flying still, no chance of me dropping thousands and thousands of gold on boe 264s.

Definitely understandable (and don't forget to go to outland instead of Hira for training!).

Fire mage? No no no. Bad. Fire bad. Use Arcane for now. It may be a bit duller, but you'll see a sizable DPS increase. Gear for haste and spellpower, gem with Rune Cardinal Rubies and Reckless Ametrines. Don't use the Reckless unless the +spellpower bonus is at least +5.

You can go back to fire when you're using 264s. That's when it pulls ahead of Arcane.

If you need a laundry list, I could give you one, but you don't seem like the type.

Nope! I know Arcane is better, but I hate the spec and refuse to use it. The spec itself is messy, has a ton of wasted points, and I don't like the rotation.

I went Arcane. For some reason my PoM flamestrikes and blizzards are doing retarded dps on the aoe packs from Ick to Tyrannus, and I do think my overall dps went up. But the talent build makes me cry. I hate having half-full talents and almost 100% wasted points.

They do. It's very simple. Flamestrike once, POM Flamestrike one rank lower, then Blizzard. You triple your damage output.

And what build did you use? The cookiecutter Arcane build has almost 0% wasted points.

Unsure how double flamestrike blizzard spam is more dps than double flamestrike fully talented blizzard spam, but it seems to be.

Cookiecutter Arcane is horrible. I wince every time I don't fill out a talent. Frostbite I will rarely if ever use as Arcane, but there is no better place for it. I really wish I could just drop Icy Veins and fill out my talents in Arcane, or that the tree was designed to let you have the points left over more smoothly.

Hunters are better!

Shamans > all.

Bah! Shamans are lamezor.

Poor thing. A well played mage is pretty much the king of the game in PVP, and only Ret Pallies do better in ICC (Damn you vs undead bonuses. )

And Sylphas, if you really hate Arcane that much, you -can- get away excell with fire once you get into ICC gear. You need to have about 2500 SP, 1000 crit, and 700-1000 haste.

And hang onto at least 2 pieces of t9, you can put them on when you refresh your Molten Armour to skitch in that 2pc set bonus on your crit.