Larias’ Raider’s Guide for 11.2

Updated Aug 10 11:45 PM see changelog here Created by @larias (Discord) feel free to DM and ask questions Special thanks to Leviathan-Hyjal for proofreading Special thanks to Dragonmommy-Hyjal and Stepbuns-Hyjal for the beautiful flowchart!

A shout out to Kalamazi for sharing my guide! It’s

suffering from success and crashing due to the traffic

though.

Please use this link instead.

I have made a basic checklist for each suggested weekly

item here.

If you want to buy me a coffee, you can do so here. Thank you for all your support over the years!

Every time I publish one of these guides, I get messages either saying that this doesn’t apply to them or they think it’s silly that folks minmax to this degree. That’s okay. It doesn’t have to apply to you you can not follow this information and enjoy the game. However, if you enjoy min-maxing your character, this guide can be very helpful to you.

I am including a couple lines of text that are degenerate. They are not required and they likely will only give you a very minor boost but if you’re bored out of your mind then you’re welcome to do them. These steps will be shaded purple. Please do not blame me if you decide to do them and hate yourself.

What’s new for Raiders in 11.2?

If you don’t care about any of this, you can skip to Weekly Checklist and Gearing Guide.

Due to the increased item level from +10s being available from the first week in season 3, Runed Crests will be phased out by the second week of raid for people spamming keys and by the third week for everyone else. 2 crafted items, cloak, and delve belt

mean you will have to upgrade at most 12 slots and that's exactly how many upgrades you get in the first two weeks even without one-time rewards. This means that upgrading is very very simple this season and as long as you don't waste your Gilded Crests you'll be safe.

Some classes may not want to craft a weapon first as is normal for most Mythic raiders. The first 3 bosses are front loaded with weapons. The first boss has an agi polearm, 1h str mace, and 1h int mace. The second boss has an agi dagger, bow, and shield. The third boss has an agi fist weapon and the int cantrip set staff mentioned below. Depending on how easy the bosses are and the speed at which your guild enters mythic, you may not want to craft a weapon if you can use these items. As always, you should check with your respective class discords on what is best to craft.

11.2 introduces two new types of augment runes. The first comes from renown level 9 from the new raid reputation. This will cause the optional boss, the Soul Hunters, to drop 3 Bind On Pickup augment runes that last for 1 hour and persist through death with a chance to drop 3 more. This can be useful for raiders who are just looking for a boost for their weekly raid but you are only guaranteed 3 hours a week with these. The other way is to farm the new K'aresh Trust open world faction to reach Renown 18 and purchase the normal endless augment rune from them for 100,000g.

Three minor changes with item levels. First, Hero and Myth track items are once again capped at 6 upgrades. Second, this season does not have any Rare items and therefore there will be no Crest saver items. Finally, raid loot now starts at 2/6 on the first boss. If you want to see an updated list of item levels and Crests, check out this great breakdown of item levels courtesy of @dburnnzz on Discord!

11.2 also brings a new artifact cloak with a unique proc! This item will increase in item level each week similar to other time gated items in the past and can be modified in different ways. You can choose the secondary stats on it via some items made by tailors, you can get a ring that causes your cloak to reduce Cosmic damage by 50% up until a certain absorb amount, and you can get boots that increase the procs per minute of the cloak effect. A full guide on the cloak can be found here.

There are a new set of boots that are BIS for all DPS and probably for healers and tanks as well. They come in the cloth, leather, mail, and plate variety and drop from the “optional” Soul Hunters boss in the raid. They are listed as bonus loot in the dungeon journal and during PTR testing, they dropped similar to Curios from the final boss. You were guaranteed 1 set of boots per 10 people in the raid and duplicates of the boots could not drop. That means with a raid size of 30 people, you would be guaranteed to

get 3 different boots on every kill in normal and heroic. For raid leaders, you should consider this when planning out your raids as every DPS will want one but you don’t want people taking them from their vaults because they won’t be mythic slot.

Caster DPS and Healers should be aware that there are new powerful cantrip effect weapons from the raid. The weapons come in 3 varieties a staff from the 3rd boss(Soulbinder Naazindhri), a dagger from the 6th boss(Fractillus), and a 1h sword from the 7th boss(Nexus-King Salad Bar). These powerful weapons have a proc that does damage to enemies and puts an absorb shield on allies. The power of the weapons can be further enhanced by the Diamantine Voidcore trinket from the 6th boss(Fractillus). Luckily, we all know that healers and Augmentation Evokers don't deserve loot so they should go to DPS casters first.

Weekly Checklist and Gearing Guide

Do not spend any Restored Coffer Keys, Sparks,

or Crests until told to do so.

I have made a basic checklist for each suggested weekly

item here.

Week 1 August 5th Patch Week, No Raid

• Grab the Darkmoon Faire reputation buff and do the new storyline and get your legendary cloak. -Doing the content below should get you the strands required to upgrade your cloak to

707. Make sure to go back to Hashim to upgrade your cloak. -With the Darkmoon Faire buff, do the large weekly reputation quests for K’aresh Trust. -Grab the weekly dungeon quest so you can select K’aresh Trust as your renown reward and claim it with your DMF buff.

• In order to reach Renown 18 as quickly as possible to purchase the endless augment rune, degenerately do the following with the Darkmoon Faire reputation buff: -Complete all available story quests with DMF buff. -Purchase and use a K’aresh Trust contract and do every World quest in Khaz Algar with DMF buff. -Read all ten lore books in K’aresh for a one time boost in Renown with DMF buff. These provide 2750 total Reputation (1 full renown + 10%) if used with the DMF buff. Special thanks to Neryssa from Wowhead for this info.

-Kill all rares weekly that give reputation with DMF buff. -If you are looking for any reputation information, I can not recommend Neryssa’s guide enough. This is an excellent resource! -If available, do the introduction quest to obtain a crafting spark. Do not use it. DO NOT USE IT. -Kill the world boss for a chance at a 688 item level piece, including a haste heavy ring. -Delves are reset to rank 3. Level them back up to 8 and then do 8 rank 8 Delves to fill out your vault with Hero track items. Special Note: You do need to do t8 delves. The in game delve tooltip is slightly bugged. Do t8 delves.

• Optional: go ahead and unlock rank 11 Delves if you think you’ll want the Gilded Crests from them later in the season.

• Optional: If available, do weekly quests to obtain 6 Restored Coffer Keys. Can use these to do t11 solo next week to get gilded crests if no group available to do stuff.

• Optional: While you can farm Undercoins to purchase a Shrieking Quartz to summon Ky’veza to guarantee a map, the item itself isn’t purchasable until Rank 2 of the Delver’s Seasonal Journey. Unless you enjoy doing delves or have a BIS trinket from Delves, you do not need to do this as you will be farming +10’s the next week for hero track gear. -Do each of the available 6 mythic 0 dungeons available - Ara-Kara, Priory of the Sacred Flame, Eco-Dome Al’dani, Halls of Atonement, The Dawnbreaker, and Operation: Floodgate. They drop 681 ilvl gear that you can upgrade to 691 ilvl using Carved Crests. This can be very useful for important items like trinkets to give you a head start on your raid the next week. -Run two more of any of the above dungeons on mythic zero difficulty to fill out your vault. You will not be eligible for loot but it will ensure the best vault you can get. -Make sure you end the week at 2000 valorstones. Don’t use any one time use valorstone items. -You can freely use any Weathered or Carved Crests to upgrade items.

Some Minor Missable Items(Added Aug 9)

Special thanks to Fawnstalker-Illidan for the suggestion to make this section! -Upgrade your fiber in your cloak to the tailoring version of the item. These fibers are permanent items that you can replace at will so you need to only craft the upgraded versions one time. They are created by sending in Tailoring work orders. A list of the available sockets and required materials can be found here. -Doing content should get you the strands required to upgrade your cloak to 707. Make sure to go back to Hashim to upgrade your cloak. -You can get 2 fragments of Sparks the first week. You get the first half spark from any typical catchup and the other half from the weekly event quest (complete 3 delves, get disc fragments etc.).

-A 5mask Horrific Visions gives you access to a vendor that lets you purchase a weapon that can be upgraded freely to 691. This can provide a significant boost to Tuesday raiders or early keys if you did not get a weapon from M0. Obviously sim to see if it’s an upgrade but for many people the 7 ilvl increase will be quite powerful. -You can obtain at least 2 pieces of Veteran gear that can be upgraded to 691 from doing the Nightfall Event for the Flame’s Radiance. I have seen reports of people saying that killing Anub'Ranax, the boss at the end of the Event, will continue to have a chance to drop Veteran pieces. This is a fantastic way to gear up a new character but I have not personally confirmed that it does. -If you are looking for any reputation information, I can not recommend Neryssa’s guide enough. This is an excellent resource! -Added August 12 : portal trick hotfixed.

Vault Selection Order for August 12th vault:

1) From the delve line, BIS hero track delve trinket or a tier piece. 2) From the mythic 0 line, a champion track tier piece. 3) You can consider another item such as a champion track trinket or a heroic generic armor piece. However, if you're capable of farming +8's week 1, you might replace this quickly. 4) If your only options from the vault are options you think you’ll replace in a week, you can take a socket. Make sure not to waste this on an item you’ll be replacing.

Week 2 August 12th Mythic Plus and All Raids

(the week you should take off work) -Open your vault. Check the Vault Selection advice above for what to pick. Updated Aug 9: You may want to delay opening this vault until after your normal/heroic raid if you have multiple interesting slots or you might be able to take a socket. -Grab the quest to increase your cloak’s ilvl. Complete it while doing the following content. -Kill the world boss for a 688 item level piece.

• You may now spend your Restored Coffer Keys. Use your Shrieking Quartz to guarantee a map and do a T8 Delve to get a hero track item (This may require Rank 2 Delver’s Journey - we won’t know until reset). If you are a class that has a BIS trinket from Delve, do 8x Tier 8 Delves and spend all your Restored Coffer Keys to fill out your vault again. -Do timewalking dungeons for a chance at a good raid trinket and join a final boss skip for yogg saron for a random heroic track piece. -Grab the weekly dungeon quest so you can select K’aresh Trust as your renown reward.

-Updated August 9: Tazavesh hard mode drops a +2 at the end of it. Do not try to cheese a high key. If you don’t know what this means, don’t worry about it.

• Updated August 8: CONFIRMED - Complete a deathless run of Hard Mode Tazavesh for a guaranteed mythic item for the entire group. This is a weekly mythic item. Even if you die, for the first week it will be worth it to a full clear as every boss drops 1/6 heroic pieces. -Farm +10’s for 701 item level pieces, vault slots and all your various Crests. If +10’s are too much of a struggle, do at least +8’s to get 2/6 hero track gear. Check below for Crest upgrade information. -Do the large weekly reputation quests for K’aresh Trust. Check Neryssa’s guide for information about the new Ecological Success quest!

• Do every single world quest in Khaz Algar with a K’aresh Trust contract buff. -Kill all rares weekly that give reputation. -Spend 60 Gilded Crests and your first Spark to craft an item at 720 item level if your class discord recommends it. Do not craft in the boots slot as you likely want the cantrip boots from raid. While weapons are usually an easy first choice, that may be different this season. You should always always always check with your respective class discords on what is best to craft. -Clear Normal, Heroic, and as much of Mythic raid as you can.

-At this point, we are going to start tracking Crests and upgrades for maximum profit. For simplicity's sake, we are going to assume you’re upgrading pieces from 701. If you choose to upgrade multiple items below 701 item level, it will take at least one additional week to finish with Runed Crests. -Upgrade 701 -> 704 in 6 slots. This will take 90 Runed Crests. -Upgrade Myth Track 710 -> 717. This will take 30 Gilded Crests. If you do not have a mythic track item, you can hold these until your vault next week. If you have a very powerful hero track trinket that you will not replace for a very long time such as an end heroic boss trinket, you may consider upgrading it from 704 -> 710 instead.

Total Crests spent so far: All your Weathered and Carved 90/90 Runed 90/90 Gilded Ending item level: 1x 714 item level artifact cloak, 6x 704 slots, 6x 701 slots, 1x 717 slot, 1x 720 crafted slot. Average item level is 704.5. Mythic raiders who received loot will be slightly higher.

Week 3 August 19th First Mythic Vault

-Open your vault for a 707+ mythic track item. -Grab the quest to increase your cloak’s ilvl. Complete it while doing the following content. -Kill the world boss for a 688 item level piece if you need it. -If you are a class that has a BIS trinket from Delve, do 8x Tier 8 Delves to fill out your vault again. If you are not a class with insane trinkets from Delve, you can skip this. -Grab the weekly dungeon quest so you can select K’aresh Trust as your renown reward. -Do your weekly +10’s to get Crests and vault slots. If you do 8x +12’s you will cap your Gilded and most of your Runed. -Complete a deathless run of Hard Mode Tazavesh for a guaranteed mythic item for the entire group. -Do the large weekly reputation quests for K’aresh Trust.

• Do every single world quest in Khaz Algar with a K’aresh Trust contract buff. -Kill all rares weekly that give reputation. -Spend your Free Enchanted Runed Crest from the Dimensius kill quest and second Spark from the new quest line to craft embellished bracers at 704 item level. Check FAQ at the bottom for more info. 2h crafters disregard. You should always always always check with your respective class discords on what is best to craft. -Clear Normal, Heroic, and as much of Mythic raid as you can.

-Upgrade 701 -> 704 in all remaining slots. You are now done with Runed Crests. -Upgrade Myth Track 717 -> 723 in 1 slot. This will take 30 Gilded Crests. -Upgrade Myth Track 707 -> 720 in 1 slot. This will take 60 Gilded Crests.

Total Crests spent so far: All your Weathered, Runed, and Carved. 180/180 Gilded Ending item level: 1x 721 item level artifact cloak, 1x 704 crafted slot, 10x 704 slots, 1x 720 slot, 1x 720 crafted slot, 1x 723 slot. Average item level is 707.5. Mythic raiders who received loot will be slightly higher.

Weeks 4+ August 26th Onwards

-Open your vault for a 707+ mythic track item. -Grab the quest to increase your cloak’s ilvl. Complete it while doing the following content. -Do your weekly +10’s to get Crests and vault slots.

-Craft Spark items each week at 720 item level as they become available. They are Crest efficient and there’s no need to cheese past the bracers. -If you are a class that has a BIS trinket from Delve, do 8x Tier 8 Delves. -Clear Heroic and as much of Mythic raid as you can.

-Upgrade your highest item level pieces first with Gilded Crests. This is to prevent awkward situations where you upgrade a 707 item from your vault and then get a 710+ from raid.

“But Larias, I’m an Havoc Demon Hunter and the wall of text

hurts my brain! Can you please help me?”

Sorry, Outlaw Rogues, I was legally obligated to change to DH because Rogues have no sense of humor!

Special thanks to Dragonmommy-Hyjal and Stepbuns-Hyjal for the beautiful flowchart!

Season 3 Item Levels and Crests by @dburnnzz on

Discord

Shareable link

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why do I use a free Enchanted Runed Crest on my second spark to make bracers?

A: You can’t craft a cloak, you are still using the delve belt, and you want to save your boots slot for the raid boots. This leaves a necklace, rings, or one of your tier armor slots. It’s not typically a good idea to craft necklace or tier armor slots this early because you permanently lock that slot and what if your vault has bad trinkets and a necklace or a tier piece in the slot you crafted in it? You could make a ring but you have a free enchanted Runed Crest that lets you upgrade an embellishment for free. This saves your Gilded Crests to upgrade much higher item level items with primary stats, such as weapons or mythic tier pieces, and if you get a shitty vault you can throw a socket on the bracers because you know it’ll be there the entire season.

Q: What if I’m a class that wants to craft a two-hander, like fury warriors or hunters?

A: You should always always always check with your respective class discords on what is best to craft.

Changelog August 10 11:45 PM Added optional shrieking quartz farm. August 9 5:45 PM Added 2 more things to the Missable item section. August 9 3:00PM Additional note about opening a vault. Added a link to Neryssa’s reputation guide on wowhead. Updated wording for some Delve items. Updated wording with Augment Rune. Updated wording with the new cantrip weapons from raid. Remove 11.1.7 advice. Added a link to the WA in the checklist sheet. Entire Missable item section; Special thanks to Fawnstalker-Illidan for the suggestion to make this section! August 9 1:30AM Tazavesh hard mode drops a +2 at the end of it. Do not try to cheese a high key. August 8 3:30PM WoWhead confirmed the reward. August 7 6:00PM Unconfirmed reports that the Mega-Dungeon will drop a Mythic piece from the final boss if the run is deathless, similar to Dawn of the Infinites. August 6 2:00PM Rares weekly, not daily. August 5 6:30PM Special Note: You do need to do t8 delves. The in game delve tooltip is slightly bugged. Do t8 delves. August 4 9:30PM I have made a basic checklist for each suggested weekly item here. August 2 11:45PM Added books to renown grind. Special thanks to Neryssa from Wowhead. Slightly updated Delve advice for Week 2. July 29 11:30AM Added small note about first week Delves on PTR. Separated out boots in the changes. July 25 9:30PM Corrected wording on rare items, adjusted reputation advice due to no endless farm, added link to loot sheet. July 21 2:30PM Updated the wording for the August 12th Vault choice. July 17 10:00 PM Added item level and Crests image courtesy of @dburnnzz on Discord! Made some minor adjustments to order of information but no information changed. July 15 1:00 PM Small valorstone addition now that they carry over season to season. July 12 12:00 PM Re-added world boss to week 1 as blizzard updated their post again. Thanks @kt1214 for the heads up! July 11 1:30 PM Clarified that only Hero and Myth tracks are returning to 6/6. Added a blurb about how many weapons are from the first 3 bosses and to consider not crafting a weapon. July 10 12:00 PM added flowchart for melee brains July 9 1:00 PM corrected week 1 dungeon advice and added healing potion information. Added Tazavesh hard mode dungeon info to week two. Thanks u/theantig! Removed week 1 world boss as blizzard change their mind from interview to release July 8 10:00 PM Guide updated and first real iteration of guide completed. June 20 10:30pm guide created.