World of Warcraft: How to Gear Up in Shadowlands
Gear is king and in Shadowlands you have multiple ways to upgrade.
- At the moment there are no slots taken up by "borrowed power" items like the neck and cape in Battle for Azeroth. Loot will drop in all slots.
- Warforging and Titanforging are gone, much to the chagrin of some players and the relief of others.
- Personal loot is the loot mechanism. This means that there are no master loot options. Items may only be traded to other players if you have once equipped a higher iLvl item in that slot.
- Sockets are only available on Rings, Necks, Belts and Helms.
Item Levels By Activity
Gear and Item Levels Available at Launch
In Lowest to Highest Order
| Source | Item Level | Availability |
| World Quests | 145+ | Week 1 |
| Profession Crafting | 151-164 | Week 1 |
| Normal Dungeons | 158 | Week 1 |
| PvP Honor Gear (1-3) | 158-171 | Week 1 |
| Faction Reputation | 164-200 | Honored to Exalted |
| Heroic Dungeons | 171 | Week 1 |
| PvP Honor Gear (4-5) | 177-184 | Week 2 |
| Mythic Dungeons | 184 | Week 1 |
| Legendary (Rank 1) | 190 | 1250 |
| Legendary (Rank 2) | 210 | 2000 |
The Optimal path appears to be the following:
- Do every dungeon on M0.
- Complete all available Torghast levels.
- Complete World Quests
- Complete Callings
- Complete Weekly Dungeon Quests
- Complete PvP Quests
- Do Battlegrounds to bank honor
Don't buy your PvP gear until you finish everything in Week 2. That way you can fill the empty slots that Dungeons and other activities didn't fill with 184 gear.
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