Current Raid Gear

Like many players, I have been accumulating more than one "set" of gear. At the moment, I have a PvP set that I wear for PvPing and day to day questing, and a raid set that I use for raids and instances. To be strictly honest, I only swap four items to switch sets, because the rest of my gear is pretty good for both activities. Since I walk around in my PvP gear, my Armory Profile nearly always makes me look like some kind of crazed PvP bunny, so I thought I'd list my raid gear as a point of interest.


The first thing you'll notice is those sexy pink and red gloves. No idea what the Blizzard item designers were thinking there - they certainly don't look the kind of gloves a stealthy Hunter would wear when he stalks his prey. Neither do the shoulders really, with their gem-encrusted ceremonial gridiron player pastiche, but let's move on.

Vengeful Gladiator's Chain Helm This took me about six weeks of casual arena (1875 points) to acquire, and it's a great piece of gear for all weathers. I recommend raiding Hunters keep their HP above 8000, and the +61 stamina on this item helps. The +12 hit rating is the crowning glory though. Very nice.

Shoulders of Lightning Reflexes These are my pride and joy. I was lucky enough to find their LW pattern on the AH for less than 200g, and then insanely lucky to have a generous buddy give me the two Hearts of Darkness I needed to craft them. Those hearts are BoE drops from Black Temple, so they usually go for upwards of 300g each. These shoulders are the first item I've nabbed with haste on them; +37 haste rating translates into 3.52% increase in attack speed. Great for longer fights, but not much help in PvP.

Ebon Netherscale Breastplate This is part of the Netherscale Armor set, crafted with Dragonscale Leatherworking. This set is amazingly easy to make, and extremely good for a Hunter. It lacks pure agility, but makes up for it with lashings of crit, AP, +mana/5 and plenty of sockets. It has a great +20 hit set bonus too, which is great for raiding.

Ebon Netherscale Bracers Another part of the Netherscale Armor set. A bit lacking in Intellect, but plenty of goodness elsewhere. It doesn't even need a Primal Nether to craft - they're practically giving this one away!

Gauntlets of the Dragonslayer A drop from Gruul, these are excellent all-round Hunter gloves. Two red sockets are very nice too, and mean they can be loaded up with +8ag gems for Survival Hunters who need to stack lots of agility.

Ebon Netherscale Belt The last piece of the Netherscale Armor set. Very nice, and as with the other pieces, available from the trainer at 375 LW.

Shifting Camouflage Pants G'eras in Shattrath gave me these for only 75 Badges of Justice. The 2.3 changes really helped me here, with Kara bosses also awarding badges in addition to Heroic bosses. 75 is an awful lot though.

Boots of the Crimson Hawk Another LW pattern that drops in SSC / The Eye that I bought from the AH for a few hundred gold. Very healthy stat bonuses for Agility, Stamina and Intellect, with a bit of crit and AP to round them out.

Vengeance Wrap I bought this pattern for a Tailoring buddy of mine, and he made the item for free when he got hold of a Primal Nether. Lots of crit and and AP, but no stam at all, so I'm working on swapping this out in PvP in the future. Great for raiding though.

Violet Signet of the Master Assassin The top-level physical DPS ring from the Violet Eye. Good AP and decent stam, but no crit at all. It does have +25 hit though, which is pretty sexy. I'll probably swap this out for better damage stats when my overall hit rating improves.

Ring of Arathi Warlords This ring costs 25 Heroic Badges, and is a good starting point for a raiding Hunter who has just started running Heroics and Kara. No agility, but good crit, stam and AP, and 25 badges won't seem impossible.

Vindicator's Pendant of Triumph The only current piece of PvP gear in my raiding set, bought for 15300 honor points and 10 Eye of the Storm marks. Solid crit and AP, and huge stamina, as should be expected from a PvP item.

Bloodlust Brooch The standard trinket for Kara-weary raiding Hunters. Excellent for boss fights, particularly when coupled with Rapid Fire. Costs 41 Heroic Badges.

Skyguard Silver Cross I use this trinket for its pure crit bonus when clearing trash mobs in raids. Note that that the bonus +140 AP only has a chance to pop when I or my pet deliver the killing blow, not anyone else in the raid. Obtainable from the Sha'tari Skyguard at Exalted reputation.

Darkmoon Card: Crusade This trinket is made for boss fights, where the bonus +120AP is built up quickly and remains in place for the entire fight. Quest reward for collecting the Darkmoon Blessings Deck.

Sonic Spear The classic 2H weapon of so many Hunters, which drops off Murmur in the Shadow Labyrinth. For pure damage output, the Blackened Spear is probably a teensy bit better, but lacks 30 stamina and more importantly, 5 hit rating.

Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix The top-grade Hunter ranged weapon from Kara, that drops off Prince Malchezaar. Great damage, nice agility bonus, and a bit of AP as well.

In total I've got one Arena piece, six crafted items, one drop from Gruul, three Heroic Badge items, one item from Honor Points. one normal instance drop, one Kara drop, one quest reward and two reputation rewards. I didn't realize how many crafted items I have, and I like it - high level pattern acquisition, sale and gathering of materials makes levelling a profession worthwhile.