Hey folks, this is Kalani. As more and more people reach max level in Dragonfly, it's time to start thinking about increasing our item level. We have limited access to gear and upgrades in the first two weeks before season one starts, so getting the highest item level possible will ensure that you have a smooth start to season one, no matter what kind of content you're going to jump into. So here's our early Dragon Flight gearing guide on how you can get up to item level 372 and beyond. Before we start, be sure to hit that like button and subscribe so you never miss another video.
The first thing you'll need to do is reach max level. There isn't really any point in trying to gear up before you hit level 70, because that's where all your progress is going to be made. So make sure you hit max before you focus on your item level. When you first hit level 70, you'll probably be floating around the 310 to 320 item level mark. There are quite a few item level requirements for certain types of content, like dungeons, so we want to increase that item level as quickly and efficiently as possible.
I'm going to start by talking about the profession system, because you can get very high item level gear with a little time investment or some gold, depending on what you prefer. If you do professions yourself, you can get to profession skill 50 relatively quickly and painlessly. That will give you access to item level 343 crafted gear. The crafted gear itself starts at item level 333, but you can increase it up to 343 by increasing your skill and the quality of the item you're crafting. At leatherworking 56, with some profession gear and a little specialization, I can guarantee the quality 5 mark on all of my crafts, so I can easily craft 343 gear. Some crafted pieces start at item level 306, but you can increase those up to 343 by using the lowest tier of upgrade matrixes. You can get these from world quests, dungeons, and a few other sources. When I hit level 70, I actually had plenty of matrixes to craft a full set of gear at item level 343, which let me skip ahead nicely in terms of gearing up. So don't underestimate professions – they're an incredibly valuable source of gear, especially in the early days of Dragon Flight.
The expansion has given you the opportunity to go even further in terms of item level. If you start running dungeons, you might be lucky enough to get a Training Matrix 2, 3, or even 4. These let you increase the item level of any crafted piece significantly, so it's a huge bump up for any crafted gear you have equipped. You can even go one step further right now, although it does require a bit more time investment, especially in your profession. In Val'Draken, you can find the Engine of Innovation. If you haven't visited the engine yet, you'll have a quest line here that ultimately ends with you obtaining your first Spark of Ingenuity. These sparks are required in every high-end craft, and it seems like you can only get one per week right now.
With about 20 Professional Knowledge, you can unlock your first high-end crafting recipe, no matter what profession you're using. I can actually unlock five recipes total right now, but I haven't decided which other ones I want, so I haven't spent my knowledge yet. My main point here is that you can craft an item level 382 piece or higher, depending on your skill. It can go up to item level 392 if you have the appropriate skill and items. That's probably one of the highest item level pieces you can get your hands on this week.
To craft these items, you need one Spark of Ingenuity, some Primal Chaos, and then some rare crafting materials and a bunch of general materials. The Primal Chaos is rewarded from all sorts of places – world quests, daily quests, weekly quests, and at the end of dungeons. There are a variety of places you can get it. The other materials are up to you – you can gather them, farm them, or buy them, whatever suits you best.
What's interesting for Dragonflight is that you don't have to have the profession yourself to benefit from what a profession can offer. You can use the Crafting Order system to get something crafted, even a bind-on-pickup item, as long as you provide the materials. Just visit the Crafting Order clerk, input what you want, and hopefully someone can fill it. So even those epic 382 pieces of gear are accessible to anyone, as long as you have the Spark of Ingenuity and the Primal Chaos. You can have someone else craft those higher pieces of gear for you. It might take a while, as most people are probably still leveling their professions and choosing where to put their specialization knowledge, but it's a very high item level piece of gear that anyone has access to, and you should be able to make at least one per week going forward. Now you just need to decide what to do with all that gear!
You cannot control the quality of your craft unless you go with a personal or guild order, so that's unfortunate. But you can still get something crafted and have it recrafted later if you find someone with better profession skills to make those more specific work orders. That way, you don't lose much value or any of the rare materials, thanks to the ability to recraft it later. All in all, professions are an amazing way to gear up early on in Dragonflight, so I'd encourage you to take advantage of them.
Another great source of gear for absolutely everyone is going to be world quests. World quests have longer timers this time around, which means you'll see less variety and fewer world quests overall. But that does give you more time to actually get them done. World quest gear rewards scale with your item level, so the higher item level you get, the better the rewards will be. Most of my world quest rewards are up to item level 350 gear, but I have seen rewards as high as item level 363 gear from some of the elite world quests. So there's definitely a lot of value in checking your map for good gear rewards. You might just fill in that last low item level slot, like those pesky trinkets.
If all of that seems like too much work, we also have the usual dungeon route to fall back on for Dragonflight. Normal dungeons will drop item level 346 gear, and you can queue into them as soon as you hit level 70, with no item level requirements. It will be random whether or not you actually see any gear drops, so I would highly recommend using professions to skip over this section of the gearing up path, just to give you the best and fastest results. As a quick note, normal dungeons can drop the Matrix level 2, which can be used to upgrade crafted gear to item level 356. So even if you don't get gear, those items will still give you access to some upgrades.
Moving on to heroic dungeons, they'll drop item level 359 gear, so I would say they're definitely worth running if you're looking to do some easy gearing up. You do need to get up to item level 342 before you can queue into them using the dungeon finder, though, so you'll have to get some gear elsewhere before hopping into heroic dungeons. Heroic dungeons can also drop the level 3 matrix, which can be used to upgrade crafted gear to item level 368.
Upgrade items, allowing you to make crafted gear up to item level 369. So even if you aren't super focused on crafted gear, they can offer you an efficient side gearing pathway. The next step up is to head into Mythic dungeons. You can only get loot from each boss on Mythic once per week, so the loot is definitely way more restricted. If you're lucky, you can walk away with item level 372 gear. The trade-off is that you can't queue into this content – you'll either have to make a group or join one. It's much easier and way more fun, in my opinion, to play with friends or guildmates, but if you have to resort to using the group tool, you can see what's on offer. From our experience, most groups are asking for item level 340 to 350 to join, somewhere in there. Pugs are always wild cards, so good luck out there and I hope you get some shiny loot.
As an extra bonus, you may have guessed it, but Mythic dungeons can also drop level 4 Matrix upgrade items, which can take your crafted gear up to item level 382. You can probably see why I started with the profession talk in this video – at this point, I think the people who are going to gear up the fastest and get the best available gear are the ones who do dungeons alongside professions. They do definitely seem to go together very well.
While you're gearing up, you should also pick up the dungeon quests available for each dungeon. They're kind of scattered about the place, but fortunately, some of them should accept when you join the dungeon. Each dungeon quest will give you a choice of gear or water, item level 346. So not super high item level, but they can potentially help you fill in some gaps, and you're doing the dungeons anyway, so it's not really any extra effort.
A very important thing to note is that while heroic dungeons do have an item level requirement to queue into them, they do not have an item level requirement to do them. This means you can actually go in with your lower item level gear and still complete the dungeon. However, you will get less reward for completing the dungeon if you have lower item level gear. It's up to you whether you want to focus on gearing up before running heroic dungeons, or whether you want to run them with your lower item level gear and get less reward. Just keep in mind that the higher your item level, the better the rewards will be.
There is no item level requirement if you simply walk into the dungeon, so you can take your full group of five and run heroic dungeons even if you don't have the item level to queue into them. You just need to go to the portal, go to the actual dungeon entrance, and just walk in. That can let you skip over the normal dungeon gearing section and hop straight into heroic, which will probably be fine for the most part. Dungeons seem to be relatively easy in Dragonflight, by the looks of things, and that actually includes Mythic zero dungeons. Our guild has been skipping almost everything and just hopping straight into Mythic dungeons at item level 330 to 340. Most dungeons have been a pushover, but your experience may vary. Our guild is full of Mythic raiders who also push Mythic plus keys, so they're very good players all around. I would encourage you to try Mythic dungeons though – you really don't need a super high item level, as long as your group doesn't try to pull the entire dungeon all at once.
If you want to get the highest item level before the raid comes out, you really want to focus on getting Mythic dungeons done and look into those higher item level profession items. Now, as always, you can always gear up through some PVP activities as well. It's only unrated PVP for now, but you can earn honor in the typical ways, mostly from BGs, and then popping over to the honor quartermaster. The unrated PVP gear starts at item level 340, and you can upgrade it, though the upgrades are currently limited until season one starts. So it's useful if all you do is PVP, but the dungeon rewards are going to be far more valuable in general.
Now, something that is new for Dragonflight is that we actually have some gear available for taking part in outdoor content. You can get gear from the new outdoor zones and from the new world bosses. Outdoor gear starts at item level 332, and you can upgrade it up to item level 366. This is a nice addition for those who prefer outdoor content, and it's definitely worth checking out if you haven't already.
PVP content as well. You can find the Warmode quartermaster in the PVP building in Val'draken, and you can buy item level 366 gear from this NPC. That's actually really good overall for pre-season gear, and you can also upgrade it later on by collecting Trophies of Strife. To buy this gear, you are going to need Bloody Tokens. You can get Bloody Tokens from killing players in War Mode – it's one token per player, so that's a very slow but reliable source. You can also get tokens from the War Supplies that sometimes drop into zones with War Mode on. That can get you a couple hundred, so if you see a War Cache dropping, be sure to secure it for your faction. And then there are also War Mode-only World Quests. Sometimes they reward hundreds of Bloody Tokens, but even if their specific reward is not Bloody Tokens, completing these World Quests can net you about 50 Bloody Tokens, by the looks of things. But remember, you will need to have War Mode on to even be able to see them. Collect all those Bloody Tokens together, and you might be able to buy yourself some shiny 366 gear, which can later be upgraded into 385 gear. So definitely worth looking into.
All in all, there are many ways to gear up in Dragonflight, and the best way will depend on your playstyle and preferences. Whether you focus on professions, dungeons, PVP, or outdoor content, there are options available to help you get the gear you need to succeed. Just be sure to keep an eye on your item level and try to get as high as you can before season one starts. Good luck, and happy gearing!
