Green's Choices for Pre-Raid Wrath Mage Gear (Part 2)

The delayed guide continues! Check part one first for info on weapons and armor that have durability.

As I may not really have noted at the time (my readers probably know, but posts like this sometimes catch the eyes of non-readers), I'm primarily doing solo and 5-man content, with lots of Wintergrasp PVP on the side, so my picks are going to lean in favor of stuff I can get easily (e.g. honor points, Wintergrasp marks) and away from stuff that I have more trouble obtaining (e.g. lots of heroic emblems, repeatedly farming a specific heroic dungeon).

Part 2: Cloaks and Jewelry

Cloaks

Current:[Shroud of Dedicated Research]
Desired:[Deathchill Cloak] (Tailored) or one of thee various Hateful Gladiator's Cloaks (e.g. [Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Subjugation], also available with crit or even hit rating)
The Deathchill cloak lacks intellect and stamina, which is a bit unfortunate, but it makes up for those shortcomings with some really large numbers in both crit and haste. I suppose I'm probably not hurting for HP/mana as it is, but I still slightly distrust non-trinkets that manage to limit themselves to only three stats. On the plus side, I'm a tailor (for now), I even have a frozen orb banked, and I'm going to finish Loremaster anyway, so at least I can get my own name on this thing.

Amulets
Current: [Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Subjugation] (also available with other stats)
Desired: None.
- The [Titanium Spellshock Necklace], if socketed with a best-in-game [Runed Scarlet Ruby], picks up 9 spell power, 16 intellect, and 7 rating (presuming you consider crit and haste to be about equivalent for DPS). That's a solid enough upgrade, but a very expensive one on the AH - the necklace requires four Dragon's Eye gems, which means four days worth of daily quest tokens from the crafter. I'm willing to spend one thousand gold on an upgrade of that magnitude, but not three thousand.
- The [Lattice Choker of Light] is probably meant for healadins with crit and mana regen. On spell power and crit alone, it fails to beat the PVP neck. I don't like to spend 25 emblems on a side-grade.
- The other emblem neck, the [Encircling Burnished Gold Chains], trades 34 haste rating for 14 intellect, 21 hit rating, and a bunch of worthless spirit. Since I only need more hit rating for raid bosses, who are not my primary beat-down targets, this is another situational side-grade.

There are some other upgrades from raiding, notably the BOE [Chain of Latent Energies] from Naxx-10 (it has hit rating, but that's in addition to, rather than instead of, stats I have on the PVP neck), but, like the Spellshock neck, these are beyond the scope of my current pre-raid interest. With the current ease of obtaining honor, and the option to pick the neck stat of your choice, I think the PVP neck is a great value for all but the most frequent raiders.

Rings
Current: [Ring of Temerity] and [Hateful Gladiator's Band of Dominance]
Desired: [Annhylde's Ring] (Heroic UK), [Band of Guile] (Heroic CoS) or [Signet of Hopeful Light] (Argent Crusade Exalted)
The Signet is the least attractive of the three, but I'm going to max the reputation anyway, and it won't require running specific heroic dungeons repeatedly. The Hateful Gladiator band actually isn't bad, and I'd take it over any of the rare options. I think I'd be happy with the Hateful band and one of the two heroic versions.

It's worth noting that there are two additional options for the wealthy. There's a [Titanium Spellshock Ring] (see commentary on the neck), and then there's the [Signet of the Kirin Tor] for those of you dying to spend 8.5K (before faction discount) on a ring. At least the Kirin Tor managed to itemize their little money sink very very well - I'd definitely use it if it appeared one day for free, but that's a huge chunk of money, especially since, as a mage, I don't need the teleport effect. (Other classes may find the teleport alone worth the price of admission, YMMV.)

Trinkets
Current: Depending on the situation, some combination of:
- [Rune of Infinite Power] (Archavon and other bosses only)
- [Mendicant's Charm] (5-man bosses)
- [Arcane Revitalizer] (general use)
- [Mark of Defiance] (yes, from Outland, it still works, and offers good mana output for farming solo quests - it's also worth noting that this works on grey mobs, where the Revitalizer and others will not)
- [Cannoneer's Fuselighter] (I don't actually use this thing, but it's in the bank and nominally competitive with some of the others)

Desired:
- [Sundial of the Exiled] (40 emblems)
- [Oracle Talisman of Ablution] (Exalted w/ Oracles)
- [Mark of the War Prisoner] (Heroic VH)
- [Forge Ember] (Heroic HoS)

The Mark is such a popular caster trinket that I often get conditional invites to heroic VH groups, on the condition that I not roll against the group organizer if the trinket drops. That's okay by me, since I'm in the market for one of Cyanogosa's other drops, the [Azure Cloth Bindings], anyway, and I'll probably keep doing the place for emblems whenever I can find a group for it even if I get BOTH the trinket and the bracers.

The Oracle Talisman is going to fall into my lap anyway, and fits nicely into one of my two farming slots. Thanks to Master of Elements, crit rating is actually mana regen for me anyway.

As to the Ember and the Sundial, mages at Subcreation seem very fond of both trinkets due to the high proc rate for that hefty spell damage boost. It's worth noting that one of the Wintergrasp trinket rewards on the PTR's (disregard the tooltip for now) is the [Flow of Knowledge], which is apparently going to have the proc bonus from the Sundial along with 84 resilience when the dust settles. Since I'm swimming in Wintergrasp marks anyway, there's no reason not to pick up one of those for PVP, though I'm probably not going to be using it (intentionally) in PVE.

I would, in principle, like at least one plain old non-proc spell power trinket as well, but the options are slim. There's the expensive [Darkmoon Card: Illusion], which does, at least, offer some free mana to go with that juicy spell power. There's the previously discussed heirloom [Discerning Eye of the Beast], which I might snag simply because my alts can use it. The [Tome of Arcane Phenomena] isn't bad, but it comes from regular Occulus, and I'm not a huge fan of the instance (doubly so when there are no emblems and limited rep to be had). The other options for high end spell power trinkets all tend to offer healer-oriented procs, or come from raids (sometimes level 70 raids!). We'll see what happens on this front.


And that's all the gear slots. Hope you all found this guide helpful! :)