I have been in a guild for some time, but for lack of a high-speed internet connection I haven’t done much raiding beyond the first bosses of Bastion of Twilight, and Blackwing Descent. Since the Cataclysm expansion launched I have played mostly solo and 5-man dungeons.

There are many solo players out there who eventually do some casual raiding and thus need to be prepared with decent gear.

For solo players, the best option to get decent gear is to do the Firelands Molten Front dailies and advance through the six stages by acquiring Marks of World Tree. Each time you complete a phase (about once a week) you get access to a new Quartermaster and new gear item level 365: ring, belt, boot, glove, wrist, relic and trinket.

Solo players can also farm Valor Points by using the LFG tool to play Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub. It ain’t so hard nowadays, and you get 140 Valor points per run. If you hate those dungeons, then you can simply run normal Heroic dungeons for 70 valor points. Currently, you can only acquire 980 Valor Points per week. This weekly cap is reset every Tuesday around 4am EDT/1am PDT.

Redeem those at the Valor Point Quartermaster atop Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar or in Stormwind at the Old Town’s barracks. The item level 378 gear: chest, legs, boots, cloak, neck, trinket, ring.

Notice I didn’t mention some gear? I think the best option to upgrade gear is to do a combination of Mark of World Tree Daily Quests, Fireland trash runs and Rise of the Zandalari (Valor Point) runs when you are a solo player or a casual raider. This way you can acquire item level 378 gear without raiding much. However, you should spend your Valor Points wisely. It takes too long to farm these and you have a weekly cap. Thus, I would focus all my Valor Points mainly on the core gear: Chest and legs first and the cloak. Everything else, focus on increasing your Avengers of Hyjal reputation and Wold Tree daily quests to acquire the remaining loot. Any excess Valor Points would be wise to spend on your alt character.

Reasoning? Mark of the World Tree quartermaster items and Avengers of Hyjal quartermaster items cost gold. Plain an simple. Gold has no weekly caps like the Valor Points. Thus, Valor Points should be spent wisely. Soloing all three type of content will make gearing up to par a smooth experience of a few weeks rather than long months of tedious valor point farming.

You can buy item level 365 weapons from Blacksmiths, and a gun and its attachment from Engineers. I will be covering that in upcoming weeks.

The next good option to get gear upgrades is to look out for or gather players for a Firelands Trash run.

I exhort players to travel to Mount Hyjal to check out the Avengers of Hyjal Quartermaster located at the Sulfuron Spire. Nothing to inspire you to farm reputation than to browse through loot, compare new gear with your current gear to set personal goals. Even if you are a hardcore raider it’s recommended to run Trash runs. You won’t get in trouble with your raid leader if you aren’t committing to killing a boss. Trash runs are made for three goals: reputation (for Quartermaster gear), BOE gear iLevel 378 and Recipes/Patterns/Plans which drop often from trash mobs.

Every time you kill a trash mob in the Firelands dungeon you gain reputation points like you did in Icecrown Citadel. You will gain access to buy item level 378 items through Friendly up to Revered. Once you reach exalted you can buy a juicy ring item level 391.

This is the loot table from the Avengers of Hyjal Quartermaster:

Cloaks

378 85 Friendly Back Cloak
378 85 Friendly Back Cloak
378 85 Friendly Back Cloak
378 85 Friendly Back Cloak
378 85 Friendly Back Cloak

Belts

378 85 Honored Waist Plate
378 85 Honored Waist Plate
378 85 Honored Waist Cloth
378 85 Honored Waist Mail
378 85 Honored Waist Mail
378 85 Honored Waist Leather
378 85 Honored Waist Leather
378 85 Honored Waist Plate

Trinkets

378 85 Revered Trinket Trinket
378 85 Revered Trinket Trinket
378 85 Revered Trinket Trinket
378 85 Revered Trinket Trinket
378 85 Revered Trinket Trinket

Rings

391 85 Exalted Finger Ring
391 85 Exalted Finger Ring
391 85 Exalted Finger Ring
391 85 Exalted Finger Ring
391 85 Exalted Finger Ring