This guide will focus mostly on normal dungeon drops, although where a quest reward, reputation reward, or relatively easy to craft crafted item is a good option for the slot, we’ll highlight it as well. By the end of this guide, the Hunter that didn’t quite finish their Karazhan runs during Burning Crusade should hopefully have an idea of where to get a good outlay of gear to prepare them for heroics, and eventually for Naxxramas itself.You’ve checked out the reputation gear for Hunters, and now you’re ready to grind. So you’ve picked up your tabard, and you realize that you still have a question left to answer: Which dungeon should I run? What dungeon has the gear I need to get suited up and ready to run Heroics?

Scattered Shots is here to help. We’re going to look at some of the best pre-Heroic drops for Hunters in Wrath, and hopefully give you some idea of what way to go when you look for your next dungeon, or at least what drops to cross your fingers for.

Rings

For Rings, you’ll want to head up to Ulduar. In the Halls of Lightning, General Bjarngrim will drop the Bjarngrim Family Signet, which comes with lots of agility and attack power. Even if you can’t use the haste rating on it, the agility and the AP alone blow away most other pre-heroic possibilities aside from uber-expensive crafted rings.

Speaking of expensive crafted rings, you may want to see if you can get your hands on a Ring of Scarlet Shadows. This jewelcrafted ring has a good outlay of critical strike rating, attack power, and hit rating, plus a socket, and will make a fine pair with the Bjarngrim. If Halls of Stone trash drops or the AH treat you well, you could also pick up a Palladium Ring, which sports attack power and critical strike rating that make it a very viable alternative to either of the other two rings.

Trinket

For Trinkets, I’m once again going to recommend you go after a faction reward, in particular the Oracle Talisman of Ablution from the Oracles of Sholozar Basin. The proc helps keep you out of Aspect of the Viper, and we just love that critical strike rating.

As far as other trinkets go, You may want to consider gathering the Darkmoon Noble’s Deck and getting the agility version of the Darkmoon Card: Greatness. It’ll take some money and work — The Inscription recipe Darkmoon Card of the North randomly generates the cards you need — but 90 agility and a 300 agility proc is nothing to sneeze at.

Since both of the above are a lot of grinding, you may want some easier to get trinkets to help you out. In that case, you’re going to want to dig pretty far back, since it seems like Trinkets that are optimal for Hunters are hard to come by. Alliance can dig back to the Borean Tundra for the Death Knight’s Anguish from the Lost Rites questline, while both sides might like the First Mate’s Pocketwatch from The Jig is Up in Borean Tundra. Yes, it’s true it’s not amazing for Beastmasters because of the Haste on use, but the 88 attack power is nothing to sneeze at. Horde can also grab the Scarab of Isanoth from a quest in Dragonblight. if you don’t mind haste you might also want to grab the fire-proccing Vestige of Haldor from King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle. You can also grab its Holy cousin, the Horn of Argent Fury, from the quest That’s What Friends Are For… in Zul’drak.

Ranged Weapon

For this slot, you may just want to stick to the Zombie Sweeper Shotgun. Yes, technically this isn’t a dungeon drop, but I’m recommending it anyway. There’s just no pre-Heroic drop that really compares. It’s not too horribly fast, it has a good bit of hit rating, and the highest non-heroic non-engineered DPS you’ll see on a projectile weapon in Wrath. If you’re too impatient to wait for revered with the Argent Crusade though, try going after the Projectile Activator off of Loken in the Halls of Lighting, or the Trophy Gatherer off of Urtok Palehoof in Utgarde Pinnacle. Both are pretty solid weapons that should serve you well until you hit revered with the Crusade.

Melee Weapon

For two-handed melee, you’ll probably want to stick with the Runeblade of Demonstrable Power from revered Ebon Blade faction. While it does have haste rating, the combination of attack power and agility still make it a very viable and desirable weapon for any Hunter. If you’re in need of more hit rating, though, the Whale-Stick Harpoon from revered Kaluak reputation is also an option. It has less attack power and agility than the Runeblade, but not by much.

If you can’t be bothered to grind reputation, the Wyrmclaw Battleaxe from the Cache of Eregos in the Occulus should hold you over until you get something better or finally get around to getting revered with the Ebon Blade.

Chest

The Linked Armor of the Sphere is your best bet for getting a good dungeon dropped mail chestpiece. Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Attack Power, and Hit Rating mean it’s pretty much perfect for a Hunter. You’ll find this one out of the Tribunal Chest in the Halls of Stone.

If you can’t get that chestpiece to drop, or if you need more hit rating, you may want to see if a Condor-Bone Chestpiece is for sale on the auction house. It’s a BoE world drop that, while void of agility or intellect, has critical strike rating and attack power in abundance, along with nearly twice the hit rating of the Linked Armor of the Sphere.

Head

The Headguard of Westrift, which drops from the Cache of Eregos at the end of the Occulus, is sort of a sidegrade to the Toothslice Helm from the Oracles. By dropping the critical strike rating and much of the intellect and stamina, but adding lots of extra agility, it probably edges out the Toothslice Helm, especially for survival hunters or any hunter without Careful Aim. But what pushes it into upgrade territory is the red gem socket, perfect for adding some extra hit rating, attack power, or raw agility, depending on your needs.

Feet

Your best bet for a good set of boots before a Heroic instance may actually be to head into the Halls of Stone or Lightning and wait for the Boots of the Terrestrial Guardian to drop off trash. They’re bind on equip too, so you may find them on the Auction House. If you’re a Leatherworker, or can track one down, you can also gather 1 Eternal Air and 60 Borean Leather (or 10 Heavy Borean Leather) and get Swiftarrow Boots made, which are a pretty solid sidegrade to the Boots of the Terrestrial Guardian. They have less agility, but more intellect and some critical strike rating.

Hands

For your hands, you’ll definitely want to get into an Utgarde Pinnacle group and face down Svala Sorrowgrave. Her Tear-Linked Gauntlets provide tons of agility and intellect, a good bit of attack power, and hit rating. These may even beat out a lot of Heroic options as far as drops go.

If Svala’s being stingy with her drops, you can also head to The Culling of Stratholme and complete A Royal Escort, which will reward with Grips of Chronological Events. With a whole lot less agility and no hit rating, these gauntlets aren’t quite as good as the tear-linked, but will serve you well until you can get the them.

Legs

Facing down Loken in the Halls of Lightning may get you some Leather-Braced Chain Leggings. With a red socket and a good layout of agility, intellect, attack power, and critical strike rating, these leggings will serve you well headed into heroics.

Shoulder

The shoulder slot is another area where you may want to stick with reputation gear. The Spaulders of the Black Arrow at Ebon Blade revered provide a solid outlay of agility, intellect, stamina, critical strike rating, and attack power that easily matches any normal dungeon drop, and you’ll want to be grinding with the Ebon Blade for the Arcanum of Torment anyway.

If you haven’t quite had the time to grind revered with the Ebon Blade, or if you need more hit rating, Complete the Halls of Stone quest in (where else?) the Halls of Stone and grab the Spaulders of Lost Secrets. Consider them sort of a slightly lesser powered version of the Spaulders of the Black Arrow with lower stats and hit rating instead of critical strike rating. The Spaulders of Skillful Maneuvers from Mage-Lord Urom in the Oculus are also a valid possibility to keep you covered until you hit revered with the Ebon Blade, although I shy from them since they have haste instead of the more useful critical strike or hit rating.

Waist

Here’s something a little freaky: The Giant Ring Belt from the Sons of Hodir’s faction vendor at honored and the Waistband of the Thuzadin from Salramm the Fleshcrafter in The Culling of Stratholme are completely identical in every way except the name. That means they’re both excellent Hunter belts, and you can take your choice which one to get. Do you want to hope for a dungeon drop, or grind one of the non-tabarded Wrath factions for a bit?

Wrist

For the Wrist slot, I’ll have to recommend that you track down a Leatherworker again. The Eaglebane Bracers take 40 Icy Dragonscales to craft, which are skinned off high level blue dragons, most of them of the dungeon elite variety. But it’s well worth, as the stats on the Eaglebane Bracers blow away pretty much any other bracer you can get before heroics or naxxaramas. You could probably wear these straight into Naxxaramas, in fact.

If you have trouble with the dragonscales, though, you can also get the Tornado Cuffs off of Ionar in the Halls of Lightning. They don’t have the stats of Eaglebane, but they’re a fine stopgap piece.

Cloak

For pure attack power and a nice bit of hit rating, you may want to pick up the Embrace of Sorrow off the Maiden of Grief in Halls of Stone. However, if you prefer a bit more agility, you can grab either the Cloak of Holy Extermination from Honored Argent Crusade faction if you need Armor Penetration, or the Centrifuge Core Cloak from Varos Cloudstrider in the Oculus if you like haste.

Out of these three, I lean toward the Cloak of Holy Extermination myself. While armor penetration isn’t as drool worthy as it once was, the cloak has a bit more Agility than the Embrace of Sorrow, adding more of that nice critical strike rating. Of course, if you’re not quite hit-capped yet, the Embrace of Sorrow may still be better.

Neck

If you don’t want to pay through the nose for a Jewelcrafter to make you a Titanium Impact Choker, your best bet for a pre-heroic necklace may actually be questing in Icecrown. The Severed Noose of Westwind is a quest reward from The Admiral Revealed, a group quest from the Knights of the Ebon Blade. It has agility, critical strike rating, and attack power in comparable amounts to the choker, although with no armor penetration and less stamina, and it has a yellow gem socket.