TBC Classic Arcane Mage Pre-Raid Gear

This pre-raid BiS list will offer around 3 options per item slot, based on how hard/easy they are to come by. Of course there are many more options, but then the pre-BiS list below would be very long, making it harder for you to decide.

1. (H) Higher difficulty — Expensive to get, or bigger time-investment, but considered best per slot, mostly expensive crafts, long reputation/honor/item farms.
2. (M) Medium difficulty — Can be farmed with a bit of time investment, or can be luck dependant to get.
3. (L) Very low difficulty — These items are usually very cheap to buy, from reputation grinds a dutiful Mage will do anyways (assuming Revered required for Heroic Dungeon keys, or Exalted for shoulder enchants), or quest rewards. Because Intellect is such a powerful stat, these items will not necessarily perform far behind the high/medium difficulty items, and you are easily Karazhan ready with them.

There is PvP gear like the Brutal Gladiator set. However, by the time you have the pieces, you will probably have raid pieces in those slots and generally armor pieces are not as contested as weapons. For this reason this pre-raid BiS list does not consider gladiator armor, only weapons (also only Season 2 weapons, because they are free of rating requirements). This list also excludes BoE World boss loot (which is generally very good), because it is usually extremely expensive.

This pre-raid BiS list will offer around 3 options per item slot, based on how hard/easy they are to come by. Of course there are many more options, but then the pre-BiS list below would be very long, making it harder for you to decide.

1. (H) Higher difficulty — Expensive to get, or bigger time-investment, but considered best per slot, mostly expensive crafts, long reputation/honor/item farms.
2. (M) Medium difficulty — Can be farmed with a bit of time investment, or can be luck dependant to get.
3. (L) Very low difficulty — These items are usually very cheap to buy, from reputation grinds a dutiful Mage will do anyways (assuming Revered required for Heroic Dungeon keys, or Exalted for shoulder enchants), or quest rewards. Because Intellect is such a powerful stat, these items will not necessarily perform far behind the high/medium difficulty items, and you are easily Karazhan ready with them.

There is PvP gear like the Vengeful Gladiator set. However, by the time you have the pieces, you will probably have raid pieces in those slots and generally armor pieces are not as contested as weapons. For this reason this pre-raid BiS list does not consider gladiator armor, only weapons (also only Season 2 weapons, because they are free of rating requirements). This list also excludes BoE World boss loot (which is generally very good), because it is usually extremely expensive.

This pre-raid BiS list will offer around 3 options per item slot, based on how hard/easy they are to come by. Of course there are many more options, but then the pre-BiS list below would be very long, making it harder for you to decide.

1. (H) Higher difficulty — Expensive to get, or bigger time-investment, but considered best per slot, mostly expensive crafts, long reputation/honor/item farms.
2. (M) Medium difficulty — Can be farmed with a bit of time investment, or can be luck dependant to get.
3. (L) Very low difficulty — These items are usually very cheap to buy, from reputation grinds a dutiful Mage will do anyways (assuming Revered required for Heroic Dungeon keys, or Exalted for shoulder enchants), or quest rewards. Because Intellect is such a powerful stat, these items will not necessarily perform far behind the high/medium difficulty items, and you are easily Karazhan ready with them.

There is PvP gear like the Vengeful Gladiator set. However, by the time you have the pieces, you will probably have raid pieces in those slots and generally armor pieces are not as contested as weapons. For this reason this pre-raid BiS list does not consider gladiator armor, only weapons (also only Season 2 weapons, because they are free of rating requirements). This list also excludes BoE World boss loot (which is generally very good), because it is usually extremely expensive.

This pre-raid BiS list will offer around 3 options per item slot, based on how hard/easy they are to come by. Of course there are many more options, but then the pre-BiS list below would be very long, making it harder for you to decide.

1. (H) Higher difficulty — Expensive to get, or bigger time-investment, but considered best per slot, mostly expensive crafts, long reputation/honor/item farms.
2. (M) Medium difficulty — Can be farmed with a bit of time investment, or can be luck dependant to get.
3. (L) Very low difficulty — These items are usually very cheap to buy, from reputation grinds a dutiful Mage will do anyways (assuming Revered required for Heroic Dungeon keys, or Exalted for shoulder enchants), or quest rewards. Because Intellect is such a powerful stat, these items will not necessarily perform far behind the high/medium difficulty items, and you are easily Karazhan ready with them.

There is PvP gear like the Merciless Gladiator set. However, by the time you have the pieces, you will probably have raid pieces in those slots and generally armor pieces are not as contested as weapons. For this reason this pre-raid BiS list does not consider gladiator armor, only weapons. This list also excludes BoE World boss loot (which is generally very good), because it is usually extremely expensive.

This pre-raid BiS list will offer around 3 options per item slot, based on how hard/easy they are to come by. Of course there are many more options, but then the pre-BiS list below would be very long, making it harder for you to decide.

1. (H) Higher difficulty — Expensive to get, or bigger time-investment, but considered best per slot, mostly expensive crafts, long reputation/honor/item farms.
2. (M) Medium difficulty — Can be farmed with a bit of time investment, or can be luck dependant to get.
3. (L) Very low difficulty — These items are usually very cheap to buy, from reputation grinds a dutiful Mage will do anyways (assuming Revered required for Heroic Dungeon keys, or Exalted for shoulder enchants), or quest rewards. Because Intellect is such a powerful stat, these items will not necessarily perform far behind the high/medium difficulty items, and you are easily Karazhan ready with them.

There is PvP gear like the Gladiator set. However, by the time you have the pieces, you will probably have raid pieces in those slots and generally armor pieces are not as contested as weapons. For this reason this pre-raid BiS list does not consider gladiator armor, only weapons. This list also excludes BoE World boss loot (which is generally very good), because it is usually extremely expensive.