Mages
Please list zone / boss / % chance it drops -- and what it will upgrade and how much of an upgrade it is. Please do nto list PVP gear or badge gear...list items that are an actual upgrade and not sidegrades.

Weapon: Fang of the Leviathan - Leo, SSC Jan Ali Sword - Jan Ali, ZA Offhand: Offhand from Rage Winterchill - Rage Winterchill, Hyjall TBU... those are the ones off the top of my head atm

I created a post like this a while back that was intended for gearing up, hence it was for everything pre-25 mans. This is the successor to that thread. A quick explanation of my thinking - Most of the item prioritizations made below will be obvious, for the few that might not be so obvious, it will most likely be related to Spell Hit vs. Spell Haste vs. Dmg vs. Spell Crit. I am valuing them at roughly Spell Dmg = 1 Spell Haste = 1.2 Spell Hit = 1.1 Spell crit = .7 These values are from Theorycrafting that is FAR move involved than I can understand, but the little anecdotal evidence I have from my personal experience seems to bear these valuations out. The reason I still value Spell Hit so highly even though we are all spell capped, is that we all have a significant portion of our spell hit coming from gems. Thus, even if spell hit on an item would put us over the hit cap, we can easily then gem for more dmg (and less hit). ITEMS ARE LISTED TOP DOWN FROM BEST TO "WORST" HEAD Hood of Hexing - Hex Lord Malacrass Cowl of the Grand Engineer - Void Reaver Spellstrike Hood - Tailoring NECK Brooch of Nature's Mercy - Akil'zon (yes it's healing, but better than Zul'jin's neck) Loop of Cursed Bones - Zul'jin Brooch of Unquenchable Fury - Moroes Vindicator's Pendant of Conquest - Honor Reward BACK Ruby Drape of the Mysticant - Prince (Kara) Brute Cloak of the Ogre-Magi - HKM (Gruuls) Cloak of Subjugated Power - Badges SHOULDERS Mantle of Nimble Thought - Tailoring from BT trash recipe Mantle of Ill Intent - First Timer drop in ZA Mantle of Tirisfal - Void Reaver Mantle of the Elven Kings - TK trash drop CHEST Spellfire Robe - Tailoring Scarlet Sin'dorei Robes - Heroic Magister's Terrace Robe of Hateful Echoes - SSC (Hydross) WRIST Bracers of Nimble Thought - BT Crafted Runed Spell Cuffs - Badges Cuffs of Devastation - Mount Hyjal (Rage Winterchill) Vindicator's Silk Cuffs - PVP Honor HANDS Spellfire Gloves - Tailoring Studious Wraps - Badges BELT Belt of Blasting - SSC/TK crafted Spellfire Belt - Tailoring PANTS Spellstrike Pants - Crafted Anything other than Spellstrike pants is significantly inferior (including T5 pants) BOOTS Boots of Blasting - BoE tailoring Recipe to make BoP boots Footpads of Madness - Jan'Alai in ZA RINGS Mana Attuned Band - Third Timer in ZA Ring of Recurrence - Chess Event in Kara Exalted Kara Ring TRINKETS WEAPONS WANDS I will be finishing this post later...

Before 2.4 i did some very indepth research into what I will be aiming for End T5 to T6 dungeons... This is the results with 2.4 in mind: Sunfire Tailoring Recipes are God, the best gear in the game PERIOD for mages. good luck getting it, but we should start seeing hand wraps possibly available in AH or through someone shouting in a month or 3, pr 4... need 6 sunmotes is the only hickup, but at least its BOE. Chest Piece is of course BOP but the patter is BOE, which again will eventually show its ugly face for a rediculous price in the AH... maybe... My best guess would be 5-10k... Keep in mind this research is all mostly to start replacing the SpellFire/SpellStrike/Blasting Tailoring sets, which should be any mages first priority, with gear available in SSC/TK and 2.4. HIT is of course as Kajall said most important, by getting +Hit on things like rings you can open up the doors elsewhere for more damge. Haste is Second, +Dam 3rd, +Crit is last... I like the little formula, though, i will have to use that. Chest: Scarlet Sin'dorei Robes - Magisters Terrace, heroic (Good alternative to Spellfire when you break your set finally) Robe of Departed Spirits - ZA, Halazzi (Better, has Haste) Legs: Legwraps of Sweltering Flame - 2.4 100 Badges (Very Nice) Corrupted Soulcloth Pantallons - different alternative possiblity (no +HIT though) Ring: Fused Nethergen Band - 2.4 60 Badges (MUST HAVE, +Hit, crazy stats) Shoulders: Mantel of Nimble Thought is best, but Mantel of Ill Intent is very close to as good. Bracers: Bracers of Nimble Thought are best, ~2k Gold in AH Neck: Pendant of Sunfire - JC recipe from 2.4, BOP unfortunatly (this thing OWNS though) Cowl of the Grand Engineer is better than T5 helm and probably will hold you through most of BT, MH, but until we make progress there i just ignore most of the gear.