WoW Dragonflight 10.1 Fastest Mains & Alts Gear Up Guide (PvP/PvE) in Season 2

WoW Dragonflight Season 2 of patch 10.1 is finally upon us with the raid of Aberrus finally open, together with a new set of Season 2 Mythic+ Dungeons and a whole new season of Dragonflight PVP, the time has come for us to dive back into Dragonflight and game content to gear out our main and alt characters. If you look to have a strong early start during season 2, this guide will go over how to gear quickly and efficiently during Embers of Notharian, where we'll go over how to maximize gear gains with the new gear upgrade system and how to take advantage of open world and End Game Gear acquisition.

Dragonflight 10.1 PvE Gearing Up Progression for Mains & Alts

Before diving into the details behind gearing through PVE content including raids, Dungeons, and open-world activities. Let's first briefly go over the new upgrade system of patch 10.1 and highlight just how we'll be using this new system to quickly gear our main and alt characters.

1. New PvE Gear Upgrade System

Any activity you engage with in Embers of Notharian will award you with flightstones and shadowflame crests. Flightstones are easily earned through most PVE content and make up the backbone of this upgrade system. Then we have Cress and crass fragments. Crests come in four qualities, starting with raid finder level equivalent and going up to normal, heroic, and Mythic equivalent, and are obtained from more challenging content. The bigger the challenge the higher quality of quests you can collect.

And you'll want to be careful when spending your quests since you can only earn a certain amount of them a week, optimally focusing all of them on your character's Best and Slot items.  

The gears maximum from upgrade value depends on the item's starting level. Normal items can be upgraded to heroic equivalent, but no further while heroic starter items can go all the way to mythicality. Earning high-quality items leads to even higher-quality upgrades. 

This infographic helps break down the item's maximum upgrade levels:

Lastly, this upgrade system allows you to get discounts when upgrading any side-grade items. Having a geared main means that you all spend fewer resources upgrading all other items. And crests naturally come with a catch-up mechanic which can be used by any of your alts to catch up to your main in the patch 10.1.

2. Basic 405 iLvL PvE Gear from Zaralek Cavern

Let's go over the gear you can obtain through open-world activities. Starting with the basics, if you're looking to gain entry-level items then Zaralek Cavern got you covered with most World Quest offering starter items for fresh and new players. The new faction of the Niffen also gets you covered. With a weekly in the Niffen repetition Quest awarding 405 item level quality, the Sniffseeking activity has the chance of awarding additional 402 armor and pieces. Advances through the Niffen reputation also unlock a variety of rewards. And among those, you can get access to purchasable gear which could serve as early-level upgrades.

3. 415 iLvl PvE Gear from Open World Content & Quests

Besides base entry-level items, the open-world content also offers an opportunity to earn higher-quality armor Trinkets and weapons which can be further upgraded to create more competitive versions of these items. You'll get these pieces from completing the Weekly Heroic Quest. Completing 5 character dungeons gives us a choice between a crass and a box that contains gear of item level 415 which can be then upgraded all the way to 437.

4. 411 iLvl PvE Gear from Camp Activities

The Incarnate for Rack will begin to assault the dragon IELTS, creating sufficient camps in on our own planes and in Azure span. Completing the camp activities awards item level of 411 quality and defeating the Disciples of Iraq awards 405 gear and items. At least this would be observed over on the PTR. It is possible that the gear rewards and their item levels could be different once this content goes live this week.

5. 421 iLvl PvE Gear from World Bosses in Zaralek Cavern

Finally, we have the world bosses which will spawn in Zaralek Cavern with a twin Zaqali Elders awarding items of 415 level quality. Though it seems that they've upgraded the rewards to 421 in a recent hotfix. 

6. New PvE Tier Set Pieces from Underground Raid of Aberrus

Next we have the underground raid of Aberrus, this instance will be available on normal, heroic, and Mythic difficulties with the LFR sections rolling out periodically the heart of the version of the raid the higher the quality of items, as well as the Shadowflame Crest that you can earn for defeating any of its bosses. This raid is the prime source of obtaining new class tier sets which offers a powerful spec-specific bonus to your character all tier bonuses are the same, no matter the gear quality. So it's worth clearing out the raid on as many difficulties as possible to maximize it to your acquisition slain. The final boss of this instance awards an omni token for your entire array team, where certain bosses will drop to your shoulders, two gloves, or to your Helms, the Omni-Token can become any tier item and can help you fill out your set much easier. As you earn quests within Aberras, it is recommended that you save them and spend them carefully. Most heroicross earned through the tier are best spent on heroic items which you intend to upgrade to mythically.

7. 431-441 iLvl PvE Gear from M+ Dungeons

Like raids, Mythic+ dungeons will offer gear and rewards which will scale with dungeon difficulty. Starting with 402 rewards from a plus 2 dungeon, all the way to 431 obtained from a plus 19 and plus 20 difficulties. Dungeons between a plus 11 and plus 15 difficulty also award heroic crest fragments. While dungeons at plus 16 and higher difficulties all award Mythic equivalent crest fragments. With this season's dungeons, the recommended strategy is straightforward - try to push your keys to a higher level to obtain better gear and items and ideally you'll want to form dungeons at a plus 17 difficulty and above, doing so awards Mythic Crest fragments as well as items which can be upgraded all the way to 441 item level quality. Though not everyone is going to be able to follow this strategy day one and that's perfectly good, your ability to consistently form plus 17 dungeons will entirely depend on your dungeon party. If you have to start out small getting plus chance until you have a little bit of gear, then slowly move on to plus 15s and eventually plus 17s which is how you can obtain some of the best items consistently from dungeon content.

WoW Dragonflight 10.1 PvP Gearing Up Guide for Mains & Alts

Now we want to shift away from PVE content and go over the gearing strategies for PVP.  First of all, PVP gear will follow its own upgrade path which favors Simplicity over the new system added in patch 10.1. Gearing in PvP season 2 isn't all too different from season 1. 

1. Buy Entry-Level PvP Gear from AH

Entry-level PVP gear can be bought at the auction house, these items are of lower quality but if you have the gold to spend then they are perfect for any fresh level 70 characters.

2. Open World PVP items

Based versions of these items can be obtained through Open World activities as well as purchased through bloody tokens from the world PVP vendor. You can get these tokens from participating in Open World PVP and completing PVP world quests. Base World PVP gear can then be further upgraded with the Trophies of Strife which are earned from completing your weekly PVP Sparks questline picked out from the Gladiators Refuge.

3. Honor and Conquest PvP Gear

Honor can be purchased through honor points which are obtained through most casual PVP activities as well as weekly PVP quests. Conquest gear offers some of the best PVP items available and can be purchased with Conquest points which can be earned by participating in competitive PVP modes like rated Arenas and rated Battlegrounds.

4. Exchange PvP Gear from Great Vault

Slaying raid bosses finishing Mythic+ Dungeons and earning honor the rated PVP, allows you to unlock additional rewards through the Great Vault, where you can pick up one item out of all of your weekly available choices. The Great Vault will offer higher chances of collecting tier set items early into the season, so it is recommended to fill out your Great Vault on your main as much as possible for the first few weeks. The higher the difficulty of raid bosses and dungeons to complete, the higher the quality of the items you may be able to loot every week. 

5. Exchange PvP Gear with Marks of Mastery

In Embers of Neltharion, every character will be able to earn a mark of Mastery which can be traded at specific vendors to purchase any two reset items of your choice. Marks of Mastery can be earned through either obtaining AoTC achievement from Aberrus or earning Keystone Master through Mythic+ dungeons overreaching 1800 rating from any of the PVP brackets. It is imperative that you work towards the Mark of Mastery as early as possible, though don't redeem it too early. Try to be smart with the Mark of Mastery purchases and use it to help fill out your final tier set pieces if possible.

6. Crafted Highest Level PvP Gear with Spark of Shadowflame

In season 2, craft becomes an integral part of PVP gearing. You'll be able to purchase unique reagents from the honor and the conquest vendors which will allow you to create crafted items with PVP scaling quality. These crafted items can be heavily customized, to make sure you're gaining your best secondary stats and can be enhanced with other reagents to provide intro protection or anti-crowd control benefits.

In Embers of Neltharion, you'll be able to create higher-quality crafted gear weapons and items using the new Spark of Shadowflame. You earn Spark of Shadowflame every two weeks. By combining two spark fragments together, you can earn a spark fragment weekly, either through the Niffen reputation Quest or by completing weekly PVP quests instead. Sparks of Shadowflame also come with catch-up benefits meaning that you will have a chance to earn additional Sparks through other forms of end-game content if you ever find yourself falling behind. 

In season 2, you will be able to upgrade these newly crafted items using the Shadowflame crest. Combining four quests and a handful of other materials enchanters create crafted gear reagents that increase your crafted gear quality. It is best to save at least 4 Mythic crests in Week 1 to create a Mythic crafting reagent and use your first Spark on either weapon or embellishment that is recommended for your character. And you should be able to do the same thing during week 2 if you've been keeping up with all of your weekly spark quests.

And so far that's going to be the full gearing guide for the patch 10.1 which should hopefully get you started on the right track for the Embers of Neltharion.