With 10 level 90s, I have to managed to gear them up pretty decently. Right now, my lowest geared toon is ilvl 487 (with my highest being 504). I’m almost complete in running each one through Throne of Thunder but the entire process is extremely time consuming. As a result, I’m forced to plan a bit in advance the runes I manage to pick up each week and Valor Points.
Usually, the first thing I do is focus on a single toon and max out what he/she can receive. I tend to focus on my lowest geared toon first as I find myself having more incentive to do older LFR instances in trying to acquire gear and valor. I’ll start off by either doing dailies or pet battles to acquire enough lesser charms for the runes. Normally, I find dailies, though tedious, to be the better method as the amounts received are more certain, provide reputation points and gold. This is even better for newer toons as they may lack reputation with certain factions.
Once I get my runes, I’ll queue up for the LFR which provide the best upgrades. The best stuff at the moment is in part 4, where you have the two bosses with tier tokens and Lei Shen, who has some decent weapons and trinkets. I prefer focusing on tier tokens and weapons since you cannot acquire those pieces of gear with valor points. Since tier tokens are pretty hard to come by, it can take quite a bit of time before you might see a full set (or even partial set).
For valor points, I mostly focus on “low hanging fruit” types of items like the necklace, ring, bracers, etc. I tend to avoid items that can have a tier corresponding piece since I prefer tier gear overall just for the bonuses. As someone who doesn’t raid normals or heroic modes, this path isn’t bad. If my guys get a full 5 piece set, I might eventually buy the shoulders using gold since valor points are harder to come by as you’re gearing up (of course, just grinding through all the reputation towards exalted with the Shado-Pan Assault still will take time, so this is a long term goal).
Once my basics are covered, then I’ll start upgrading items. I tend to prioritize weapons then any higher (522s) items. Weapons are probably the best thing to spend valor points if you want to upgrade them (and if you’re a non-raider like me) as weapons provide the best overall DPS boost.
Ultimately, my goal is to hit ilvl 500 at minimal for all of my toons. I read that ilvl 500 will be the minimum requirement to enter the Siege of Orgrimmar LFR, so I’m trying to prepare as much as possible in advance.
One thing I’ll try to do on my first toon that I gear during the week is to get valor capped quickly. In that way, the rest of my toons will receive the bonus and essentially save me some time in terms of avoiding a few unnecessary LFRs. Even though I’m gearing mostly through Throne of Thunder, I do older LFRs as well not just for valor points, but the occasional epics, especially for toons with hybrid specs. In that manner, it gives me some motivation to back and horse around. It’s always nice seeing how much your DPS improves as you gear up. Also, it’s kinda fun building extra sets as it provides the opportunity of trying other roles out in the future.
In many cases, my toons with hybrid specs are quite close to receiving all gear necessary for their off spec. Even with that, I like occasionally doing the Treasure Room scenario since the rares provide some nice valor and charms and the treasure room itself averages me around 200 gold each run. To me it’s just a nice bonus on top of everything and offers you some chances to reroll on gear you might’ve wanted previously or just for some extra gold (which never hurts).
Some things I won’t use my charms on are the random boss drops. Although I’ve occasionally received one of the random boss drops from Throne of Thunder, I do not want to make it a dependency in terms of my upgrade strategy. There’s always a temptation to hit your re-roll button but I really feel it’s a waste. I prefer focusing on the main loot table for each boss until I’ve managed to get all the necessary items from that particular boss or in general. My only consideration for using a charm in this case might be to attempt to trigger the bad luck protection buff. For instance, let’s say you’re a warrior and need a weapon (in my case I have a fury warrior which requires two two handed or two one handed weapons). Lei Shen, being the last boss for Part 4, has two bosses in front of him. I might re-roll on those two bosses in the hope of trigger my re-roll protection for Lei Shen (on top of how my warrior might hopefully get a tier token or other goody in the process).
Something else that I do which might sound funny is that I’ll try to spend my valor as soon as I have enough for a certain item and to ensure I might get an item in LFR. It could be me but I’ve noticed that when my toons have enough valor (or potentially have enough valor for the week) to obtain gear, I might not get anything, even from re-rolls. It could be bad RNG but I have this theory that the system might have a limiter where it examines your total possible valor for the week and takes that into consideration when it distributes items. It’s almost as if the system says something like, “Oh, well you will get a guaranteed item this week, so let me lower your chances of winning anything.” In other words, it feels as if the system does not want you to gear too quickly. Of course, I could be completely wrong in that whole process but it’s just an observation based on gearing 10 toons.
Overall, I’m having fun working on each of my toons. Originally, I was fretting a bit in playing ranged in Throne of Thunder (mostly because many fights felt more melee friendly). However, having completed Throne of Thunder numerous times now on both melee and ranged DPS, I will say that both have their ups and downs. I think as long as you know the mechanics for the bosses, you shouldn’t have any real issues for either DPS type; it’s mostly a matter of translating the situation for your class.