So where do I start?

This is the post where I appeal to my audience for help and ask a lot of questions 🙂

As I’m trying to get back into World of Warcraft, one of the first questions that comes to mind is “what do I do now?” When I left, I had been routinely running heroics and collecting gear/emblems. I’ve pretty much pulled everything I can get from them, not counting ToC (patched in after I left), and have a couple more epics to get for my mage. Now, as a player coming back after six months of being gone, I have the same options I had before but I’m not sure if I’m looking at the full picture anymore. Is it still just run heroics for badges of heroism, trade in, rinse and repeat?

When I was talking to my brother-in-law (we’ll make the jump and consider them married for simplicity), he was telling me that the game has pretty much turned into badge collection, even for tier gear. We didn’t get too far into it but I got the impression that it’s easier to get tier gear from badges. When I left, the main way to get badges for tiered sets was to do the daily heroic and… do the daily heroic. It was a slow climb in badges at best. It sounds like there may be more ways to get these badges though. Does anyone know of any new options that may have been put in?

Since I’m trying to get into casual raiding, my main goal right now is to get the gear that will put get me ready to dive into Ulduar and I.C.C. when it comes out. The guild has been great and offered to help run me through and collect what I need but I’d like to do as much as I can outside of that too. So, for anyone out there in the know, what’s the best way for a solo player to gear himself out; how many ways are there for me to collect badges for tiered gear, sans raiding itself. Fill me in guys. I’m feeling lost.

– Chris, the woefully unprepared 😉