New Lv 80/85 Prot Warrior Gear Question

I have been leveling my warrior through instance grinds and have been really running through the levels so far.

One thing I have noticed was that the "tier gear", meaning new gear at levels 70/80/85/90 seems to have better crafted gear then the top end JP stuff you could get until that point.

Like with the Ghost Forged Blue stuff being marginally better then the top tier gear from the previous expansion.

Now granted, its not better then the BiS on the previous expansion, but considering how easy they are to acquire, I am really happy with that fact. Especially since I am just tanking instances when ever I play.

Being that I hit 82 last night, should I bother with the JP grind or just level to 85 and use the Ghost Forged stuff to get into the next tier of instances?

I wouldn't bother with crafting gear or token bought gear until you hit 90. you'll replace gear so fast its not worth using anything but quest rewards until then.

I appreciate the feedback. :)

My problem is that I don't quest so anything I get needs to come out of instances or the instance quests really. Since I get about a level a night, I run into a ilevel block using just the instance drops. I tend to get a level every 4-5 runs so I never get that much gear out of a run to bump me to the next tier if instances.

I guess more so it was about the JP gear versus just using the crafted to hit the next set of instances...

I wouldn't waste JP on anything until 90. That can really help you go from newbie 90 to heroics quicker. Crafted or AH would be a better way to boost item level if you find yourself in a bind. Especially if you can craft it yourself.

For many of us, JP is surprisingly rare in MoP. If you do lots of 5 mans, it may differ for you. But I've done very few - I mainly do dailies and LFR to cap VPs. The JP gear you can buy at 90 is sub-par - it's 458 when dungeon drops are 463 and you need 460/470/480 to get into the various LFRs. I would not buy JP gear even at L90.

If you have or will have many alts, the best use of JPs may be to heirlooms (although I would wait for 5.2, as new heirlooms will come out). Otherwise, I like to use them to upgrade 463 drops to 471 (especially weapons): that upgrading system will be gone with the patch, at least for the next tier.

Bottomline: I would bank your JP, saving it for upgrades at L90 before the patch or heirlooms after. If you are already JP capped, I'd probably spend it on heirlooms rather than leveling gear (I read something about having to turn in old heirlooms for new ones).

By contrast, I really like crafted gear. It's very good like you say if you are mainly doing dungeons and so need to fill some slots. At L90, you can get quite far with just 450 crafted gear - with some 476 pieces and some 458/463 gear, you can hit the 460 ilevel required for the MSV LFR. On my alts, I've used that to cut out grinding dungeons for drops, as I found that could be frustrating (e.g. when nothing drops).

One other thing to bear in mind - the JP:Honor conversion. It's a good way to effectively double your cap. And I found honor much easier to get at L90, just from Tol Barad and Wintergrasp.

New heirlooms?

Yeah, new heirlooms will replace the old ones and work up to 85 (rather than 80). Also, some off hand ones are added - e.g. shields.

I am unclear on the pricing. Someone linked a screenshot indicating they cost the same JPs as before and required you to turn in your old heirloom. This seems rather steep. (What about people who don't have old heirlooms?)