Loot Sources and Gearing Approaches

Introduction

Your Raid schedule is fixed. You raid when your guild raids. The variable is how much time you spend on everything around it.

That creates four broad approaches to gearing. They are not strict categories, and plenty of guilds sit somewhere between them.

None of these approaches is automatically correct. The right one is the one that matches your guild's expectations, your available time, and the level of progression you signed up for.

The Minimal Approach

Time commitment: Raid nights, plus whatever outside content you actually feel like doing.

Your gear comes mainly from Raid drops and the Great Vault slots you happen to unlock. If you run one dungeon, clear a few world activities, or join a Delve with friends, that is a bonus rather than a weekly checklist.

This works well in guilds where attendance and execution matter more than maintaining a strict gearing schedule. You will usually progress more slowly than someone who farms outside raid, but that is only a problem if it conflicts with what your group expects.

Minimal does not have to mean careless. Spending your Mistcrests properly, equipping the right set pieces, and choosing a strong Vault reward still matter even if you only play a few hours per week.

The Efficient Approach

Time commitment: Enough to cover the highest-value weekly rewards, then stop.

The point of this approach is not to finish every bar in the game. It is to identify which rewards still move your character forward and get those with as little wasted time as possible.

Mythic+ strategy: Work toward +10 keys if your character and group can complete them reliably. A +10 gives 312 Hero 3/6 gear at the end of the run and unlocks a 318 Myth 1/6 Dungeon Vault option. One dungeon opens the first slot, four open the second, and eight open the third.

Eight +10s give you three Dungeon choices at the +10 reward ceiling. They are not automatically required. If your second or third option has very little chance of helping, stopping after one or four runs may be the efficient decision that week.

Delves and world activities: The World row opens at 2, 4, and 8 qualifying activities. Tier 8 Delves can support a 305 Hero 1/6 Vault reward, which is especially valuable early in the season or on characters that are not ready for +10 keys. Higher Delve tiers can still matter for Mistcrests, achievements, and later-season rewards even when the Vault item itself stops improving.

Raid: Your scheduled raid already contributes to the Raid row at 2, 4, and 6 bosses. That makes Raid Vault slots cheap in terms of extra time, even when another row offers more controllable farming.

The Hardcore Approach

Time commitment: As much as progression and your remaining upgrade list justify.

Hardcore players keep running content beyond the obvious weekly minimums. That may mean targeting a specific dungeon item, farming Mistcrests, filling extra Vault slots, completing high Delves, or helping the raid build stronger loot and trade pools.

The important word is meaningful. Farming until no upgrade remains is different from filling every bar because the bar exists. The Great Vault can show up to nine gear choices, but you still select only one reward. Each extra slot has diminishing value once the rows already contain several strong options.

A sensible hardcore checklist changes every week:

• Which exact items are still upgrades?
• Which Mistcrest types are still useful?
• Does another Vault slot materially improve the odds?
• Is a targeted dungeon drop worth farming before the next raid?
• Would that time help the team more on an alt, a split character, or a guildmate's key?

Strong progression guilds often set weekly requirements, but those requirements vary. Some want eight +10s during early progression. Others care more about a minimum item level, specific crafted pieces, or being ready for the next boss. Follow the standard your guild actually publishes instead of guessing what a “serious” player is supposed to do.

The RWF/Day-Raiding Approach

Time commitment: Your entire existence during progression.

You don't make gearing decisions. You follow orders. Someone has already spent hundreds of hours planning loot distribution across raid teams, alts, and mirror characters.

Are you helping someone gear in this run? Are you rolling RNG on your mirror? How many more runs do you have today? You don't know, and you don't need to know.

Got 30 minutes of downtime? Planning to do some Mythic+? Wrong. Did anyone tell you that you're allowed to play Mythic+? You'll play Mythic+ when you're told to play Mythic+. You'll eat when you're told to eat. You'll sleep when you're told to sleep, and don't you dare sneak in a key instead.

Still don't know which mirror character you're playing tomorrow? Surely someone will tell you soon. Your job is to execute the plan, not understand it.

The reality: Your individual gearing approach is irrelevant. You're a cog in a highly optimized machine where every action serves the greater goal of world-first progression. Personal preferences become optional somewhere around the third spreadsheet.

Understanding the Great Vault

The Great Vault is not just a weekly lottery ticket. The amount of content you complete controls how many choices you see, while the difficulty of that content controls their quality.

Row	First Slot	Second Slot	Third Slot
Raid	2 bosses	4 bosses	6 bosses
Dungeons	1 completion	4 completions	8 completions
World	2 activities	4 activities	8 activities

For the Dungeon row, reward quality is based on your highest, fourth-highest, and eighth-highest qualifying completions. Eight total keys do not make every slot a +10 slot unless all eight were completed at +10 or higher.

The efficient player asks whether the next slot is worth the time. The hardcore player may fill it anyway because even a small increase in choice matters during progression. The minimal player takes whatever opened naturally. All three can be making the correct decision for their situation.

Season 2 Raid Vault Value

Season 2 makes Raid Vault slots unusually valuable because each difficulty jumps to a higher upgrade track:

Raid Difficulty	Standard Vault Reward
Raid Finder	292, Champion 1/6
Normal	305, Hero 1/6
Heroic	318, Myth 1/6
Mythic	335, Myth 6/6

Eligible Very Rare items and loot from the final two Mythic bosses can appear at 344, the special Myth 9 level. That does not mean every Raid Vault option is better than every Dungeon option. Heroic Raid and a +10 both lead to 318 Myth 1/6 rewards, while standard Mythic Raid Vault rewards skip the normal upgrade grind and arrive at 335.

The pool still matters as much as the item level. An unlocked raid cantrip, tier piece, or rare effect may be worth more than another generic item at the same level.

What Your Guild Expects

Your guild's expectations determine how much freedom you really have. A Mythic progression guild may require capped +10 Vault options during early progression. A Heroic guild may ask for one useful key or a reasonable weekly effort. A casual guild may have no formal requirement at all.

None of those labels guarantees a specific rule. Ask what is expected before joining, and make sure the answer fits the amount of time you actually want to spend.

Gear also affects the rest of the group. If half the raid ignores accessible upgrades, progression slows down for everyone. At the same time, turning every optional activity into mandatory homework is a good way to burn people out. The useful standard is clear, agreed upon, and proportional to the content the guild is trying to clear.

Choosing What to Target

There is no universal slot order that survives contact with an actual character.

A lower item level tier piece may be worth equipping to complete 4-piece, but that does not mean tier always beats every alternative. Weapons, trinkets, cantrips, special effects, large item-level jumps, and powerful 2-piece breakpoints can all change the answer.

Jewelry carries a large secondary-stat budget, but it is not automatically your best upgrade. Weapons often gain heavily from item level, trinkets can be defined by their effects, and a high-rank item can establish a useful slot watermark. Compare the real items and sim when the decision matters.

When choosing what to farm or take from the Vault, consider:

• immediate character power;
• tier breakpoints and preferred off-piece;
• unique effects or cantrips;
• upgrade track and Mistcrest cost;
• the slot watermark you already established;
• replacement risk from raid, crafting, or next week's Vault;
• what helps the current progression boss.

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Your raid is the fixed part of the week. Everything else is a decision about how much extra power is worth your time.