Ascension Intro

Welcome!
note: I'm an Area 52 player so I don't know about the WotLK Alpha-testing Realm's extras.

Important Notes

• Intellect does NOT provide Spell Power. It was changed in Cataclysm.

Useful Items

Space

Space has always been important and people have even made guild bank alternate characters (ALTs) to deal with it. Guilds can be made by 1 player alone on Ascension but it's not necessary.
Vanity items can be acquired with Donation Points (DP) to solve this issue or you can farm gold and buy it from other players! (You heard it, you can use Cash to indirectly buy gold!)
The items of interest are: Personal Bank Vault, Realm-Wide Bank Vault, Personal Bank Vault Tab Voucher, and Realm-Wide Bank Vault Tab Voucher.

• Personal Bank: The Personal Bank is arguably the first choice to increase space. It gives all characters on the realm a full sized 1-tab guild bank; 10 characters +980 slots. Soulbound equipment CAN be put into a Personal Bank as well.
• Realm Bank: The Realm Bank is the secondary improvement to space and is a shared storage for characters on the realm; +98 slots. Unfortunately, Soulbound and Realmbound items CAN NOT be put in here but it's a luxury for replacing mail for the most part. It's also shared so it's arguably the second big purchase to consider.
• Ream Bank Tab: This increases the size of the realm's shared bank by +98 slots. If you're not storing Soulbound gear for extra Specializations, I'd put this above Personal Bank Tabs.
• Personal Bank Tab: Unlike Personal Bank, Realm Bank, and Realm Bank Tabs, Personal Bank Tabs are on a per-character basis. It's great if you're looking to store more gear for extra Specializations but I'd put it behind Realm Bank Tab otherwise.

With all that said, if you're making an alt specifically for storage and/or Daily-cooldown crafting, you can also create a guild and buy a guild bank.

Personal Bank and Realm Bank can be used from their item in a majority of safe zones (cities) so you don't need to trek back to a major city for storage. Furthermore, there's a Vanity companion pet called Treasure Keeper that can allow you to access your normal bank as well.
Additional improvements to space can be seen in Vanity bags (26 slots in the store but I've seen a few a little bigger in game) or the common 16-slot Netherweave Bags created by tailors.

Looting

While we're on the topic of space, you're going to want to fill it up and save the trouble of looting items with another Vanity companion pet called Lootbot 3000.

Specializations

I mentioned Specializations and they're unlocked through Tome of Specialization ~. Of course, ~ is replaced by roman numerals 2 through 12. These are vanity items but the lower order specializations can be bought from Nozdormu near Ascension's various in-game boards. Be careful of the Auction House scams, I've seen Nozdormu selling Tome of Specialization II for 1,000 gold and the AH having it as high as 2,000 gold! All of the tomes of specialization can of course be purchased with DP.

Specializations give players the ability to pick a second (, third, fourth, etc.) set of abilities and talents to use without needing to create another character. The downside is of course gearing the alternate specialization and storing the items. Also, ability levels are reset so you'll need to relearn their ranks (2 and higher) at a trainer.

Learning Abilities and Professions

In the starting zones, you saw a Beginner Book of Ascension and a Beginner Book of Artisans and wondered why they didn't let you learn everything-you guessed it, they are convenience Vanity items! Don't worry though, if another player has theirs out, you can use theirs so it's not a necessary purchase (unless you're switching specs for dungeons/raids a lot).
The ~ Book of Ascension and ~ Book of Artisans (~ is optional for variants) are Vanities related to learning Ability ranks and Profession-related trainer skills. For professions, you cannot learn recipes that are dropped, vendor recipes, or specialization-recipes (like Armorsmith) from a Book of Artisans.

Of course, class and profession trainers are still willing to train you. For the high-risk recipes, I recommend learning from the trainers too since you can get a reputation discount-the Books won't give you the discounts! I'm not a high-risk player so I can't tell you much about that.

Mystic Enchanting

A Simple Introduction

Rather than going in depth, I believe it's best to explain the basics.

1. Mystic Enchants: Mystic Enchants (ME) you know are shared realm-wide. I've heard they used to be called Random Enchants (RE).
2. Mystic Orbs: Mystic Orbs allow you to put MEs on your gear. There are some limitations like you cannot have Legendary or Epic enchants on weapons and ranged slot items.
3. Mystic Runes: Mystic Runes allow you to reroll the ME on an item. Doing so gives you progress towards a Mystic Altar Level (or whatever it's called), and each level gives you 1 Mystic Extract.
4. Mystic Extracts: Mystic Extracts allow you to rip an item apart (destroy it) and learn (know) the ME in question. This can ONLY be done on Rare gear or better.

You're only allowed to have ONE Legendary ME and THREE Epic MEs active at once. Furthermore, several Rare MEs are limited to ONE and some say they don't stack with similar ones. Otherwise, Rare and Uncommon MEs are restricted to THREE of each.

Your Legendary ME (LRE/LME) is for all intents and purposes your class or specialization. While you can play without enchants with some builds, the difference once you use them will be immense and LREs improve your character's build significantly.

Acquisition

• Mystic Orbs: Mystic Orbs can be gotten from Random Dungeon Finder and from combining the shards gotten from monsters and skilling at higher levels.
• Mystic Runes: Mystic Runes can be gotten from Random Dungeon Finder or various quests. Also, you can trade Marks of Ascension for them at Nozdormu but it's not recommended.
• Mystic Extracts: Mystic Extracts can be gotten from using Mystic Runes. Alternatively, you can spend 5,000 Marks of Ascension or 150 gold each to acquire them.

Notable Enchants

The following enchants are either common among builds or multi-purpose for several different builds. Several can be also used in place of an enchant you don't have yet.

• Counterpoise: Increases either Melee Critical Strike Chance or Melee Haste relative to your remaining Rage.
• Pendulum: Increases either Spell Critical Strike Chance or Spell Haste relative to your remaining Mana.
• Zephyr: An enchant that enhances Windfury Weapon, the most-likely Best-in-Slot physical temporary enchant.
• Precision: Increase Hit by 2%. It's great for any build that needs to reach the Hit-cap.
• Balance of Power: Increase Spell Hit by 2%. It's great for offensive spell casting builds that need to reach the Hit-cap
• Weapon Expertise: Increases Expertise by 4. It's great for physical builds that need to hit the Expertise-cap. Expertise reduces the chance your attacks are dodged or parried.
• Vigor: Increases Energy by 20. If your build uses a lot Energy, this is a consideration for you.
• Dual Wield Specialization: Increases your off-hand weapon's Damage by 5%. If you're dual-wielding weapons, this is a consideration for you.
• Celestial Focus: Increases Total Spell Haste by 2%. It has been noted that reaching your Hit-cap is more important than Haste or Critical Strike rating.
• Lunar Guidance: Increases your Spell Damage by 3% of your Intellect. For offensive spell casters, this is a consideration for you. Note to healers: This is Spell Damage and not Spell Power!
• Fierce Mind: Increases your Spell Power by 3% of your Spirit. For healers, this is a consideration as their primary stat is often set to Spirit. An offensive spell caster with a bunch of spirit on their gear can also consider it.
• Dreamstate: Increases Mana Regen by 4% of your Intellect (even while casting). For builds that have plenty of Intellect and a need for extra mana regen, this is a worthy consideration. Additionally, it doesn't cost a talent point so it's even better.

Auction House

Beware the Auction House. People can and will force you to overpay for things. There are people flipping items and manipulating the market and they WILL lie to you saying it's supply and demand.

Alternate Characters

If you're having trouble acquiring a crafted item and don't trust other people, you can also create ALTs. It's very quick to level characters that aren't in Resolute mode (lowered experience). As with other versions of the game, the 300-cap for professions can be opened at level 35. Furthermore, the 375-cap can be opened at level 58 without visiting Outlands with a Book of Artisans.

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Have fun!