Every item here is one you can reach before the raids open on 9 December: dungeon and world drops, quests, crafts, vendors and reputations, each with published Forever stats. Our gear search tried them all slot by slot. It averages item level 61.5. The main hand decides the most, because Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite and Strider Kick all hit with it. Around it the set stacks Agility and crit, carries enough hit for your abilities, and takes five of its pieces from Leatherworking.

Pre-raid gear

The rows under a slot are its next best items and the damage you give up by wearing one. "Level" marks a gap smaller than the benchmark's noise, so take whichever you own.

Weapons

Teebu's Blazing Longsword is the main hand in every set, Horde and Alliance. A slow sword suits this build twice over: Raptor Strike and your white swings use its real speed, and it turns on the Human Sword Specialization. The next main hand, Sword of Zeal, costs 6.4 DPS. The sword's Fire damage on hit isn't simulated, since the game data has no rate for it, so the sword is underrated here.

Keep daggers out of the main hand. Mongoose Bite and Strider Kick deal normalized weapon damage, which treats a dagger as a 1.7-second weapon and every other one-hander as 2.4, so a dagger cuts their attack power bonus by close to a third.

The off hand only ever swings, so its damage per second is all that counts. Julie's Dagger, a fast dagger, takes the slot on most fights. The Horde set on a three-minute single-boss fight uses Flurry Axe for the Orc's Axe Specialization. None of these binds on pickup, so the auction house is open to you.

Hands and legs

Devilsaur Gauntlets and Devilsaur Leggings make a two-piece set worth 2 % hit, nearly a quarter of the 9 % your abilities need. The set bonus is a large part of why the next gloves cost 22.7 DPS. Leatherworkers make both, and they bind on equip.

Head, chest and feet

Black Dragonscale Helm is mail with Intellect on it, and Careful Aim turns that Intellect into attack power. The next helm costs 9.8 DPS. Dawn Armor and Scalegut Treaders complete the five Leatherworking pieces, and these three bind on equip as well.

Trinkets

Adaptive Combat Assistant, a Pix Xizzix item in Stranglethorn Vale, gives the set its 2 % expertise. Its shield on use isn't simulated. Losing it costs 14.7 DPS.

On one-minute fights the second slot holds Molten Heart of the Mountain. Used at the pull, its 15 seconds of attack power last a quarter of the fight.

Reputation pieces

Your shoulders need Exalted with one of Forever's new Barrens factions, the Theramore Expeditionary Force or the Darkspear Raiders. Ferocious Watcher's Signet needs Exalted with The Watchers, and the belt is a battleground reputation reward at Honored. Grinding those reputations takes longer than collecting anything else here.

You never shoot, so the ranged weapon is only a bag of stats. Its next best costs 2.1 DPS.

Enchants

• Head and legs: Arcanum of Rapidity on both.
• Main hand: Crusader. Its Holy Strength proc is active roughly 50.2 % of the time.
• Off hand: Agility or Crusader. The search picks one or the other from fight to fight.
• Chest: Greater Stats. Hands: Superior Agility. Wrists: Agility. Feet: Greater Agility. Back: Lesser Agility.
• Neck: Agility. Necklaces take enchants in Forever.

Consumables

Bring these every time: Elixir of the Mongoose (3.4 %), an Elemental Sharpening Stone for each weapon (1.8 % apiece), Ground Scorpok Assay (1.6 %), Juju Might (1.4 %), Juju Power (1.1 %) and Dragonbreath Chili (1.6 %). The chili burns every enemy near the boss, which makes it worth 5.8 % on three bosses. Smoked Desert Dumplings add 0.8 % and the Goblin Sapper Charge 1.5 %, if you have Engineering.

Flask of Supreme Power scores 1.1 %, and all of it comes from the chili. Our simulator reads a spell power coefficient for the chili from the game data, and nothing else you do uses spell damage. If Forever's chili doesn't scale, the flask does nothing for you. Mana is never short, so Major Mana Potion and Mageblood Elixir score 0.0 %.