We all know that Mists of Pandaria is far from being as friendly to alts as players have been used to in recent times, but there are ways, particularly with the arrival of patch 5.2, to get geared a little more easily on your back-up characters than at the start of the expansion.

So, you're a freshly dinged level 90. What are your first steps? The first thing you ought to do before setting foot in a dungeon is head over to the Thunder Isle and introduce yourself to the Shado-Pan Assault. They will sell you an ilvl 522 neck at neutral, and as we'll get to, they're where you want to try to spend your Valor Points. You'll also want to make sure you meet the Kirin Tor Offensive or the Sunreavers, as you can earn bonus reputation for them.


Getting to item Level 435

This is the first major hurdle that players need to reach, in order to get into heroic dungeons. It was lowered from 440 to make the item level more attainable very early on in the expansion, and there are a few ways of getting to it.

The first, but perhaps not the most efficient, way is by questing. If you're patient enough to finish questlines like the Klaxxi one, you can get your hands on a 489 ring, and other items in between, but that's only a few pieces per questline, and it's not going to help you much if you're wearing all 377 gear apart from that.

While this definitely wasn't the case early in the expansion, it's now possible to lay your hands on quite a bit of crafted gear that's item level 450, and on the auction house on the servers I play on for around 200-400 gold per item. This is a great start, but can be less useful if there's no much of the gear you need on the Auction House. If that doesn't push you over the 435 item level for heroic dungeons, your next stop is Adventurer's Gear. This is sold by several NPCs around Pandaria, but Supplier Xin and Len At Arms are the two who sell 408 gear.

An excellent question has appeared on /r/wow, from a player new to the game, who wants to get his mount collection started. He's wondering what are the easiest mounts to get his hands on, and how he should go about his gaming in the most efficient manner to guarantee maximum mount satisfaction.

So what are the easiest mounts to get hold of? First up, we have to look at the class-specific mounts, the warlock Felsteed and Dreadsteed, and the paladin Warhorse and Charger. Death Knights also get the Acherus Deathcharger, as well as being the only class to have the option to purchase the Winged Steed of the Ebon Blade. The paladin and warlock mounts are learned as abilities with the basic forms at level 20, and the latter ones at level 40. As DKs start later, they will get the Deathcharger through questing almost immediately, and can buy the Winged Steed at level 60.

Druids also have their travel form, and flight form, and Monks have the option to use the Glyph of Zen Flight, and of course, worgen get Running Wild but since these aren't really things you sit your character on, we're not sure if they count as mounts!

But other than those, what are the easiest mounts to get your hands on? Your home city, that is to say your faction's city, will have mounts for you to buy for gold. So undead can get mounts from Undercity, dwarves from Ironforge, and so on.

Chain pulling is one of those divisive things. It's a really fun way to put some excitement into tanking in content you know very well, to push yourself a bit harder, as well as being fairly key to taking on challenge modes. It's also something which, when done right, can earn you the respect of your peers in the few five-mans we're actually getting in this expansion. It's also, of course, the fastest way to get to that juicy valor reward at the end of the rainbow.

However, it's also a very easy way to annoy people, particularly your healer, if it's not done right. So, in order to maintain the sanity of your group-mates, let's get started with WoW Insiders five tips to stop you chain pulling like a bit of a pillock.

1. Check with your healer

Communication is the key to not pulling like a prat, and while you may be in full raiding epics, your healer might have snuck over the item level requirement with a bag full of BoAs, while wearing questing greens. Or they might have never healed on this character before, or never healed before, or never been in that dungeon before, or never been in a WoW dungeon before. Random matching means you don't know what your team-mates are capable of, and yes, you can inspect them and make assumptions, or you can ask. But an essay is not really needed. Just say that you're going to go fast, and that if it's too much, they should say so. A whisper is probably the best way to do this.