The item level of a piece of gear is Blizzard%26#39;s estimate of how good the gear is. I%26#39;ve talked about item level before: it%26#39;s a great way to quickly understand how good a piece of gear will likely be. The WoW UI doesn%26#39;t show you the item level but a variety of mods will, I have Pawn show me.
Item level is not always a good predictor of item value. It doesn%26#39;t
include set bonuses. It doesn%26#39;t value weird items like trinkets or
rings with procs very well. And you can never compare the item level of
a rare item with an epic. But for comparing epics to epics, it%26#39;s pretty
good
Here%26#39;s the item levels of various kinds of epic gear you%26#39;re likely to encounter, along with links to Wowhead searches for those items.
226 Raid drops (hard 25 mans): Kel%26#39;Thuzad (Naxx), Eye of Eternity
213 Valorous Dreamwalker T7.5
213 Raid drops (hard 10 mans): Kel%26#39;Thuzad (Naxx), Eye of Eternity
213 Raid drops (25 man): Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, Vault of Archavon
213 Emblem of Valor purchases
213 Deadly Gladiator PvP gear (1900-2200 rating)
213 Crafted frost resist gear (leatherworking, jewelcrafting)
200 Heroes%26#39; Dreamwalker T7
200 Raid drops (10 man): Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, Vault of Archavon
200 Heroic 5 man drops
200 Emblem of Honor purchases
200 Hateful Gladiator purchases
200 Crafted epics (leatherworking, jewelcrafting)
Having done this exercise I%26#39;m surprised to see all the epic gear fall out mostly into just two groups. I%26#39;m guessing the item level of an item no longer strictly reflects the item budget like it used to. Still, this should at least be a rough guide to comparing your emblem gears, crafteds, and dungeon drops.