My 2.4 badge shopping list vs. T5 gear

We've almost unlocked the 2.4 badge vendor on our realm, and she sells lots of neat druid stuff. It's expensive, too. I went through all the new badge gear and compared it to what I currently own or can farm at the T5 level to figure out what's the best bang for the badge. Here's my list, in order from most to least important



Kitty DPS



  • 150 Weapon: Staff of the Forest Lord.
    Enormous DPS upgrade for cats, better than anything until Sunwell.


  • 100 Chest: Tunic of the Dark Hour
    Nice DPS upgrade for Vestments of Hibernation. Useful for bear threat, too.


  • 100 Legs: Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer
    A little better than T6 for stats. Useful for bear threat.


  • 60 Finger: Angelista's Revenge
    Better than any almost any other ring, but the upgrade is relatively small compared to other slots.


Bear tanking



  • 60 Finger: Ring of the Stalwart Protector
    Best bear tank ring in the game. However it has no defense.


  • 100 Legs: Tameless Breeches
    Better than T6 tank stats, even has some haste.


  • 100 Chest: Embrace of Everlasting Prowess
    Between T5 and T6 in stats.


  • 75 Hands: Handwraps of the Aggressor
    Between T5 and T6, also good for cat DPS.


So those are the biggest upgrade items for me. It'd be 745 badges if I bought them all, so prioritizing is obviously important. Several items are versatile: most of the cat gear is good for a bear threat suit too, and the Handwraps of the Aggressor are conveniently an upgrade for both cat and bear duties. The weapon is the most versatile since you can switch to it while in combat; I'll be buying it first.



The one drawback to a lot of this gear is that it's Legs, Chest, and Hands; slots you generally want to use for T4 or T6 Tier gear to get set bonuses. Then again the Tameless Breeches are so much better than the T4 pants that they alone warrant breaking a set bonus.