Today (actually I'm writing this on Saturday, but when this posts) we will be on two notable precipices regarding Warlords of Draenor. Tomorrow, patch 6.0.2 goes live, with all the systems changes that will be coming with the new expansion. And one month from now, the expansion itself will be going live. Yes, the long, long, long, long, long wait for something other than Siege of Orgrimmar is finally coming to its conclusion.
I've gone into tons of detail about all the changes that are happening; some of it is probably even accurate!
But let's talk nitty-gritty: let's go into iLevels. We're going to be getting several new zones, four level-up dungeons and four level-cap dungeons, a preview-version of one of the level-cap dungeons as part of the pre-game event, and one and a half raid tiers (Highmaul being a kind of Mogu'shan Vaults situation) with four difficulties each.
Item Level is one of the major ways a player can track their progress in WoW (fun fact, you used to need an add-on to even see what a piece's iLevel was,) so I figured I'd give you an idea of what the progression is.
Notably, after the Tanaan Jungle intro, which rewards all 505 blue gear, most zones will have something of a spread of iLevel quest rewards, usually awarding better gear for quests done at a higher level, since all zones (except Tanaan) have a two-level range. Also, you'll have a chance to get upgrades, with green rewards potentially getting upgraded to rare or even epic, and blue rewards similarly having a chance to be upgraded to epic. Every upgrade will increase the item's level by ten points.
Also, to be clear, the iLevels for zones here are for the green quest rewards. Major quest chains will often have blue, rare-quality rewards that will be a higher iLevel. That said, sometimes a green from a later quest will actually obsolete a blue from a quest earlier in the same zone, though this is somewhat rare.
Finally, this does not take into account rare spawns and treasures found in these zones, which tend to have blue-quality gear that is higher than what you'd otherwise receive through quests, but will often be better-suited for a different class or spec (maybe it's just some psychological bias, but I would swear two out of three armor pieces off these "vignettes" are mail. So good for you, Hunters/Shamans.)
Without further ado - the iLevels!
Upper Blacrock Spire at 90 (available tomorrow): 550
Tanaan Jungle Intro (90): 505
Frostfire Ridge/Shadowmoon Valley (not counting a quest chain that takes you back there at 94) (90-91): 510-525
Bloodmaul Slag Mines (dungeon, min. 90): 530
Gorgrond (92-93): 522-536
Iron Docks (dungeon, min 92): 550
Talador (94-95): 545-563
Auchindoun (dungeon, min 94): 570
Spires of Arak (96-97): 568-586
Skyreach (dungeon, min 95): 600
Nagrand (98-99): 587-605
Level Cap Normal Dungeons (Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, Grimrail Depot, The Everbloom, Upper Blackrock Spire) (100): 615
Heroic Dungeons: 630
Highmaul:
Raid Finder: 640 (note: RF loot does not share stat-spread or names with other difficulties, and there is no Raid Finder tier set.)
Normal: 655
Heroic: 670
Mythic 685
Blackrock Foundry:
Raid Finder: 650 (see above for details on RF loot.)
Normal: 665
Heroic: 680
Mythic: 695
Breaking it All Down:
Getting a decent amount of gear out of the preview UBRS will give you a nice head-start if you haven't been raiding or hitting up Ordos and the Celestials much. Even if you have, there are weapons there, which will make a really big difference. The UBRS-90 gear will last you a while, though if you get lucky with weapons in Iron Docks, you might find equivalent stuff as early as level 92.
While generally I like to do dungeons after I've completed the zones that they're in, you'll have a pretty big advantage if you run them early - though you might find them somewhat challenging. It's odd to me, actually, that you can technically get stuff out of Skyreach before you even go to the zone that it takes place in (Spires of Arak,) but that 600 gear will be a nice boost to the rest of your questing.
Most of your Mists-era gear is going to get replaced at some point during the leveling process, though gems, enchants, and set bonuses might make it worth your while to stick with lower iLevel gear despite getting theoretical upgrades. The Legendary cloaks should make it through the whole questing experience, though, especially if you have yours fully-upgraded (and if you haven't done that by tomorrow, you'll still be able to with Lesser Charms.) Garrosh Heirlooms will scale differently depending on the difficulty level, but I believe they all end up at 610 once you hit 100. There's an easy quest at level 100 to simply do Bronze level at the Proving Grounds (which is a walk in the park if you're even marginally competent) that gives a 615-level weapon. Stick around and do Silver, though, and you'll be qualified to random-queue for heroics as well.
In theory, players should be able to jump from Normal Dungeons into LFR, and from Heroic Dungeons into Normal raids. Still, if you want a bit of an edge, it's not a terrible idea to do every step to maximize your power and ensure the greatest success. I don't know how hard LFR will be tuned, but I've heard that they want it to be "tourist mode," making it very easy and really pushing anyone who actually wants a challenge to do it on Normal. Granted, that's a statement they made about a year ago, so I'm not sure if it's still the design.
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