Gear and Item Level Explained

Gear is how your character gets stronger after leveling stops being the main source of power. Every piece of equipment has an item level — ilvl — a single number summarizing how much raw power it carries.

What item level means

Higher item level means more of your primary stat — Strength, Agility, or Intellect depending on your class — and usually more Stamina, which is your health pool. When two items compete for the same slot, the higher-ilvl piece is the right answer most of the time.

Secondary stats

Below the primary stat, gear carries secondary stats: Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, and Versatility. Every spec prefers some over others, but the differences matter far less than the game community makes them sound. While leveling and early in endgame, item level beats perfect stats almost every time.

• Haste speeds up your casts and resource generation.
• Critical Strike gives abilities a chance to hit harder.
• Mastery improves whatever your spec's mastery bonus does — it varies by spec.
• Versatility is a flat increase to damage done and a small reduction to damage taken.

Where gear comes from

Quests, dungeons, raids, crafting, world activities, and the weekly Great Vault all award gear. Early on, simply playing replaces your equipment constantly. Later, you choose activities partly by the level of gear they reward — that is the progression loop, not a requirement to min-max.

Mistakes to avoid

• Hoarding old gear 'for the stats'. A piece ten item levels behind is almost never worth keeping.
• Equipping armor of the wrong type. Classes get a bonus for wearing their armor class — check before equipping that shiny cloth drop on your plate wearer.
• Chasing stat priorities from the internet while still leveling. Stat weights assume endgame gear; ignore them until they matter.

Stuck on something here? Post a note on the Academy Learning Board — someone aboard has been exactly where you are.

When you start running dungeons, gear decisions get more interesting — our dungeon primer covers the rest of the loop.