Pullwise

S2 · Week 3
The loop

Gear

Five tracks, six ranks each. The thing the table hides — and the chart below shows — is how much the tracks overlap.

Where the tracks sit

Five tracks, six ranks each. The thing the table hides is how much the tracks overlap: item level 260 → 340, and Veteran 6/6 (295) beats Champion 1/6 (292) — a maxed lower track can out-level a fresh higher one.

Where each track drops

TrackRangeSources
Adventurer266–282World quests, rares, Heroic dungeons, low Delves, Normal Prey
Veteran279–295Apex caches, Raid Finder, T5–6 Bountiful Delves, Hard Prey
Champion292–308Mythic 0, T7+ Delves, Nightmare Prey, Normal raid, +2–3 keys
Hero305–321Heroic raid, +4 to +8 keys
Myth318–334Mythic raid, +9/+10 keys, Myth vault row
Verify Keystone breakpoints come from Method's gearing guide (Hero from +6, Myth from +10). Older Season 2 posts list +4 and +9. Check the dungeon journal's loot preview before planning a key night around it.

Your next three upgrades heuristic

  1. Soulcoiler Ritual Vessel
    LFR Wing 1, boss 1 — queueable tonight, best trinket all season
  2. Sickening Signet of Atroxus
    Voidscar Arena on Mythic 0 — the only M+ BiS piece, Champion track
  3. Any Champion weapon
    Mythic 0 tour or the Spark craft — the weapon slot is the biggest ilvl multiplier you own

Static rule-of-thumb, not a sim: highest item level, weapon and trinkets first, tier once the 2-piece is one drop away.

Spend order

  1. Weapon
    biggest single item level swing you own
  2. Trinkets
    get the Soulcoiler Vessel and stop thinking about trinkets for a month
  3. Tier 2-piece
  4. Tier 4-piece
  5. Everything else, highest item level first
Don't crest-dump starter piecesLeave Adventurer and early Veteran slots at whatever rank they dropped at. Mistcrests upgrade a piece along the track it dropped on — pouring them into a 266 item you replace Thursday is the classic returning-player mistake.

Catalyst converts any item to tier and keeps its original stats and effects this season. You can catalyze something genuinely good rather than the least-bad thing in your bags.

Named pieces to chase 9 items

SlotItemSource
TrinketSoulcoiler Ritual VesselNek'zali — raid boss 1, Wing 1
TrinketGebbo's Bottomless BagThe Lost Explorers — Wing 3
TrinketLightspire CoreThe Blinding Vale (Mythic+)
LegsChausses of Unbound RancorUla'tek — final boss
ChestReckless Spirit BreastplateThe Coiled Altar
HeadWarhelm of the Consecrated FlameNek'zali the Soulcoiler
ShouldersPauldrons of the Consecrated FlameThe Lost Explorers
WeaponMagister's Mana SwordCraft — Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt, Haste/Mastery
Wrists / FeetSpellbreaker's Bracers / MarchCraft — Arcanoweave Lining, Haste/Mastery

Icy Veins Holy best-in-slot page, updated Aug 25, 2026.

The four-phase ladder Fresh 90 → endgame

PhaseItem levelDo
1 · tonightQueueable · 266–282Heroic seasonal dungeons; Coiled Isle world quests, rares, Vaults of Atal'Utek; low-tier Delves; Normal Prey; Apex caches, Accolade boxes
2 · first jumpChampion · ~292Mythic 0 tour — daily lockout, no key; Bountiful Delves T7–T8; Nightmare Prey (5/week); Raid Finder Venomous Abyss; Lair: Nymrissa Wavecaller
3 · invitedRaid-ready · 300–308Normal Venomous Abyss; keys +2 to +6; first Spark craft — weapon if needed; Catalyst 2-piece, then 4-piece
4 · real seasonEndgame · 310+Heroic raid; +7 keys, then +10 for the Myth vault row; Voidcore Heroic bosses; ignore full best-in-slot until slots stabilize

Method's stated fast-gearing order: reputation Champion pieces → weekly Apex Cache quests → Venom-Cursed Fragments → Mythic 0 → Nightmare Prey → Tier 8 Bountiful Delves → Mythic+ → raid.

Sources disagreechecked Sep 1, 2026Sources disagree on the exact track numbers. Warcraft Wiki gives the table used here; some aggregator blogs publish a band roughly 3–6 item levels lower (263/276/289/302/315). The guide used the wiki — it matches the author's earlier sheet, and two independent places agreeing beats one. Either way the track name matters, the exact integer doesn't. Sources: Paladin — Midnight 12.1 companion guide (author's own notes, verified Sep 1, 2026) · Warcraft Wiki — Midnight Season 2 (gear tracks, dungeon pool, boss list, wing schedule) · Method — gear fast to 335 (updated Aug 19) · Method — Great Vault item levels · Icy Veins — Holy Paladin gear & best in slot (updated Aug 25)