World of Warcraft Classic returned players to the roots of the MMO-RPG they fell in love with over a decade ago. After grinding through the early to mid-stages of the game, players have finally hit the level 60 cap. Now the fun begins. Players can finally dip their toes into the next stage of the game — raids. These missions reach a new level of difficulty, one you’ve yet to experience in World of Warcraft Classic. Hopefully, you’ve explored some of the best add-ons World of Warcraft has to offer and found decent pre-raid gear. The best gear, though, is hidden deep in these heavily guarded raid dungeons. You’ll need a skilled team, a coordinated strategy, and the following gear to find success in World of Warcraft Classic raids.

The sheer volume of talent tree combinations will make this guide quite extensive. Just scroll down to find your class and you’ll see the entry-level armor sets for each class’s viable roles that should help you make your entrance into the raid scene. From then on, it’s a semi-natural progression to greater gear. The gear choices here are by no means the best you can get. This isn’t a BiS guide. They merely represent the more easily obtained and suitable options to get you going. Most come from dungeon bosses and high-level quests, so we’ve tried to include as little dungeon variance as possible to make it a simple matter of repeated runs through two or three instances.

Unlike retail WoW, Warriors can tank in any number of ways. There’s the staple sword and board method, but it’s also entirely possible to dual-wield for the added rage generation. Arms, Fury, and Protection all work here in different ways, so gearing up can be a bit of a mixed bag.

Hunters are fairly straight-forward when it comes to gearing. Their sole role as fantastic damage dealers means a focus on purely offensive stats. The desire for 9% increased Hit remains from other classes, so stack for that from the get-go. Then work to avoid it in other gear slots.

Druids are the most versatile and fluid classes in World of Warcraft Classic by a long shot. They can imitate the playstyles of other classes at will.  They’re not the best in any one role, but their versatility and adaptability make them great choices for players just looking to get some content done without too much waiting around.

Fantastic damage-dealers in their own right, Mages have a few noteworthy problems in Classic WoW. They’re forced by element-immune content to swap from Fire to Ice specs to deal any actual damage. Arcane isn’t good enough to compete, either. The strange design oversight makes for a very limited class in end-game content, but one that’s relatively easy to gear for.

Priests utilize Shadow and Destruction magicks to deal damage and invoke Holy incantations to heal allies. They’re typically used as primary healers, but their respectable damage output through hard-hitting spells and DoT ticks can quickly earn them a DPS spot in a group.

Warlocks deal damage through a mixture of spells and demonic monsters summoned to their side. Whether it’s an Imp, Voidwalker, or Succubus, they’re nothing without their trusty companion – but Warlock gear doesn’t really care which beast you bring to the fight, it’s all about extra shadow damage from spells. Just be ready to bank on some random stat rolls.

Another wonderfully versatile class, the Paladin can heal, tank, and deal fine damage depending on their spec. Similar to the Druid, they’re rarely the best in any one role, but they can adapt to fit any slot that needs filling.

Rogues pride themselves on swift and stealthy kills in PvP, but there’s little chance of killing a raid boss in 2 seconds flat just by shanking them in the back. Similar to the Feral DPS Druid, Agility plays a major part in Rogue DPS. They want fast, precise strikes to build and spend energy.

Exclusive to the Horde as their answer to the Paladin, the Shaman fills a similar set of roles. They make decent off-healers in raids and dungeons, can damage with the best of them thanks to unique weapon enhancements, and can tank the occasional dungeon up until around level 40 if need be.

A guide as broad as this is subject to change quite a bit as World of Warcraft Classic goes through its various content release phases. The release of Dire Maul in mid-October has already mixed things up a bit when it comes to optimal and easily obtained pre-raid gear.

Again, this stuff isn’t the absolute best pre-raid gear you can get for each class, but it represents a grind-minimized route without too much bought-for or rare world drop stuff. Just grab this gear and enchant it with whatever is good for your class, and you should be set to take on entry-level raids for even better gear.