"Help! Kaels, I'm level 90, and I can't get into heroic dungeons! I can't queue for random normals, and the specific queue for Mogu'shan Palace and Shado-pan Monastery takes over and hour and everybody ninjas my gear anyway! Help me!"
Don't worry, I've got you covered.
Step 1: Finish Dread Wastes. Specifically, finish all of the Klaxxi-related quests in Dread Wastes. This will eventually produce nearly a full set of item level 437+ greens and blues. The final Klaxxi quest will reward one ilvl 450 item. Mine was a belt.
Step 2: Do one round of the Klaxxi dailies in Dread Wastes. This should take you to Honored, which will allow you to buy a pair of item level 450 gloves from the Klaxxi Quartermaster for 1250 JP. You can buy these for each of your specs. JP isn't terribly useful in Pandaria, and you'll be collecting a ton of it, so spend freely!
Step 3: Crafting. If you are a tailor who wears cloth, a leatherworker who wears leather or mail, or a blacksmith who wears plate, you're in luck! You can craft item level 450 gear. If you're a JC, you might also get lucky with the ring recipes, and engineers and alchemists can produce a trinket. Scribes and enchanters may also have a recipe available. The number of pieces you can craft, for those with multiple recipes, will be limited by the number of Spirits of Harmony you collected while leveling, so choose wisely - pick ones that will upgrade your item level the most. You won't be able to use alts to do this (unless you want to farm a ton of Motes of Harmony), but you may be able to find a guildie who has the motes or already bought the recipes you want.
"But Kaels! Those crafted items are for PvP!"
Actually, the crafted gear is entry-level gear for both PvP and PvE. Each item has a full complement of item-level 450, PvE-appropriate stats, and PvP stats on top of that. It is perfect for getting started in both level 90 heroics and normal battlegrounds.
Step 4: The AH. You'll find much of the aforementioned crafted gear, along with a small selection of ilvl 450 BoE drops and an ilvl 440 set of epic pants, at rather high prices on the AH. Don't gear yourself out this way, but it may be worth grabbing a piece or two if you hit 90 this week and still haven't hit the ilvl 440 mark for heroics.
Step 5 (after next Tuesday): Honor! If you can hold off until next Tuesday, you will have access to the Honor Quartermaster. He sells the Dreadful Gladiator set, a full set of item level 464 epics.
"PvP gear? Again?" As with the crafted gear, this gear has a full ilvl 464 stat allocation - just like the 463 gear you get from heroics - in addition to its PvP stats. Some of these items may actually be your pre-raid best-in-slot, even if they're not included on the BIS list you're using. Look carefully at the stats.
Step 6: Heroics!
Step 7: Honor (again)! When you get to the point where you think you just can't handle another heroic, take a time out and check out the honor vendor. You can use him to fill in missing slots or even to improve the stat distribution on your PvE set. (You say Haste is your best stat, but the only pants that drop in heroics are Crit/Mastery? The Honor vendor may have a Haste item for you of exactly the same item level. It's worth a look.)
Enjoy :)
**note: you'll see no mention of the rep dailies or valor gear in this post, aside from the Honored gloves from the Klaxxi. That's because it's simply not accessible for several weeks. Non-raiders should work toward this gear, as it's your primary progression path. Raiders (including LFR) should work on the dailies and build reputation, but even those who take their time will likely qualify for LFR by other means before they qualify for any Valor gear. The Shado-Pan and August Celestial items in particular will be of almost no help to anyone who does LFR or normal raids. They're targeted to people who want to progress their characters almost exclusively through dailies.
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