Even though what I enjoy most about WoW is the Player VS Player part of the game, I have found myself doing a lot more PVE (Player versus Environment).
The problem I found with switching from one to the other is that while on PVP you have resilience and crit, on PVE you have stats, haste, expertise, etc. And all of those affect your damage differently, and depending on the stat, it might make a world of difference.
Thankfully, I found a website that gives the exact answers to what should be your next upgrades, and you’ll be surprised to find out how many great items you can get without the need of endgame raiding. For example, for a Plate-wearing damage dealer, such as myself, I discovered that the second best DPS belt in the game can be crafted by blacksmiths, and the mats aren’t impossible to acquire. In fact, they’re quite easy.
If you are interested in boosting your DPS in World of Warcraft you’ll find that maxdps.com is an excellent resource and obligatory bookmark.
You’re a bit behind. You can get the nether vortexes from badges now. I think they’re 15 badges each. Not too hard to get. They’re also not BoP anymore, so you can buy them from the AH as well.
lootrank.com is perhaps a better overall site for searching out gear for a specific slot, but you have to have a good idea of what stats are valuable to you.
Here’s a decent list of rankings… maybe not perfect, but servicable…
Druid (bear)
Strength .8
Stamina 3.13
Agility 4.27
Armor .65
Defense Rating 1.5
Dodge Rating 3.13
Resilience Rating 1.5
Expertise Rating 1.55
Mel/Ran CritR .9
Mel/Ran HitR 1
Mel/Ran AttackP .36
Feral AttackP .36
Druid (cat)
Strength 2.27
Agility 2.62
Intellect .2
Expertise Rating 1.55
Mel/Ran CritR 1.48
Mel/Ran HitR 1.55
Mel/Ran AttackP 1
Feral AttackP 1
Armor Pen .22
Mel/Ran HasteR 1.1
Druid (tree)
Intellect 6
Spirit 8
MP5 24
Healing 10
Hunter
Agility 1
Mel/Ran CritR .69
Mel/Ran HitR .65
Mel/Ran AttackP .32
Armor Pen .09
Mel/Ran HasteR .37
Mage
Intellect .27
Spirit .11
Spell CritR 0.88
Spell Hit 1.15
Spell Dmg 1
Fire Dmg 1
Frost Dmg 1
Arcane Dmg 1
Spell Haste 1.26
Paladin (holy)
Stamina 8
Intellect 8
MP5 23
Healing 12
Spell CritR 13
Paladin (ret)
Strength 18
Stamina 6
Agility 12
Mel/Ran CritR 18
Mel/Ran HitR 12
Mel/Ran AttackP 9
Spell Dmg 9
Priest (holy)
Stamina 3
Intellect 4
Spirit 8
MP5 12
Healing 9
Spell Haste 9
Priest (shadow)
Sta 5.5
Int 5.5
Spi 4
Spell CritR 5
Spell HitR 5.5
Spell Dmg 15
Shadow Dmg 15
Spell Haste 5
Rogue
Strength 1
Agility 2
Expertise Rating 2.2
Mel/Ran CritR 1.8
Mel/Ran HitR 2
Mel/Ran AttackP 1
Armor Pen .33
Mel/Ran HasteR 2
Shaman (ele)
Stamina .2
Intellect .53
Spirit .06
MP5 .88
Spell CritR 1.2
Spell Dmg 1
Nature Dmg 1
Spell HasteR .75
Shaman (resto)
Stamina .3
Intellect .75
Spirit .1
Armor .01
MP5 3.75
Healing 1.1
Spell CritR .5
Spell HasteR .75
Warlock
Intellect .25
Spirit .11
Spell CritR .75
Spell HitR 1
Spell Dmg 1
Fire Dmg 1
Shadow Dmg .9
Spell Haste 1
Warrior (dps)
Strength 2.2
Stamina .5
Agility 1.1
Expertise Rating 1.84
Mel/Ran CritR 1.8
Mel/Ran HitR 1.2
Mel/Ran AttackP 1
Armor Pen .24
Mel/Ran HasteR 1.31
Warrior (prot)
Strength 20
Stamina 78
Agility 65
Armor 6
Defense Rating 80
Dodge Rating 75
Block Value 45
Block Rating 6
Parry Rating 70
Expertise Rating 60
Mel/Ran HitR 30
I made a typo in the article. I meant to say the mats AREN’T impossible to acquire. Fixed it now :)