Badge farming guide

So this is the time where everybody farms badges like crazy because of the new heroic gear and such, or at least it was some time ago!

Without even realizing it, I have farmed a decent amount of badges and got myself most of that voodoo wooden strange new ZA style gear. If you take everything into account and the fact that I had no badges saved up when 2.3 came out, I farmed (not in this order):

• 35 (cloak)
  
• 35 (bracers)
  
• 75 (pants)
  
• 35 (neck)
  
• 60 (belt)
  
• 60 (gloves)
  

I'm currently saving up for the paladin tank chest at the moment since Nightbane is very cruel to me (killed him about 38 times and never seen PZ drop).

Anywho, my point is, I didn't even play that much, especially not back then. The thing is, getting badges from heroics is really easy, if you set up everything right, and considering the new badge tank gear is so good, I thought I'd write down some tips on how to farm as many badges as possible, as fast as possible.

Preparation:

1. Find yourself 4-6 good guild members or friends that play frequently and are of different classes. You will almost never have to worry about your spot in the group, since you are the tank, you've got the V.I.C. pass (very important class).
   
2. Don't worry too much about class setup, as long as everyone knows what they're doing, Mechanar can be done without a warlock... seriously...
   
3. Talk it out with your friends, see at what time they are available for a quick heroic, get everything nice and organized. 
   

Ok, now for the important part: where to?

There are some heroics that are worth going to, others that will really make you waste your time. So here's what you do:

Daily quest instance comparison

Here are the heroics that, even with the daily quest, aren't worth your time: Arcatraz, Durnholde Keep, Shattered Halls (I know the Champion of the Naaru title is the new flavor of the month but that place is horribe).

Some others are based on personal preference, for example, Sethekk halls only gives 4 badges with the daily quest. You gotta ask yourself: is it worth putting up with that insufferable instance with 2-3 of the most annoying mobs in game when I could be doing heroic Underbog and get the same amount of badges, in around the same time? 

I will not take into account the 24g you get for the daily. I agree it's nice, but when it comes to doing a horrible instance or a fun one, I forget about it.

Most of the others are a decent place to go considering you get some badges and they're not too long.

When you don't have the daily quest

When you don't have the daily, all that matters is to get lots badges / hour. In that case, there are 3 winners and a 4th hypothetical one. Underbog and Mechanar, clear winners, since they are very easy heroics with a good amount of badges. They can both be done under 50 minutes, so that's 4 badges in 50 minutes (assuming you don't have the daily).

The hypothetical one is Mana tombs. If you have someone with you that can summon Yor (big fat dog, extra boss, drops a badge, only doable if someone, after doing lots of annoying things, can summon him). So, if someone can summon him, then mana tombs becomes 4 badges in 50 minutes, which is good too (be careful though, the spellbinders there are really nasty. It's time to shine and spam spell reflect).

Yes, I missed one. I'll unveil it in the next paragraph.

The big scary heroics

I call em that because most people are afraid of them, and I must admit I was at first too, but when you actually try them you realize they are just as easy as every other. 

Example: Shadow Lab, Black Morass, Botanica. 

When you get a daily for these ones, do it, it might be a bit longer, or you might not be used to the instance, but it'll do you some good to switch once in a while.

This brings me to my final point (yes I'm almost done rambling). Black Morass.

Did you know that Black Morass is extremely undervalued? When you think about it, BM is 3 badges in 30 minutes (better than Mech/Underbog) and with the daily goes up for 5 badges in 30 minutes!

Long story short, heroic BM is by far my favourite daily!

Summary

The good ones: Black Morass, Underbog, Mechanar, Mana tombs (only if blablabla).

The ones you do once in a while: Shadow Lab, Botanica, Blood Furnace, Slave pens, Steamvaults

The best thing to do (ignoring the daily quest in this hypothesis), is to do 1x BM + 1x UB or Mech (or both if you have time). 

That will bring you to 7 badges in 1h20 or 11 badges in 2h10 if you do UB and Mech.

PS. None of this takes into account that you might need loot from the heroic bosses themselves. But remember it's not worth going crazy over some heroic drop and doing a crappy heroic just to get it when you can get so much better from badges, karazhan and such.

PPS. I know I didn't mention karazhan, which in facts beats all heroics when you have it on speed farm, but I wanted to keep the raid content out.