Stat Weights and Judgement Calls

I'll have to check things out again, but currently AskMrRobot is showing me the following for stat weights. This means you should always choose the best DPS weapon, followed by agility, followed in secondary stat preference of crit, haste, and then mastery.  I'm not sure if this is cached in browsers or if they just updated their weights in the last few days.  I'll have to look at it more.

One of my personal reforging issues has been that I'm swimming in +hit.  And I got a new and better weapon that has +hit while my old one does not.  I checked FemaleDwarf and she told me even if I'm swimming in extra (and useless) hit rating it is an upgrade for overall DPS.  That's cool.

So when I look at what AskMrRobot suggests I go through the differences of what I have.  Yep, it suggests I remove the two +80agil/+160hit gems in my shoulders and replace them with +160agil gems.  Even with the set bonus loss of +120agil, I'm ahead of the game.

But it's worth stopping to consider another option.

Using the stat weights we see that 320 agil should be multiplied to 4.36.  We also see that any stamina value should be multiplied to zero.

The stat weight of stamina really isn't zero.  It is zero for the purposes of damage dealing.  Obviously all our gear comes with some and we don't reforge it off, but there is some value to surviving a two-shot combo boss mechanic.  Hypothetically, you or someone you raid with has done something wrong if you get two-shot.  Or you are very undergeared for the instance you're in.  It isn't "RNG".  But having some cushion can help, because accidents happen.

Part of me is tempted to put in agil/stam gems and wind up with 280agil/240stam instead of 320agil.  Maybe it's just the pet-tank-wanna-be in me though.  Trading 40 agility for 240 stamina isn't quite enough stamina to make me do it.  I'd probably give up even more stamina for agility.  But that price is pretty close to my break-point.  A little more stamina, or a little less agility and I'd go for a little more survivability.

RPPM Changes Will Change Our Stat Priority

I haven't gone through all the changes and how items are being "re-balanced".  (I'm still catching up on things since my vacation.) This affects the performance of my RPPM gear, the value of prepotting, and all the gems, reforging, and some enchants.  In a nutshell, this is a rather huge change.  Haste will not be as good.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
There are some further changes to the RPPM system in development that we'd like to share with you. As you know, RPPM is something we've been doing a lot of iteration on, and we have another iteration that should be hitting the PTR soon:

As you may know, RPPM proc rates typically scale with haste. This was done because historically, attacking faster meant you had more chances to proc something, so got more procs, and we wanted to preserve that effect. However, most procs before RPPM were such that either their effect didn't also scale with haste, or their proc rate was predominantly limited by an ICD. Many of our RPPM effects thus far have had neither of these limitations, such that they effectively 'double-dipped' on haste, benefiting twice from it. In some extreme cases, the proc was designed such that they actually triple-dipped.

As RPPM effects have become more wide-spread and more impactful, this has caused a variety of problems. Primarily, it has skewed stat balances toward haste rather significantly. It's also a compounding problem where many of these procs stack multiplicatively with each other, causing insane burst when all of these procs go off together. That can be fun, but also raises the skill cap on your performance, and makes gearing choices more restricted to ones which stack together optimally.

For 5.4 we're going to change both new and existing RPPM procs to not double-dip on haste. Benefiting once from haste is fine and expected, but not twice. For example, suppose you have two hypothetical procs, Flamekissed and Villainy:
Flamekissed's proc rate scales with haste, and its effect says "Chance on hit: Deal 500 additional fire damage". This is fine, because only the proc rate scales with haste; the effect doesn't.
Villainy's proc rate also scales with haste, and its effect says "Chance on hit: +5000 Agility for 20sec." This is not fine, because both the proc rate and the proc effect scale with haste. The more haste you have, the more attacks you do in that 20sec period which benefit from the increased Agility.

If both the rate and effect of a proc scale with haste, we're going to remove the haste scaling from its proc rate. In these cases, we'll compensate for an expected amount of haste by increasing the base proc rate. For any procs whose effect does not scale with haste, their proc rate will continue to scale with haste as before. However, we're also revisiting the proc rate tuning on all existing procs that were made overbudget due to the addition of Unlucky Streak Prevention (which ends up increasing effective proc rate by 9%). These changes should bring RPPM procs back to being on-budget and tied with traditional ICD procs in value.

This will obviously have a noticeable effect on most players performance; don't panic. We're going to be adjusting damage/healing/tanking performance with these changes in mind.

These RPPM changes should make it to PTR soon, and you'll be able to find the exact changes to each such effect there. We now show RPPM proc rates in the tooltip of the effect, which should make it easy to find.

....

However, we recognize that not everyone likes the RPPM gameplay, and are going to greater lengths to provide alternative options in Siege of Orgrimmar. In addition to RPPM-based trinkets, there will be trinkets that use the older internal cooldown (ICD) method, as well as a few on-use trinkets if you'd prefer to have an even greater degree of control over when your trinkets are active. There's even a couple trinkets with completely passive effects.

Meta Gems, Primary vs Secondary Colors and Stats, and Reforging!

My Issue
Hey, so over the weekend I went through some meta gem soul searching.  My meta gem of choice requires me to have more blue than red gems.  Most of my gem slots are currently red!  So I went with almost entirely purple which gets the slot bonus but keeps the playing field of red vs blue even and then I tipped the balance by one for blue.  Then because I used purples with reforge-able stats I adjusted a little bit with reforging.

This was done in the context of having a jewel crafter and purchasing patterns useful for others.

Primary vs Non-Primary Colors and Stats
Non-primary colors (orange, purple, green colors) give you a +20/+20 in the rare quality.  Primary colors (blue, red, yellow colors) give you a +40.   The difference between the two is that it's usually +20 primary-stat / +20 secondary-stat vs +40 primary (or secondary) stat.

Primary Color/Stat Gems
If you're using a primary color, you want a primary stat on that primary color. That's the advantage of using a primary stat color.  Otherwise don't bother with a primary color.  Primary stats on primary color gems can't be reforged-to (or reforged away).

Non-Primary Color/Stat Gems
Unless you're a tank don't take stamina as a second stat without a really good reason.  e.g.- Take +agil +hit. If you're over the +hit cap, just reforge some away on your gear into a more useful stat.  This can get you the meta requirements you need MUCH more easily.


Primary vs Non-Primary Stats and Reforging
Item stats are either Primary or Non-Primary.  Reforging can shift 40% of a non-primary stat on an item into a new non-primary stat which is not already on the item.

Primary Stats that You Can Not Reforge:

• Attack Power
• Agility
• Intellect
• Stamina
• Strength
• Resilience

Non-Primary Stats that You Can Reforge to/from:

• Critical Strike Rating
• Dodge Rating
• Expertise Rating
• Haste Rating
• Hit Rating
• Mastery Rating
• Parry Rating
• Spirit

Summary
If your meta gem has ugly requirements and you don't want to lose out on gem slot bonuses, consider using reforging and some non-primary gem stats to get the slot bonuses and meta you want.  If all you want to stack is one primary stat, this wont work, but most of us have many primary and non-primary stats we need to balance now.

These comments are general purpose, but are specific to the current meta gem of choice.  Back a while ago, we were told that the old gem was flipping back to a requirement of "more red than blue" instead of the current "more blue than red".  But that was mostly about the old gem and a month ago.  They should switch it, but until they do you still really want your critical strikes increased by 3%. That is... until you have tons of gems.

Kheldul Should Be Glowing Red

Late the other night, I went in and did the unthinkable.  I nuked my secondary (Marksman) talents.  It was late and I had actually meant to nuke my primary (Survival) talents.  So following that mistake I went in and decided to make Marksman my "primary" talent choice.  That was neat.  After doing that I [thankfully] realized I had to re-glyph out of SV and into MM glyphs.  But why did I start all this?

I decided to almost drop Survival.  I made my secondary talents into a PvP spec.  It's focused around my normal Marksman talents and abilities.  I also keep all the same types of keys, but the macros under then are a little different.  I pulled a little out of the stand-and-shoot type stuff and more into mobility.  A little bit less DPS and a little more bells and whistles.  And a silly surprise.

Okay, I like PVP.  I've never had a PVP talent spec before.  This was kinda fun.  And the talents are fun.  And I can and do fire off three Arcane Shots in a row with my silly surprise.  But seriously, this is not why I started all this.

I started all this because of gear.  I got one upgrade and it made me shift at least five pieces of gear around for my primary Marksman DPS set.  If/when I get the 5th Sanctified piece, I'll trade in my 264 ArmPen shoulders for it, trade out my Sanctified pants for the ArmPen pants and call it a day.  Anyway, the main reason I got rid of Survival is that I re-gemmed all my gear to ArmPen.  Previously, I had half a set of ArmPen-Marksman-only gear and a full set of Agility-Survival gear.  Well, I said "fuck it" and re-gemmed half of the Survival gear's Agility with ArmPen.  That left Survival with a DPS loss (on top of it being behind) and we can't have that now can we?

I have twenty-two Armor Pen gems in my gear.  Hell, I even swapped out Zod's with the bone bow so I could slap in a gem and pick up a tiny hit. I should be glowing red.

PS: 0/53/18 is a nutty PvP spec.  I do love to trap dance though. And I never had Entrapment before!

PPS: I previous dragged around my previous Marksman set, my Marksman-sting-rolling set (T9x2), my Survival set, my PvP set, my Pet Tanking threat set, and my Pet Tanking stamina set.  I even toted around some of my toys and costumes.  I only left my frost-resist set from the Naxx days in my vault.  This talent change means I can vault the sting set and survival set.  While they weren't complete standalone sets, it's a fair amount that I can stop needing to consider.  Reducing complexity is very very nice.

Alternate Identities Supporting Your Main

I have two level 80 characters. I don't talk much about my alt, Khelark, but she's pretty great for an alt. While she is fun to play in her own right, she is mainly there to support Kheldul.

1) She makes all the serious money. She does it by "creating value". She's got tons of gem cuts. She usually has between a half-dozen and dozen uncut epic gems of every flavor in her inventory. She supplies AH with a steady stream of the things people need at a reasonable profit.

2) She is often camped at the Auction House. She makes sure Kheldul has ammo, flasks, speed pots, and even health pots.

3) She makes sure Kheldul has all the right epic gems he needs in the mail for dps and pet-tanking... often fetch-able during a raid thanks to Knight Kheldul's other loyal supporting squire. And if Kheldul gets some loot on a Wednesday, Khelark just buys him the suitable enchant if nobody is available to do it, before the Thursday raid.

4) While she has bought herself a few nice things (1, 2, 3) for 9-12k gold each, she gives Kheldul plenty of goodies -- some that even have very useful effects.

5) She converted plenty of things to BoA honor tokens and sent them to Kheldul so he could get honor gear twice as fast.

6) Finally, she supports Kheldul as a release valve. If I want to do a PUG, a 5.4k gearscore healer can get an invite pretty quick. I don't have to worry about raid locking my main. I don't have to go over-board focusing on the most minuscule issues on my hunter. A healer can make or break a group. And there are new sometimes unexpected challenges. "Can I heal and dps more than the dps?" Last week, I solo-healed VoA-10 and went on a reasonably successful ICC-25 PUG. I even have proof of doing the easy gunship battle in heroic. Release valves are a good way to keep your main fresh.

Hall of Shame/Fame

Lassira told us of Mordicai's considerable Hall of Fame achievement. He tamed all four spirit beasts. Pretty cool. I have to think they aren't as camped as they once were, but still quite impressive.

So I went to the armory page of this impressive hunter. I was expecting ... well ... I was not expecting to see another bad hunter. I was sad. I was angry. I was mortified.

It wasn't because they were a blood elf.

It wasn't because they are 450 in jewelcrafting but don't use any jewelcrafter-only jewels.

It wasn't the four pieces of PvP gear. That can be a reasonable crutch. And hell, I think I'm logged out in my PvP gear at the moment.

It wasn't the 12.23% hit chance and him still using the +hit/+AP trinket and nearly worthless +hit/+haste trinket as a solo talent tree BM hunter.

It wasn't the bad and sometimes not maxed out pet talents.

It wasn't the tank gun.

It wasn't the spellpower/mp5 pants.

It was everything.

Am I too harsh? "Maybe it's just an alt with a lot of time on his hands." "He didn't ask for this scrutiny! Mind your own business!" Do I have some personal deficit for being offended at how bad this person looks in the armory? Or was it just whiplash from expecting them to be top notch?

EDITED TO ADD: Ah. This guy was not disappointing. Of course he's an insane over-achiever and a hunter.

Kheldul's Weak Gear

Kheldul has some seriously weak gear. At least as viewed at the item level. He does have stacks and stacks of conquest and triumph badges. (So many that he filled out some of his PvP gear with them and still has plenty.) Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any upgrades.

One of his rings is level 213. He has tried to get the ToC-25 ring and the easy Ulduar-25 ring. Unfortunately his dice and/or DKP have always been found lacking. When it comes to rolling, he rolls a lot of 1's.

Both trinkets are level 200 (greatness and the mirror). Greatness is of course great. But the mirror does suck. He has a bunch of other trinkets with higher iLevels but they suck more. No ToC-25 love. None of the many drops from even Ulduar-25 either. Or even Sarth. And who is running Ulduar anymore? :(

The Herkuml War Token is certainly tasty. But honestly, would I go for it before I take new armor? 60 Emblems of Frost is a bit rich. I guess I should go ahead and grab the Triumph trinket. In order to make it work, I'll need to flip my +hit gems and macro it appropriately. I've gone through three big waves of +hit re-gem waves. When I'd really like to get some ToC-25 love. And of course, if/when I did I'd have to completely re-gem back.

In a related vein, Rilgon has some suggestions on class priority/usefulness of the Deathbringer's Will trinket.

And then there is the easiest upgrade ever. That will be pretty hot. I can't wait.

Hunter DPS Gems and My Gem Blunders

Blunder number one occurred last week. I got a new set of hot pants. After the raid, I got an armor kit for them and gemed them with a good red choice and a good (new) purple choice. The two got me the set bonus of +6 agility. So, I was choosing to go with the set bonus at the loss of two agility for the gain of 12 stamina. 12 Stamina for Survival ends up being 13.1 Stamina and provides 3.96 AP to my pet and 3.96 RAP to me. So more RAP than if it was full Agility. More stamina for wiggle room. A tiny tiny amount less crit and dodge. Sounds fine. Ideal even!

Well. No.

I didn't notice that I had nuked my helm's meta gem requirements. So I fixed that up after our Tuesday raid. I probably also didn't notice it Tuesday because I was master looter running our DKP (Ni Karma) system for the raid. Heck! I didn't even notice I was still wearing my high item level set when I ran over to Razorscale after master looting FL.

So that leads into blunder number two. At least as far as gems go. I still have not one, but two Balanced Twilight Opals slotted. One in my helm and one in my neck piece. These had been the good option in some circumstances. Back.. oh before 3.1. But since 3.1 there has been a much better choice: the Shifting Twilight Opal. So, I need to get a few of those gems cut.

I could do a huge write-up of gems and include pictures and mouse-overs and what-not. But really, there's a comprehensive text-based review and recommendation over at Elitist Jerks.

Hit Rating

Once again, thanks to my bracer upgrade, I'm slightly under the hit cap. How far? Well unfortunately 1 pt. If I was 7pts or 8pts under, it would have been an easy gemming choice. But I was 9pts under the cap. So, I have 7.99%. And of course my pet because of silly-bad Blizz mechanics, has a +7.00% hit. I think I heard that this int() operation (aka rounding down operation) was changed in 3.1. I was just too reluctant to throw away 7pts of hit... and it's not like I'm BM spec or something.

I guess we'll see tonight...