Hello Kitty Fans,
Its been a very pretty long break since my last post and a very long break since my last real contribution to the kitty community so lets get this blog back on the right track! Today, I’d like to talk about gear choices, no I’m not talking about looking at math, theoretical formulas and simulators to determine what gear to use. That is already done by plenty of people who know what they’re doing, and also unfortunately by some who don’t know what they’re doing. Instead (like always) I’d like to try and use a different approach and use logic to identify the best gear choices, a method that hopefully anyone and everyone can understand.
Setting Up The Comparison
First off, we need to identify what we want in terms of desirable stats. I’ve done some work previously using a similar logical approach to determine that Agility and Mastery are our top priorities. Or, in other words in an ideal world, we are looking for Crit/Mastery as secondary stats on our gear. As well, 4PT11 seems to be valuable afterall. I had originally posted that I didn’t like the concept of it or it didn’t seem to make sense but after reading more about how the mechanic works (aka you don’t actually have to apply mangle 6 times a min as long as you keep the stack going) I was wrong. So that being said, that means, we are looking for 4 of 5 T11 pcs and one offset peice that will trump the stats on T11 Lets start bydoing a simple wowhead comparison to identify which items purely based on raw stats (no set bonuses) have the greatest value. For the purpose of this exercise I will make a few assumptions:
- I will not include any profession items or world drops but I will include trash drops.
- I will also not include any strength items as this is clearly not intended and I do not promote the stealing of items for other clases (*cough leather on rets/wars wotlk cough*)
- I will not include Throne of the Four Winds drops as they are extremely random and hard to obtain
- I will not include PVP items as they are not intended for PVE raiding
Tier 11 vs Offset Choice
Helm: 3 Choices (Stormrider’s Headpiece, Membrane of C’Thun, Tsanga’s Helm)
Hands: 3 Choices (Stormrider’s Grips, Stormbolt Gloves, Double Attack Handguards)
Shoulder: 2 Choices (Stormrider’s Spaulders, Poison Protocol Pauldrons)
Chest: 2 Choices (Stormrider’s Raiment, Sark of the Unwatched)
Pants: 2 Choices (Stormrider’s Legguards, Aberration’s Leggings)
Lets use a very simple method to identify what is valuable. As discussed, Agility (Crit)/Mastery are our most valuable stats so ideally we are looking for Crit/Mastery on all of our gear as secondary stats. The other remaining secondary stats Hit/Haste/Expertise are not as valuable or favorable. However if we had to choose the next most valuable stat, Hit would be next due to its ability to reduce misses. In the Cata world interrupts are extremely important so having more hit for interrupts is always a good thing. So, lets do a simple stat valuation where we can say that ideally we want Crit or Mastery (+1), if we can’t have Crit or Mastery we’ll take Hit (+0.5) and the remaining secondary stats are not favorable (+0). Keep in mind that this sort of comparison is only plausible because the raw stat values are the same on all items just shifted between the diff secondary stats.
Tier 11
Helm: T11 provides Crit/Hit, at least one desirable stat and one semi desirable stat. (+1.5)
Shoulders: T11 provides Crit/Haste, at least one of the two desirable stats. (+1)
Chest: T11 provides Haste/Expertise, both are not desirable stats. (0)
Pants: T11 provides Crit/Mastery, both are desirable stats, we definitely want to use the pants. (+2)
Gloves: T11 provides Hit/Haste, only one semi desirable stat (+.5)
Offset Items
Helm: Membrane of C’thun provides Haste/Expertise, both are not desirable (+0), Tsanga’s Helm provides Crit/Mastery, both are desirable (+2)
Shoulders: Poison Protocol Pauldrons provide Crit/Mastery, both are desirable (+2)
Chest: Sark of the Unwatched provides Crit/Mastery, both are desirable (+2)
Pants: Aberration’s Leggings provide Crit/Haste, of which one one is a desirable stat (+1)
Gloves: Double Attack Handguards provide Expertise/Mastery, of which one is a desirable stat (+1), Stormbolt Gloves provide Crit/Haste, of which one is a desirable stat (+1)
Tier 11 vs Offset
Helm: T11 (+1.5) vs Offset (+2) — Delta (0.5)
Shoulders: T11 (+1) vs Offset (+2) — Delta (1)
Chest: T11 (+0) vs Offset (+2) — Delta (2)
Pants: T11 (+2) vs Offset (+1) — Delta (1)
Gloves: T11 (+0.5) vs Offset (+1) — Delta (0.5)
So, looking at the comparison, the biggest delta is in the chest slot as the T11 chest does not have an desirable stats whereas the offset has both (Crit/Mastery) desirable stats. As well, all other slots (Helm/Shoulders/Pants/Leggings), Tier 11 have at least one desirable stat making the Chest the optimal slot to use an offset piece.
Trinkets Choices
This is probably the most controversial of all the slots. I’m not sure if we can use a logical thought process to determine what items to use since there are so many choices and benefits will differ from boss encounters to boss encounter. I will have to defer this to simulator calculations and personal preference.
Trinket(s): 5 Choices (Fluid Death, Essence of Cyclone, Prestor’s Talisman of Machination, Unsolvable Riddle, Unheeded Warning)
Fluid Death: +321 Hit / Agility Proc
Essence of Cyclone: +321 Agility / Crit Proc
Prestor’s Talisman of Machination: +321 Agility / Haste Proc
Unsolvable Riddle: +321 Mastery / Agility Proc
Unheeded Warning: +321 Agility / White Dmg Proc
Personally, I would prefer to carry Essence of Cyclone with either Fluid Death (for more hit) or Prestor’s Talisman of Machination for maximum Agility. Why Prestor’s over Unheeded? Because white damage makes up less than 20% of our dmg whereas haste affects all of our damage.
Remaining Slot Choices
This is where it gets a lot easier, because of the remaining slots most have almost little to no choice. In other words, Blizzard has simplified the gear selection process by essentially making only one choice available.
Belt: Dispersing Belt
Boots: Storm Rider’s Boots
Relic: Relic of Golganneth
Weapon: Malevolence
Neck: Necklace of Strife
Wrists: Parasitic Bands
Ring(s): Signet of Elder Council, Lightning Conductor Band
Back: 2 Choices (Cloak of Biting Chill, Viewless Wings)
The back is an easy choice as Cloak of Biting Chill provides Crit/Mastery whereas Viewless Wings does not, easy winner.
TLDR Summary
Helm: Stormrider’s Headpeice (T11)
Neck: Necklace of Strife
Shoulders: Stormrider’s Spaulders (T11)
Back: Cloak of Biting Chill
Chest: Sark of the Unwatched
Bracers: Parasitic Bands
Gloves: Stormrider’s Grips (T11)
Belt: Dispersing Belt
Leggings: Stormrider’s Leggings (T11)
Feet: Storm Rider’s Boots
Ring(s): Signet of Elder Council, Lightning Conductor Band
Trinkets(s): Personal Preference/Boss Encounter! (My Choices: Essence of Cyclone with Fluid Death or Prestor’s Talisman of Machination)
Weapon: Malevolence
Relic: Relic of Golganneth
