As mentioned, the 4pc was...highly lacking. I don't normally post about upcoming changes, but...
With the upcoming patch, our 4pc is now slated to increase damage by 10% in addition to the cooldown that is already on starsurge. In short, the new set bonus will make more sense to pick up now, beyond just for the ilvl upgrades.
Showing posts with label gear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gear. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Gearing Strategy - Boom/DragonSoul
DS has been around a bit, we've had time to do a bunch of tests with gear and gear sets, etc.
There are 2 things to consider when playing with gear.
1) We're on the edge of a haste breakpoint with new gear, and you can get over it with certain combinations of gear. This is huge for multi-dot fights and a slight improvement for single target fights.
2) Our 4 pc in the new tier is...rather sad. As a result, if you have heroic from prior tier, hang onto the 2pc from it (I suggest hands and chest, as they're fairly well itemized) until you can get to 4pc Heroic of the current tier. Neither tier is great for shoulders and are a lot better than what you had before if you had tier (and there really aren't other options for the new tier), or don't break your set if you had a non-tier there. The new legs and head are very well itemized, and great places to upgrade, even from heroic in the prior tier. If you are coming in with normal prior tier, I suggest not loosing the old 2 pc until you can go 4pc as well, though it is good to do this as quickly as possible, even with raidfinder gear.
Regarding the haste breakpoint, I'll simply mention the numbers around where we currently are.
With DI: 2639 will get you +5 ticks
Just with NG up: 3102 will get you +5 ticks
With DI: 3783 will get you +6 ticks (this isn't possible without a bunch of heroic t13 gear and some other item choices that would go against normal max ilvl gearing)
If you're on the edge (within 50 or so) of those breakpoints, it is worth gemming some reds to reckless orange to get over that cap, or swapping in a slightly less ilvl item that has more haste on it (as in if you have the raid finder version of the haste/mastery ring, but not the normal, and are replacing a ring without haste on it naturally, such as shanox's heroic).
If you're not on the edge of the haste cap, do as usual, go for ilvl and then reforge into haste and stay at hit cap.
Note: When getting new tier, you may find some of it hard to upgrade without swapping 2 peices, rather than just 1, since they changed where the spirit is on the gear (from legs/hands to shoulder/chest). In the end, we will want 5 tier, but the chest will likely be resto to pick up haste instead of mastery, so don't use the chest to get to 4pc.
There are 2 things to consider when playing with gear.
1) We're on the edge of a haste breakpoint with new gear, and you can get over it with certain combinations of gear. This is huge for multi-dot fights and a slight improvement for single target fights.
2) Our 4 pc in the new tier is...rather sad. As a result, if you have heroic from prior tier, hang onto the 2pc from it (I suggest hands and chest, as they're fairly well itemized) until you can get to 4pc Heroic of the current tier. Neither tier is great for shoulders and are a lot better than what you had before if you had tier (and there really aren't other options for the new tier), or don't break your set if you had a non-tier there. The new legs and head are very well itemized, and great places to upgrade, even from heroic in the prior tier. If you are coming in with normal prior tier, I suggest not loosing the old 2 pc until you can go 4pc as well, though it is good to do this as quickly as possible, even with raidfinder gear.
Regarding the haste breakpoint, I'll simply mention the numbers around where we currently are.
With DI: 2639 will get you +5 ticks
Just with NG up: 3102 will get you +5 ticks
With DI: 3783 will get you +6 ticks (this isn't possible without a bunch of heroic t13 gear and some other item choices that would go against normal max ilvl gearing)
If you're on the edge (within 50 or so) of those breakpoints, it is worth gemming some reds to reckless orange to get over that cap, or swapping in a slightly less ilvl item that has more haste on it (as in if you have the raid finder version of the haste/mastery ring, but not the normal, and are replacing a ring without haste on it naturally, such as shanox's heroic).
If you're not on the edge of the haste cap, do as usual, go for ilvl and then reforge into haste and stay at hit cap.
Note: When getting new tier, you may find some of it hard to upgrade without swapping 2 peices, rather than just 1, since they changed where the spirit is on the gear (from legs/hands to shoulder/chest). In the end, we will want 5 tier, but the chest will likely be resto to pick up haste instead of mastery, so don't use the chest to get to 4pc.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Firelands 101 - The whole nutshell
OK, it has been a while, and I've been short on time, so I'm going to make one large post with all you need to know for FL.
Spec - not changed much, but drop lunar shower, picking up aoe or utility talents along with dreamstate (for when you multidot a lot, since it no longer costs less mana).
Gear - Originally, we were to keep t11 4pc until we got the full t12 4pc of the same lvl (heroic to replace heroic). Thanks to the t11 4pc nerf though, go ahead and go to 2pc 2pc when you can. The shoulders are still the slot to go non-tier with spirit/haste instead. We still have the same stat priority as well.
Boom Boss DPS Strats
Shannox - Any way your raid decides to do this, multi-dot everything while going through your rotation on your main target, including if somebody is stupid enough to get stuck in a trap.
Beth'tilac - This is where you can shine with dreamstate and having removed your lunar shower. Stay on the bottom. Get to solar and double dot every spinner and the drone. Mushroom and typhoon the spiderlings, then use normal rotation once Beth'tilac drops down. For filler, use starfire so you don't push out of solar until the burn phase.
Lord Rhyolith - Stack with everybody in middle, just stay solar, shroom the little adds and double dot/starfire the larger adds. When called to help turn the boss, starfire the correct leg. Enter normal rotation for burn phase. You won't be top damage here on normal mode, let the single target and channeled aoe folks have the fun.
Alysrazor - We are ok to fly, but fire mages and spriests are much better (and aflic locks are great too). If you're flying, do your normal rotation as much as you can until wrath is more than haste capped, then get into solar for double dotting and spam starfire...when dropping down, dot up the hatchlings as you fly past. If you're not flying (which is the usual), run through your normal rotation and dot up both hatchlings while killing the add on your side, and double dot alysrazor while it flys by each time. During tornado phase, have picked up at least 1 feather prior and try to get through the fire hoops on the ground to pick up the haste buff, even if you weren't flying. During burn phase, solar beam an add so it can't channel power into Alysrazor and pop every cooldown you have during this phase for maximum dps.
Baleroc - Pure dps burn, just go through your rotation and pop your cooldowns as they make sense to. If you're called to be a shard soaker it won't hurt dps, but be sure to use barkskin each time your stacks get higher to make healing much easier.
Majordomo Staghelm - Keep dps on him with your rotation the whole time. Throw a dot, or two if they live long enough, on the secondary adds during cat phase (Especially as you transition him since the dots will keep ticking while everybody is stunned).
...and that leaves Ragnaros - "TOO SOON!"
Phase 1 - Burn him
Transitions - As ranged you'll probably have 2 adds to worry about further from the hammer. This is cake as a boom. Set up shrooms under where the closest one will spawn that you're handling. Pop starfall just as it is about to spawn, blow the shrooms when it spawns, then double dot it. Double dot your second add while backing up, and then be ready to typhoon. Sometimes I get dots off on another add to help somebody else and then typhoon 3 or 4 adds (including my 2nd one).
Phase 2 - shroom the stacks, typhoon when folks need to move the stack off of fire to give more survivability, starfall during the packs when it is up.
Phase 3 - Just burn him down, make sure to save cooldowns towards the end of p2 for this. Thanks to the extra adds (scions) in the last transition you should have starfall up again by the time you fully enter p3, even if you use it during the transition. Dot both of the scions and rag while doing normal rotation on the appropriate scion, then rag as you push into full p3.
And that...is all of FireLands normal in a Boomkin nutshell.
Spec - not changed much, but drop lunar shower, picking up aoe or utility talents along with dreamstate (for when you multidot a lot, since it no longer costs less mana).
Gear - Originally, we were to keep t11 4pc until we got the full t12 4pc of the same lvl (heroic to replace heroic). Thanks to the t11 4pc nerf though, go ahead and go to 2pc 2pc when you can. The shoulders are still the slot to go non-tier with spirit/haste instead. We still have the same stat priority as well.
Boom Boss DPS Strats
Shannox - Any way your raid decides to do this, multi-dot everything while going through your rotation on your main target, including if somebody is stupid enough to get stuck in a trap.
Beth'tilac - This is where you can shine with dreamstate and having removed your lunar shower. Stay on the bottom. Get to solar and double dot every spinner and the drone. Mushroom and typhoon the spiderlings, then use normal rotation once Beth'tilac drops down. For filler, use starfire so you don't push out of solar until the burn phase.
Lord Rhyolith - Stack with everybody in middle, just stay solar, shroom the little adds and double dot/starfire the larger adds. When called to help turn the boss, starfire the correct leg. Enter normal rotation for burn phase. You won't be top damage here on normal mode, let the single target and channeled aoe folks have the fun.
Alysrazor - We are ok to fly, but fire mages and spriests are much better (and aflic locks are great too). If you're flying, do your normal rotation as much as you can until wrath is more than haste capped, then get into solar for double dotting and spam starfire...when dropping down, dot up the hatchlings as you fly past. If you're not flying (which is the usual), run through your normal rotation and dot up both hatchlings while killing the add on your side, and double dot alysrazor while it flys by each time. During tornado phase, have picked up at least 1 feather prior and try to get through the fire hoops on the ground to pick up the haste buff, even if you weren't flying. During burn phase, solar beam an add so it can't channel power into Alysrazor and pop every cooldown you have during this phase for maximum dps.
Baleroc - Pure dps burn, just go through your rotation and pop your cooldowns as they make sense to. If you're called to be a shard soaker it won't hurt dps, but be sure to use barkskin each time your stacks get higher to make healing much easier.
Majordomo Staghelm - Keep dps on him with your rotation the whole time. Throw a dot, or two if they live long enough, on the secondary adds during cat phase (Especially as you transition him since the dots will keep ticking while everybody is stunned).
...and that leaves Ragnaros - "TOO SOON!"
Phase 1 - Burn him
Transitions - As ranged you'll probably have 2 adds to worry about further from the hammer. This is cake as a boom. Set up shrooms under where the closest one will spawn that you're handling. Pop starfall just as it is about to spawn, blow the shrooms when it spawns, then double dot it. Double dot your second add while backing up, and then be ready to typhoon. Sometimes I get dots off on another add to help somebody else and then typhoon 3 or 4 adds (including my 2nd one).
Phase 2 - shroom the stacks, typhoon when folks need to move the stack off of fire to give more survivability, starfall during the packs when it is up.
Phase 3 - Just burn him down, make sure to save cooldowns towards the end of p2 for this. Thanks to the extra adds (scions) in the last transition you should have starfall up again by the time you fully enter p3, even if you use it during the transition. Dot both of the scions and rag while doing normal rotation on the appropriate scion, then rag as you push into full p3.
And that...is all of FireLands normal in a Boomkin nutshell.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
WTF OP Enh Shams
I can't help it... it is rant time.
I just got an enh sham in my group for SFK as a random heroic.
They did very well, so after a couple busses, I looked at their gear.
This is when I was shocked that they did quite well with a 312 green main hand weapon and a 333 off hand weapon, a crafted/rep purple or two, and a smattering of other greens amongst the 333 and 346 blues.
Then, on the last boss, I had to rant.
I pulled what I thought was a fairly respectable 16k+ for a heroic boss, considering that in any pug I am usually top damage in raids, and in guild runs I'm usually near the top too. However, the mentioned sham pulled 19.8k as averaged across the fight, putting me to shame...in crap gear.
Bliz, wtf?
I just got an enh sham in my group for SFK as a random heroic.
They did very well, so after a couple busses, I looked at their gear.
This is when I was shocked that they did quite well with a 312 green main hand weapon and a 333 off hand weapon, a crafted/rep purple or two, and a smattering of other greens amongst the 333 and 346 blues.
Then, on the last boss, I had to rant.
I pulled what I thought was a fairly respectable 16k+ for a heroic boss, considering that in any pug I am usually top damage in raids, and in guild runs I'm usually near the top too. However, the mentioned sham pulled 19.8k as averaged across the fight, putting me to shame...in crap gear.
Bliz, wtf?
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Moonkin 101 for 4.0.1
OK, so 4.0.1 has entirely changed the game, here is what you need to know.
1) Go to your trainer and learn everything, lots of things need to be trained (again) such as Bear Form.
2) Use this spec: http://wowtal.com/#k=15tOzTvD.a67.druid.dyfgnz
3) Put your abilities back in your bars, and add the new one (Starsurge).
4) Sell your reagents, you won't need them anymore.
5) Visit your friendly scribe or the AH. Pick up any druid glyphs you don't have (as you now "learn" a glyph and can apply it at will).
For the glyphs, follow the above spec. You may want to swap in/out the following for Major Glyphs depending on the situation: Focus (situational), Monsoon, Hurricane. I've included Rebirth, which isn't a dps glyph, but helps a lot if you ever need to brez, which we often do.
Now that your spec is all set, let's look at gear. Follow these simple rules:
1) Take off any cloth you have.
2) Put on the highest ilevel caster leather that you have (keeping your 4pc t10 of course).
The main things you need to know about stat changes:
1) You now need the full 17% hit. You will hit cap at 446 hit.
2) Spirit becomes hit, use it instead of hit when you can, because it also gives you mana back (this won't matter now, but it will as you level).
3) Int = spellpower (weapons and some trinket procs may still have spellpower, but everything else will have int).
Your stat priority looks like this:
Int > spirit (to hit cap) > hit (to cap) > haste > sp > crit > mastery
Now, gem everything to match socket bonus if the bonus is sp. If it isn't, put a pure int (red) gem in it. You should use:
Red: Brilliant Cardinal Ruby
Blue: Purified Dreadstone
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine
You will also want to go to Wyrmrest and Hodir to pick up the old healing head and shoulder enchants. The mp5 has turned to spirit and the sp to int. The sp/crit ones stayed sp/crit (so if you're on a budget or don't have the rep, they're still ok to keep using, but not optimal).
Now comes the fun...reforging. Chances are, you have extra hit and extra spirit, and you're finding yourself with less crit and haste than you had before. There is a reforging NPC by the enchanting trainer in Dalaran. You will want to get as close to the hit cap as you can (slightly over is better than slightly under). This works by first taking your gear with hit and reforging that. Reforge to the stat priorities above, each reforge will remove 40% of the stat and let you turn it into another secondary stat (haste, crit, spirit, mastery, hit) that isn't already on that item.
There you go, now you're ready except for the "how to play" part. So, here's the way your "rotation" works.
You have 5 main abilities: Moonfire (MF) which morphs into the exact spell but called Sunfire during solar eclipse, Insect Swarm (IS), Wrath (W), Starfire (SF), and the new one Starsurge (SS) which is on a medium cooldown. You continue to have 2 long cooldowns in Force of Nature and Starfall. You also have an eclipse bar with a sun at one end and a moon at the other (just under your player portrait in the default UI). In order to do maximum dps, you will always want to keep the eclipse bar progressing one way or another.
In order to do that, you should know that only 3 spells move the bar: SF, W, SS. SF will move the bar from the Lunar side towards the Solar side and W will move the bar from the Solar to the Lunar. SS is unique in that it will always move the bar in the best direction. It is important to note that the bar will only move in one direction until it gets all the way to the other end, at which point you trigger the eclipse. You should generally treat your spells as a priority:
Instant SS > MF > IS > SS > W or SF depending on which eclipse.
There is a little debate over that vs having a more strict timing for MF (since it is what gives us the haste buff once we proc an eclipse), but in general it is better to have it ticking than to wait, and you won't waste the haste buff anyway, you'll simply trigger it at a different time...which isn't a problem since eclipses are now based on number of casts, rather than time. It is also helpful since your talents will let you clear the cooldown on SS and also turn it into an instant as a chance per dot tick. I say prioritize MF over IS because both dots are affected by haste (and crit) now, so you want to proc the haste from MF before casting IS.
A couple quick notes on spells for AoE. Hurricane and Starfall are now effected by their respective Solar and Lunar eclipses to make them more powerful. Starfall has unfortunately lost all its splash damage, so you just get 20 stars now with 2+ targets or 10 with 1.
There you have it, the basics for Boomkin in patch 4.0.1. Look for an update soon™ for Bears, as I and some others try out various proposed specs and rotations.
1) Go to your trainer and learn everything, lots of things need to be trained (again) such as Bear Form.
2) Use this spec: http://wowtal.com/#k=15tOzTvD.a67.druid.dyfgnz
3) Put your abilities back in your bars, and add the new one (Starsurge).
4) Sell your reagents, you won't need them anymore.
5) Visit your friendly scribe or the AH. Pick up any druid glyphs you don't have (as you now "learn" a glyph and can apply it at will).
For the glyphs, follow the above spec. You may want to swap in/out the following for Major Glyphs depending on the situation: Focus (situational), Monsoon, Hurricane. I've included Rebirth, which isn't a dps glyph, but helps a lot if you ever need to brez, which we often do.
Now that your spec is all set, let's look at gear. Follow these simple rules:
1) Take off any cloth you have.
2) Put on the highest ilevel caster leather that you have (keeping your 4pc t10 of course).
The main things you need to know about stat changes:
1) You now need the full 17% hit. You will hit cap at 446 hit.
2) Spirit becomes hit, use it instead of hit when you can, because it also gives you mana back (this won't matter now, but it will as you level).
3) Int = spellpower (weapons and some trinket procs may still have spellpower, but everything else will have int).
Your stat priority looks like this:
Int > spirit (to hit cap) > hit (to cap) > haste > sp > crit > mastery
Now, gem everything to match socket bonus if the bonus is sp. If it isn't, put a pure int (red) gem in it. You should use:
Red: Brilliant Cardinal Ruby
Blue: Purified Dreadstone
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine
You will also want to go to Wyrmrest and Hodir to pick up the old healing head and shoulder enchants. The mp5 has turned to spirit and the sp to int. The sp/crit ones stayed sp/crit (so if you're on a budget or don't have the rep, they're still ok to keep using, but not optimal).
Now comes the fun...reforging. Chances are, you have extra hit and extra spirit, and you're finding yourself with less crit and haste than you had before. There is a reforging NPC by the enchanting trainer in Dalaran. You will want to get as close to the hit cap as you can (slightly over is better than slightly under). This works by first taking your gear with hit and reforging that. Reforge to the stat priorities above, each reforge will remove 40% of the stat and let you turn it into another secondary stat (haste, crit, spirit, mastery, hit) that isn't already on that item.
There you go, now you're ready except for the "how to play" part. So, here's the way your "rotation" works.
You have 5 main abilities: Moonfire (MF) which morphs into the exact spell but called Sunfire during solar eclipse, Insect Swarm (IS), Wrath (W), Starfire (SF), and the new one Starsurge (SS) which is on a medium cooldown. You continue to have 2 long cooldowns in Force of Nature and Starfall. You also have an eclipse bar with a sun at one end and a moon at the other (just under your player portrait in the default UI). In order to do maximum dps, you will always want to keep the eclipse bar progressing one way or another.
In order to do that, you should know that only 3 spells move the bar: SF, W, SS. SF will move the bar from the Lunar side towards the Solar side and W will move the bar from the Solar to the Lunar. SS is unique in that it will always move the bar in the best direction. It is important to note that the bar will only move in one direction until it gets all the way to the other end, at which point you trigger the eclipse. You should generally treat your spells as a priority:
Instant SS > MF > IS > SS > W or SF depending on which eclipse.
There is a little debate over that vs having a more strict timing for MF (since it is what gives us the haste buff once we proc an eclipse), but in general it is better to have it ticking than to wait, and you won't waste the haste buff anyway, you'll simply trigger it at a different time...which isn't a problem since eclipses are now based on number of casts, rather than time. It is also helpful since your talents will let you clear the cooldown on SS and also turn it into an instant as a chance per dot tick. I say prioritize MF over IS because both dots are affected by haste (and crit) now, so you want to proc the haste from MF before casting IS.
A couple quick notes on spells for AoE. Hurricane and Starfall are now effected by their respective Solar and Lunar eclipses to make them more powerful. Starfall has unfortunately lost all its splash damage, so you just get 20 stars now with 2+ targets or 10 with 1.
There you have it, the basics for Boomkin in patch 4.0.1. Look for an update soon™ for Bears, as I and some others try out various proposed specs and rotations.
Friday, April 23, 2010
HELP! GEAR DROPPED! WHAT SHOULD I DO!?
I get this question so often, even from people not my class, that it is no longer funny, nor something I can often be helpful with in a time frame they hope for (while rolling on 1 item vs another).
I could tell you that you should always grab this stat vs that stat, or to tell you to take higher item level gear, or to always use your set bonuses, or to roll on everything usable...but all of those would be wrong answers (I may try to generalize for different gear situations though in the future). The truth is, there is no "easy" way to judge what gear and stat is better (though I think it is plenty easy right now, if you understand how your character works). This is because what stat is better for you will change based on the other stats you currently have.
Let me use a real example for me from recently.
There are 3 trinkets in icc that casters care about: Dislodged Foreign Object (haste with a sp proc on cast), Phylactery of the Nameless Lich (crit with sp proc from dot tick), and Muradin's Spyglass (crit with continual refreshing stacking sp).
When I was in my 3 pc t10 and 2 pc t9, glyphed for insect swarm, my moonfire dots could crit, and my insect swarm did more damage. Now, in 5 pc t10 I'm glyphed for starfall instead of insect swarm, and moonfiire dots can no longer crit, so I don't keep dots up as often. When you look at that, and being at more than 50% crit when raid buffed now, it is no surprise that while Phylactory was by far my BiS (Best in Slot) trinket then...it no longer is, and DFO is now my BiS by a good chunk. The trinkets didn't change, but my gear, stats, and bonuses did.
That being said, since I'm still using Eye of the Broodmother...either one is a HUGE upgrade, so I should, and will, roll on both (I already have Muradin's). I'd love to go get Reign of the Dead, but it just never drops, and the one that would beat out these is the Heroic version...which I doubt I'll be going back to get anytime soon.
So, how does one know? Well, if you're not math oriented, there are a lot of tools out there to help you out. The easiest one though, which helps very quickly answer the "which is better for me now?" question is to go use RAWR. It used to be download and run only, but now has a pretty handy web interface as well (though unfortunately it requires MS Silverlight to use it that way). You can find Rawr here:
Once you load it up, go to the file menu and choose Load from Armory, put in your realm and character, and go forth. When you want to compare things, just choose that slot from the drop down on the right (just above the gear list that looks like a bar graph).
For dps, it is pretty simple...the larger the bar, the better the item is for you right now.
For tanking it can be a little bit different, as you have threat, survivability, and mitigation. You can sort by all of them, depending on what you need/want more of at that moment, as well as how the items are overall (which uses all 3 rankings).
I'm not going to go into the details of everything you can do with Rawr at this point, likely I will in a later post...but this should allow you to look at the gear you want to compare, and with reasonable certainty, know if it is better, similar but different, or worse.
The Short Version:
Don't trust a BiS list, or that Blizard's tier items are going to be the best. Figure out the math, or use a modeling tool like Rawr, to see what is actually helping you the most.
I could tell you that you should always grab this stat vs that stat, or to tell you to take higher item level gear, or to always use your set bonuses, or to roll on everything usable...but all of those would be wrong answers (I may try to generalize for different gear situations though in the future). The truth is, there is no "easy" way to judge what gear and stat is better (though I think it is plenty easy right now, if you understand how your character works). This is because what stat is better for you will change based on the other stats you currently have.
Let me use a real example for me from recently.
There are 3 trinkets in icc that casters care about: Dislodged Foreign Object (haste with a sp proc on cast), Phylactery of the Nameless Lich (crit with sp proc from dot tick), and Muradin's Spyglass (crit with continual refreshing stacking sp).
When I was in my 3 pc t10 and 2 pc t9, glyphed for insect swarm, my moonfire dots could crit, and my insect swarm did more damage. Now, in 5 pc t10 I'm glyphed for starfall instead of insect swarm, and moonfiire dots can no longer crit, so I don't keep dots up as often. When you look at that, and being at more than 50% crit when raid buffed now, it is no surprise that while Phylactory was by far my BiS (Best in Slot) trinket then...it no longer is, and DFO is now my BiS by a good chunk. The trinkets didn't change, but my gear, stats, and bonuses did.
That being said, since I'm still using Eye of the Broodmother...either one is a HUGE upgrade, so I should, and will, roll on both (I already have Muradin's). I'd love to go get Reign of the Dead, but it just never drops, and the one that would beat out these is the Heroic version...which I doubt I'll be going back to get anytime soon.
So, how does one know? Well, if you're not math oriented, there are a lot of tools out there to help you out. The easiest one though, which helps very quickly answer the "which is better for me now?" question is to go use RAWR. It used to be download and run only, but now has a pretty handy web interface as well (though unfortunately it requires MS Silverlight to use it that way). You can find Rawr here:
| Downloadable: | http://rawr.codeplex.com |
| Web usable: | http://www.elitistjerks.com/rawr.php |
Once you load it up, go to the file menu and choose Load from Armory, put in your realm and character, and go forth. When you want to compare things, just choose that slot from the drop down on the right (just above the gear list that looks like a bar graph).
For dps, it is pretty simple...the larger the bar, the better the item is for you right now.
For tanking it can be a little bit different, as you have threat, survivability, and mitigation. You can sort by all of them, depending on what you need/want more of at that moment, as well as how the items are overall (which uses all 3 rankings).
I'm not going to go into the details of everything you can do with Rawr at this point, likely I will in a later post...but this should allow you to look at the gear you want to compare, and with reasonable certainty, know if it is better, similar but different, or worse.
The Short Version:
Don't trust a BiS list, or that Blizard's tier items are going to be the best. Figure out the math, or use a modeling tool like Rawr, to see what is actually helping you the most.
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