Comments on: Explaining Best in Slot vs Best DPS

By: Jonas

Jonas — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 10:22:28 +0000

Currently taking the whirlwind course on Ret Pally as I’ve only been playin’ for a few months. Thrilled about the upcoming improvements to Mastery. So far, I’ve been doting on it as when I have it up to 15% or so, it procs OFTEN and makes for delicious fights. Just got Alpha Bracers tonight and popped a mastery gem in there as well. I’m enjoying mastery and would like it to be a top pick for my items w/crit or haste playin’ secondary stats. It’s just more exciting…unless it doesn’t proc at all – then things get scary sometimes.

By: Qordis

Qordis — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:59:48 +0000

Is it just me, or is anyone else having issues dropping their 2pc T10? A 5% bonus to ALL damage seems to good to let go. Right now I’m still wearing my 264 T10 shoulders and 277 T10 legs, and if I swap lvl 85 pieces in for them, the extra str doesn’t make my overall dmg number go up more than it is with the 2pc T10 equipped.

Am I just looking at incorrectly?

By: Letcheoff

Letcheoff — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:32:31 +0000

Please read this small part of a blog from the worldofwarcraft.com page. Title “Primary vs. Secondary Stats or: What Happened to All the Agi/Spirit Gear?”

There are some exceptions. Hit and expertise have real caps so it’s intended that they are very good up until their caps. It’s a longer discussion than I can fit in this blog, but we like how cappable stats affect the gearing decision — the puzzle of which gems to use or how to reforge is often played because you want to hit that hit number without going over. Likewise, Spirit is the kind of stat that healers will only need “enough” of, and once they feel comfortable with their mana regen, additional Spirit will be less attractive than other secondary stats. (This sort of thing also depends a lot on the encounter mind you.) Mastery is a new stat for us, and while it’s working great for some talent specs, we’ll almost certainly have to tweak it for others in a future patch (Unholy and Retribution come to mind, because their masteries currently affect sources of damage that just aren’t large enough to be competitive).

If you notice on the last part it states “Unholy and Retribution come to mind, because their masteries currently affect sources of damage that just aren’t large enough to be competitive”

So the reason you can figure out “Mastery” is because for a ret pally it has not even been tweaked yet, so I would not try to focus on that stat at the moment.

By: Gigi

Gigi — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:54:36 +0000

I find that I see no difference when I have a mastery item equipped or not. It’s seems I get the same amount of HoL either way. But since I don’t count or anything this could all be perception.

By: Alexcalibur

Alexcalibur — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:27:47 +0000

thanks for your reply Anthony, I just got the helm .. I saw it for 75g and thought what the heck. It was going for 500+ last night! .. I switched from mining to JC in WotLK. .. I’m not sure how I’m going to skill up JC and engineering now tho. I should have had switched back and had it ready for cataclysm… I didn’t because I became obsessed with hitting every node. It took forever to get anywhere.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:08:33 +0000

@Alex

On my server, that very set you mentioned, is bringing me in TONS of gold these days. So either people are not being patient, or it is worth it.

I myself have not really got into dungeons at the moment, or even worried about gearing. Im taking this expansion a little bit different. There is high demand in gear and mats, so me being a BS/Miner Im going to be playing the AH game for a few weeks.

By: Naididae

Naididae — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:14:29 +0000

As a simple rule, being Strength much much higher than all other secondary stats (even hit and expertise under cap): if it has more strength it’s better.

The secondary stats you can just work out on reforging (as usual get to hit cap, exp cap then go for crit [crit is valued higher than haste now that we should be using CS - filler - filler]).

Now, if 2 items have the same amount of STR but one has, let’s say, crit and haste and the other one has crit and mastery, opt for the one WITHOUT mastery.

By: Alexcalibur

Alexcalibur — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:09:15 +0000

Hey Khor, two quick questions .. How come you don’t have the Oversized Oblique Ogre Obliterator?.. or has it just not shown up on your profile yet. Is it worth it? . .. Also, what’s your take on the all the Redsteel gear. For not a lot of gold I could get a full set.. I’m trying to be patient but I’m getting sick of my low damage.

By: Darkvish

Darkvish — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:18:37 +0000

Welcome to the hardest class to play in Cataclysm… The Retribution Paladin

By: Khor

Khor — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:50:47 +0000

That’s exactly the problem (ahem site) I was referring to. Their calculations are not quite where they need to be, and you see them giving some very heavy weight to expertise. Also, they ARE matching gem slots, which isn’t always the best case for us. It depends on socket bonus (yes, some are +30 strength, so matching bonus is okay), and every player will differ.

Use MaxDPS with caution. You can get an idea of which pieces are strong, but even I am telling you my own lists shouldn’t be relied upon 100% just yet. Until we come back and say, this is how important mastery is, and this is how important the other stats are, and this is how you want to gem, we’re more or less going to have to follow old priorities.