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I’ve lately become very obsessed with trying to optimize my gear. The problem is, I was an English Major so math only works when I use my fingers and toes.  So I had to find some tools to help me determine if a drop is actually an upgrade and I had to change my way of thinking about gear.

First, the Best-In-Slot lists aren’t that useful while you’re still gearing up. It’s nice to know where you want to end up, but you don’t want to hurt yourself on your way there.  For example, a lot of classes need to use their T-9 sets until they obtain two or four pieces of T-10 because the set bonuses of the “lesser” gear are that good.  You want to be as strong in your raid role as possible now as well as in the future.

Second, individual upgrades may be higher iLevel but may just be plain garbage for your class.  At one point I was using one of the Frost Badge trinkets on my Demo Lock because of the higher iLevel (I mean, it’s a bigger level, it HAD to be better, right?).   Instead, the Abyssal Rune (iLevel 200) blew that other trinket out of the water.  I ended up using it for months until just last night when I replaced it with Muradin’s Spyglass.

Finally, and this is why this can be complicated, none of your gear works on it’s own. What I mean is that all of the stats on your gear interact with each other and replacing one piece with an upgrade for that slot may actually lower your effectiveness overall. Hit rating is an obvious example of that, but for me the interaction between crit, haste and spellpower boggles my mind.  Like I said, if I can’t count something on my fingers and toes it’s beyond me.  But on the other hand, you will be responsible for knowing if that drop you’re rolling on is something that will benefit you enough that you want to prevent that smelly mage from using it (I actually approve of this, since the mage is a terrible class full of players who touch themselves in public, but my point stands).

Here are the solutions that I’ve found.

1. RhadaTip. This addon is brilliant and amazing and I would make sweet, sweet love to it if I could. You set your character’s spec and gear level, which will load pre-weighted stat values. Then, whenever you mouseover an item, the tool tip will not only tell you the gain/loss for the slot, but the overall gain/loss for your gear set.  If you haven’t done your research in advance, this AddOn will save you from getting yelled at by that overly anal raid leader who doesn’t want to wait on you to roll on an item (and, as someone who is overly anal in raids, use this so you’re not wasting my time).

2. WoWHead’s item comparison tool. This tool is a bit clunkier than RhadaTip, mostly because I’m lazy. The nice thing about this is that you can re-create your gearset and then swap-in potential upgrades to compare what you have with what you want. This tool also allows you to weigh the stats for your class/spec.  RhadTip is great for comparing what’s in front of you, WoWHead is great for anticipating what you may see in the future.  My only complaint is that I’ve been trying to find a way to import a character from the Armory into the tool.  But until I find out how or that they will implement it I’ve had to manually create my gear set each time.

3. Your experience and knowledge. Personally, I’m not convinced that spellpower is better than haste for me. Sure, if I’m sitting at the target dummy or blasting away at Festergut, +spellpower is probably better. But if I’m in a fight with a lot of movement (hello, Halion!) I need my spells to go off as fast as possible before I get caught in the turd cutter. Since your gear is probably different than everyone else’s, it’s up to you to determine what your needs are.  And don’t underestimate your playstyle when you’re trying to decide how to gear. If you’re someone who hates on-use trinkets, ignore what everyone else is telling you and go with the on-equip trinkets.

4. Combat logs.  Once you have a set that you think is going to work, use it and record your results.  I ended up making lists of gear sets, the date I was using it and the corresponding combat log.  Then I compared them all to see whether I made the right choice.  You have to be careful with this and look at your data on the same fights; don’t compare your log of a Festergut fight where you’ll be standing there pew-pewing with the Blood Princes when you’re on the Kinetic Bombs.

And finally, take my advice: do not throw away any gear.  The only exception to this is if you get a drop that has the exact same stats as what you’re replacing, just more of them.  Eventually, you’re going to want multiple gear sets to tailor yourself to the fight and what spec you’ll be using.  I have it easy in once sense because as a demo lock I’m mainly there to provide that delicious raid-wide buff and will not change specs.  But,  I do want a set that hits faster for Halion, a set that hits harder for Festergut and a set that balances everything for the Tubby-Fat-Man himself.