Another Post on Knowing Your Class...

I was on MMO-Champ early this morning, and I saw a forum thread regarding the validity of the EJ Forums, and its information (pertaining to Unholy DK's).

The player that posted the thread was having difficulty increasing his dps after switching to a recommended build and rotation from the EJ community. As it turns out, the build he had been using was pre 3.2--but this really got me thinking about all those players out there that don't understand stat weighting and gear itemization...

For all specs, there are stats that are considered to be "bread and butter." These are things like Hit (until 8% for 2H), Expertise, and Strength. No matter what your spec is, these stats are mandatory for you to be doing any sort of competitive dps. These are what you gem for. So what about all the other junk you see on gear: ArP, Crit, Haste, AP???

We see these "secondary" stats creep up on the gear we use everyday--the trick to utilizing it, is knowing what it does, and figuring out which of it is important to the spec we play. So let's explore.

ArP (Armor Penetration Rating)
This stat allows you to ignore a percentage of your opponents armor. For a DK, its pretty useful in all specs, but really shines in Blood, where most of the attacks are physical (as opposed to frost, which is frost, or unholy, which is shadow). In the current tier of gear, ArP is all over the place, so coming into an abundance of it is easily done, if you're looking for it.

Crit (Critical Strike Rating)
This is a money stat for Unholy 4-piece T9 right now, and has always been a decent stat for frost. It's rated very heavily for unholy because disease ticks have a chance to crit--after its nerf in 3.3, the weight for this stat will drop in value drastically.

Haste
For a DK, haste has limited playing field. It affects white hits in all specs, but plays a viable role for Unholy. Haste affects our ghouls, our gargoyles, and Necrosis; which is why next to crit, its an important stat for unholy DK's to have at the moment.

AP (Attack Power)
This is one of those stats you really don't want to see much of--because, if you are seeing this on gear, it means that you're not gearing strength. AP is usually seen on gear without strength on it, usually itemized with agility. For a DK, 1 strength= 2 AP.

Put into Practice:
Let's compare 2 different items: Dextrous Brightstone Ring (ilvl 245) vs. Strength of the Automaton (ilvl 226). In terms of item level, the Dextrous band wins hands down. But when we look at the stats, we see that overall, the Automaton has 72 str = 144 AP vs the Dextrous' 101 AP. The Dextrous edges out in terms crit, but as a DK, the strength outscales it. So in this scenario, that shiny new ilvl 245 ring isn't an upgrade over that old ilvl 226 one.

Moral of the Story:
Be smart when it comes to gear selection. A few poor selections and and your itemization is all over the place. I tend to base my spec from my gear--so if I'm heavily ArP'd I go blood, if I find myself crit/haste heavy I go unholy (not to mention 4pc T9). Stat weighting is sure to change in 3.3, but the knowledge behind it remains the same. There's a reason why the games top players min/max, so choose your gear wisely.

Let's Talk About Stats, Baby

...All the good things and the bad things, that may be.

As of late I've noticed more and more players un-gemmed and un-chanted--so this post is a straight up attempt at educating everyone on how to tinker (enhance) your gear.


Raiding in PvP Gear:
Any hardcore raider is gonna tell you, "Don't do it." Now I'm going to tell you why. PvP gear is stat-weighted for PvP; this means stam is typically weighted higher, and you gain resilience at the expense of other, necessary stats, such as critical strike or hit rating, spell power, etc. Since hit rating is unnecessary in PvP, raiding in this gear could effectively render you useless. So, while it may be easy to get, if you really want to raid, I suggest grinding heroics, and grabbing some coin to pickup the crafted epics for your class. You can use addons such as Atlasloot, or check the armory to find the heroics that you can benefit from. Worse comes to worse, the badges will always do you good.

Gemming:
This is one area where many players can improve. First I want you to ask yourself, "what is my goal?" My answer to this is: "to increase my dps." If you're a dps player, I hope your answer is the same. That being said, lemme lay down the basics:

Melee DPS- Ret Pallies/DK's/Warriors
Hit>Expertise>Strength

This is what you need to gem for. Period. Hit Rating until 8%, Expertise to at least 15 skill, then all STR.

Now let's talk about why:
A. If you don't hit the target, you're not dps'ing
B. If you get parried, you're not dps'ing
C. Strength scales much better than any other stat. 1 Str= 2 AP.

Never gem for attack power. Ever. Ever. I'm serious. Never gem for crit either. Crit comes from gear, and raid buffs already give you a nice crit boost--No top of the charts dps ever gemmed for crit. Trust me on this.

Which brings me to the issue of sockets. Rule of thumb here, is to make sure your meta gem is activated, and then ignore all the other colors (JC's can use their dragons eyes for this). Socket bonuses suck; +4 stam, or +5 crit at the expense of 32 AP is just retarded. And everyone knows you don't go full retard.


Enchants:
Many enchants require Reputation. Do the dailies. Grab a tabard. Its worth it.
You can chant every single piece of armor you wear. Let's start at the top:

Head
DPS: Arcanum of Torment Ebon Blade (Reverred) AP/Crit
Caster:Arcanum of Burning Mysteries Kirin Tor (Reverred) SP/Crit
Heals:Arcanum of Blissful Mending Wyrmrest (Reverred) SP/Mp5

Shoulders
Unless you're a scribe, you're gonna have to do the Sons of Hodir questchain for this slot. Its a long grind, but worth the epic shoulder chant. Epic enchants require exalted rep, but there are some available at honored.

DPS:Greater Inscription of the Axe AP/Crit
Caster:Greater Inscription of the Storm SP/Crit
Heals:Greater Inscription of the Crag SP/Mp5

Back/Cloak
There aren't too many attractive options here. +22 Agi, +23 haste are about the best...unless you're a tailor.

Chest
+10 All stats. This is the only chant, and its expensive due to the mats-- I strongly recommend you to find a nice guildie for this one.

Bracers
Some options here: +15 expertise, +50 AP, +23 SP...

Hands/Gloves
+44 AP, +20 hit, +28 SP, +20 Agi

Waist
Add an eternal belt buckle...gives you an additional gem socket /ftw

Legs
Epic choices here...
DPS:Icescale Leg Armor AP/Crit
Caster:Brilliant Spellthread SP/Spirit

Boots/Feet
Either AP or hit/crit for your choices here. Not much else worth it...


To see the biggest improvement, get yourself hit capped (except healers), and then gem for your "Golden Stat." I promise you'll notice a difference.

Gearing up to Raid: Priorities

So you're level 80 and you've decided that you want to start raiding. Everywhere you look, raid leaders are looking for geared healers with large mana pools, 3.5k DPS, and 30k HP unbuffed tanks...and you might be wondering where to start.

Stats/ Spec
The very first thing you should put into priority are your stats. Are you hit capped? Do you know what the cap is for your toon? What are the bread and butter stats to optimize your gear? Knowing this is the first step to greatness: it means the difference between knowing a true upgrade versus one that is sub-optimal. If you have any questions about stat-weights I encourage you to visit the EJ Forums. You may also want to try a cookie cutter spec and rotation--there is a lot of smart math behind 'em.

Pre-Raid Gearing
Heroics. Its as simple as that. There are a lot of great drops in heroic dungeons. Ask friends and guildies, pull up loot on the armory or on Atlas Loot (in-game), make yourself a list, and run religiously until you get what you want. I remember running H UK everyday for a month looking for Staggering Legplates to drop. Also, a lot of decent gear can be bought with heroism badges that will last you long into your first few raids: T7 pieces, Trinkets, Neck, etc. Heroics are really a win/win in this regard. And for a few pre-raid pieces, look to Reputation rewards to fill gaps. Tabards are easy to pick up, and rep grinds come quickly while you're running all those Heroics. Chances are you'll be grinding dailies for cash anyway.

Item Enhancement
You'll be pretty hard up to find a top raider w/out enchants on all of his/her gear. When you end up nabbing that piece of gear you want, chant it up to maximize its potential. Check the AH, ask a guildie chanter/leatherworker, and go to town. For a full list of item enchants, click here. Keep in mind that you'll have to grind out that long road to Sons of Hodir-Exalted if you want that Super Smexxy shoulder chant: Greater Inscription of the Axe.

DK: Stat Weights/Gemming/Common Q's

I've done quite a bit of research in these areas... luckily there are a few people who have done the math for us, so I'm just gonna simplify everything here. If you have any questions though, please don't hesitate to ask =)

Hit and Expertise Ratings

Hit and expertise are important, because if you're not landing your attacks, you're not making the most of your dps, or threat (if you're a tank).

Melee Hit Cap is 262.3 (8%)

26 Expertise Skill is Exp. Cap

Its fairly difficult to expertise cap in heroic gear, even if you're gemmed. You should shoot for a minimum of 15 skill for dps, and make sure your dps'ing behind the boss. Tanks can always benefit until fully capped.

Any hit above 8% directly benefits our spells... Spell hit cap is 17%. Our spells include:

1. Blood Boil
2. Blood Plague
3. Corpse Explosion
4. Death and Decay
5. Death Coil
6. Icy Touch
7. Frost Fever
8. Howling Blast
9. Pestilence
10. Strangulate
11. Unholy Blight

Obtaining 8% hit rating is NOT optional.

DK Stat Weights

This listing is from a DPS standpoint...

Hit > Expertise > Strength > Crit > AP > Agi > Haste > APR

Since most builds are going to scale with strength, stacking strength and crit will be very important once your hit is satisfied. With the new APR (armor pentration) factor, blood dps may choose to swap APR over attack power...I'll need to see some more numbers to be sure though.

Gemming

• Bold Scarlet Ruby
  
• Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
  
• Bold Dragon’s Eye
  

Do you really need the socket bonus? If not, gem for strength. Always. =)