Scattered Shots: What you see is not always what you get
by Eddie Carrington 
Jun 11th 2009 at 4:00PM
I can't believe it either, WoW.com actually decided to bring me back for another week! I am Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington from The Hunting Lodge and I'll be your tour guide each Thursday as we explore what makes our Hunters tick and how we can make them better.
Last week we talked about the many different resources are available for Hunters. This week I thought to build on that and talk about item level (iLevel) and what makes a good upgrade.
Yes, I'm sure you are already thinking, "Boring! How difficult can that be?" Maybe for some that would be true. But the changes that happened with Wrath of the Lich King have forced us to rethink some of the old standards. For example, Agility isn't always the king stat like it was in the past. Sometimes you might need to decide between adding Critical Strike Rating, Armor Penetration, or Attack Power all the while considering how much Hit you might be losing.
I do agree that determining your next piece of gear should be relatively simple process. And for the most part, it is. But as with everything, there seem to be exceptions to the rule. Sometimes choosing between two items on the fly or in the heat of the moment just isn't that simple.
And what about the Hunters that are just now getting ready for Naxx? (Yes, there are players that have yet to see Naxx.) Sometimes they don't even know where to start. Or what if you are raiding and you got an upgrade but causes you to lose some critical stats? You might need to compensate for the loss of a much needed stat as you upgrade.
Surprisingly, your best gear choice is not always based on the raid level you're running at the moment. Also, you might need to bank that upgrade for a while and equip a lower iLevel until you make up for a loss in stats (e.g. when the new item causes you to lose too much Hit).
If you are asking yourself, "What is he talking about? What's iLevel?" Don't feel bad, you're not alone. Many players don't realize iLevel even exists. Back in the old days (the original release), items used to be solely ranked first by Required Level (the level you must obtain to use an item) and then the rarity of the item (Legendary "Orange," Epic "Purple," Rare "Blue," etc...)
When more opportunities to obtain Epic gear were developed, players needed to find different ways to help determine which Epics were truly upgrades. Luckily for us, the Blizzard developers have thought of this and created the iLevel ranking system.
iLevel is a great way to easily identify specific gearing points for similar gear. So much so that even recently Ghostcrawler gave some great news about how all the Ranged attack items with an iLevel of 226 or higher got DPS buffs. To many this just meant Ulduar gear got the DPS increase, but really that opens the door to many different items including one item from Naxxramas that Hunters now must decide on. The iLevel is one way to group and easily compare items from different sources and sets without having to create a bunch of new rank descriptions.
There really are only two issues with iLevel. First, some players confuse iLevel with Required Level. When you look at tooltips or item descriptions you are always told the Required Level your character must obtain in the game before equipping that specific item.
The bigger issue with iLevel is the complexity in determining it. The good news for us, you can use the WoW Armory and many other Hunter resources already do this for us. The down side is you can end up with a list of items the same iLevel but for one reason or another don't apply to Hunters or aren't really an upgrade.
So iLevel is a great way to shorten the list for your itemization, but don't stop there. Remember just because an item has a better iLevel, it may not be the best fit at that time. For that we can let our knowledge of Hunter class mechanics guide us to make a decision for what to equip. It really sounds more confusing that it is. Why don't we look at creating an upgrade path for a required Level 80 ranged weapon?
We'll start with a common crafted epic used by many hunters, The Nesingwary 4000. I know, there are better to be sure, but since it can be readily purchased from the Auction House, it often becomes the typically the starting Epic for many Hunters as they start to run through Naxxramas.
Often times Hunters go into Naxx and see the Accursed Bow of the Elite drop and start screaming over Vent how they are going to spend all their DKP for this awesome upgrade. But if you look closer, it might not be such an awesome upgrade after all. Let's take a tale of the tape.
Nesingwary 4000- 200 iLevel
- +21 Critical Strike Rating
- +78 Attack Power
- Yellow Socket
Accursed Bow of the Elite
- 200 iLevel
- +28 Agility
- +19 Stamina
- +16 Hit Rating
- +21 Haste Rating
- +40 Attack Power
Both are iLevel 200 and have a similar base weapon DPS of 129.6. (Not looking so appetizing is it. Maybe it will look better if we compare individual stats.) Between the Nesingwary 4000 and the Accursed Bow you basically gain a .5% Hit Rating, 21 Haste and 19 Stamina but you lose 10 Attack Power.
This is alright if you are under Hit Cap (we'll keep that for a later discussion) but the Nesingwary has a gem slot. That could be some added DPS or Hit there also. So now you can see how using the iLevel along with a good understanding of Hunter class mechanics helped keep us from wasting precious DKP on an item that was more of a lateral move than an upgrade.
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But what would be our next item then? I'd recommend getting the Nerubian Conquerer from Kel'Thuzad the final boss in Naxxramas. It will give you a much bigger upgrade.
- 213 iLevel
- +31 Agility
- +30 Stamina
- +21 Critical Strike Rating
- +64 Attack Power
See now we see a jump in our stats. Although we lose the gem slot we see get 31 Agility that will scale with buffs. Also our base Attack Power is increased by 17. This all adds up to a +12 increase in our base item DPS. Now that's the immediate upgrade!
Let's say you are in a guild that can put together a solid 25 man raid. If that is the case, I would recommend that you pick up the Envoy of Mortality when you run it in Heroic mode.
Envoy of Mortality- 226 iLevel
- +36 Agility
- +30 Stamina
- +26 Critical Strike Rating
- +72 Attack Power
Compared to the Nerubian Conquerer we see a base weapon 46.7 DPS increase. Glad I kept you from spending that DKP?
Now your Hunter and your guild is ready to raid Ulduar. After you all down Ignis the Furnas, he ups and drops Rifle of the Platinum Guard.
Whoa now, hold up a sec! I would hate for you to go off celebrating and spending that DKP again without taking a closer look. And don't start screaming at me about how this is Ulduar and "This is the best thing ever!" Because, it really isn't an upgrade for you if you already have the Envoy of Mortality, and barely one if you have the Nerubian Conquerer.
Rifle of the Platinum Guard- 219 iLevel
- +42 Stamina
- +24 Hit Rating
- +29 Critical Strike Rating
- +31 Armor Penetration
See how the Rifle of the Platinum Guard is only a 219 iLevel? If you went with this one over your Envoy of Mortality, you would be losing 28.8 base weapon DPS and wondering where it went.
True, if you have the Nerubian Conquerer you will get a whopping 5.9 DPS increase so it is an upgrade, but marginal at best. Honestly? I'd rather try to get 24 other friends together and see if I could Envoy of Mortality.
So what is a solid upgrade for you? Well go get yourself a Magnetized Projectile Emitter from XT-0002 Deconstructor Yogg-saron.
Magnetized Projectile Emitter- 232 iLevel
- +29 Agility
- +30 Stamina
- +27 Hit Rating
- +66 Attack Power Red socket with a +8 Attack Power socket bonus
When you compare that to the Nerubian Conquerer you will see a base weapon DPS increase of 45.5 DPS. And if you were lucky to get an Envoy of Mortality you will see a respectable 10.8 base weapon DPS increase as well. I'd say go get Robot Boy's Yoggy's gun. and forget about robot boy. (Thanks for the catch Ringo Flinthammer.)
So there you have it. I hope I helped explain how you can use iLevel and a basic understanding of Hunter class mechanics to build your own gear upgrade plan. So let's hear it, what has been some of your experiences with upgrades. Ever picked up an item thinking "It's the best thing since pancakes!!" only to realize that you made a mistake? Or maybe you can recommend some other options for people to get the gear they need for raids. I'd like to hear them.
So you want to be a Hunter, eh? Well then you came to the right place. Scattered Shots is the one column dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a Hunter. Each week Scattered Shots will cover topics to help you Fix Your DPS, Choosing the Right Spec, Gear Selection, Macros and Pet Selection and Management.Filed under: Hunter, Items, Tips, Raiding, Guides, Classes, (Hunter) Scattered Shots
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Andrellris Jun 11th 2009 4:14PM
Hey,
I recently started paying attention to ilevel (with Ulduar). Honestly, I think BC upgrades were easier to follow. Then with WotLK, and the mad dash to 80, some of the instance drops were pretty good and clear, at least in my case. Then came Naxx; cake. Clear upgrades. Ulduar on the otherhand has given me headaches in trying to figure out what’s the best upgrade. You might think some tier gear would be better than an item off of one of the earlier bosses, nope. at least not in my case. And I'm pretty sure I recall GC saying that’s the way they wanted it.
Sure something’s are clear upgrades but once you are doing Ulduar consistently, all bets are off.
M Jun 11th 2009 4:56PM
For all of its inaccuracy and the extra bells and whistles that aren't needed, Shandara's Hunter spreadsheet on the ElitistJerks forum (elitistjerks.com) is a good tool to use to compare the value of items and potential items. What is an upgrade will greatly depend on what you are wearing now, your talent spec, your shot "rotation" (more of a priority system now), your pet, and whatever buffs are present in your raid.
The sheet is not accurate, but it's inaccuracies are proportional, meaning that you can still use it to see whether Envoy of Mortality is better or worse than Siren's Cry, and be reasonably confident of that determination. You can also play with shot priorities and find a good combination without spending hours in front of a training dummy. Just don't expect to reach the DPS that the sheet predicts, or any of the shot values you see in raids to match what you see on the spreadsheet.
If, like me, you don't have Microsoft Office, the basic features do work in OpenOffice, though there are a few glitches as Shandara tries to get fancy with it. Just don't expect it to pick out your gear for you and spoon feed it to you, like it will do in Excel.
Perhaps the most annoying glitch is the lack of sorted gear selection fields -- using Excel, the gear selection is sorted based on its relative upgrade potential; not good if you have specific items you want to test, instead of "Uhh, which pretty purple is good for me?". And the latest sheets seem to have the validity settings glitching in OpenOffice. All of that can be easily fixed, but it's still annoying. But the sheet is still a useful resource.
"The Hunter's Lodge" has another sheet that spawned from the same source that Shandara's sheet did.
judasgrail Jun 11th 2009 4:18PM
Don't apologize for what you're writing about in the article. Just write it. :)
clra2 Jun 11th 2009 4:21PM
Interestingly enough I did drop my Nesingwary 4000 for the Accursed Bow of the Elite.
Sicadastra Jun 11th 2009 4:45PM
First off, great article. Good to see some actual examples and real data comparison.
The stat that consistently gives me headaches is haste. I've only just started in Northrend, so I can't speak to any real blues or purples, but I'm finding myself with a lot of tough calls on gear with haste vs heavy attack etc. I use Ratingbuster so determining how an items agility, attack, stamina (survival spec), etc will affect my base damage is pretty easy, but how my actual DPS will be affected is a different story. What sugestions are there for calculating how to balance speed vs per shot power?
Ringo Flinthammer Jun 11th 2009 5:49PM
Get to 400 haste -- easy with Naxx gear -- and you've got your Steady Shot equal in speed to the GCD. Stop at that point.
brigthedwarf Jun 11th 2009 5:52PM
Haste seems to be one of those mysteriously tricky stats. I think that for stacking haste you basically go until your Steady Shot equals the Global Cooldown.
I'll be honest I don't know the exact cap off the top of my head. But here's a nifty tool I found that might help you.
http://ezmooks.site88.net/hastecalc.php
TEJ Jun 11th 2009 7:40PM
There's nothing tricky about haste - the underlying mathematics are 8th grade material.
Your poor perception does not imply universal difficulty.
outdps Jun 12th 2009 11:13AM
Haste should not be stacked. Take it if it's not optional, but you never need to look for a specific amount. I found my raid buffed steady shots were under the global cooldown length even when I was just starting up, in rep rewards and blues.
Ringo Flinthammer Jun 11th 2009 4:46PM
The Magnetized Projectile Emitter doesn't drop from Yogg -- it's from XT 10-man hard mode.
Given that you suggest 25-man Naxx upgrades, I'm surprised you wouldn't suggest Giant's Bane from Kologarn-25, the better upgrade to the butt-ugly Envoy of Mortality.
brigthedwarf Jun 11th 2009 5:42PM
Thanks for the catch.
As for not mentioning other possible upgrades. The Giant's Bane is a better upgrade to the Envoy (+10 base item DPS), but is basically equal to the Magnetized Projectile Emitter (both are iLevel 232).
The choice between them would come down to your gearing. The Emitter has a Red socket, whereas Giant's Bane has some favorable stats you might need to compliment your gear.
Ultimately that's what you would need to focus on here. Which had the stats that would better compliment the rest of your gear and talent spec.
Thanks again. Keep them coming!
swampsquatch Jun 11th 2009 4:55PM
Great article. I hope you can keep it up. Although I didn't learn anything I didn't already know, from the looks of comments on some hunter blogs around the community, a lot of people needed an explanation the way you put it.
Krunkay Jun 11th 2009 4:56PM
W00t! Go Brig!
Elionene Jun 11th 2009 4:59PM
Sigh. Guns.
There are some very nice bows for people doing 10 person progression in Ulduar.
I really wish I could see one drop.
Ringo Flinthammer Jun 11th 2009 5:12PM
Bows are for races that can't be trusted with gunpowder.
Urza Jun 11th 2009 5:15PM
I hate guns too.
Slog Jun 11th 2009 5:40PM
I love my trusty Arrowsong bow. I prefer bows over guns, the shot sound over and over gets old quickly.
brigthedwarf Jun 11th 2009 5:58PM
But guns go BOOM!! We Dwarfs love things that go *BOOM!*
Kidding aside, I see your point. I've often wondered why we tend to see this back and forth between weapons. Maybe it's to get players to switch up and experience more of the game, I'm not entirely sure.
Cetha Jun 11th 2009 7:11PM
agreed...why so many guns blizz...some of us like bows
TEJ Jun 11th 2009 7:36PM
Your personal weapon preferences are meaningless to the raid leader. Your only concern is how fast the boss goes down. Your "fun" is meaningless to the raid leader and the 24 people carrying you to ilvl 226/232/239 loot. You optimize your DPS output or you do not deserve the title of raider. You are not your cute fluffy pets. You are not the weapon you fire with. You are a means to an end - a DPS class whose only purpose in raids is to do DPS. Otherwise, the door's that way.