Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsSpiritual Guidance: The GearScore is a lie, Page 2
by Fox Van Allen 
Apr 28th 2010 at 9:00PM
Shadow priests are fairly lucky -- it's hard to screw up a lot of our gear without actively working to do so. Most cloth items just don't have stats on it that are absolutely useless to us. (Compare that to a shaman like mine, who is carrying around an ugly mix of elemental spellpower gear and attack-power-loaded enhancement gear.)
If there's anywhere we're going to make mistakes, it's in trinkets. It's a pretty forgivable error, since most trinkets deal in procs. It's hard to guess which is better than which with a quick glance. Let's get something straight now, though: The trinkets you can buy with emblems stink for shadow priests. Read that last sentence again. Memorize it. Save your emblems.
The item level 245 Talisman of Resurgence is one of the banes of my existence. So many spriests wind up using it simply because it's easy to buy with Emblems of Triumph. The passive intellect part of the trinket provides virtually no benefit to us (it's worth approximately 28 spellpower). The real benefit from it comes from the on-use part (ugh). Overall, it theorycrafts out to be worth approximately 128.0 points worth of pseudo-spellpower. If you take a look at a good, up-to-date gear list (like the one at shadowpriest.com), you'll see that it's bad enough to not even rank in the top 20.
It is noticeably worse than the farmable Abyssal Rune (Trial of Champions regular), the Nevermelting Ice Crystal (Pit of Saron heroic) and even the blue quality Forge Ember from heroic Halls of Stone.
Choosing the Talisman of Resurgence makes your GearScore better, but it makes your DPS worse. (Even the item level 264 Purified Lunar Dust performs worse than the level 200 Abyssal Rune.) Is it really worth playing under your ability to appease someone else who values you so little as to reduce your self worth to a simple number?
There's got to be a better way to do things ...
Yet another column on this topic here at WoW.com isn't going to change the world -- that I know. Still, a large number of you all are regularly pugging content, and this stupid GearScore metric is a constant part of your world. As someone who pugged his way through most of Wrath, I have some advice.
- Never chase after GearScore. Others will use it to judge you -- don't use it to judge yourself. When I think that someone felt pressured into buying the Talisman of Resurgence despite knowing there were better options out there, I feel like throwing up. You'll always be better served in picking gear that maximizes your performance, not what some lazy PUG leader thinks of you.
- If a PUG is built solely on GearScore, it's going to be a bad PUG. Okay, sure, that's a broad generalization, but there's a lot of truth to it in my experience. Anyone can get decent gear these days with emblems -- even ICC-level gear is purchasable through emblems. A PUG built solely using GearScore is a PUG built solely around people who do nothing more than meet the minimum requirement. And while the 35-year-old meth addict next to me on the bus may meet the minimum requirements to be president for the United States ...
- The real information is found by reading between the lines. Gear is, of course, always going to be important. But did you know that a smart PUG leader will also take a quick look at your enchants and gems, and actually value your knowledge of your class over your four-digit GearScore? True story, kids. Neither enchants nor gems contribute to the traditional GearScore rating, but most raid leaders don't want a 5500 GS shadow priest with a plus agility enchant in their raid.
- Reputation is everything. There are plenty of successful PUGs out there, and they don't revolve around randomly picking people based on GearScore. The best organized PUGs revolve around reputation. My shammy has a horrendous gear score. Based on GearScore, I barely qualify to run heroics. Still, because I've performed well in PUGs before on other characters, because my guildies know me. Because I've built some cursory relationships with regular PUG raiders and leaders, it's not hard to find a group. ("We need one more? Hold on, I know this writer from wow.com we can get. No seriously, he's a good player, even though he works for wow.com.")
Perform to the best of your ability, don't be a jerk to the people you're randomly thrown into groups with, and make smart gear choices. Do those three things consistently, and your GearScore will be irrelevant. I promise.
Hunger for more information about bending the light to your advantage? More interested in watching health bars go down than watching them bounce back up? Think it's neat to dissolve into a ball of pure shadow every few minutes? Hate gnomes? The darker, shadowy side of Spiritual Guidance has you covered. Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 8)
Fluffywumpki of Kilrogg Apr 28th 2010 9:36PM
While any kind of gear score is a very simplistic metric to use, some addons/sites are better than others. All of the sites listed in the article use rather opaque methods, and only vaguely evaluate the appropriateness if enchants and gems based on class/spec. The Elitist Group addon and http://elitistarmory.com at least try to evaluate experience in the instances and whethe gems/enchants are prope for that spec, and give a bit more feedback on each item.
MusedMoose Apr 28th 2010 9:36PM
I've never gotten a priest higher than 17th level, and I read this whole article just so I could have more arguments against those who think GearScore matters. (And for the Portal reference.) Most people talk about how GS doesn't and can't reflect your actual skill, so it's good to have some more ammo against that sort of thing. It also helps to be reminded that a higher iLevel isn't always a sign of a better item.
Also: Mega Man 2 was the first NES game I ever beat. Years later, I played through it again on a friend's PS2 just to prove I could still beat it. Man, that game truly is sweet. ^_^
Tokkar Apr 28th 2010 9:36PM
I honestly don't know what my GS rating is.
You know what?
I also honestly don't care.
If someone's going to kick me from a group, be it for a raid, a BG, an instance, or whatever, I probably don't really need to group with someone who is only interested in my gear vs. my abilities anyway. (I don't do raids anyway...well, yet...but this is a "for instance" here.)
I know some people who have crap for gear, but HOW they play is another matter altogether. Yes, there are some people who have great gear, but if they don't know how to use their abilities, it's all for naught.
I've seen people with quest reward gear and AH greens kick the crap out of things where people with blues and even a few epics wound up running from or even dying outright. Could said person have done better with better gear? Oh, no doubt...but the fact that they did awesome WITHOUT that gear says that I would like to have this person in my corner when confronting "X" big baddie.
The sad thing is, that person wouldn't be invited to the group in the situation above because their gear score sucked.
'nuff said, I think.
epic Apr 29th 2010 8:30AM
while i understand your position, but its premise is faulty, GS use is simply for pugs...there's no 2 week trial period, you don't have time to play with everyone on you server what do you have left..gear and clears to judge someone...a lot of the FUD around GS comes down to one thing THE SCORE...but that is only a small part of the actual addon...it your own personal wowarmory in game it very useful...all the banter about well skill>gear. to a point but i counter that simplistic view with "potential" barring hunters in sp gear and casters cobbling together a mess of 245 and 264 emblem gear...someone with a higher GS has greater potential...even with limited spec knowledge looking at someones gear can speak a lot to their potential...mages with talisman or resurgence...bad, mage with abyssal rune... good..and for all the mages out there with the talisman the authors of rawr would like you to use the mage setting correctly...it really a bad trinket, what mage stacks INT?
Commander Boom Apr 28th 2010 9:38PM
GS is not evil. It has never claimed to be a comprehensive mesure of a player - just a cursory examination of their gear.
Good player + Good GS = Great DPS.
Good player + Bad GS = Moderate DPS.
Bad player + Good GS = Moderate DPS.
Bad player + Bad GS = Abysmal DPS.
As a PuG leader cannot know everyone skill, a quick appraisal of their gear maximizes their chance of getting competent players.
Also, extremely high GS scores (6k+) typically suggest skilled, or at lest dedicated, players.
onetrueping Apr 28th 2010 9:45PM
...and you failed to read the article, which points out that two pieces of gear with an equal Gearscore can have wildly different benefits for a character. Which was pointed out by example in how Gearscore weights Spirit and Hit Rating for Shadow Priests.
Good Gearscore =/= Good Gear
nwoods13 Apr 28th 2010 9:53PM
what hes saying i think is that if a player is bad, he wouldnt have the means to acquire a 6k gearscore. therefore in 99% of cases id say a 6k gearscore player is as he said, at the very least dedicated
theRaptor Apr 29th 2010 2:23AM
You kidding nwoods? My guild carried around 3-5 people through most of Ulduar and through TotC*. Those people often had excellent gear yet did less DPS than the tanks. Now they wouldn't have over 6k (as due to carrying those people my guild is doing mediocre at ICC) but they could easily have 5.7-5.8k. Often their gear wasn't gemmed or enchanted (or was WRONG. aka blue stam gems) and they tended to limit the damage they could do by being dead for most encounters.
Unless someone has multiple current heroic tier gear GS means nothing except they have a high gear score.
* Hell I did 4/5 TotGC-10 carrying two scrubs.
Mystical Parrot Apr 28th 2010 9:37PM
i find the whole gearscore = win hilarious, when i'm aiming to do voa or stuff i just link fall of the lich king
Ethan Apr 29th 2010 5:24PM
And you didn't get a "okay but what's your GS"? I'm calling shenanigans.
Fluffywumpki of Kilrogg Apr 28th 2010 9:38PM
Oh, thanks for eating all of my Rs, iPhone >_
0bsolete Apr 28th 2010 9:42PM
I know I'm probably going to be downrated to hell for this but: I like gearscore. It's not accurate, but it is the best we have. I completely 100% understand that it can be manipulated, can be inaccurate, and does nothing to account for player skill. But it gives me a ballpark guess of what their rough gear level is. I don't run into many players who stack the highest item level items with complete disregard of their spec.
Don't get me wrong! I glance through everybody and make sure there aren't any major inconsistencies (druid healer stacking attack power?), and it's impossible to tell their skill before a raid begins, but the GS mod IS information. It's just not the whole picture. Skill plays a big part, but so does gear. You can say that you can't get any worthwhile information on a player from gear but who is going to go into ICC 25 man with a main tank with a 3400 gs? Of course not, they may be the most awesome tank to ever walk the face of the earth but those blows to their face are going to be hard to heal through.
Don't scream burn the mod here, it's useful as long as it's not given too much credence. The kid with the 3 point piece of bark will not make a very good pirate. I'm sorry. And if you are letting him in just because he will let you play megaman later? Then step down from the raid leading please. Pulling in your brand new 80 friend to an ICC because they are your friend, is a bad idea as well!
ilovewow Apr 28th 2010 11:13PM
I totaly agree with you. Fox said somewhere it's not totaly the bad guy as long as you don't abuse it. And you must have found a good median between GS is the devil and GS = win
PKthe13thvah Apr 29th 2010 12:46AM
I totally, completely agree with you. Let me put it in another perspective:
I started playing in January. When I hit 80 for the first time, LK had already been downed for the first time. I was literally totally in the black when it came to gearing appropriately, how hard certain raids were, etc. It's that last part that's important: with no other reference points as to how hard certain raids were, I couldn't possibly know whether I was ready for ToGC or even ICC. Sure, guildies helped me out, but GS was actually rather helpful in determining approximate gear level needed. I'd ask in trade how much was needed for ToC, then work toward the medium of what was said.
GS is not evil, or should be destroyed. It should just stop being abused.
theRaptor Apr 29th 2010 2:36AM
"I like gearscore. It's not accurate, but it is the best we have. "
No it isn't. There are many scoring systems out there that take into account stuff like, you know, gems and enchants and spec. GearScore is popular because of the ingame armory not because it has a good scoring mechanism.
Personally I use wow-heroes.com or maxdps.com, there are probably addons that use those systems as well. GearScore is like a lot of things in real life: a popular product that stays popular because it is already popular not because it is superior to the alternatives*.
The "best" system is what my guild uses. DPS on a target dummy. That at least tells you that someone knows their class enough to hit the right numbers under ideal conditions. Now days I can not get in raids in which I can do double the DPS of the people with the "right" GearScores.
* Everyone knows what a 5180 GS roughly equals. My Wow-heroes score is 2760 with enchants accounted for. If I quoted that most people wouldn't know wtf it meant.
Commander Boom Apr 28th 2010 9:59PM
And you missed the part where I said "cursory" :P .
GS is a slot-weighted measurement of Item level. Thus, it is useful in a basic capacity for analyzing a players gear, which is all it has ever been meant to do.
If players equip gear that is poorly itemized for them, they may be inflating their GS, but would do poorly on the as of yet unimplemented BrainScore meter.
splodesondeath Apr 28th 2010 10:03PM
Sigh. I have a friend who cannot see the evils of GearScore. However, he has bugged me about his DPS not being so great in the past. Too bad he's much too arrogant to see the light.
nwoods13 Apr 28th 2010 10:04PM
We need an EPEEN meter to put an end to all this gearscore crap. EPEEN = skill imho
Hih Apr 29th 2010 2:27AM
There actually is an epeen addon you can download that takes your and everyone around you's gearscore and gives you the same visual representation that the epeen april fools joke did.
Celeane Apr 28th 2010 10:07PM
Yay, great article! If I could get one thing through people's heads, it would be to stand up for gearing choices that are right until you get the appropriate upgrade. Boo on raid leaders who discriminate because you still have an Ulduar trinket if it's the best one for the job.