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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsAsk Mr. Robot: What gear should you get?
by Matt Low 
Feb 9th 2011 at 9:00AM
I'm not the best person when it comes to really optimizing and min-maxing my characters. I read up on the theory, but much of it goes way over my head. I'm just not that great when it comes to numbers. But hey, there is a new site out there for players like me who have difficulty with this kind of stuff. If you're looking for a gear optimizer, go ahead and Ask Mr. Robot. If you're not sure which item is the best you can get for the content you're doing, you can use Ask Mr. Robot to show you what the optimal drops are. Not only that, it even tells you how you should gem, enchant and reforge.
Let's take a closer look.
Let's take a closer look.
I'll take the jump and throw my character up here as a guinea pig. The import process is a breeze. All you do is enter your server name and character name before it pulls up your character information. If you don't want to import your character from the armory, you can always create a gear list for different classes and specs.
On the left side, you can see a list of my current gear. If I wanted to, I can hit the switch for the best in slot tab and load up a list of items Ask Mr. Robot thinks is best for me. If you're not much of a raider, there are a few checkboxes that let you limit the pool of items (from heroic raids, raids or dungeons). If you want, you can exclude items from archaeology, the Darkmoon Fair, random world drops or anything too expensive.
On the right side, you can see the gems I'm using, my enchants and any reforging that I've done. A red border indicates the enhancement isn't the most optimal choice. If you're not sure where to find the item in question, hit the drop location tab, and it will tell you exactly where to go to get a certain item.
But here's the real beauty of this tool: If you press the optimize button, it will give you the recommended gems, enchants and stats to reforge based on stat weights. For you theorycrafters out there, you can adjust the stat weights however you like. There's a feedback button in the event you feel the stat weights or gear lists are wrong.
Matticus: After
This is what is recommended for my character after optimization. It turns out I've been doing it all wrong. It might be time for me to make a few adjustments to my gear!
If you need a hand with your character, give Ask Mr. Robot a shot and just try it. Oh, before I forget, you can always come back at a later time and load up your character again. Ask Mr. Robot remembers recent characters that you've loaded for a quick reference later.
This is what is recommended for my character after optimization. It turns out I've been doing it all wrong. It might be time for me to make a few adjustments to my gear!
If you need a hand with your character, give Ask Mr. Robot a shot and just try it. Oh, before I forget, you can always come back at a later time and load up your character again. Ask Mr. Robot remembers recent characters that you've loaded for a quick reference later.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 7)
Mandelion Feb 9th 2011 2:21PM
This would be important to know! If the main article had mentioned that this tool is only good for max level players well into Heroics, I know I would not have visited the site for a while yet. (Not sure why half of my previous post just vanished).
revulva Feb 9th 2011 2:36PM
You can optimize the gems, enchants, and reforges on any character. Just keep in mind that it will always recommend rare quality gems since they're not that expensive and most of the enchants require items level 300 or higher.
It won't recommend item level 333 or lower gear or where to find it, but, any item that is a heroic 346 level item can be found in normal dungeons as a lower item level version. All the other items for "pre-raid" gear are off of vendors, rep, or crafted gear - so very accessible to characters doing any sort of dungeon content.
Boobah Feb 9th 2011 2:52PM
It also recommends items that aren't actually in-game, but appear in the data files. Like heroic quality trash loot (not for raids, not for 5-mans. Sorry. No infinitely farmable heroic drops.). Oh, and the i346 tank gun doesn't drop anywhere, either, but Ask Mr. Robot was still recommending it for warriors.
revulva Feb 9th 2011 3:08PM
We noticed that Thundercall isn't actually in the game yet. That item will be removed in our update later today.
Can you give an example of these other items that are not available? We think we removed all of the item level 346 trash drops that don't exist some time ago.
Jake Feb 9th 2011 4:02PM
Actually as of Tuesday Thundercall is in the game now.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=56376#comments
Scroll to bottom of comments.
Scritty Feb 9th 2011 2:28PM
"Gentlemen, According to my spreadsheet...
The Scourge have BEEN CRUSHED"
Every lead designer should be proud of the day when their creation "grows up" and stops being a game and becomes a collossal bore.
Good signs to look out for phrases like;
"My defense percentage would benefit from 20 extra agility points before I start to suffer from diminishing returns and should then focus on Dodge - however respeccing Dodge would mean lowering Stam and in turn I would not be maxing out my......."
Great fun?
Is it?
I guess my idea of fun and most other people's must differ in a very big way.
Boobah Feb 9th 2011 2:56PM
Right. Because people are using things like Rawr and Ask Mr. Robot because they find crunching the numbers themselves 'fun.' Which is why they're automating it so they don't have to.
Yep. My reaction to fun is certainly to get the computer to do as much of it for me under the hood and out of sight as I can manage.
On the other hand, getting the most out of the gear I do have, and knowing what gear is an upgrade? That's fun, or at least leads me closer to it and more of my free time having it.
Xayíde Feb 9th 2011 3:36PM
"I guess my idea of fun and most other people's must differ in a very big way."
And you've realized this NOW? Newsflash: different people have different interests =)
But I must agree to the above poster. If you DON'T like number crunching then this tool is for you.
Plus, the min-maxing aspect of WoW is only for the ones that either dig it or are very hardcore players. If you only run normal mode, a wrong reforge here and a wrong gem there won't make a big difference...
Scritty Feb 9th 2011 5:48PM
I agree with you to a point.
All the derived stats are a bit of a bore for me.
The base stats are fine - but when you start getting into interlocking algorithms and relationships between derived statistics - then I switch off.
For a warrior - more STR should mean more damage
more AG should mean hit less often and more STAM mean survive more hits.
That's it. A simple relationship between your current level and a desirable or achievable maximum for these stats and you're good to go.
Yeah I know I'm in a minority - perhaps it's because I use spreadsheets and prepare stats for my Director at work all day
When I get home the last game I want to play is one where I have to work out the relationships between a load of numbers.
If my STR is high enough - I want to press "attack" and do more damage - and that's it.
The reason Blizz do it is to have a very descrete and slow progress chart that still keeps the player involved by having "big numbers that in reality don't add up to much"
I mean these days - what's an extra 120 STR to a tanking Paladin?
Not a lot
scherbaddie Feb 9th 2011 6:35PM
"For a warrior - more STR should mean more damage, more AGI should mean hit less often and more STAM mean survive more hits."
All 3 of these things are true.
"I mean these days - what's an extra 120 STR to a tanking Paladin?"
Like you said above, more STR means more damage. But damage is not a tanking Paladin's primary role.
If you don't want to use spreadsheets / click a magic button on a website (which, really, is a very simple task). Just go off item level and make sure your gear has tanky stats, not dps stats. You'll do fine in 5 man heroics and probably even normal raids. You'll just get there a bit slower than people who put in more effort.
"If my STR is high enough - I want to press "attack" and do more damage - and that's it."
No class is going to do well at anything just pressing "attack" and that's it, but lets just assume that's not what you meant here.
Omellette Feb 9th 2011 3:09PM
I like it -- it's a great tool for those of us who want a quick recommendation of what is (or is almost) the best, without having to deal with applied calculus. Being a casual raider still gearing through heroics, this is PERFECT for me.
The only thing that I think would make it even better is to be able to print not just the single best item for each slot, but rather that top 5 or 10 (user-defined, of course) for each slot, to give people a progression to work through.
Basically, people can't expect to walk in and get the BiS piece instantly -- we all work our way up the ladder to that point. It'd be nice to have in hand more than just the last step while playing, if we choose to print things out.
Lemons Feb 9th 2011 4:04PM
I think I'll just wait for the EJ wizards to finish their rogue spreadsheet...which is taking forever because they're trying to make it into some sort of webapp thing. I'm tired of going to a website to do literally everything, give me an excel spreadsheet over that any day.
jfofla Feb 9th 2011 4:10PM
I will take Mr Robot thanks.
Running an excel spreadsheet is like a hot poker where the sun don't shine to me.
Camden Feb 9th 2011 4:15PM
So how is this different to http://gear-wishlist.appspot.com/ ?
Zoop Feb 9th 2011 4:35PM
@Camden, you must be giving us a softball, the answer is easy. Although it loads from the armory, it doesn't factor in a lot of important things. The first thing the site told me when I loaded my character was: "Rankings include gems but not meta activation. These default rankings do not use character stats, raid buffs, nor set bonuses"
Mr. Robot includes meta activation, decides if gem socket bonuses are worth it, calculates and weights set bonuses, uses character stats, applies full raid buffs, and so on.
albrecht.zimmermann Feb 9th 2011 4:59PM
Ran my SV hunter on it and it suggested some reforging that made sense and helped me to go heavily for crit. Having said that, when all was said and done, Mr Robot left me under the hit cap, even tho it correctly rated hit next-highest weighted after ranged dmg & agility.
revulva Feb 9th 2011 6:33PM
Mr. Robot will get you close to the hit cap, but not necessarily over it. Usually you will be within 0.5% of the hit cap. Sometimes a bit over, sometimes a bit under depending on what gear you have.
If you are finding something that seems much further away from the hit cap, please post up your example for us to check out.
BigRed Feb 10th 2011 1:22AM
True, I was at 7.66% after that, so within those 0.5 percentage points. But especially in terms of interrupts, disspells etc, being below the cap is very undesirable, the way I understand it, so maybe the code can be altered to enforce reaching the hit cap even if it means slightly exceeding it.
Once I go for reaching the cap by ignoring one of the reforge suggestions, I end up at 8.03%, so the excess is truly minimal.
revulva Feb 10th 2011 1:42AM
We will give that some thought... it might be more complicated than it seems to add in an option to never go under the hit cap. I can definitely see the value, though.
Katherine Feb 9th 2011 5:01PM
Blizzard hates me :( Mr Robot can't load my characters. And the armory is up!