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 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 7 of 7)
Kole Feb 9th 2011 5:25PM
I just need to say....I have been using this site since it was mentioned in the simcrafting article and I FREAKING LOVE IT. I have also told my raid team about it. We all use it as a tool now.
Thank you for taking the time to create it! Long live Mr Robot!!
Katherine Feb 9th 2011 5:28PM
It would be nice if we could change the hit cap. Most of my alts are only ever going to run heroics, so having 17% spell hit is useless, but I can't tell Mr. Robot to optimise for 8% instead.
revulva Feb 9th 2011 6:31PM
We have actually had multiple requests for this... It is on our list of features to possibly add.
Rayel Feb 9th 2011 5:59PM
I still can't get my char to come up... /cry
revulva Feb 9th 2011 6:30PM
We just posted an update - armory loading is now functioning again! Sorry about that whole issue. We were using the old armory xml feeds and that is the one that locked us out. We spent the afternoon writing code to parse the battle.net html and now we are back in business!
If you see any minor bugs in character loading, please let us know on our technical support forum so we can fix it right away! We didn't have a ton of time to test this new code, since we wanted to get it out to everyone ASAP.
Tech support forum:
http://forums.askmrrobot.com/index.php?board=3.0
Fataliaa Feb 9th 2011 7:41PM
if i follow all the optimization its telling me to do, i'm going to end up way higher than hit-capped...
Fataliaa Feb 9th 2011 7:42PM
Fataliaa @ Proudmoore
Fataliaa Feb 9th 2011 7:44PM
nevermind, it's because of the gems
Dan Feb 9th 2011 10:59PM
Tried it out, not going to take Mr. robots optimaztion suggestions as it would leave like 15% under hit cap. Looks nice and sounds awesome in theory just doesn'
t deliver.
revulva Feb 10th 2011 1:45AM
Can you give us a link to the example where the results don't look good for you? Character name/server would work too. I can promise you that Mr. Robot will never leave someone 15% under the hit cap unless they changed the stat weights to make hit a very low value.
Scritty Feb 10th 2011 4:32AM
Yeah it is. Perhaps I'm just getting cheesed off with the whole thing.
I think your assuming I haven't raided. I was maxxed out gear wise for 3 characters (at least up to Ruby Sanctum) drops, and these characters have been pretty much maxxed since back to patch 2.4 Sunwell. I raid 2-3 times a week, and have done for 6 years
I've done all the stats, worked out maxxing damage mitigation, and sometimes DPS, or burst healing for my preist - and every other stat and equipment relationship I can think of.
I'm just bored of doing it. Bored of the game relying on it to remain competitive (at least at the top level).
I think If I HADN'T been a top level raider for so long I'd be satisfied. It's the fact that my guild got some GF's in WotLK and personally I got close to a few RF's in the past that means stepping back and playing a more relaxing style is not going to satisfy me. Conversely continuing at the top of the tree now requires commitment to stat based activities that I now find very very tedious.
I understand them perfectly - I just don't want to do them any more.
Perhaps I just need to quit and admit I've had all the "juice" i'm ever going to get from this game. Now raiding in Cataclysm and the sense of Deja Vu is palpable.
"I've been here before" - "different GFX - more or less the same process"
The more I write this the more I realise how I probably need a long break from the game. Even the end game has become a "meh" grind now. Nothing seems new or innovative or exciting. There is no mechanic or substance that I'm experiencing that isn't (at least in most respects) the same as it was in 2005.
I can't believe I've just written that. Who said typng can't be cathartic?
scherbaddie Feb 16th 2011 7:42PM
Still not sure why you're posting this here (though I did stop reading when you went off topic and started listing your raiding history).
If you are tired of doing all the stat research, use this fabulous tool instead. This article, and this tool are exactly what you need, so why are you complaining?
Xayíde Feb 10th 2011 9:39AM
"There is no exact solution for optimizing gear anywhere."
Maybe, but it's not impossible to do it.
"Approximate is the key term here. "
Alright, but some approximations can be better than others.
"Mr. Robot does handle soft caps well. An example would be a class like holy priests. Haste is very valuable to them up to 12.5%, then they don't want it anymore. On Mr. Robot's site you can enter in a weight for haste up to 12.5% and a weight for haste after 12.5%. This will then create a gear solution that devalues haste after 12.5%. This other tool you are talking about cannot do this."
What about Destruction Warlocks? Their haste function does not work like that.
My point is it's a much harder problem that it seems. Each point of stat you add or remove changes all the stats' weights. Stat weights work well if you work with areas close to the current values (and in some cases not even that as is the case of caps, soft or not). Simply adding values before and after the cap is not "handling them well" for me... For hard caps it's easy since the value after the cap is zero.
Yes, the tool cannot do this right now but it's something that maybe could be added (see my comment below).
"This other tool just does not do anything that Mr. Robot doesn't - it does less. It is strange that you are coming here and saying that people should use an incomplete tool with less features and comparable accuracy."
Ok, I have expressed myself poorly. What I meant, and I know that's not what I actually said, is that that tool has the potential to do a better job than Mr Robot because of its different philosophy, more specifically due to the different algorithm it uses. It may not do that right now because it's still very immature in the sense that it's in its early versions and has less features.
If you look at the whole picture, yes Mr Robot may be more helpful right now for some people depending on what they want exactly, but I believe that other tool may grow into something better.
Anyway, even right now it works better for me than Mr Robot, although that is not true for every player or every class. If I want upgrade lists, I just input my stat weights on wowhead (actually after I run Simcraft, it already gives me the link that does this so I don't have to input them manually). If my goal is to optimize my gemming and reforging for my CURRENT gear, I use this and it does a better job than Mr Robot.
I was merely suggesting another option which I find that works better for myself considering what I'm looking for in an optimization tool. Maybe that's not the case for you or even many others, but surely is for at least some.
revulva Feb 10th 2011 1:06PM
You now backpedal and rephrase what you said as: this other tool has the "potential" to be "better" than Mr. Robot because... you just think it could be.
Well, while you wait for that to happen, Mr. Robot is a professional-quality site that is being maintained and improved on a daily basis. Users don't want "potentially" good tools to use - they want finished products that work well. Enter: Mr. Robot.
Rodger Feb 18th 2011 2:52AM
I've spent a lot of time evaluating all the different optimization tools and Mr Robot, like others, is very good, but not *the* best. If you are a tad OCD like me or just want the absolute best combo across all your gear, with the comforting knowledge that every possible combination had been evaluated, try the WoW Gear Optimizer by Rhad (http://wgoblog.betblackboard.com/). I've tried them all, they all give "pretty good" advice, but not "the absolute best", like Rhad's tool. ymmv.
shcbc Sep 5th 2011 3:39PM
What is the difference between a Plasma and Smart TV.