Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsIs reforging a hit or a miss?
by Anne Stickney 
Mar 12th 2012 at 7:00PM
It's always the same. Just when I get everything all sorted out neatly, a new piece of upgrade gear drops. If I win the gear, the next half-hour or so after raid is spent digging up gems, cutting them to the appropriate cut, then nabbing enchant mats and making sure the item is enchanted properly. And after all that is done and I put the gear on, I log out and back into the game so that the armory updates. Then I alt-tab out of the game and pull up my reforge site du jour (rogues, Shadowcraft is an amazing, amazing thing), put the window on my second monitor, tab back into the game and reforge it all.
And hopefully when I'm done with all of that, I'll have precisely enough hit to cap without going over, and all of that useless crit will be a thing of the past. It's not a hugely complicated process, but it is a process -- one that I repeat with each new piece of gear I obtain. I generally get far more out of reforging than I ever did with simple gemming and enchanting from the Wrath era. However, I also understand all these different stats and which ones are good, something a new player might not be aware of.
So is the reforging process a hit with this expansion or a miss?
And hopefully when I'm done with all of that, I'll have precisely enough hit to cap without going over, and all of that useless crit will be a thing of the past. It's not a hugely complicated process, but it is a process -- one that I repeat with each new piece of gear I obtain. I generally get far more out of reforging than I ever did with simple gemming and enchanting from the Wrath era. However, I also understand all these different stats and which ones are good, something a new player might not be aware of.
So is the reforging process a hit with this expansion or a miss?
I remember the days of Wrath and how complex it was to get gear. You wanted a specific piece of gear for a specific set of stats to reach a specific number. While you waited for that ideal piece of gear, you had to make do with whatever gear you happened to find and hope that the numbers added up. For example, rogues look for a specific amount of hit at all times. If you couldn't make it to the ideal hit number with gear alone, you had to gem for hit, as much as you could, in the hopes that you'd reach that ideal number.
Should that be something that's put into place? Should the reforgers perhaps make subtle recommendations to new players on what they ought to be after? Not an outright refusal to reforge, of course, but perhaps seeing a mage reforge all crit to stam could result in a snooty "... Are you sure about that?" from the ethereal reforgers.
In the end, though, I can't really argue with The Grumpy Elf's assessment -- we have never been so in control of our gear and the benefits we gain from it. Reforging is an incredibly useful tool that allows players to have a say in what their gear does for them, rather than simply hoping for that one ideal piece that never, ever seems to drop.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Boobah Mar 13th 2012 4:06AM
I find that reforging makes determining upgrades easier, not harder, because I know I can always make my minimum secondary stats, even if the piece I'm swapping out had lots and the one I'm swapping in has none. Back in Wrath you'd end up having to re-enchant and regem if you finally replaced your hit trinket; now a quick trip to the reforger and you can trade some of your second-best stat for hit.
Yes, it costs a bit of cash... but compared to my income these days, it's less than I spent adding and removing hit gems/enchants.
And arbitrarily putting a limit on how much of your gear you can reforge really wouldn't save you anything; you'd still be reforging just about every time you got a new piece of gear, because you'd still have those stat caps to gear around.
Angus Mar 13th 2012 10:01AM
I agree 100%. It's a gold sink, a time waster and incredibly annoying. It is also an excuse to put horrible stats on gear for the class you know will use it and have the rather lame excuse "you can reforge it". Sorry, but when tier 12 is packed with the only secondary stat that isn't crap for a spec, and tier 13 has 2 pieces with it, someone dropped the ball. (look at enhance tier 13)
It's
Enchanting the gear, basically. If it did not cost a ton of gold EVERY TIME I got an upgrade, I'd almost be okay with it, but come on...
Nathanyel Mar 12th 2012 7:14PM
Reforgenator. Ingame reforging calculations with rules, stat weights and all that :)
gymboy91 Mar 12th 2012 7:14PM
Definitely a hit!
-Helps to hit caps nicely (haste, hit, expertise)
-If your class doesn't like a certain secondary stat on that piece of gear but it is still an upgrade, you can get rid of some of it for a better stat
-Easy to try new stat combinations without having to change all your gear (Holy Paladins stacking mastery vs haste) to see which works better
But it isn't so powerful that if you don't reforge your gear, you must "fail" at your class. I really enjoy it and think Blizz did a very good job with reforging!
incoming00 Mar 12th 2012 7:15PM
i love reforging, but i hate having to reforge a whole set of gear based on spec. i just wish reforging could be saved based on spec, so when i switch specs, my reforges switch with it too. i can still tinker with certain items, but this way it'll ease the pain when trying out a new BM spec on my hunter, or a new Destro spec for my warlock...
Schadenfreude Mar 12th 2012 8:37PM
Yeah, this-- it's holding me back from going bear tank on my druid, all the gemming and reforging needed.
Skyrei Mar 12th 2012 10:08PM
While this is technically not available... there is an add-on called Reforgesaver.
You can save a set and it will save how each piece is reforged in that set. So a Mage could have one for their fire spec and another for their arcane spec, etc etc
Boobah Mar 13th 2012 4:08AM
Maybe so, but you still either have to have two sets of gear or head back to the reforger every time you switch specs.
monotype Mar 12th 2012 7:15PM
Reforging is amazing. It's easy to grasp, but scales really well with different portions of the player base -- min/maxers can use it to hit just the right plateaus, tweaking as necessary for the perfect balance, while more casual players can just dump all their stats into whatever is baseline best for their class/spec and be happy that they're performing better than before. A+++, would give all my money to the ethereals again (and frequently do, multiple times a week).
Titusx Mar 12th 2012 7:15PM
Well, I play enhancement and I've never even seen any of those reforging addons or logged into anything like mr robot or what not.
Gemming? Red is pure stat, agility in my case. Yellow is pure stat + best secondary, agility mastery for me. Blue, Pure stat + hit. Never have an issue. Settle all the caps by reforging haste and crit and leave mastery alone.
It sounds like a lot of stuff but I've never gotten much trouble with anything other than the right amount of expertise and even then it just take a few reforge changes to make it click. It cost a bit of gold to guess it but nothing that'll make you poor.
After that, the enchants are set and the gear pool isn't so great that you end up with something other than 2 options at most.
Methuus Mar 12th 2012 7:18PM
I think a hit and a miss.
A hit in the sense that the old game of gear juggling wasn't fun or satisfying.
But a miss because there's usually a "right answer" for reforging and you just go to a website, find the right answer, and do it.
But I'm not sure how Blizzard solves this conflict. The old system was annoying, but the new system doesn't really have any "interesting choices" (as blizzard likes to say).
Sir Broose Mar 12th 2012 9:25PM
I never really thought of reforging as an attempt to give interesting options. I thought of it as an opportunity to use pieces of gear your normally wouldn't want, because you can make more pieces work together. It gives more options to what can be useful to you. Before reforging, people still min-maxed - there was still a "right answer" about what stats you need, but instead of reforging, it meant you just couldn't use certain pieces at all.
xenothaulus Mar 12th 2012 7:21PM
I love reforging, but I love min/maxing stats and gear. More of this kind of thing, please, Blizzard, not continual removing of and/or dumbing down of the numbers. :|
Paul Mar 12th 2012 7:22PM
I love reforging. It is the control over the power of my character that all the incarnations of the Glyph and Talent systems have failed to deliver on (but that's because I hate the "get it right, leave it alone for months on end" way that those two systems function for DPS classes).
It is a pain, however, that in the middle of a raid, I can drastically under perform after getting a new, more powerful, item because I lost 2%+ hit rating. Luckily I raid with people that don't drop bricks when someone is slightly off their game, and have a 5-10 minute break halfway through a raid, allowing me time to run off and fix myself, but I fully understand that that is not the way of things with every other guild.
A guild perk to summon an Etheral Reforger would be very much appreciated.
Paul Mar 12th 2012 7:25PM
Oh, I would like to see a in-game version of the Reforge Saver mod. Switching specs, only to have your stats set incorrectly is another deterrent against players that would like to run with two specs, optimising themselves for which ever encounter worked better.
Boobah Mar 13th 2012 4:17AM
Which sounds reasonable until you look at the hybrids. A caster/feral druid, enhance/caster shaman, prot/DPS warrior, blood/DPS DK, or a paladin can't just reforge to use a different spec. On the other hand, if you can reforge for a different spec, you've got a powerful edge already when it comes to gearing your offspec.
Chase Mar 12th 2012 7:24PM
AskMrRobot.com and done. You should load your toon up before you buy or enchant something. You may get more bang for your buck, or may save yourself from reforging or regemming again.
Flik Mar 14th 2012 6:25PM
I actually don't like Mr. Robot. It had me reforging some strange combinations of things so I switched to the ReforgeLite addon. I'm much happier with the stats it gives me and if I go back to Mr. Robot, it doesn't tell me to do anything different. I found that to be a little strange actually. The addon gives me totally different stats than Mr. Robot did but Mr. Robot has no objections to it.
RedMosquito Mar 12th 2012 7:26PM
It's a hit in the sense that it does exactly what it's supposed to do, and does it well. If you want to have a higher degree of control over your secondary stats, well, now you can.
But to me it's a big miss in the sense that it's very unintuitive. The mere fact that I have to either use an addon or visit a website to find out what I should be reforging into what puts a big stain on the whole feature.
Perhaps Blizzard should add some sort of "suggestion" options on the reforging interface that clearly states what you should aim for to reach your hit/expertise caps, at the very least.
If you look at the previewed talents and abilities for Mists of Pandaria, it looks like Blizzard wants each spec (in the case of classes with multiple DPS specs) to very clearly focus on one particular attribute (i.e, Mages go with Haste for Frost, Crit for Fire or Mastery for Arcane). If that is the case, and those stats end up being the best option for their specs, and the game makes that very clear to the player, then I think the whole reforging process will become much more intuitive.
Puntable Mar 12th 2012 11:41PM
I never found understanding hit and expertise to be hard using the default UI.
Concerning your second point... I thought Blizzard's intent is to try and make all the secondary stats of equal weight.