ItemLevel Fever - Don’t Catch It
You’ve run Karazhan and gotten through Shade of Aran. You’re karma is good, and the Drape of the Dark Reaver drops. The loot-gods smile and you win it. Huzzah!
You go further into Kara eventually down Prince. Your loot-hax hasn’t been discovered by Blizz, and you cause the Farstrider Wildercloak to drop. You ninja it, good and proper, hearth back to Shat, and slap that puppy on. It’s got an ItemLevel of 125; it must be better than the Dark Reaver cloak, of course!
Not so quick, sassafrass.
Our good buddy Rating Buster comes out, caresses your face and bonks you on yer noggin. Look at the stats, not the item-level:
You can configure Rating Buster to show you many stats and stat-differences. What we see here is the some of the computations that result from comparing the two cloaks against each other. We equipped one, compared the other to it, than reversed the process.
Is it good to know that the DotDR has 36 Agility and the FW has 12? Sure. But what happens to that Agility? It becomes Armor, Crit Chance, and Ranged Attack Power. And the cloak with the lower ItemLevel actually has more Armor and Crit Chance than the cloak with the higher ItemLevel.
But what about our bread-n-butter, Ranged Attack Power. The FW has more of that than the DotDR, doesn’t it. Well yes it does. One could then reasonably think, “What’s more important: +12 RAP or +0.60% Crit?” And one could actually make a mathematical model and calculate the effects these would have on one’s specific gear.
But wait!
The “lesser” cloak has one more thing going for it: Hit Chance. Is your Hit Rating 142, are you hit-capped so you’ll never miss against level 73 bosses, (those found in Kara and beyond?) If not, then DotDR is your choice, regardless of the Crit/RAP argument.
Missing shots can be a big loss of DPS over time. Getting your hit rating as close to 142 is a critical part of hunter-gear itemization.
If you look at our armory profile, you’ll see that our current hit rating is 117. We used to be hit-capped, but our Tier 5 gear and the Badge of Justice ring we’ve picked up have no hit rating and are replacing gear that did. Since our raiding party has been giving us +Hit bonuses, and our WWS reports aren’t showing that we’re missing more than one shot per raid boss, we’re not going to freak out and start putting our old hit-rating-gear back on.
But when the FW cloak dropped into our greedy clutches, we immediately assumed it was a good upgrade for us over our DotDR and spent the gold on the +12 Agility enchant. But we’re not going to use this cloak, as even though it is a “higher level” piece of gear, for us it’s not a “better” piece of gear.
Remember that ItemLevel is a guide, not a Rule. Do your research and itemize yourself based on stats, not ItemLevel.
Indy on 26 Apr 2008 at 9:55 am #
Not going to disagree with you here… your point is quite correct. The Farstrider Wildercloak could, however, be of use in a PVP gear set… unless you’ve got something with good STA and resiliance instead.
Knurd on 26 Apr 2008 at 10:42 am #
The only thing I would have added to this is when comparing gear, (outside and instance when you have time), cheeky’s spreadsheet is a wonderful thing for determining if something is a true upgrade.
That addon is invaluable for on the fly calculations however.
Doogie2K on 26 Apr 2008 at 11:26 am #
Every so often, you run into a piece of gear so badly itemized, you wonder who the hell thought (a) this was a good idea, and (b) that anyone would want it. Like, say, [url=http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30643][Belt of the Tracker][/url]. Unless you’ve got a Level 63 green or something, how can that possibly be an upgrade? Your cloak isn’t quite that bad, but it does seem pretty silly to only have two stats (especially when one of them’s a “substat” like AP) on a purple anything (excluding relics), all things considered.
Nick S. on 26 Apr 2008 at 1:12 pm #
yes, to all of this.
the item budget model leads to some really weird pieces.
consider, for example, the spellfire/frozen shadowweave sets. despite having a relatively low item level (iLevel 105), they are solid pieces well into content that drops iLevel 125+ gear.
why? because the item budget is spent on stats that DPSers need! spell damage! lots and lots of it!
my mage is hitting the point in raiding where i’m beginning to prioritize staying alive, staying in mana, and outputting more damage with less DPS time, so i’m starting to prioritize stats like stam, int, and haste. before the latest content we’ve reached (late ZA, Gruul, Mag, early TK), though, spell hit and spell damage was IT.
Doogie2K on 26 Apr 2008 at 2:20 pm #
(Dang it, I forgot to edit my post above — stupid BBCode/HTML mixups.)
Another example of what Nick’s talking about is with my Warrior’s shoulders. I could get the Tier 5 Shoulders off VR…or I could stick with my Doom Lord Kazzak shoulders, which have exceedingly similar DPS stats, but no Stamina and less Armor. If I’m getting hit hard enough to die, I’m gonna die no matter how much Stamina I have, since I’m not a tank, so I’ll save my SK placement for a clearer upgrade, thanks.
Contrary on 26 Apr 2008 at 2:51 pm #
Agree with you there. Farstrider dropped for me in Kara this week, but I was hoping for DotDR. =/ Still an upgrade over what I had though.
Ringo Flinthammer on 26 Apr 2008 at 3:02 pm #
It would only be good in a PvP set temporarily, until you got enough badges (hey, you ARE doing Kara!) to get Dory’s Embrace, which is far superior for PvP.
Indy on 26 Apr 2008 at 5:54 pm #
Well, a raider might prefer to save badges towards new PVE badge pieces from the SSO armory vendor, instead of spending them on a pvp peice. Certainly that’s my approach, but YMMV.
Ivaldi, Pumbaa and Owl on 27 Apr 2008 at 2:41 am #
“What’s more important: +12 RAP or +0.60% Crit?”
Kings strengthens the argument for the Drape. It’s a slight difference, but I always take it into account when comparing raiding gear.
As for those criticizing the statistics, don’t lose the bigger picture. To other classes this may be much more valuable.
Felandra on 27 Apr 2008 at 10:51 am #
The Farstrider might have some merit for an MM Hunter or perhaps a Kitty Druid. But honestly it is a lousy item for it’s level. I have passed on it I think three times now. Of course I have the considerably well designed Blood Knight Warcloak. Too bad it is so good that whenever the Drape drops someone else has more need for it… *sigh*
Zumwaliku on 27 Apr 2008 at 12:05 pm #
Long time lurker here. Just a thought, Cloak of the Coming Night drops in reg MgT. I’ve been crunching the numbers on it (18stam,12hit,18haste,38AP) in Cheeky’s spreadsheet and it appears to come out on top of most capes (Farstrider Wildercloak, Drape of Dark Reavers, Dory’s Embrace, and Blood Knight War Cloak all included) available to me (not yet in 25man stuff). Not entirely certain why this is the case, except maybe that haste is a godly stat. Anybody else noticed this cape yet?
~Zumwaliku and Kevasha
Guy on 28 Apr 2008 at 9:34 am #
I keep nearly every piece of loot that has ever dropped for me.
Off-spec, old sets, +hit pieces, anything with sockets…
It’s all usefull down the road.
When my guild started crafting our SR I was the first one to hit 300sr and I did it with the guild supplied cloak and only 3 more HoDs.
Old gear you can socket is a big winner here. I’m at 300sr while giving up few other stats.
Hold on to your old stuff, you never know how usefull it can be.
WB on 28 Apr 2008 at 1:10 pm #
I agree with Guy and BRK. As higher gear drops, the value of other items changes. I’d passed on wrist pieces in SSC three times because the itemization gave +hit, which I already have to much of. So I continue to use the ones from Gruul. Eventually, I got the bracers for a song (no one else needed them) and they are in the bank becuase eventually I’ll need to supplement my +hit as other pieces get replaced.
But, it pains me to have to spend one day’s worth of dailies for yet another bag slot in my bank.
Baetylus on 28 Apr 2008 at 1:30 pm #
Ha! Finally an opportunity to mention my surprise at how long my BLUE necklace has been useful.
The Necklace of the Deep (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32508)
is a jewelcrafted item.
+21 agility
+20 stamina
2 Red Sockets
Two Red Sockets! That means I can put in those Red Spinels from the BoJ vendor on the new isle and have a +41 Agility Necklace.
Or, there are alot of epic gems around now that you could socket and have different necklaces to compliment what ever outfit you are wearing.
or it’ll make a nice gift for that level 65 hunter.
Baetylus & Magrathea of Hyjal
Bravehawk on 28 Apr 2008 at 4:30 pm #
As a hunter who is changing out gear and upgrading T5 for T6, I’m finding hit rating is dropping (T6 doesn’t have hit rating like T5 did /sob.) So, while I do wear the cloak that drops off Kael in TK, I still have Drape of the DR b/c as I am gemming for +5hit+5agil I’m going to use either the Drape or the Spicy hot talbuk to make sure I stay at the hit cap. It’s challenging as I re-work rings and non-tier gear to keep the hit cap. Drape is one of the best in the game for hunters of any spec…don’t ever dismiss it.
Sonvar on 28 Apr 2008 at 4:38 pm #
Heck I was just happy to have DoDR as it was was the first upgrade I’d gotten in a while that was a true upgrade without giving up stats. As up to that point I’d been wearing Delicate Green Poncho.
Though when we downed Prince later that week the Farstrider cloak dropped and I turned it down so our other hunter could pick it up. And I didn’t regret it all. Now if no else needs it and it should drop again maybe I’ll pick it up but it’s not something I’m dying to get at all.