Using the Calculator to Compare Gear

So, as promised (albeit a bit late), today I want to show the kind of thought process I use when considering gear upgrades. In particular, I want to look at two items: Upgrading my Heavy Clefthoof Chest to T4, and swapping in the new Alchemist's Stone upgrade for my Pocketwatch. In order to facilitate multi-swapping, note that I've added space to put in up to 5 new items and 5 old items in the spreadsheet, instead of having to calculate the total changes yourself. There are also new tabs for talent spec, but those are a work in progress. Lets start with the chest, since I already have some numbers prepared from the other day. . .

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The Chest/Bracers Double Swap:

So, we already have the stat difference from simply swapping the two chests (corrected for my gem preferences: 12 stam, 6 stam/4 agi, and 6 stam/4 defense). But alas, theres one glaring problem from this straight swap: I become crittable, as I'm right now at -2.61% crit out of -2.6 I need. So I'm going to add a second item swap to this: Swapping out my Bands of the Swift Paw for the Vindicator's Leather Bracers *gag*. I'm also going to swap out my 5 resilience/6 stamina gem for a +8 resilience gem (the resilience on the bracers, alone, isn't enough to shore up uncrittability). So, with the double gear swap, my change in stats looks like this:




Now, at first I was worried that the downgrade to my bracers was going to overcome the upgrade to my chest, but looking at these numbers, I guess not. I still gain 293 armor and over 2% avoidance, as well as a nice chunk of threat (mostly crit, and I forgot to add in 26 attack power also), as well as 1% less DoT damage (hello Nalorakk. . . ), at a measly cost of 68 health. Now if only Magtheridon would only drop the dang token when I'm there!

Not likely now, though, since he and I got REAL friendly last Saturday. Got to tank the sucker for the first time, and it was a oneshot despite doing the fight with only three tanks (I tanked the first two 'locks, paladin tanked 3 and 4, both of us had misdirects to help pick up the seconds). But, that is completely off topic. . .

The Guardian's Alchemist Stone

For those who haven't heard, there are four new Alchemist Stones available on the 2.4 PTR, created from the original stone, some Nether Vortex (which will be purchasable) and other materials. One of these stones is the Guardian's Alchemist Stone, which trades in the +15 to all stats in order to pick up a whopping 54 defense rating. If I decide to make this (which requires making my base Alchemist Stone as well, ick), I would be replacing my Moroes' Lucky Pocketwatch with it, losing a bunch of dodge and half of BearVasion. On the plus side, I would be getting an extra 1200 or so health from the Hunnypot, so its not all a loss from an emergency button perspective.

The question becomes, is it worth losing bearvasion over? Well, lets look at the upgrades I can pick up via re-enchanting, regemming, and getting rid of those PvP bracers from above (gee, that was quick, eh?).

Right now I have one enchant that is solely there for crit reduction: 12 defense on my bracers. Additionally, I have that 5 resilience on the gem in my bracers that I could replace with a +8 agility gem (yellow gems kinda suck, and as I've stated in the past, I prefer sticking agility into items I use for my cat set as well).

Just looking at those replacements, I'm looking at losing 25 resilience from the bracers and gem swap, and 12 defense from the bracer enchant. Which, when I check my overall stat changes, still gives me a net gain of about 0.075% crit reduction, pretty close to the break-even point. As for the rest of my stats:




So, it looks like I'd gain about 700 more armor, my avoidance would go up a very small amount (0.1%), I'd gain a laughable 34 health (every bit counts, right?), and would take a little more damage from DoTs. And while 700 more armor is nice, and the extra health from potting is a nice bonus, I dont think I'm prepared to lose an "Oh, shit" button for it. So, thanks for the offer, Blizzard, but no thanks.

Tomorrow on The Rambling Bear: A look at one of my favorite Druid-only pulling techniques, useful for occasions like the ghostly trash around Aran's room, and the big pulls in the latter portions of Shattered Halls. 15 points to anyone who guesses what it is, and an additional 10 points to anyone who can direct me to a free, easy to use capture program so I can make some video for it!