When Numbers Attack

I think that for me, like most people, WoW is an outlet. I think that, more specifically, it's an outlet for my left brain more than my right. Sure, it's a magical world of fantasy and adventure, yada yada yada. But where I really seem to thrive, where the game really gets my blood pumping is in the numbers.



Hello, my name is Aidnan, and I'm a theorycrafter.



It goes beyond managing my DPS, though. I actually believe that thinking too hard about whether a piece with 31 haste rating is better than a piece with armor penetration is missing the point. Of course, I'm not in a progression guild, and don't have to worry about min-maxing my DPS. But still, that's not where the fun is for me. The fun is in figuring out the absolute best way to use my time.



It's about efficiency.



My laptop is filled with spreadsheets through the years highlighting what gear options are available to me and which ones are the best to go for. ShadowPanther has played a huge role in both inspiring my and saving me some time in this regard. But just looking at what gear is best in slot doesn't necessarilly help me. It's about what gear I can reasonably expect to get, and when.

Here's my current breakdown:

I'm fortunate enough to be in a guild now that raids pretty consistantly. There's enough overgeared toons that running ToC-25 will result in a full clear, as well as anything below it. Of course, when it comes to things like Ulduar or Naxx, there's an issue of "will we finish this". And hard modes don't seem to be on anybody's mind right now. But for the most part, the raids are there.

I, however, am not so fortunate enough to have all the time in the world. So a lot of the raid times aren't going to work for me. So I factor that into my considerations as well.

Given that, I consider the likelihood of getting gear from various sources.

Anything from Trial of the Grand Crusader's pretty much out right now. It's not being run regularly, and when it is, they're only taking the top-geared folks, which I am yet to be.

ToC-25 is a question of availability. Trophies are obviously going to be in high demand, so I have a 1-in-25 chance of getting them (maybe less, depending on which of the uber-toons is going), and then any gear that drops may or may not be spread out among the other toons. There's not very many other rogues in the guild right now, and almost no feral druids, but it can still come up. And obviously weapons, cloaks, amulets, rings and trinkets are going to be desired by a whole host of other classes.

ToC-10 seems to be pretty easy to get into, though, as there's a lot of people who want to run it (and can pull it off) and the scheduling is much more flexible. I was able to run it last night and got a nice shoulder upgrade, which will also save me some emblems. So that's more up my alley right now.

And then there's badge gear. The thing about it is, it's guaranteed. It's a 100% drop, and there's no competition.

This has led to the question of, with so much badge gear now available, what to spend my hard-earned emblems on first?

And thus I have developed the Golden Ratio (name change pending):

Theoretical DPS / Emblem Cost.

Or as I like to think of it, bang for my buck.

I'm using Aldriana's spreadsheet to calculate the theoretical improvement each piece of gear would give me if it were the next piece I were to obtain. Obviously, every time you get an upgrade, the value of other gear choices changes. So what was a downgrade at one point because it dropped your expertise may now be an upgrade because you're closer to the cap. So it requires constant monitoring as gear changes.

But by taking the difference between the DPS with the badge piece and my current theoretical DPS, and dividing it by the badge cost, I get a ratio that gives me the most valuable upgrade for the least amount of effort.

At least that's how I think of it. I may be way off, and should be focusing on whatever piece is the highest DPS upgrade, period, even if I need 75 Triumph badges or whatever. But given the availability constraints mentioned previously, I like to think that this is a much better use of my time. And for me, that's really what the game's all about.