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Unfortunately having just posted an update about the Lunar Festival and recommended the Tour Guide plug-in, various rumours were flying about the sudden withdrawal of the TourGuide mod from curse and wowinterface. What had happened, where had it gone, would it be coming back again? Nothing was posted on the author's web site and it had also disappeared off the listing there.
Luckily WoW Pro has the details - TourGuide has been bought by a levelling guide maker and so won't be available for free any more. The author's web site now has a couple of posts here and here explaining what has happened. For now, only purchasers of the levelling guide will get access to TourGuide, although anyone with it already installed can continue to use it.
It's hard for me to get worked up about this though - the mod was free software and thus the author can do what he wants with it. If he wants to take an opportunity to make some money from his hard work, good luck to him. We didn't have any guarantee he would continue to maintain it, or just dump it like so many other mods, or withdraw it. In that way, its quite nice the author has made sure those of us still using TourGuide can continue to do so. Also there is no monopoly on TourGuide-like mods or anything preventing anyone from coding a different one (apart from a lot of hard work of course).
WoW Pro did have a levelling mod before they switched to TourGuide and it seems they are planning on developing a new mod, or resurrecting their old one. Good luck to them. Given that new mods spring up to fill gaps in the WoW community, I hope authors have an incentive to develop their own TourGuide-like mod, now that the defacto one is no longer around.
For now, anyone with TourGuide installed can continue to use it, although I don't think anyone will be publishing guides for it any more (free or otherwise), so it's use will become limited once Cataclysm hits. I will probably leave my Hallow's End guide up, but there is little incentive to develop it further. Farewell TourGuide!
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Monday, 15 February 2010
Lunar Festival Is In The Air
Although the Love thing is still going, this week I shall be mostly grinding the Lunar Festival, which is now on at the same time! Crazy Lunar calendars...I already posted a guide to the Lunar Festival and luckily it has not changed. The one addition I'm making this year is to slavishly follow the Lunar Festival Tour Guide mod.
I managed to grind out the Love stuff last week, leaving me clear to visit a billion Elders for the next 3 weeks on me Druid, and maybe collect some Triumph along the way in those Heroics.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Love Is In The Air
The Love Is In The Air festival started last Sunday, and as a nod to the over-commercialized nature of these things, this year the Crown Chemical Co have taken over the festival in Azeroth.
It's all different but strangely familiar
The festival has also utterly changed from last year, before you had to get gift boxes from guards and NPCs and get random drops in them, now you do the dailies on offer and get Love Tokens which act as currency for the items you actually need to complete the various achievements. You can even buy the very rare Peddlefeet pet with tokens, thus making it very not-rare any more.
New bossen
But, there is more! This year as well as ensuring Arugal Must Die (again), you can visit Shadowfang Keep for a crack at the new seasonal boss. This is a somewhat underwhelming opportunity, as to actually kill said boss you're probably best being in Tier 9, but they drop the magnificent loot of Tier 8 level necklaces. Great! I got a necklace for off-spec. However, there is always a silver lining to any cloud, and this is in the shape of some very suggestive sounding loot and a unique mount and pet. Unfortunately the drop rates for the mount and pet are very bad and only the seriously committed would farm for them, I certainly won't be bothering. Good luck if you do.
Anything for completer-finishers?
So what if you did all the achievements last year? Kam did, and the only new achievement now available is Tough Love which requires you to kill the new boss. Luckily I have a Druid alt I'll be doing the lot on again.
Alting it up
A few things are evident which make alting the festival quite nice. Firstly the bad drop rates are a thing of the past, merely killing mobs with the Kit in your inventory is sufficient. Running a few heroics seems to be the way to go, since Blizzard fixed the cunning vehicle missions not to give Charms any more.
Secondly, the candies, chocolates, and Charm Bracelets are not soul bound. Therefore you can go and gather Charm Bracelets on your main, then trade them across to your alt using a trusted third party. Unfortunately you can't post conjured items.
Any spare chocolates or candies can also be traded, or put into a guild bank for your alts to use.
Guides
Rather than write a guide, I shall just link to a few I found:
ShamWoW
WoW.com
Fluid Druid
It's all different but strangely familiar
The festival has also utterly changed from last year, before you had to get gift boxes from guards and NPCs and get random drops in them, now you do the dailies on offer and get Love Tokens which act as currency for the items you actually need to complete the various achievements. You can even buy the very rare Peddlefeet pet with tokens, thus making it very not-rare any more.
New bossen
But, there is more! This year as well as ensuring Arugal Must Die (again), you can visit Shadowfang Keep for a crack at the new seasonal boss. This is a somewhat underwhelming opportunity, as to actually kill said boss you're probably best being in Tier 9, but they drop the magnificent loot of Tier 8 level necklaces. Great! I got a necklace for off-spec. However, there is always a silver lining to any cloud, and this is in the shape of some very suggestive sounding loot and a unique mount and pet. Unfortunately the drop rates for the mount and pet are very bad and only the seriously committed would farm for them, I certainly won't be bothering. Good luck if you do.
Anything for completer-finishers?
So what if you did all the achievements last year? Kam did, and the only new achievement now available is Tough Love which requires you to kill the new boss. Luckily I have a Druid alt I'll be doing the lot on again.
Alting it up
A few things are evident which make alting the festival quite nice. Firstly the bad drop rates are a thing of the past, merely killing mobs with the Kit in your inventory is sufficient. Running a few heroics seems to be the way to go, since Blizzard fixed the cunning vehicle missions not to give Charms any more.
Secondly, the candies, chocolates, and Charm Bracelets are not soul bound. Therefore you can go and gather Charm Bracelets on your main, then trade them across to your alt using a trusted third party. Unfortunately you can't post conjured items.
Any spare chocolates or candies can also be traded, or put into a guild bank for your alts to use.
Guides
Rather than write a guide, I shall just link to a few I found:
ShamWoW
WoW.com
Fluid Druid
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Surviving PvE as Enhancement DPS
This is a post on a Blog Azeroth Shared Topic of how to survive PvE DPS for my class/spec, that being Enhancement Shaman! I am mostly talking about instances and raids here.
Spells
Earth Elemental Totem is on a 10 minute cool down, but in a tight spot, this guy will save you. He's got an AOE taunt which will pull aggro onto him, and is tough enough to survive for several seconds while you beat a hasty retreat, or the tank regains aggro.
Hex is the business and can be used to frog a loose mob who has taken a liking to you. It is on a 45 second cooldown so the tank needs to regain aggro before it pops.
Wind Shear is what I use if I somehow pull aggro, or Omen is warning me I am close to the tank's threat. It is also good practise to interrupt any spell you see being cast (unless you are assigned to a specific spell, of course) because some mobs do AOE casts which will hurt you as well as your faithful tank.
Talents
There are some talents such as Toughness or Anticipation you can take which will increase your survivability. Toughness is a minor health increase and as such is effective against AOE magic damage, whereas Anticipation seems useful only if you are being directly attacked, in which case you probably messed up and need to Wind Shear asap.
Maelstrom Weapon is a very useful talent to use to save yourself, although at 5 stacks it is most useful. Instead of casting Lightning Bolt, if I am low on health and no heals are inc, I will cast Healing Wave on myself, or if some melee are low, I'll cast Chain Heal on myself which will splash onto the tank and other melee. If I need to survive an incoming high damage phase, I will sometimes hold back using a MW5 and keep it for when I need healing, for example the whirlwind phase in Malygos. This is of course a DPS loss, but dead men do no DPS, right?
Don't forget that Shamanistic Rage has a damage reduction component, reducing all damage by 30% for 15 seconds. Very handy for XT-002 Tantrums, or if you get attacked by a stray mob, or you need to tank Mimiron's body for 5 secs because all the tanks have died (asif). Basically this is an "oh-shit" button similar to what the tank classes have, although you may still die, you can try to cheat death using SR.
Feral Spirit is the 51 point enhancement talent. These guys have Twin Howl and Bash, both of which will let you get away while the wolves tank, plus they do a reasonable amount of healing which may help keep you up if something is attacking you, or AOE damage is really hurting.
Gear
Not much to say here, I don't bother gemming for Stamina (lol) but I do take all-mail items. With Mental Dexterity mail items are as good as leather now, plus they usually have more armour, for extra damage absorption.
Macros and Action Bars
Firstly I always have a health potion or healthstone keybound to F12, so I can hit it really quickly when needed. I actually bound the last slot in the bottom right actionbar to F12 using the game menu, then I drop a health potion or healthstone in there.
I have Lesser Healing Wave and Healing Wave in my primary action bar, on keys 7 and 8. HW is needed quickly so I can MW5 Healing Wave for an instant cast heal. LHW is something I will use if I need a heal and Maelstrom Weapon is no where near 5 stacks - LHW is a quick heal I will cast in combat to prevent death. If I get focussed or in some puddle of something, I will back off from the fight, LHW and then get back in there again.
Finally I have Chain Heal on a secondary action bar to click, for MW5 CH action when party members also need heals.
Positioning
A lot of damage can be avoided through proper positioning. Cleaves and bad stuff like that usually happen at the front of a mob. 4tehfite has posted a handy DPS positioning chart - follow this and you will avoid tail swipes and all sorts of nastyness.
One other tip, if I hear a whirlwind sound or see a whirlwind animation, I will back off from melee range, as some mob is usually whirlwinding and will knock my health down pretty fast. Then I will either LHW myself or a kind healer will drop a heal on me and I can get back in there.
Totems
Running the right totems help a great deal, yourself and the whole party/raid. On mobs which do poison or disease, I make sure a Cleansing Totem is up (ie in the whole of Azjol-Nerub) which helps the healer out and keeps poison/disease damage low. It also annoys the Black Knight a whole lot :) Don't run this on Rotface tho!
On mobs who like to fear, Tremor Totem is your friend because getting feared into another pack is really bad for your health, and healers don't heal well when they are running around like headless chickens (apart from Druids ofc).
Finally run Resistance Totems as appropriate on hard content. I used to run Nature Resistance on Loken for example, whereas now I don't bother. Still an extra 130 resistance will help.
PvP encounters
This probably only applies for Faction Champions, but a PvP Trinket with fear break is very useful on those fights. I use the Titan-Forged Rune of Determination.
Conclusion
Keep your wits about you and don't forget your Anhks should all the above fail!
Spells
Earth Elemental Totem is on a 10 minute cool down, but in a tight spot, this guy will save you. He's got an AOE taunt which will pull aggro onto him, and is tough enough to survive for several seconds while you beat a hasty retreat, or the tank regains aggro.
Hex is the business and can be used to frog a loose mob who has taken a liking to you. It is on a 45 second cooldown so the tank needs to regain aggro before it pops.
Wind Shear is what I use if I somehow pull aggro, or Omen is warning me I am close to the tank's threat. It is also good practise to interrupt any spell you see being cast (unless you are assigned to a specific spell, of course) because some mobs do AOE casts which will hurt you as well as your faithful tank.
Talents
There are some talents such as Toughness or Anticipation you can take which will increase your survivability. Toughness is a minor health increase and as such is effective against AOE magic damage, whereas Anticipation seems useful only if you are being directly attacked, in which case you probably messed up and need to Wind Shear asap.
Maelstrom Weapon is a very useful talent to use to save yourself, although at 5 stacks it is most useful. Instead of casting Lightning Bolt, if I am low on health and no heals are inc, I will cast Healing Wave on myself, or if some melee are low, I'll cast Chain Heal on myself which will splash onto the tank and other melee. If I need to survive an incoming high damage phase, I will sometimes hold back using a MW5 and keep it for when I need healing, for example the whirlwind phase in Malygos. This is of course a DPS loss, but dead men do no DPS, right?
Don't forget that Shamanistic Rage has a damage reduction component, reducing all damage by 30% for 15 seconds. Very handy for XT-002 Tantrums, or if you get attacked by a stray mob, or you need to tank Mimiron's body for 5 secs because all the tanks have died (asif). Basically this is an "oh-shit" button similar to what the tank classes have, although you may still die, you can try to cheat death using SR.
Feral Spirit is the 51 point enhancement talent. These guys have Twin Howl and Bash, both of which will let you get away while the wolves tank, plus they do a reasonable amount of healing which may help keep you up if something is attacking you, or AOE damage is really hurting.
Gear
Not much to say here, I don't bother gemming for Stamina (lol) but I do take all-mail items. With Mental Dexterity mail items are as good as leather now, plus they usually have more armour, for extra damage absorption.
Macros and Action Bars
Firstly I always have a health potion or healthstone keybound to F12, so I can hit it really quickly when needed. I actually bound the last slot in the bottom right actionbar to F12 using the game menu, then I drop a health potion or healthstone in there.
I have Lesser Healing Wave and Healing Wave in my primary action bar, on keys 7 and 8. HW is needed quickly so I can MW5 Healing Wave for an instant cast heal. LHW is something I will use if I need a heal and Maelstrom Weapon is no where near 5 stacks - LHW is a quick heal I will cast in combat to prevent death. If I get focussed or in some puddle of something, I will back off from the fight, LHW and then get back in there again.
Finally I have Chain Heal on a secondary action bar to click, for MW5 CH action when party members also need heals.
Positioning
A lot of damage can be avoided through proper positioning. Cleaves and bad stuff like that usually happen at the front of a mob. 4tehfite has posted a handy DPS positioning chart - follow this and you will avoid tail swipes and all sorts of nastyness.
One other tip, if I hear a whirlwind sound or see a whirlwind animation, I will back off from melee range, as some mob is usually whirlwinding and will knock my health down pretty fast. Then I will either LHW myself or a kind healer will drop a heal on me and I can get back in there.
Totems
Running the right totems help a great deal, yourself and the whole party/raid. On mobs which do poison or disease, I make sure a Cleansing Totem is up (ie in the whole of Azjol-Nerub) which helps the healer out and keeps poison/disease damage low. It also annoys the Black Knight a whole lot :) Don't run this on Rotface tho!
On mobs who like to fear, Tremor Totem is your friend because getting feared into another pack is really bad for your health, and healers don't heal well when they are running around like headless chickens (apart from Druids ofc).
Finally run Resistance Totems as appropriate on hard content. I used to run Nature Resistance on Loken for example, whereas now I don't bother. Still an extra 130 resistance will help.
PvP encounters
This probably only applies for Faction Champions, but a PvP Trinket with fear break is very useful on those fights. I use the Titan-Forged Rune of Determination.
Conclusion
Keep your wits about you and don't forget your Anhks should all the above fail!
Thursday, 21 January 2010
The Armory tells all (mostly)
Recently the WoW Armory was updated to add RSS feeds for character activity, stuff like gaining achievements and killing bosses. This seems like a good deal for those of us who want to show a box on our blog with recent achievements. But the feeds can be put to a more sinister use. Tracking your WoW time.
Anyone can load the Armory and take a look at the recent activity of a character, and that page will show which instance you finished (by showing the bosses killed), which items you equipped and even partial progress toward an achievement (such as /loving a sheep).
You can also log into the armory and create custom feeds for multiple characters, so you can keep up to date with someone's alts, or a group of friends. Add these feeds to something like google reader and you get a nice set of updates about what people are up to in-game.
Now this is all very well, but the activity items seem to update while you are logged in, and are very accurately timestamped. So the activity can be used to tell when someone did something and thus to check up on someone, maybe to see if they played when they weren't meant to, or for too long.
Say your son is sat in his room apparently doing his homework on his PC from 5pm. But yet when you look at the armory activity for his characters, you spot that one has completed Heroic Old Kingdom at 5:20pm, then proceeded to kill the bosses in Pit Of Saron, the last one dying at 6pm. Has any homework been done? It looks like not. Now I know you can use parental controls, but the play times are not very flexible so you may not be doing so.
However say you were round your friends house allegedly helping him restore his treasured classic car from 2pm to 6pm. Yet your armory feed seems to indicate you were actually completing the weekly raid quest and in some various heroics. Grats on the new loot, by the way! If your wife got access to this feed, there might be trouble. She might not understand the finer points of Forge of Souls, but she may well understand the implications of your presence therein.
So how could one play a WoW session without anything appearing in such a feed?
Pretty much you could do quests, but not any which award loot, or not too many if you are close to the 2000 or 3000 quests achievement, or the zone quests achievements. Any instance completion will show up clearly, so you can do the original Wrath heroics, but quit before the end boss. If you get Trial of the Champion onward, every boss is tracked so no killing any of them!
You can grind reputation as pure rep gains do not show up, but watch out if there is an achievement for exalted, and don't for heaven's sake buy a rep item. You could grind professions but again watch out for any achievements like Profession Grand Master.
Avoiding an activity trace will make for a pretty boring and frustrating play session, so keep your character names close to your chest. Whereas if you want people to know what you're up to in game, the new Armory activity feed is really great and detailed.
Now let us never speak of the Armory activity feed again.
Anyone can load the Armory and take a look at the recent activity of a character, and that page will show which instance you finished (by showing the bosses killed), which items you equipped and even partial progress toward an achievement (such as /loving a sheep).You can also log into the armory and create custom feeds for multiple characters, so you can keep up to date with someone's alts, or a group of friends. Add these feeds to something like google reader and you get a nice set of updates about what people are up to in-game.
Now this is all very well, but the activity items seem to update while you are logged in, and are very accurately timestamped. So the activity can be used to tell when someone did something and thus to check up on someone, maybe to see if they played when they weren't meant to, or for too long.
Say your son is sat in his room apparently doing his homework on his PC from 5pm. But yet when you look at the armory activity for his characters, you spot that one has completed Heroic Old Kingdom at 5:20pm, then proceeded to kill the bosses in Pit Of Saron, the last one dying at 6pm. Has any homework been done? It looks like not. Now I know you can use parental controls, but the play times are not very flexible so you may not be doing so.
However say you were round your friends house allegedly helping him restore his treasured classic car from 2pm to 6pm. Yet your armory feed seems to indicate you were actually completing the weekly raid quest and in some various heroics. Grats on the new loot, by the way! If your wife got access to this feed, there might be trouble. She might not understand the finer points of Forge of Souls, but she may well understand the implications of your presence therein.
So how could one play a WoW session without anything appearing in such a feed?
- Don't kill any end bosses in the original Wrath instances
- Don't kill any bosses in raids, or the new Wrath instances (Trial of the Champion onwards)
- Don't complete any achievements
- Don't even do parts of an achievement, such as the wrist part of Superior
- Don't obtain any epic or rare loot, even if you don't equip it. Note a custom feed can specify to see Uncommon (green) loot as well, so no looting if you are paranoid
- Don't kill Mr. Bigglesworth!
- Don't get any Feats of Strength
Pretty much you could do quests, but not any which award loot, or not too many if you are close to the 2000 or 3000 quests achievement, or the zone quests achievements. Any instance completion will show up clearly, so you can do the original Wrath heroics, but quit before the end boss. If you get Trial of the Champion onward, every boss is tracked so no killing any of them!
You can grind reputation as pure rep gains do not show up, but watch out if there is an achievement for exalted, and don't for heaven's sake buy a rep item. You could grind professions but again watch out for any achievements like Profession Grand Master.
Avoiding an activity trace will make for a pretty boring and frustrating play session, so keep your character names close to your chest. Whereas if you want people to know what you're up to in game, the new Armory activity feed is really great and detailed.
Now let us never speak of the Armory activity feed again.
Friday, 15 January 2010
Frost upgrades for a 10er Shaman
Yet another gear post, do I think about anything else? Not really, when we are farming the first 4 bosses in ICC and having... issues... with the new 3. So here is a list of the upgrades I have identified from Emblems of Frost, given my current 10 man gear level. These are for myself only of course, as I have simulated the difference using Rawr and Enhsim, but could be used as a guide if you wish.
Herkuml War Token
+138 dps for 60 Frost (2.3 dps/frost), this is the best upgrade for me. The only issue is the way the trinket works, in that you need to stand and DPS the same mob for 20 attacks to get the maximum stack. Drops in ICC are better such as Whispering Fang Skull, but this is solid anyway.
Totem of the Avalanche
+52 dps for 30 Frost (1.7 dps/frost), an upgrade over the old Totem of Quaking Earth. Again it builds stacks, but it seems the first Stormstrike adds 2 stacks, so after 2 SS you will get the full 438 AP.
Band of the Night Raven
+96 dps for 60 Frost (1.6 dps/frost). This belt is an upgrade from my old Belt of Dragons and because it is i264 the stats are very good. It also doesn't occupy a Tier slot, so it all round win. There is a heroic drop from Marrowgar 10 which is as good, but we need to kill Arthas before being able to try heroic modes, which is a big task in itself.
Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape
+74 dps for 50 Frost(1.48 dps/frost), there was no upgrade cloak in ToTC 10, so this one is a good upgrade from my current Ulduar cloak. Now Marrowgar 10 also drops Shawl of Nerubian Silk which is as good, mainly because it features expertise rather than armor penetration. Below the cap, expertise is very valuable and as Tier 10 has none, I am hoping for this drop instead. Still with a gem slot, the Cape can be made to give expertise too. I suspect to ensure Marrowgar drops his cloak, I will need to purchase the Cape 3 hours beforehand (so I cannot trade it back).
2 Tier 10 (gloves, shoulders)
+88 dps for 120 Frost(0.74 dps/frost). For some reason the DPS upgrade going from 4T9 to 2T10 & 2T9 is not that much, I pondered this before and the loss of expertise really hurts, although it can be made up by regemming elsewhere.
The Plan
In conclusion, it seems that getting Tier 10 should wait until I have splurged on the i264 stuff from Frost. Luckily I won Linked Scourge Vertebrae which although not as good as Band of the Night Raven, will tide me over and I can skip to saving for the Cloak and raid Marrowgar until he coughs up his one.
Herkuml War Token
+138 dps for 60 Frost (2.3 dps/frost), this is the best upgrade for me. The only issue is the way the trinket works, in that you need to stand and DPS the same mob for 20 attacks to get the maximum stack. Drops in ICC are better such as Whispering Fang Skull, but this is solid anyway.
Totem of the Avalanche
+52 dps for 30 Frost (1.7 dps/frost), an upgrade over the old Totem of Quaking Earth. Again it builds stacks, but it seems the first Stormstrike adds 2 stacks, so after 2 SS you will get the full 438 AP.
Band of the Night Raven
+96 dps for 60 Frost (1.6 dps/frost). This belt is an upgrade from my old Belt of Dragons and because it is i264 the stats are very good. It also doesn't occupy a Tier slot, so it all round win. There is a heroic drop from Marrowgar 10 which is as good, but we need to kill Arthas before being able to try heroic modes, which is a big task in itself.
Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape
+74 dps for 50 Frost(1.48 dps/frost), there was no upgrade cloak in ToTC 10, so this one is a good upgrade from my current Ulduar cloak. Now Marrowgar 10 also drops Shawl of Nerubian Silk which is as good, mainly because it features expertise rather than armor penetration. Below the cap, expertise is very valuable and as Tier 10 has none, I am hoping for this drop instead. Still with a gem slot, the Cape can be made to give expertise too. I suspect to ensure Marrowgar drops his cloak, I will need to purchase the Cape 3 hours beforehand (so I cannot trade it back).
2 Tier 10 (gloves, shoulders)
+88 dps for 120 Frost(0.74 dps/frost). For some reason the DPS upgrade going from 4T9 to 2T10 & 2T9 is not that much, I pondered this before and the loss of expertise really hurts, although it can be made up by regemming elsewhere.
The Plan
In conclusion, it seems that getting Tier 10 should wait until I have splurged on the i264 stuff from Frost. Luckily I won Linked Scourge Vertebrae which although not as good as Band of the Night Raven, will tide me over and I can skip to saving for the Cloak and raid Marrowgar until he coughs up his one.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Breaking the 4 piece Tier 9 bonus
Having only just ground out enough heroics to earn 4 pieces of the Tier 9 Enhancement set, I now find myself with emblems of Frost and a couple of lucky drops. Unfortunately these are in the shoulder and chest slots I've currently got filled with Tier 9, so to equip them would mean bye bye 4 piece T9 bonus. But is this bad?
To find out, I used Rawr and Enhsim together to simulate my current DPS, then in Rawr I swapped out the chest and shoulder pieces, exported into Enhsim and reran the simulation. See this post for more details.
current gear, 4pcT9 bonus - 4768 dps
current gear, 2pcT9 bonus - 4666 dps
current gear, no bonus - 4610 dps
new gear, 2pcT9 bonus - 4747 dps
This is not so good. To equip those two new pieces, and put epic attack power gems in them, will result in an overall DPS loss of 21 DPS. We can see that for my gear, the 4 piece Tier 9 bonus accounts for 102 DPS alone. This is a very disappointing result, and means those items will most likely rot in my bank :( Even if I got another i251 item for legs or hands and dropped to no Tier 9 bonus, the item would need to give an extra 56 DPS to make up for the loss of the 2 piece Tier 9 bonus, THEN to match the stats of the i232 item I had, THEN to give more DPS to warrant the effort of gemming and enchanting. This also seems unlikely.
How about the 2 cheap bits of Tier 10, the gloves and shoulders, stuffed with expertise gems and enchants to try to make up the loss of 52 expertise rating from the gloves (ouch)?
2pcT10 & 2pcT9 bonus - 4820 dps
So dropping the 4 piece Tier 9 bonus to replace it with 2 piece Tier 10 & Tier 9 seems to be the way forward, giving 52 DPS increase plus more if I re-gem for expertise. I guess the chest piece will not rot forever, if I make my Tier 10 bits shoulders, gloves, helm and legs then I can use that chest instead of a Tier 10 one.
TLDR: I won't be breaking 4pcT9 unless it's for 2pcT10 2pcT9.
To find out, I used Rawr and Enhsim together to simulate my current DPS, then in Rawr I swapped out the chest and shoulder pieces, exported into Enhsim and reran the simulation. See this post for more details.
current gear, 4pcT9 bonus - 4768 dps
current gear, 2pcT9 bonus - 4666 dps
current gear, no bonus - 4610 dps
new gear, 2pcT9 bonus - 4747 dps
This is not so good. To equip those two new pieces, and put epic attack power gems in them, will result in an overall DPS loss of 21 DPS. We can see that for my gear, the 4 piece Tier 9 bonus accounts for 102 DPS alone. This is a very disappointing result, and means those items will most likely rot in my bank :( Even if I got another i251 item for legs or hands and dropped to no Tier 9 bonus, the item would need to give an extra 56 DPS to make up for the loss of the 2 piece Tier 9 bonus, THEN to match the stats of the i232 item I had, THEN to give more DPS to warrant the effort of gemming and enchanting. This also seems unlikely.
How about the 2 cheap bits of Tier 10, the gloves and shoulders, stuffed with expertise gems and enchants to try to make up the loss of 52 expertise rating from the gloves (ouch)?
2pcT10 & 2pcT9 bonus - 4820 dps
So dropping the 4 piece Tier 9 bonus to replace it with 2 piece Tier 10 & Tier 9 seems to be the way forward, giving 52 DPS increase plus more if I re-gem for expertise. I guess the chest piece will not rot forever, if I make my Tier 10 bits shoulders, gloves, helm and legs then I can use that chest instead of a Tier 10 one.
TLDR: I won't be breaking 4pcT9 unless it's for 2pcT10 2pcT9.
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