With so many new stats being put into the game such as armor penetration, haste rating and hit rating, you need a degree in mathematics to figure out what stat balance you need for maximum dps output. It can be a struggle sometimes to chose between gear upgrades when the trade offs happen in haste/hit/crit are close.
Not only that, but the way you pick your talents will change the weight and value that certain stats contribute towards your dps.
Specing and gearing for DPS is the best way to level as you kill monsters faster and if your talent build is efficient you will have minimum downtime.
I would like to share with you a really great tool I use that makes this whole process much easier and will give you clear goals on what stats you should be working towards to reach your characters highest dps potential.
The tool I use is at www.maxdps.com and here is how it works:
Class Selection and Custom Fields
From the main page you select your class and talent build. A form will come up with customizable fields that you tweak to give you accurate data as it pertains to your character and how stats effect the dps output. The majority of classes/builds have been updated for WOTLK.
At the top of the page you can see the skill/spell rotation it is assuming you are using for DPS, this is based on the most popular and followed methods of dps in top raiding guilds. Tweak the other customizable fields further to give a more accurate depiction of your characters buffs, you can also input your characters name/server in maxdps.com for it to automatically pull up your gear/stats from your armory!
Using the Data to Make Decisions
Now that you’ve filled everything in, once you submit the form it will calculate all the values and show you the following:
The most important part here is the “Extra Stat Contributions” as it gives you a number that you can use to weigh all your dps stats.
Here’s an example. Lets say you had to decide between Headpiece A which has +30 spellpower and Headpiece B which has +35 crit rating, all other stats the same. Which item gives the most potential to raise DPS?
From the numbers we get from the chart:
+30 spell power is worth 30/10 = 3×9.07 = 27.21 extra DPS
+35 crit rating is worth 35/10 = 3.5×6.59 = 23.065 extra DPS
While in this situation is is really close, with spell power being the winner, you can use this for more complicated decisions when 2 stats or more are being traded for others.
The site also provides additional information, showing you what gear upgrades you can get for the most DPS increase and filter the results based on which raids/instances you have access to.
Use this with an excellent addon called Rating Buster to show you exactly which stats you are gaining/losing if you switched your current item with a piece of gear you just attained.
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“Specing and gearing for DPS is the best way to level as you kill monsters faster and if your talent build is efficient you will have minimum downtown.” I hope you mean downtime?
Great article for those not educated in theorycraft, thanks for sharing!
thanks for the find
fixed
appreciate the feedback as well
I like maxdps.com a lot for my TG Fury warrior, but it’s still not updated for rogues!
Awesome site, very very impressive. Helpful for making hard decisions regarding stats and gear.
I don’t need that degree in advanced math anymore to res-spec! Woot!
maxdps.com is nice, but it do not take into consideration the stats you will lose from the item you change. If that could be fixed, then it’s a top notch site.
Till then, average…good for noobs.