PVE - Player vs. Environment - Heroics and Raids (first half of guide)
PVP - Player vs. Player - Battlegrounds and Arena (second half of guide)
PVE
PVE Enchants
Here's a list of enchants arranged by the slot the enchant affects, the best enchant for each slot is listed first, and the second best enchant is listed second and so on.
Helm- Get Revered with Knights of the Ebon blade for awesome head enchant, need to do the questline beginning with It’s All Fun and Games (Horde:
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=12892 or Alliance:
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=12887 ), this will unlock the city Shadow Vault for you.
Shoulder- Get Honored/Exalted with Sons of Hodir for blue/epic PVE shoulder enchants, this is in storm peaks, to get dailies to get reputation you need to do the quest line that starts with They Took Our Men (
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=12843 ) at K3 and ends with dailies.
Cloak- 22 Agility, 23 Haste, 16 Agility, 15 Haste
Chest- 10 stats, 8 stats
Wrist- 50 Attack Power, 38 Attack Power
Hands- 44 Attack Power, 15 Strength, 35 Attack Power
Legs- Icescale Leg Armor (75 Attack Power and 22 Crit)
Boots- Greater Assault (32 Attack Power), Icewalker (+12 Hit and +12 Crit)
Weapon- Beserking, Massacre, Greater Savagery
Belt- Technically not an enchant, but since everyone can buy the Eternal Belt Buckle from the AH, put it on their belt, and then put any gem in it, it functions like an enchant. This buckle does not affect your socket bonus, can be used regardless of current sockets on belt, only one can be used on your belt, and contributes to your meta gem.
*Your gear determines whether 22 Agility or 23 Haste is better, use Rawr to compare. Icewalker is more dps (Damage Per Second) than 32 AP if you are 5 or more Hit Rating away from cap (hit cap = 263 Hit Rating).
Professions for PVE
(Black Smithing, Jewel Crafting) > (Inscription, Leather Working, Enchanting, Alchemy) > (Skinning, Tailoring, Engineering)
*Herblore is useless for PVE.
Stat Values for PVE
Hit and Expertise should always be capped or very close to cap- Expertise cap: -6.5% dodge/26 expertise/ 214 expertise rating. Hit Cap: 263 hit rating/8% increased chance to hit. Going over the cap is also a problem, as that Hit Rating or Expertise Rating is being wasted, if you are not within 15-20 points of the hit cap (263) your are reducing your dps by a fairly large amount.
The actual DPS of each stat:
(Hit) > (Strength) > (Expertise) > (Crit Rating, Haste, Agility) > (Armor Pen, Attack Power)
*Only use gear that has the above stats on it (with the exception of librams of course). The Agility/leather gear will usually go to rogues/feral druids first in raids because that's the only type of armor they can use. Many people will assume that since this happens often in raids that all plate gear is better than all leather gear for plate-wearers. However, even though Strength gear is usually more DPS than Agility gear, this isn't always true. For example, when comparing the Ashen Verdict rings from ICC, the Agility DPS ring is actually more dps for ret than the Strength DPS ring. So, just be aware that while it is indeed fair that the Agility gear go to rogues/feral druids over rets, you could most likely use the gear if the rogues/feral druids don't want it.
Rawr
Download at
http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr. Use to compare pieces of gear. Note that Rawr will use inflated values for Hit Rating and Expertise, so using it for items with those stats is fairly inaccurate. But, if you do want to compare gear that has Hit Rating or Expertise on it, then the optimizer should be used, as it takes into account the fact that they are cappable. The optimizer is somewhat difficult to use correctly though, it will try to match all of the gear you have (inventory, bank, equipped etc.) into the best gear combination for you. The green diamonds next to each item in Rawr indicates whether you have possession of that item and determines which items the optimizer will use when you run it.
PVE Librams
Libram of Three Truths (Frost badges) > Libram of Valiance (Triumph badges) >>> PVP Librams/other
PVP Librams
Libram of Three Truths (Frost badges) >>> PVP Librams/Libram of Valiance/other
*Libram of Valiance only works when you're using SoV so it's a questionable choice when it comes to PVP. The Libram of Three Truths works very well for both PVE and PVP. ">>>" means "much greater than", while ">" just means "greater than".
Tier Sets
Using Rawr I determined the % dps increase of the tier set bonuses with full 245 gear:
T10 4 set: 3.76%
T10 2 set: 3.97%
T9 4 set: .74%
T9 2 set: 2.05%
T8 4 set: 2.14%
T8 2 set: .53%
*These values would change a small amount depending on your own gear.
Gemming for PVE & PVP
First of all, use the 21 agi and 3% crt damage meta gem, for both pve and pvp, you need 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue for this to work. Buy the Nightmare Tear (10 stats) from an auction house and use it to meet your meta gem requirements. Put your Nightmare Tear in a blue slot where you can get the highest dps socket bonus. Gem all bold (red, Strength) gems for your red and blue sockets, and for yellow sockets gem all bold gems (however, if you have the 2pc T9 bonus read the below section about yellow sockets). If you're gemming a PVP set gem all bold and don't use any etched or inscribed gems.
Advanced Gemming - Gemming inscribed with 2 piece T9
Sometimes using one inscribed gem (orange, Crit and Strength) in a yellow socket of a piece of gear to gain the socket bonus is a dps increase (assuming the other slots are red or blue with a Nightmare Tear in it). Having 2pc T9 will increase the value of crit rating enough to make inscribed worth putting in your yellow sockets if the socket bonus is high enough DPS (4+ Strength, 6+ Agility, 10+ Attack Power, or 6+ Crit).
Advanced Gemming - Gemming etched without 2 piece T9
Etched gems should be used cautiously. 99% of the time its better to get Hit Rating from the actual stats on your gear because then the Hit Rating is replacing stats lower dps stats like Expertise Rating, Armor Pen, Crit, Haste, whereas if you gemmed for Hit Rating that Hit Rating would be replacing the higher dps stat Strength you could be getting from bold gems. So, you should try to get as close to the hit cap as you can (263), then make sure you have Icewalker on your boots, if you are still short of hit cap you can either wait for more hit gear to drop for you and continue gemming bold and inscribed (if you have 2pc T9) or you can temporarily increase your Hit Rating using etched gems (orange, Hit and Strength) until the Hit Rating gear drops to get you to hit cap. These etched gems can really go in any socket (though they would be most effective in yellow sockets) and all 10 points of the Hit Rating should go towards reaching hit cap, if an etched gem would put you over hit cap dont gem it (however, if the etched gem you are gemming gives you a socket bonus, then you can go one over the hit cap for each point of Strength the socket bonus gives). Gemming etched in this way means you should be concerned with replacing these etched gems with bold gems after you get enough gear to reach 263 Hit Rating using just the Hit Rating from gear.
Advanced Gemming - Gemming etched with 2 piece T9
If you have 2pc T9 then there is a loop hole to getting around using etched gems as temporary Hit Rating. Since the whole reason you avoided gemming Hit Rating in the first place was because you would rather replace Crit, Haste, etc. with Hit Rating than Strength with Hit Rating, you can use an etched gem in a yellow socket bonus if you follow the same rules as putting an inscribed gem in a yellow socket. In this way, you are replacing 10 Crit with 10 Hit Rating, which is not a bad trade-off. The etched gem must give you a socket bonus with 4+ Strength, 6+ Agility, 10+ Attack Power, or 6+ Crit. If you are getting those socket bonuses, then for each point of Crit and Agility that you are above the minimum socket bonuses you can go 1 point over hit cap and still be justified for using that etched gem. For every ~.75 point of Strength you can go 1 point over hit cap and for every 2 points of Attack Power you can go 1 point over hit cap. Gemming etched in this way means you should not be concerned with replacing these etched gems with bold or inscribed to do higher dps or itemize better, because it wouldn't help.
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