When to replace non-tier items to lose 4-set bonus?

[Deleted]

Edit: I noticed that the title is written a bit stupid. I'm tired, sorry.

Hello everyone.

I'm sorry if there's alredy a thread for this. I'm still a noob to mmo-c, and I couldn't find something when I searched for it.


People have given me advice to use femaledwarf to sim dps, but in the end I want to ask for the advice anyways since simulated dps won't really help me that much.


I'm mostly playing survival due to BM being annoying (relying on pet is awful). So having 4-set bonus is sort of a must because of its incredible dps-boost and it makes the rotation easier imo. What I'm wondering is when to replace the different parts for upgrades?

My scenario is that I have these pieces that can get upgraded:

LFR tier helm - ilvl 528 to Normal 553 Head from dark shamans (link)

LFR tier shoulders - ilvl 528 to Flex 540 Norushen shoulders (link)

I'm thinking of waiting until the upcoming raid lock-out and see if I get something else aswell.

I don't want to test it out myself in-game since I don't want to waste gold. Not the richest one right now.

[3clipse]

You'd have to SimC the numbers but honestly I can't imagine anything less than heroic pieces outweighing the power of the 4 piece. It's that good.

[Deleted]

You'd have to SimC the numbers but honestly I can't imagine anything less than heroic pieces outweighing the power of the 4 piece. It's that good.

Really? That's a bit of a bummer to be honest :|

I mean, I should be very happy that our 4-set bonus is that powerful but..


I currently have all 5 pieces, but they're different parts.

Head - LFR
Shoulders - LFR
Chest- Normal
Pants - Flex
Hands - Normal

Currently I've replaced the pants. I guess I should maybe use the new head that I've recieved and use flex pants instead? That way I'll get more total stats, so I should recieve a minor dps boost, and still have the 4-set bonus.

I guess I'll have to wait and see until later tonight/tomorrow after raids/flex.

[Zirke]

Both the helm from shamans and the shoulders from Norushen are horribad, and I would keep the LFR tier pieces. It would be a DPS loss to switch out 4set with anything less than a full set of Heroic Warforged off pieces. It's just that good. Also, you should use pants as offpiece, as it is the worst one of the 5 set pieces. The minor agility upgrade from your LFR set head to your normal shaman head is not worth giving up that much crit and haste.

Femaledwarf To see how a single piece of loot etc. will affect your DPS.

SimCraft For everything else, including stat weights for your current gear.

(Can't post links since I have very few posts, but you probably know the websites)

[anjan011]

The set bonus is too good to dump for flex pieces. Hell i have put my WF protectors hand and WF ordos shoulder for flex hand and LFR shoulder, and even with loosing all these stats, my dps is better. the 4P shines more for BM, than SV. for SV, it only affects the hunter, and the proc is RNG, in normal u wont be having more than 4/5 procs. for BM though, it increase damage for both u and pet. and on BW, its just awesome.

[Deleted]

Both the helm from shamans and the shoulders from Norushen are horribad, and I would keep the LFR tier pieces. It would be a DPS loss to switch out 4set with anything less than a full set of Heroic Warforged off pieces. It's just that good. Also, you should use pants as offpiece, as it is the worst one of the 5 set pieces. The minor agility upgrade from your LFR set head to your normal shaman head is not worth giving up that much crit and haste.

Femaledwarf To see how a single piece of loot etc. will affect your DPS.

SimCraft For everything else, including stat weights for your current gear.

(Can't post links since I have very few posts, but you probably know the websites)

I'm not very good with using Femaledwarf and Simcraft. It feels like I'm doing wrong when using them..

- - - Updated - - -

The set bonus is too good to dump for flex pieces. Hell i have put my WF protectors hand and WF ordos shoulder for flex hand and LFR shoulder, and even with loosing all these stats, my dps is better. the 4P shines more for BM, than SV. for SV, it only affects the hunter, and the proc is RNG, in normal u wont be having more than 4/5 procs. for BM though, it increase damage for both u and pet. and on BW, its just awesome.

I mainly play survival because I get mad when I play BM, plus I'm not very well yet with doing good dps as BM. I'm trying to learn it outside of raids and get more used to it since it can be good to have (for bloodlust, combat ress and just cooler pets etc).

I've sometimes been spamming Explosive shot for over a minute, although it's very rare. It's fun to watch the DPS numbers then


Should I replace my Norushen legs with the gorge stalker legplates then? I won't be seeing HC for a while I think, since I don't have a spot in the mainraid :'( (Alredy two good geared hunters that won't be replaced unless they underperform or just suddenly go nuts). Thinking about going to another guild if there's a 100% spot for me, otherwise not.

It bugs me quite much, because the guild I'm in are great guys.
(Just added some random talk).

[Zirke]

I'm not very good with using Femaledwarf and Simcraft. It feels like I'm doing wrong when using them..

- - - Updated - - -




I mainly play survival because I get mad when I play BM, plus I'm not very well yet with doing good dps as BM. I'm trying to learn it outside of raids and get more used to it since it can be good to have (for bloodlust, combat ress and just cooler pets etc).

I've sometimes been spamming Explosive shot for over a minute, although it's very rare. It's fun to watch the DPS numbers then


Should I replace my Norushen legs with the gorge stalker legplates then? I won't be seeing HC for a while I think, since I don't have a spot in the mainraid :'( (Alredy two good geared hunters that won't be replaced unless they underperform or just suddenly go nuts). Thinking about going to another guild if there's a 100% spot for me, otherwise not.

It bugs me quite much, because the guild I'm in are great guys.
(Just added some random talk).

Getting a general idea and being able to switch specs on the fly is a right step towards being an attractive hunter (for guilds, but probably IRL aswell). I would always advice learning all three specs, and then freshening up on them after every major update. At low gear levels you shouldn't have to worry about having to go MM, as I only recommended it for 570+ (My personal opinion, no flame please).

Assuming your Norushen leggings are either Normal or lower quality, you can go ahead and replace those with the Gorge Stalker Leggings, as these are BiS until heroic ("BiS until heroic" does not exist, never tell a raid leader that when rolling for items).

Now since you weren't comfortable using SimCraft or Femaledwarf, I can walk you through it.

Femaledwarf:

1. Click on Armory Import: http://1.ii.gl/r2WDiq.png

2. Fill out necessary information and click "Load from Armory" : http://3.ii.gl/A6ey0i.png

3. Click on Update DPS all the way on the bottom of the page before doing any changes: http://2.ii.gl/cZ4OGK.png

4. Close all tabs that are open by clicking on the arrow, and open the tab called "Gear": http://1.ii.gl/FMK_E-.png

5. Navigate to the piece of gear you want to simulate, let's say for example I got my heroic shoulders: http://4.ii.gl/bKCj7P.png

6. Change it by using the drop down menus: http://1.ii.gl/Ent4_y.png

7. Remember to change the sockets/enchant and the reforging aswell, or you will likely see a DPS loss (especially if the item you simulate was crucial to reach the hit cap with): http://3.ii.gl/pbfQOh.png

8. Click on update DPS again and see how your DPS changes: http://2.ii.gl/4zZ-_F.png

9. Done!

Below your DPS you will find detailed information about your character and your equipped items. This is not that important if the DPS simulation on a beginner scale is the only think you want to utilize.

SimCraft:

The thing I like about SimCraft is that you can find your simulated stat priority compared to the exact items you are wearing. No more looking up stat priorities on websites and reading a lot of different opinions, because SimCraft will help tailor the stat priorities to your character. Let's begin!

1. Load your character by clicking on the import tab and then either manually enter the address (easy way), or go top options, find the "Armory Region", set it to your region, go back to Import, search for your character, click on your character after search so you can see all your gear and then click "Import!" in the bottom right corner: http://2.ii.gl/40fPqg.png

2. Go to the "Options" tab, and the "Globals" sub tab. Set "Iterations" to 10000 if you want a thorough simulation, although this can take some time, but it is worth it. If you want a quick scan set it to 1000(not recommended for stat weights simulation): http://2.ii.gl/fKJzhP.png.

(Everything else should be set to default, unless you want to simulate a specific boss fight, but then you can fiddle around the the settings in both "Globals" and "Buffs / Debuffs", as it is quite self-explanatory). PS. If you only want to simulate your DPS, you can go ahead and click "Simulate!" in the bottom right corner. If you want to simulate stat weights as well, proceed to the next step.

3. Next, go to the "Scaling" sub tab of "Options", and tick the stats you want to weigh. I rarely include Hit and Expertise as these outweigh all secondary stats 99% of the time. The first time you simulate stat weights, it might be a good idea to include Hit and Experise to get a grip on how much they outweigh your other stats: http://1.ii.gl/cQ75a.png

4. After the simulation is done, you will get a nice looking HTML page that shows in the "Results" tab (will open by default when done) and this will show you your stat weights (as well as other very useful information): http://2.ii.gl/Nz-ca.png

5. You can now use an addon like ReforgeLite or a website like AskMrRobot to input these weights and get a personalized reforge/regem/re-enchant for your current gear set.

6. Done!

This should push you in the right direction when it comes to simulation. Please do not blindly trust addons and websites (especially AskMrRobot) when it comes to stat changing on your gear. With my stat weights, I have had AskMrRobot wanting me to change all my gems to 320Crit and 160Crit 160Hit gems, which is awfully wrong, even though my Agility stat weight is much higher than the secondary stats.

I hope this helps you out, and regarding your last statement, you should do what you want to do in the game. If you pay real money for a subscription to a game, you shouldn't feel obligated to stay in a guild that does not let you raid, if it is the raiding aspect of the game you are interested in, and not the social aspects.

Any questions and I will subscribe to this thread to keep updated.

- Zirke, Shattered Hand

[eschatological]

I can never get the SimulationCraft.exe executable to run. It says it can't find the QT plugin "windows" so I don't know what's up with that. I use the command line SimC.exe well enough to generate weights.

[Yuyn]

I can never get the SimulationCraft.exe executable to run. It says it can't find the QT plugin "windows" so I don't know what's up with that. I use the command line SimC.exe well enough to generate weights.

Did you extract the entire zip file? It's not statically linked, so all those .dlls need to be in the same folder as the executable.

You'll likely find that dropping the LFR helm for the 553 Shamans helm is your best option. Typically going with whatever will give you the highest ilvl without dropping the 4-set is your best bet. The extra agility on higher-ilvl gear almost always makes up for any minor losses from less-than-perfect secondary stats.

[Thandorr]

Most set bonuses are good enough that you want to keep them and only replace them for higher ilvl tier pieces. For example, the 4-piece t15 was so good I waited until I had at least a t16 2-piece before switching it out and I see a lot of folks gearing according to that strategy.

[xmattblackx]

Well.. I have my 4 piece all normal; legs, head, chest and gloves. However when I use mr. robot and I look at best in slot gear I try and mimic the gear they use when getting normal gear. It says to use the shoulders and chest from spoils. So once I get both items is it a good idea to be switching them out especially since I'm not going to do heroic anytime soon?