My Setup

Since some people are curious, here you go:

I have every profession in the game maxed out over my TN characters.

Priest #1: Tailoring/Enchanting
Paladin #1: Blacksmithing/Jewelcrafting
Priest #2: Inscriptions/Alchemy (Potions spec)
Mage: Leatherworking/Alchemy (Xmute spec)
Hunter: Herbalism/Alchemy (Flask spec)
Druid: Herbalism/Mining
Rogue #1: Skinning/Engineering
Paladin #2: Enchanting/Alchemy (Xmute spec)
Shaman: Herbalism/Alchemy (Xmute spec)

I need to make a new skinner, and replace skinning on the rogue with Alchemy (Xmute spec). I want to swap leather working off of my mage onto something that it makes sense on. I'm eyeing my shaman's herbalism to be replaced. I will swap the mage's LW to herbalism if I do that.

Lowbies Will Be:
Warlock #1: Alchemy (Xmute spec)/??
Rogue #2: Alchemy (Xmute spec)/??
Warlock #2: Alchemy (Xmute spec)/??

To be rolled in future:
Warrior: Jewelcrafting/Alchemy (Xmute spec)

Currently, I have 5 alchemists, 3 of them xmute specs. So, every day, I get 5 epic gems. Even purchasing the mats, that's still a quick and easy bit of profit.

I average one proc every other day. Between three xmute masters, that's an average of 1 in 6 will proc.

With a plan to add at least 4 more xmute masters in the future, that will give me 9 epic gems every day, assuming alchemists xmute epic gems in Cataclysm. It wouldn't make sense if they didn't....

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Also, for those curious about my gold income, I have an Alliance DK which I use for my xfaction needs. She is inscriptions/herbalism.
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And yes, I'm going back into stockpiling gold for Cataclysm. I'd like to hit the cap before the xpac. Wonder if I can make it....

Gold Goal: Week 12

Looks like it's been nearly 12 weeks since I decided I wanted to hit the gold cap, and I'm around halfway there. Compared to others, I seem to be fairly slow at making my way up the gold mountain, but that probably just means I need to take some time to figure out what I'm doing right - and what I can do better.

The inscription market was previously my biggest earner, but lately a slew of new auctioneers have slaughtered the market faster than I could manage to fix it, and it's now become a weaker backbone for my auctions.

I need to invest more, and do so more confidently. Part of my problem is that the only things I do solidly are inscription, restocking my glyphs every few hours, and my daily epic gem xmutes - all 5 of them. I need to expand my library of epic gem cuts, level my next two alchemists, and a whole slew of other things.

Right now, Cataclysm is looming on the horizon, and I feel I need to get my ducks in a row for that - collect BoEs on my second account for my blood elf warrior (JC/Alchemist) and my goblin warlock (??/Alchemist) as well as the materials I'll need to power level their professions.

I'm being set back with my gold goal, however, as my WoW decided to begin crapping itself and crashing every time I loaded Dalaran and Icecrown. Repair utility came to my rescue, and it repaired WoW... and then started downloading all of the patches from 3.2 on! Bad words go here!!

Milling: Cutting the work in half. Literally.

Hello! Today's post is really short and simple, but it can pack a real punch for your productivity.

If, like me, you're in the glyph market and usually milling your own herbs into inks, you're probably familiar with that sinking 'there goes my afternoon' feeling that can crop up when you're faced with over 200 stacks of herbs that need milled.

If, also like me, you're a dualboxer, hope is on the horizon! I've been playing around with Keyclone with my dualboxing for a few weeks now, and I must say, I simply adore it. So today I'm offering a simple tip that just crossed my mind a few minutes ago. That means I haven't been able to put it to the test, but you can bet that sooner or later I will.

On your second account, level inscriptions to the point where you can mill all of the Northrend herbs. Copy the usual milling macro over to that character, and keybind it to the same keys for both scribes. At that point, it's just a matter of mailing half your herbs to one scribe and the other half to the other, and sitting down to dualbox mill. If this goes how I imagine, you'll have effectively cut your milling time in half.

Grid+Clique vs Healbot, Round 2 - FIGHT!

I have long been a staunch proponent for my side of the battlefield in the war between Grid+Clique and Healbot users. I began my healing job with the standard 'click the user frame, push the button' mode of healing, and to this day I'm more than capable of whipping the raid groups out and manually healing. But, it never feels as fast and efficient as addon-assisted healing.

I, personally, am on the side of Healbot users. It is a fast, efficient addon that is usable almost straight out of the box. My position was more firmly embedded when I made an attempt to install Grid+Clique when I heard that it was superior to Healbot. To make a long story short, there was a tutorial, and a list of around 10 additional addons to add onto Grid and configure, and, in the end, the goal felt like it was simply for Grid+Clique to impersonate healbot after hours of set up before it ever became usable. Halfway through reading the tutorial and attempting to configure Grid into some semblance of usability, I completely gave up and found myself once and for all in the anti-Grid camp.

To this day, I remain a staunch supporter of Healbot. However, it has been over a year since I last attempted to make Grid+Clique work. In that time, there may well have been some changes to make the addon far more friendly to users. With this (perhaps vain?) hope in mind, I am indulging in an experiment as I write this post! I will be downloading and installing Grid+Clique to attempt and set it up to be usable by me, and I will see just how long it takes to set up.

The addon that I am accustomed to using can be found here: Healbot Continued.
The addons that I will be comparing it to are found here, and here, and don't forget here.

So far, I think I've managed to make the Grid look something like what I can tolerate. I've yet to test it in a group setting, but at the moment it's only usable for selecting targets. I haven't yet gotten Clique configured - or even figured out how to configure Clique. It has been half an hour.

There is no menu for handling Clique off of my default addons menu. This is highly annoying, and /clique gives me a fairly cryptic list of / commands for the addon. I don't see anything yet that indicates how to set it up.

/clique showbindings brings up a small window with the words 'Clique Bindings' and an X for closing it. Mousing over this window results in nothing at all enlightening. Shift, alt and ctrl left-and-right clicking does nothing to this strange little window. I now decide to go to the addon's page on curse.com to see if it holds any further enlightenment.


'To begin with Clique, simply open your spellbook, and click the new tab that exists there. This is the Clique configuration tab, and you can open it anytime you are not in combat to configure your clicks.'

 Okay, that's a little enlightening, so now I try that.

Ah-hah!

Now I seem to be getting somewhere.

I have now cloned my mousekeys for healbot onto Grid. It's not that terribly bad, but I can't see my hots! This is a problem. I should look into fixing it. Let's have a side-by-side comparison.

Left, Grid. Right, Healbot.

So, back to Grid's configuration with me. I need a larger icon, and a timer, just like Healbot gives me by default. It's been an hour now. 

This is dumb. I afk for pizza. It is tasty.

Moving on.

Time to navigate the Labyrinth.

Status - Auras - Buff: Renew looks promising at first, but proves itself a dead end. It's just something to do with 'priority' and what classes to show it on. 

After a through investigation, I come to the conclusion that this simply is not possible. I wonder if there is an addon to the addon that I can add on to add on the functionality I need that is given to me by default by the other addon. If this is true, it will take it up to 4 addons to make Grid function, vs one to make Healbot function. 

I give up and go take care of my glyphs sales while I search for an addon to add on to the addon. On my search, I discover GridStatusHots, which sounds like it will do sort of what I want, sans the icon. Just color.Unfortunately, I never got around to trying it out.

It seems to come down to preferences, in the end. Both are UI mods that display your group in a customizable manner, and allow you to select and-or click-cast on that target. None of Healbot's bad rap from the days of vanilla WoW are true anymore, any anyone who uses Grid+Clique is doing the same thing as a player who chooses to use Healbot. Healbot also utilizes the Healcomm library, which is apparently did not do in the past. At this point, I do not believe that one is superior to the other.

Round Two - End!

I'll stick with Healbot.

EDIT: This post was initially written a few days ago. I intended to get back to comparing the addons, but in the time since I first started writing it, I've come to my conclusion, so I finished up the post.

The Daily Grind: Hodir

Dailies are a great, quick way to make gold. Sure, they're repetitive, boring, and sometimes result in pvp, but you're generating gold without needing to make an auction. While doing your dailies, you can sometimes get world drop epics (I've gotten four that I can recall), and plenty of greens to DE and vendor trash to convert to gold.

The first daily quest hub I'm taking a look at is The Sons of Hodir. The Sons of Hodir are the faction from which you can purchase pve oriented Shoulder Inscriptions. Once upon a time, these were BoP, and every character leveled needed their own faction reputation with Hodir to enable them to glyph their shoulders - unless of course, they were an inscriptionist.

Nowadays, since Hodir's glyphs were changed to BoA and everyone only needs one character with reputation, as well as the availability of rep tokens from heroic badges, Hodir's valley is often a virtual ghost town. This means less competition for the daily mobs, more discoveries of Everfrost Chips, and a quick, often painless place to visit to make some quick gold.

Once you are exalted with Hodir, you will have access to:

1: Blowing Hodir's Horn  (13g 23s)
2: Feeding Arngrim (13g 23s0)
3: Hot and Cold (13g 23s)
4: Polishing the Helm (13g 23s)
5: Spy Hunter (13g 23s)
6:Thrusting Hodir's Spear (16g 53s)

This is a total gold value of 82g 68s plus loot from mobs. Quick and easy. 

However, the chain to unlock Hodir is a long, arduous journey. The upside to this is that it becomes available at level 77, and provides delicious XP. At level 80, the chain itself is an excellent source of gold, leading to a source for gold!


It all begins in K3 with Gretchen Fizzlespark's They Took Our Men! The rest of that chain is as follows:


1.They Took Our Men!
2.Leave No Goblin Behind
3.The Crone's Bargain
4.Mildred the Cruel
5.Discipline
6.Examples to be Made
7.A Certain Prisoner
8.A Change of Scenery
9.Is That Your Goblin?
10.The Hyldsmeet 
11.Taking on All Challengers
12.You'll Need a Bear
13.Going Bearback
14.Cold Hearted
15.Deemed Worthy
16.Making a Harness
17. The Last of Her Kind
18. The Warm-Up
19. Into the Pit
20 Prepare for Glory
21 Lok'lira's Parting Gift
22. The Drakkensryd
23. Sibling Rivalry
24. Mending Fences

25. The Refiner's Fire
26. A Spark of Hope

At this point you should be neutral with Sons of Hodir, and able to begin the rep grind to unlock all of the dailies. Don't forget the Everfrost and Commendation Badges!

Getting Started

We all have to start somewhere, but if you're like me, you feel that you need a strong foundation to start on. Since I'm still getting my act together in the auctioning department, I think now is a good time to document the steps I've taken.

While I'm still getting into the auctioning aspect of things, I've been earning gold for a while. I believe it started back in Burning Crusade, when I realized that doing dailies on multiple 70's was a good thing. I got into the habit of doing a set pattern of dailies. This made them more predictable, if not more entertaining. Lately, I do dailies on only my main, though I keep kicking myself for it. I have unlocked pretty much all of Icecrown and use that for my basis of doing dailies.

This progressed into farming old-world instances on my protection paladin once she was the proud owner of a vendor mount.

I have now begun to farm and purchase materials off the auction house to use my professions for money in addition to all of the above.

I imagine I'll be taking additional steps in the future, but for the current time, this is the point I'm at.

Gold Total Update: 47,916g 77s 20c
Total profits since May 20th: 9,669g

Auction House PvP

This marks day two of my latest insanity, and so far, the payoff is already noticeable. After dedicating about three hours to studying glyphs, I made my first move into the glyph market on my main server, and the results have been surprising. I'm refining the list I initially drew up based on sales - those that sell, I'm posting three more and judging their performance after that point. The ones that don't sell, I'll be re-posting and keeping an eye on. I will not make more of the glyph until I am sold out, at this point, to avoid overstocking what turns out to be an unpopular choice.

I have by now come to recognize yet another auctioneer on my server by their name, and am now engaging in Auction House PvP with them as we speak ;D (I wish I could remember which blog I read that on first - I do agree that the Auction House is yet another form of PvP). So far, we've elbowed each other back and forth  in the Blacksmithing markets and such, and I'm curious if he's simply re-posting unsold merchandise or crafting more and undercutting. The action has been particularly drastic, ranging between 50 to 25 gold undercutting on his behalf. I always reply with a much less drastic cut in price when undercutting him, to try and teach by example. So far, in my opinion, I find it better to undercut by coppers, and no more than a couple gold. This will make you the better price, and put you at the top of the list, but won't cut into your profits too harshly, especially if someone like my new dear friend comes along and starts throwing the undercutting around like it was going out of style.

Part of me wonders if he's attempting to elbow me clear out of the market by making me unable to get the sales I'm after due to his erratic pricing behaviors, but I also wonder if his intent is irrelevant as long as I don't give up and keep perusing the dream. Well, that sounded corny.

But that's what it is. A dream, a desire, a goal. It's a good thing to have, especially while facing the End of the XPac Woes. I want to head into Cataclysm with a strong financial start, and I want to keep going strong throughout the next expansion.

Gold feels like a high score to me. They're points to acquire and later spend on rewards. The higher the score, the better the potential rewards, as well as the better the position for helping others.

But, what's the best approach to Auction House PvP? This feels like another thing I'll be learning on the quest for the gold cap. Any thoughts or pointers on the subject will be appreciated. :) 

For those who are curious, here's the most recent standings for my main server:

 

Abbreviated Screenshot.

It wasn't a phenomenal day, but considering that was made dipping into unfamiliar markets with little else, I'm happy with it.

Adventures in Auction Housing, or, 'I Want To Reach the Gold Cap Too!'.

Like many of WoW's players, I like gold. I like it a lot. I enjoy looting the bad guys and hearing the money hitting my bags, and I really like watching my MoneyFu's session gains getting higher when I play. I hate seeing my sessions at a loss, and do what I can to invest my gold wisely.

I feel I have a few advantages on my side in the quest for making gold.

First, I have two accounts, so I can easily handle any cross faction auction housing myself. This also makes farming a breeze, as I can farm on whatever toon I desire, and have an easy disenchant option. I can also make my own raid groups on a whim without relying on outside help. If I'm farming far away from town, I can bring my second toon and empty my farming character's bags into theirs, if I lack a Moll-E, giving me a greater up-time on any farming binges I feel like going on. My paladin tank has the vendor mount and does much of my old world dungeon and raid farming.

Second, I have seven level 80 characters, six of which are on my main server. In addition to this, I have two characters in their 70's, and a character at 58. All of the above are Horde, however.

Third, I have every single profession in the game at Northrend level. But, I really need to settle down and max out some of the more boring ones, such as Leatherworking and Inscription. I also need to specialize my second alchemist into flasks, and level alchemy on a third character to take up transmutes mastery. 

I have decided that I want to utilize my resources and achieve the gold cap. Before, my goal was simply to stockpile 50,000 gold for Cataclysm's release, but after having come across such awesome blogs as Just My Two Copper, which was the first I stumbled upon, my goals have changed a bit. Seeing others' stories of success has fueled my fire, so to speak.

However, despite everything in my favor, I have issues with gold flow that I know I need to address. For one, I am a very giving person. When I was planning on having an active 5v5 with some friends, I purchased every single member of the team a Battered Hilt, at prices ranging from 6K for the cheapest and peaking at 11K for the first couple. While the 5v5 team idea eventually fell through, I don't regret giving the gifts I did, as I know those who still play are still benefiting from them. However, it is an example of my biggest enemy: random impulse.

I am an impulse shopper, and this is reflected with my IRL money management as well as my WoW gold. It has lead me to make a handful of poor investment choices, thankfully in the WoW world, rather than the real one! But if I hope to achieve the gold cap, I'm going to need to cut back on lavish gifts (which depreciate in value as time goes on anyways). Not to say I should stop gifting entirely, but I should do it less frequently.

A second thing standing in my way is that I feel easily pushed around in the market. I don't have all of the know-how just yet for what I hope to achieve, I don't think. I'm hoping that the experience I gain working with the markets will help me overcome this in time.

If all goes well, I should be reporting my progress here every so often. :D

As of today, May 20th, 2010, I have:

Total across toons on this realm.

The last seven days of activity.

What Did You Say About My Gear, Again?

Tonight, I was running random heroics with Altoholic and TheTank's Rogue Alt. I was playing my second-priest, who is also my newest 80. For some background, this particular character has a wow-heroes gear score of 2035. (Wait, wait, this blog is called Gear Score: Zero! Well, yes, it is, but if I popped into heroics naked, it'd be a little inconsiderate of me, so I try!). Our final heroic of the night was Heroic Halls of Reflection.

Now, I don't mind H-HoR all that much. I was just a little surprised that my baby priest is a-okay to be let in, but my hunter gets carded at the door then told she's too young.

Today has been one long string of gear score related incidents after another. My protection paladin, with a gear score of 2,542 on wow-heroes's scale was, without a word, kicked out of two different raids. One was ICC10, and the other was ToC25. In both situations, wow-heroes states I'm adequate for the job. Apparently, according to today's raid leaders, you need a gear score of 3,000 to attempt ToC25. Not TotGC. ToC. Tell your friends.

So, what's the first thing I see when I zone into the Surprise H-HoR?

01:55:56 [PallyTank]: not with these heals
01:56:04 [PallyTank]: sry folks

Ah, yes. The gear score monster strikes again. We take a look at the paladin, and now I can tell you that she has a wow-heroes score of 2821, with 46K buffed health. After we take a moment to convince PallyTank to give it a shot with us, PallyTank popped a health flask and things got off to a start.

And so I healed.

Things went smoothly, at first. But then, things started to happen. Things like aggro issues. Altoholic and TheTank's Rogue Alt had to hold back for fear of peeling aggro off PallyTank. Meanwhile, our dear friend PallyTank allowed the healer (that's me!) to catch aggro like a bad cold. Multiple times. The ranged adds often went completely uncontrolled, and when called on her lack of adequate tanking, PallyTank of course blamed the DPS.

Something wrong in any group setting? Blame the DPS! Totally their fault, guys. Ttly.

Things finally managed to spiral out of control, and we wiped after the first boss.  Unfortunately, PallyTank didn't use a few key abilities when fighting undead - such as Holy Wrath, for instance. Ever. 

Our next wipe came on the Lich King escape event, near the end. PallyTank was graciously allowing the abombs to spew their green crap all over the party, and the Witch Doctors and other assorted variety of ad were allowed to facially rape my poor priest with little intervention.

Politely, we offered some advice from the seats of experience; key binding raid marks for ease of pointing out DPS targets, how to key bind said marks, utilizing class skills such as Holy Wrath to stun the undead, and the classic 'face the yucky bad thing away from the good guys'.

02:33:44 [Altoholic]: Just keybind your y key to skull.
02:33:57 [PallyTank]: I don't know how to do that stuff

Yet, we were a patient lot, and gave it another shot!

And wiped horribly as the tank failed at aggro and ad management once more. Finally fed up, I gave some sage advice born of years of experience at WoW:

02:41:54 [GearScoreZero]: Lr2Tank

Truer words were never spoken.

02:41:56 [Altoholic]: You... spewed shit on us.
02:42:05 [Altoholic]: I asked you to turn the fatties around for a reason.
02:42:08 [PallyTank]: LOOK AT YOUR WEAK ASS DPS
02:42:09 [TheTank's Rogue Alt]: i didnt have agro and died
02:42:13 [PallyTank]: YOUR WEAK ASS HEALS
02:42:15 [Altoholic]: We can't do more DPS.

 When the DPS can't put out more DPS, not out of inability, but rather because if they did they'd be getting sweet love made to their faces, there just might be a tanking problem

02:42:32 [PallyTank]: i CAN HEAL THIS EATING 

 It had to be done.

How exactly PallyTank could heal H-HoR eating with a ret offspec is probably a topic best left for another day. Suffice to say that within two minutes we had a new tank - a druid. Once we got around the initial fun of said druid accidentally falling off the ledge, then after the post-wipe run back the druid moving on to initiate the event without everyone yet inside, buffed, and mana'd up, we finally got a good, solid go at running like sissies from a slowly approaching and very pissy Lich King. 

And this, folks, is what happens when the tank doesn't suck.

The druid was better than the paladin in many ways, and it wasn't even gear related (though that was a minor bonus). No. He took the wipes with good humor, and accepted that he had made a mistake. He didn't try to blame anyone else. He didn't try to play victim. He took it like a man (bear? cow?) and moved on with his night. 

The attitude he displayed was really good, and for that, my hat goes off to him. Having the tank fall off the ledge in H-HoR honestly made my night after PallyTank's failtankery. Most epic wipe ever. (Except for that one time on Noth... Except nobody has ever wiped on Noth. Especially not us.)

Now, our dear fifth member, the third DPS, was a warlock. I can only imagine that this man must be a paragon of virtue unto himself. He was silent for most of the run, a trait I admire in pugs, but to be honest, I can't help but wonder if he was so quiet out of sheer terror that it would turn out all three of us also played warlocks and wanted to give him some more of our wonderful advice. (Worry not my friend! My warlock has been in her early 20's for three years.)

At the end, all I really have to say is: what did you say about my gear, again?

Shadow Priests: Assessing Upgrades

 When I first began to play my priest, I knew nothing. Slowly, over time, I started to learn. One thing I learned is that gear selection involves a lot of numbers. Anyone who knows me knows that I dislike math. I heartily dislike math. Yet, oddly, when it comes to assessing shadow priest upgrades, I'm enthusiastic. I almost love the math. I'm not one to go off and discover and formulate, but I do know how to use the formulas that others have discovered and made, so that's what this post is about.

Simply put, I'll be explaining the process I personally use to assess my shadow priest's upgrades and gear choices. I imagine others use the same methods, but for people who's eyes cross as much as mine do when they encounter numbers, I'm hoping this post will prove useful. Many sites for spriests implement mathematics to show the value of a piece of gear. I'm writing to show folks how to understand this, and, furthermore, how to use it to their advantage.

According to shadowpriest.com (which is where ElitistJerks seems to get a bit of their spriest info) the following values are true:

Int = .22
Spir = .59
SP = 1
Hit = 1.88 (to cap)
Crit = .76
Haste = .98
Lightweave = 73
Black Magic = 66.64

You will notice that the numbers quoted on EJ do not perfectly match SP, but they're close.

Furthermore, again from shadowpriest.com, the hit cap is as follows:

* 289 hit is the cap with 6 points between Shadow Focus and Misery
* 315 hit before you can go to 5 points between Shadow Focus and Misery
* 341 hit before you can go to 4 points between Shadow Focus and Misery
* 368 hit before you can go to 3 points between Shadow Focus and Misery
* 394 hit before you can go to 2 points between Shadow Focus and Misery
* 420 hit before you can go to 1 point between Shadow Focus and Misery
* 446 hit before you can go to 0 points between Shadow Focus and Misery

And also, gem information from shadowpriest.com

Red gem slots:
Runed Cardinal Ruby - 23
Yellow gem slots:
Reckless Ametrine - 21.8
Blue gem slots: (if used for Metagem or using at least 6sp socketbonus)
Purified Dreadstone - 17.9 (needed to activate
Metagem:
Chaotic Skyflare Diamond:

9000*0.35*(209%/200%-100%) = 11000*0.35*0.045 = 173.25 dps = 83.25 PP
10.2 PP penalty for using two blue gems instead of red gems -> 70 + 21*0.76 = 85.96
Detailed math in old BRGA thread, look for "Math of CSD".

What does this mean?

Until a shadow priest achieves 289 (usually rounded to 290, as, if I recall correctly, it's more like 289.something), then hit rating is granted a total value of 1.88 vs spellpower.

To figure out the total value of an item, the multipliers quoted above are used.

How To Assess An Upgrade for a Shadow Priest

You have two options.
One: you can simply refer to the Best Raiding Gear for 3.3 thread on Shadowpriest.com, or, a more personal approach, you can weigh the value of the items yourself, taking your gem, enchant, and need of hit rating into account.

As an example:

To decide which piece of gear is better, we will be using Strip of Remorse and Sash of Ancient Power. We will assume that each belt will be altered with an Eternal Belt Buckle and Runed Cardinal Ruby.

First, we can assess the value of the socket bonus available on Sash of Ancient Power. In this piece, we have two sockets. These sockets are Red and Blue. The socket bonus is +7 sp. The value for a red epic gem is 23 sp. The value for an epic sp/spir gem is 17.9. Therefore, 23 + 17.9 + 7 = 47.9. If we were to gem straight sp, we would have, instead: 23 + 23 = 46. As we see, it is slightly beneficial to meet the socket bonus.

This means that we will assume that Sash of Ancient Power will be socketed with 1x Purified Dreadstone and 2x Runed Cardinal Rubies

Strip of Remose will be socketed with 1x Runed Cardinal Rubies.

Now that we have decided the sockets, we can begin to truly assess each piece.

The stats we need to pay attention to are as follows:

Sash of Ancient Power:

+64 Intellect
3x Sockets (w/ Eternal Belt Buckle)
Socket Bonus: +7 Spell Power
Equip: Improves hit rating by 43
Equip: Improves haste rating by 49
Equip: Increases spell power by 81.

Strip of Remorse:

+68 Intellect
1x Sockets (w/ Eternal Belt Buckle)
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 55
Equip: Improves haste rating by 62
Equip: Increases spell power by 105.

As many shadow priests know, once hit capped, spell power is the most valuable stat. However, there is a certain logical fallacy. If we were to compare the raw spell power of both belts, it would look like this:

Sash: 23 + 23 + 12 + + 7 + 81 =  146
Strip: 23 + 105 = 128

It appears that the Sash has an 18 sp advantage over the Strip.

But, assuming you're over hit cap, do you really need that 43 hit on the sash? How can you tell which stat it better when?

Let's figure it out.

Returning to the values and stats listed above, let's set up some simple math to answer our question.

First, we take the stats that we have values for, and put them together as an addition problem:

Sash:

64 int  + 23sp Runed Cardinal Ruby + 23sp Runed Cardinal Ruby + 12sp Purified Dreadstone + 10 spir Purified Dreadstone + 7 sp socket bonus + 81 sp + 49 haste [+ 43 hit]

We keep the hit separated in [brackets] because we want to be able to easily see the value with and without +hit, as, after hit cap, hit is a 0 value stat.

Strip:

68 int + 23 sp Runed Cardinal Ruby + 55 Crit + 62 Haste + 105 sp

Now let's go and add the multipliers in:

Sash:

64(.22) int + 23sp Runed Cardinal Ruby + 23sp Runed Cardinal Ruby + 12sp Purified Dreadstone + 10(.59) spir Purified Dreadstone + 7 sp socket bonus + 81 sp + 49(.98) haste [+ 43(1.88) hit]

Strip:

68(.22) int + 23 sp Runed Cardinal Ruby + 55(.76) Crit + 62(.98) Haste + 105 sp

Now, remove the labels to simplify our math:

Sash: 64(.22) + 23 + 23 + 12 + 10(.59) + 7 + 81 + 49(.98) [+ 43(1.88) hit]

Strip: 68(.22) + 23 + 55(.76) + 62(.98) + 105

Now that we're down to the numbers of it, some people's eyes might start crossing, but stick with me!  Let's work through each set and simplify the multiplication.

Sash: 14.08 + 23 + 23 + 12 + 5.9 + 7 + 81 + 48.2 [+80.84 hit]

Strip: 14.96 + 23 + 41.8 + 60.76 + 105

Now, we add all of that together to get our total values based on stat weight.

Sash:
14.08 + 23 + 23 + 12 + 5.9 + 7 + 81 + 48.2 [+80.84 hit]
37.08 + 23 + 12 + 5.9 + 7 + 81 + 48.2
60.08 + 12 + 5.9 + 7 + 81 + 48.2
72.08 + 5.9 + 7 + 81 + 48.2
77.98 + 7 + 81 + 48.2
84.98 + 81 + 48.2
165.98 + 48.2
213.98 [ + 80.84 hit]
213.98 OR [294.82 w/hit]

Strip:
14.96 + 23 + 41.8 + 60.76 + 105
37.96 + 41.8 + 60.76 + 105
79.76 + 60.76 + 105
140.52 + 105
245.52

From the math, we see that the overall value of Sash, without counting its hit, is 213.98. The value of Strip is 245.52. From this simple math, we have learned that the stats on the Strip are more valuable than the stats on the Sash.

However! If you are below hit cap, remember that hit is still valued at 1.88 vs sp. That means, if you are below hit cap to the point that you will need all of the hit off of the Sash, the sash is worth up to 294.82.

How to judge your hit needs!

Remember the hit cap numbers quoted above. To properly assess the value of an item you need hit from, be sure to calculate only for the +hit you will be using from the item. For example, if an item gives you 43 hit, but you only need 12 hit to be capped, only calculate the value of +12 hit. This will help you choose between multiple +hit pieces to find the best upgrade for you.

I hope that this post has proven useful to someone out there. :)

Gear Score: Zero

Gear Score: Zero - the lack of a gear score. Also known as naked. Though if we want to get technical about it, I'm sure a shirt or tabard would be fine!

So, what's going on here? I feel like talking, and if people feel like listening,  I'll be happy to have provided entertainment, if nothing else.

To get started, I'll tell a bit about myself!

My WoW experience began in March of 2007, when a friend talked me into giving the game a try, with the incentive that he'd pay for my monthly subscription fees for me, if I would play WoW with him. Since it was only a $20 loss if I didn't like it, I didn't have much to lose, so I bought it. A month later, I bought the expansion pack and by the third month, I had taken over paying for my account. As of November of 2009, I play on two accounts.Currently, I have seven characters at level 80, two of them being priests.

My interests in WoW vary from RP to raiding, pvp, and the auction house, so expect a dash of variety in my posts.

So, who am I? I am a 25 year old woman just finishing up my associates degree and turning my eye to the job market. I'm a firm believer that there's more girls out there playing WoW than people seem to think. I'm also a firm believer that there is no such thing as girls on the internet.

I play Horde, of course.

My main alt on WoW is a priest on the Twisting Nether server. I rolled him with intent to heal, but I leveled as Shadow, and by the time I reached level 70, I seemed to have become typecasted! I remained Shadow as I raided Kara, though I always kept my healing gear on-hand for off-spec healing. By the time I joined a guild which ran 25 mans, the typecasting continued, and I served as one of the guild's two shadow priests. With them, I earned my Hand of A'dal title, but in the last few weeks of Burning Crusade, I left the guild in favor of the RP guild I'm still in today.

In Wrath, I decided to finally make my main spec Holy. I raided Nax10 with my RP guild, and Ulduar10 and ToC10 with a raiding alliance. I earned my Rusted Proto with a rather epic save involving spending the last of my mana to Guardian Spirit the rogue and critting Vezax to death with my wand for the final achievement I needed.

Currently, I'm seeking a stable ICC10 man group and I am raiding ICC25 once a week.

On other fronts, I'm slowly plugging away at the Battlemaster achievements on my rogue, though ultimately, my goal is the 100,000 honor kills achievement.

I also aim to hit the gold cap someday.

So, why a blog? Blame Altoholic Anonymous.