Comments on: As long as I’m repeating myself

By: Sah

Sah — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:31:30 +0000

I started using Rawr tree model a little during BC but never got serious enough back then. When I started raiding Naxx I picked it up again and loved it. We didn’t allways agree but it helped a lot by reducing the number of items I had to compare myself. Then I started using the cat and the bear model too and the only major issue I had was the value it seemed to place on bunus armour even after the change, that’s when I wished it was possible to see the numbers used to weight stats.
I’ve stopped using it though, but that’s only because when 3.1 hit us the first few Rawr versions after that was supposed to have the tree model updated when actually only parts of it was updated. I’m sure they have fixed it by now and if I get back to Ulduar I’ll probably check out the latest version. At that time however I felt I would be better off not using it compared to using a tool that was only partially up to date.

Overall it’s a great tool but remember to use your brain too, because it’s even better :P A good tip I saw once was to look at the top 3 upgrades and then personally evaluate them.

By: Aindrelin

Aindrelin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:58:20 +0000

@Burntpepperoni:

Well, I’ll be damned. The best of that gear is from quests I completed. Leaves me a tad screwed.

By: Niles

Niles — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:05:34 +0000

I’ve used Rawr extensively for over a year now, and absolutely love it. I started using it for my feral druid back in BC, but mostly pull it up for my raiding mage – as Staris said it’s fantastic to have up in the background to check possible upgrades on the fly as they drop so you can feel more confident about doing your /roll or spending that dkp.

I will say that it takes some setup initially – often it will place a higher emphasis on a stat that you may not consider as important (or ignore others, such as hit), but frequently that’s because the user needs to tell the utility what the fight statistics are and pick raid buffs that are available (long fights with no replenishment will weight gear with more spirit or mp5 for casters, for example, until you tell it not to).

Also, I find one of the more useful ways of using Rawr is for optimizing gear with your current raid. I use it every raid to mimic what raid buffs we have present so I can swap out gear if needed (if we have no draenei, shadow priests, or boomkin, I swap gear to pick up hit – if we do have those, I know I can trade out hit gear to pick up other stats, and always know what percentage my hit will be at just by checking/unchecking the raid buffs in Rawr).

Excellent resource!

By: Adiline

Adiline — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:49:22 +0000

Unfortunately I didn’t see a mac version when I tried to check it out a while back…..boohoo

By: Burntpepperoni

Burntpepperoni — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:56:00 +0000

@Aindrelin:

Check out this website:
http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=17158

This will help you get geared to def cap before raiding. It’s not so hard if you plan a little.

By: Aindrelin

Aindrelin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:33:32 +0000

Tried using it for my Prot Paladin. Apparently, the best gear you can get outside of raids still won’t get you defense capped. I hit up every single defense enchant, put on the best non-raid gear in slot (counting BS recipes from Ulduar) will only give you 527 defense. I think this has something to do with the gem priorities: every single gem was automatically placed as stamina when a couple defense gems here and there would’ve helped a lot. Not to mention trying to match the socket bonuses for that defense. It’s got a few things it could to work out.

By: Lily

Lily — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:31:36 +0000

I use Rawr, believe me I understand. I’ve been telling my guild for the past year about it. Seems like I take every opportunity to mention it and every time I do, the majority of the responses are “huh what’s that?”

I think it’s always important to investigate different sources. There are going to be mistakes and there are going to be items that elude fancy calculators like Rawr. With that said, for the most part it’s a small wonder to have it available. On raids I often run at or near the top. I’m slowly helping convince people that druids can still tank. My Rawr data shows my total combined mitigation at 89% now and the results I have lead me to believe that is accurate. There’s just no way I’d be doing this well without it.

As for hit rating. I never ever worry about my hit rating. Rawr values items with hit well enough for me, so if I’m under the cap I don’t worry. Hit rating is also more valuable to some classes than others. For instance, one of the reasons druids need agility so much is because of the massive boosts we get from talents. Pure boosts to our stats, boosts to crit damage, and bleeding crits, make agility excessively worthwhile and hit less worthy in comparison.

By: Occulus

Occulus — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:56:58 +0000

Hey Wind this is Occulus the one and only Lord of the Tiny people. my game card is up and probably for the final time. I dont think ill ever be logging on WoW again until they make it some what more interesting. any how I thought of all the people I ever played WoW with you would be the one to tell that you shalt see me again. I havent deleted my toons or anything im just excessively bored of seeing the same content day after day with no new changes to anything. But if you can see my E-mail feel free to email or add me to Msn if you have it. So Farewell and I Hope our paths meet again.

From yours truely Occulus Lord of the Tiny people. Teysa Keeper of a 1000 Wolves.

By: Staris

Staris — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:12:22 +0000

I use Rawr for my shadow priest. I love the way it suggests gear based on what you need. For example, if you are low on hit, it suggests gear with hit. Once you have met the hit cap, it will suggest the next thing you need (spell power or crit).

I love it and keep it open in the background when raiding so I can tell which are upgrades for me!

Two thumbs up!

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:08:02 +0000

Night: I noticed the same thing when I was upgrading my hunter. I don’t use rawr though, but when i was going from blues/BOE purples to naxx10 gear, some of that stuff I thought there was no way it could be an upgrade, turns out it was.

My strong advice is, if you get an item which is a higher iLvl, see if you can make it work by regemming/re-enchanting, and above all else, test it on a target dummy.

For example if a upgrade drops your hit but massively boosts your AP, it may still give you higher dps. Same thing goes for any other stat.

Its okay if you are not hit capped but still doing more dps than your previous hit capped gear.

For myself I mostly use pawn, the in-game tool. Rawr is vastly better but I don’t raid any more.