ask mr. robot Stat Priorities With Ask Mr. Robot

[Orcasmo 0]

As a prot warrior I would refer to Mr. Robot toward the end of my days of raiding just to make sure I was optimizing the most out of the gear I had. I can see where some classes may not get the same benefit, but the universal idea is that it i supposed to point you in the right direction - regardless of class - based on your spec, and the gear you have.

[Darklord 0]

I for one am happy for this change as i have been using Mr.Robot for quite some time.

[Boradan 17]

Hmm well that's interesting to hear.

One thing that I found in Cata is that AMR has been almost useless when determining what to reforge for healers. The reason for this being - in the case of a Resto Shaman - that stat weights are so arbitrary and meaningless (as stated by Elitist Jerks, no less!) that any set of stat weights I put in, does not get what I believe to be an "optimal" answer out. In many cases, I have found improvements which reflect my playstyle but aren't easy to put into stat weights.

For that reason, I won't be using it. On the other hand, I like it for DPS toons (including my Enhance offspec). So maybe I will if/when I get to playing Enhance =]

TBH, askmrrobot and other sites of a similar nature are fairly useless for healers and tanks.

These 2 specs never have a rotation or 'cast priority' and what you use depends totally on being able to predict damage.

They can tell you what is best for burst or throughput, but beyond that they are fairly unreliable.

The best way for you to use these sites is to decide what way you want to play your character... Do you want to have bigger heals with more cirt, or do you want to be able to cast smaller heals for longer periods?

Once you decide that you can input any haste/mastery/crit caps into askmrrobot and it will tell you the forges you need to maintain that soft haste cap (or whatever). Beyond that, its a matter of playstyle

[Beeba 4]

I never tried Ask Mr. Robot but I have been all over many other sites, including Icy-Veins, and I after extensive reading, reforging, and testing myself is how I came to know what gives me the most "bang" for each class/spec, including tanks and healers. For leveling it may not matter so much to have the best possible stat combo but once I reach level 90 I may try the robot for added help. I will be watching here for the guide on how to use it first though.

[BrightBrown 4]

AMR is pretty useless until one hits cap... so when leveling, better to do it manually. BUT it was instructive on how much your secondary stats tank at each level (at 86, it says I have ~3% hit, haste etc.). Pointing to how important gearing is (d/oh).

It served me very well pre MoP and I expect it to be valuable when I finally get to 90 (I'm going to enjoy that ride and not rush through). BUT one issue I do have with them is that when you hit optimize, no longer do you see the unbuffed stats... it's SAYS Armory, but clearly it's with added buffs. AND the stats they add for buffs in many cases are way more than what I know about buffs (I have 9763 SP unbuffed, they claim ~12500 buffed and I have NO idea how they got to that number, the best I can do is about ~11200).

As for Expertise, it seems to me that it can be used to reforge into something you already have on the gear... i.e. if your gear item has hit & mastery, you CAN reforge some of the mastery into exp (because you can't do it into Hit). Seems to give one more flexibility...

Edited October 1, 2012 by BrightBrown

[Panador 0]

I prefer Rawr but as it's still not usable I have started to try Mr Robot but ... I'm finding it kinda hard to trust them. e.g. on my mage when it tries to optimize it suggest switching several things, among other things +160 intellect gems for +160expertise,+160crit ones.

I get the expertise, for hit, but it values pure crit over int?

So far I have not switched to the proposed setup as it also recommends using the epic shoulder enchant, the 180 int bracer enchant no one has access to yet etc. (also Windsong over Jade Spirit? huh?), which I don't have yet and don't want to "waste" on 463 items. So I could be wrong but, really, crit over int?

[midgettoes 6]

I prefer Rawr but as it's still not usable I have started to try Mr Robot but ... I'm finding it kinda hard to trust them. e.g. on my mage when it tries to optimize it suggest switching several things, among other things +160 intellect gems for +160expertise,+160crit ones.

I get the expertise, for hit, but it values pure crit over int?

So far I have not switched to the proposed setup as it also recommends using the epic shoulder enchant, the 180 int bracer enchant no one has access to yet etc. (also Windsong over Jade Spirit? huh?), which I don't have yet and don't want to "waste" on 463 items. So I could be wrong but, really, crit over int?

320 crit or 160 int. It comes down to whether or not int is >2x better than crit. At the moment (for fire mages), it just isn't.

Jade Spirit isn't really available yet? I dunno I can't find a way to be reverred with Shado'Pan. Also, at the moment, Windsong can have all 3 procs seperately and overlap. So you are not just getting either 1500 crit/mastery/haste, you are getting each with a 1ppm rate. So again, it comes to stat weightings. Is 1500 int > 1500 crit + mastery + haste given they all proc ~once per minute?

That's my understanding of it. If Wowhead has mislead on the proc overlapping, then I appologise. The stat weightings seem to be the things you distrust more than anything else!

[Panador 0]

But afaik the 180 int enchant is also not available yet either, yet it recommends it, requires Revered with Golden Lotus, I don't think anyone could have hit that yet either, so I don't think it takes availability into account.

I did not know that the 3 Windsong procs can overlap, if that's true that's amazing... too amazing?

The Icy Veins Fire Mage guide also values Int far over Crit and does not recommend a single gem with +Crit over +Int. On the other hand to be fair they don't recommend +Expertise either. So yeah, I'm kinda unsure on the stat weightings.

[Damien 1,514]

But afaik the 180 int enchant is also not available yet either, yet it recommends it, requires Revered with Golden Lotus, I don't think anyone could have hit that yet either, so I don't think it takes availability into account.

I did not know that the 3 Windsong procs can overlap, if that's true that's amazing... too amazing?

The Icy Veins Fire Mage guide also values Int far over Crit and does not recommend a single gem with +Crit over +Int. On the other hand to be fair they don't recommend +Expertise either. So yeah, I'm kinda unsure on the stat weightings.

Expertise is a stat you get with red gems, which also happens to be the gem color of Intellect, Agility, and Strength. So, wherever you can use a red gem, you should use a gem that gives you Intellect, Agility, and Strength. Even for classes where Expertise is better than your main stat, you should still not gem for it. The reason is that you can get expertise by reforging out of other secondary statistic, while you cannot do that for Intellect, Agility, or Strength.

[midgettoes 6]

Sounds amazing yes. If I didn't have a test to be cramming for I would go whack a target dummy for 5 minutes and let you know :P

[midgettoes 6]

Expertise is a stat you get with red gems, which also happens to be the gem color of Intellect, Agility, and Strength. So, wherever you can use a red gem, you should use a gem that gives you Intellect, Agility, and Strength. Even for classes where Expertise is better than your main stat, you should still not gem for it. The reason is that you can get expertise by reforging out of other secondary statistic, while you cannot do that for Intellect, Agility, or Strength.

That's kind of illogical at low gear sets, where hit cap is not attainable purely through secondary stats/reforge. I totally agree for a higher level gear (most high level gear you are reforging away from hit not into it...) but for 'almost' heroicly geared in BiS stuff it is really hard to hit 15% hit for raids. So if it is weighted higher... Gem for it... That is exactly what Mr. Robot is saying, and it makes sense.

What you have said is, effectively, sure hit/expertise is a better stat to have (in a 2:1 ratio over int), but don't take it, because you can get it elsewhere. The issue is not being able to find enough of it elsewhere at low gear levels. Gem expertise if you don't mind regemming in a few weeks time after you pick up new gear. I'm basically regemming/reforging every single time I get an upgrade currently.

[Ghostrocket 0]

I just checked AMR for my BM hunter and the default stats for PVE it places haste in front of crit and mastery.

When Icy veins, MAX DPS and Noxxic all suggest crit then haste and mastery.

I dont think anyone minds using AMR just consistency would be good :)

[Damien 1,514]

That's kind of illogical at low gear sets, where hit cap is not attainable purely through secondary stats/reforge. I totally agree for a higher level gear (most high level gear you are reforging away from hit not into it...) but for 'almost' heroicly geared in BiS stuff it is really hard to hit 15% hit for raids. So if it is weighted higher... Gem for it... That is exactly what Mr. Robot is saying, and it makes sense.

What you have said is, effectively, sure hit/expertise is a better stat to have (in a 2:1 ratio over int), but don't take it, because you can get it elsewhere. The issue is not being able to find enough of it elsewhere at low gear levels. Gem expertise if you don't mind regemming in a few weeks time after you pick up new gear. I'm basically regemming/reforging every single time I get an upgrade currently.

That's right. I was still in beta-mode where you could just gear epic gear so easily. I'll modify the gemming sections in the guides because this also applies to melee classes having to reach the 7.5% hit and expertise caps, as for almost all classes, the primary stat is not worth more than twice the value of Hit Rating or Expertise Rating.