Thoughts on the Gear Guide

[andrewc73]

I have been using all of the guides for quite awhile, and in general I love them. The only one I am not thrilled about is the Gear Guide. I know as part of the dungeon guide that it is obviously going to be dungeon focused in terms of gear recommendations, but I would love to see it broadened to a wider range of gear.

I would love to be able to see recommendations on gear available for my level from a variety of sources - the best crafted gear, quest gear, etc.., gem and enchant suggestions to provide options for those who don't just want to run dungeons over and over again. Ideally, seeing a list of suggested upgrades that are available from different sources (including rep vendors) would add a lot of value to the guide.

Just some thoughts - keep up the good work on the guides.

[littlewierdo]

There are MUCH better alternatives than Zygor for this.

Personally, I use www.askmrrobot.com. If you upgrade to the 'premium' (something like $10 a year, super cheap if you ask me), you can click on the 'find upgrades' button, which will search various categories of gear, depending on what you select (valor, crafted, BoE, LFR, specific raids, etc.) to present you with a list of every upgrade available for you.

OR, if you prefer to manually click each individual piece on the main screen, make sure you select the 'relative upgrades' option which will take your current gear into account when presenting the list of upgrades (things like breaking set bonus's and so forth).

And dont forget to poke around through the options, there are a few things you'll likely want to change.

I then use Google Docs to put my upgrades in for my character so that I can track my progress. Keep in mind that every upgrade you get will change whether OTHER items are in fact still upgrades, and will change OTHER items upgrade values. This means, you'll have to use the find upgrades feature to look up items every time you get a new upgrade. Really obnoxious in the beginning since you are getting items fast and furious, but Im now at the point where the only significant upgrades are in normal ToT so unless I get a drop in our normal raid (probably once every couple of weeks), I dont have to look anything up.

And, the benefit of Google Docs is that it can be shared with our raid leader who can track our progress gear wise.

There is one other benefit mrrobot has that I find somewhat useful, who would this item be the biggest upgrade for, you define your raid team and then it will determine who would most benefit from a specific item.

Oh, and it will tell you what enchants, reforges, and gems you should use as well.

Just remember, anytime you make ANY change to your gear setup, you need to log out of WoW and click the update from armory button at the top left. Super annoying, hopefully this gets upgraded so that the armory updates on the fly.

Given the size and scope of Zygor these days, there is no way they can keep track of every little change Blizzard makes to each class (via official patches and the more hidden hotfixes no one knows about), manage the theorycrafting involved, and in general, watch what the experts are saying about stat priorities and whatnot.

The function of the gear thing is really for lower than 90s or brand new 90s that have not touched raiding. It isnt always accurate but its functional, and its doubtful youll even notice a performance drop when it suggests (and you use) something that is not in fact an upgrade.

Hell, Zygor still has the talent choice recommendations incorrect for several classes, many of these changed with the 5.2 massive balance patch.