Should I Ask MrRobot?

Hello,

My question is regarding gear pieces actually, I can handle the reforging, gemming and enchanting without AskMrRobot, however I tend to get confused when it comes to what gear is better, what should I get.

I know to play the class so going full haste isn't a problem for me, but then there also is tank gear that doesn't have double avoidance but doesn't have haste either, which one should I get? I can remember a clear example right now, but I guess you understand what I mean.

Anyways, getting to the question, is it safe to put my gearing into the hands of MrRobot's upgrade finder? How exactly does MrRobot calculate those scores? Because sometimes it was sugesting me gear with double avoidance over gear with haste (pretty much the same stats).

By the way, I'm at Flex level atm.


Thanks in advance!

It's a good tool. I use it quite a lot, but mainly as a self-audit, to review whether I have overlooked something, rather than - for example - to decide between two items.

The way it decides on upgrades it by assigning weights to stats and seeing which gear increased the total stat value of your gear the most (when looking at gear for a specific slot, choose the relative ranking to see how AMR will prioritise them). You can change the assigned weights by clicking the "edit weights" option. The weights are not scientifically determined, so you don't need to feel obliged to follow them. The advice to cap hit and expertise, then stack haste is widely followed. Mastery would be a decent defensive stat after haste, although some like crit for dps/heals. Dodge/parry have few advocates, as diminishing returns kick in hard and tanks dislike spikey damage.

I tend just to use the highest ilevel pieces (going ret for loot spec to avoid dodge/parry) and not worry too much about stats. I'd make an exception for tier.

Trinkets require more thought and I would not follow AMR blindly on them.

AMR is a tool, NOT a guide. Do not treat it as a guide.

AMR relies on stat weights to make it's decisions. These stat weights are often far from optimal, partially because they differ based on talents, existing gear and playstyle.

The best thing you can do is Sim your character using http://simulationcraft.org (be sure to scale weights over TMI for Tank specs), and then plug those weights into AMR before letting AMR tell you what to do. There are a couple of caveats:

AMR on default does NOT enforce hit and expertise caps, but stays just below the caps. This results in an overall slightly better score. However, the overall gains are minimal while a miss at the wrong moment can be crucial. Fortunately, they added an option to enforce these caps. Enable this option!

AMR adjusts your weights to amplify trinkets (Thok's Tail Tip), even though the effect of these amplify trinkets are already included in the simulated weights. You need to manually calculate and re-adjust.

AMR guesses if you want the tier set or not. If it guesses you don't want the tier set, but you do, you manually have to calculate in which slots you want the tier pieces, force those pieces, and then optimize the rest. Likewise, if it guesses you do want the tier set, but you don't, you manually have to replace the tier pieces by other pieces, and then optimize the rest. This is not an issue if you only ask AMR how to reforge, gem and enchant.

AMR guesses which trinkets you want. This is not an issue if you only ask AMR how to reforge, gem and enchant.

Yes, like above - enable the hit/expertise priority ("at least"). Without it, AMR often leaves you just under cap. I've also ignored its trinket recommendations on occasion.

Still a good tool, but don't follow it blindly. Then again - we get too caught up in min/maxing. 'This' piece over 'that' piece almost never makes the different between life and death (unless of course the 'on use' portion of a trinket is that strong). A gearing strategy can make the difference, but rarely one piece. Don't sweat it - play style makes a bigger difference.

Thanks for your replies.

Yeh, the "at least mode" was the first thing I enabled.

And I don't like to blindly follow any computer made recommandations, but I find it easier to use AMR for gear browsing, rather than AtlasLoot.


So...yeah...I'll try to sim my character and put in some custom weights. Thanks again!