So I managed to actually wake up early (with some help from Duncan calling my phone) both Saturday and Sunday and head out to CastleCon. Overall it was a pretty fun time. There wasn't anything terribly exciting about it but sometimes getting 40+ people in a room to play board games for 15 hours is all you need!
I ended up getting 3 new games for my collection that obviously needs more games. I got the Glory To Rome reprint. I got the new Netrunner box. And I picked up a used copy of Circus Maximus from the silent auction. Maybe I'll learn the game and be able to play at WBC next year!
I also actually played a bunch of games, some new to me, some old. I believe I played Dungeon Lords, Castle of Burgundy, Eminent Domain, Ora et Labora, Battlestar Galactica, Stone Age: Style is the Goal, Glory To Rome, Dominion, Milestones, and Trigger. By my count I played games with 15 different people. Saturday was great in that it seemed like I never had to make decisions about what to play. People kept coming up and asking if I wanted to play game X. SURE! Game it up! At parts of Sunday we ended up with a bunch of people milling around who all wanted to play games but with no one who wanted to actually pick a game. I know the solution there is to just pick something, have people sit with me, and let the rest sort it out on their own but that's not really something I'm good at doing. And it makes me uncomfortable. Eventually games got started and it got better though!
Overall, a good time and I'm glad I went. And I'm super psyched to play the new NetRunner at some point!
Monday, October 22, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
CastleCon
There's a board gaming convention (CastleCon) being held near Toronto this weekend. Duncan and Sara were going to be driving in each day and asked if I'd like to tag along. Thinking about it, I realized I haven't actually played a board game since WBC. Now, I play a lot of board games online, but I haven't been with actual people around a physical board in quite some time. I haven't really felt like leaving the apartment lately and I don't think I do now either, but it's probably a good idea regardless.
It looks like there are 3 tournaments at CastleCon, though I'm not particularly interested in any of them. Memoir 44, Command and Colors: Ancients, and Vikings. Vikings in particular holds the dubious distinction of being the most disappointing game I've ever played. I learned it at WBC in 2007 and I'd swear the title on the box was "VIKINGS!". And then the game had no raping, pillaging, or exploring. It wasn't a bad game from a mechanics standpoint but it really disappointed in terms of theme.
I donno, just playing some games should be nice. There's a vendor on site and I think I still have some store credit from the Blitz a couple years ago. Apparently there's a new Netrunner card game based off the old CCG. I should try to pick it up.
It looks like there are 3 tournaments at CastleCon, though I'm not particularly interested in any of them. Memoir 44, Command and Colors: Ancients, and Vikings. Vikings in particular holds the dubious distinction of being the most disappointing game I've ever played. I learned it at WBC in 2007 and I'd swear the title on the box was "VIKINGS!". And then the game had no raping, pillaging, or exploring. It wasn't a bad game from a mechanics standpoint but it really disappointed in terms of theme.
I donno, just playing some games should be nice. There's a vendor on site and I think I still have some store credit from the Blitz a couple years ago. Apparently there's a new Netrunner card game based off the old CCG. I should try to pick it up.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
World of Warcraft: Rating Mixes
I had an idea last week that perhaps the best way to approach challenge dungeon gearsets would be to stay as close to ilvl 463 as possible. My thinking was based on the way hit/expertise don't scale down, so your rating mix outside of those two will trend towards an even mix. Since some rating is better than another one this has to be bad. But is this actually true? I decided to look up some numbers and see...
The first thing I noticed is even at the same ilvl a piece of gear can have a different rating ratio. The bigger the cap between the two ratings, the smaller the total. I'm sure there's some precise formula but that's something to look up later on. It looks like the biggest split on ilvl 463 gear is 60-40 so I'm going to make some estimates using that split even though it isn't really available in every slot. There's also complications with sockets that I'm going to ignore for now.
All told, assuming primary stat trinkets, you'll have 11116 rating across all your gear with ilvl 463 gear. You need 2550 expertise rating and 2550 hit rating to hit the respective caps. This leaves 6016 rating left, which is actually less than 60% of 11116. So, assuming the gear existed, you could quite feasibly only run with hit, expertise, and your best rating.
Now, assume you have really high ilvl gear. Really, really high level. So you actually have a rating pool of 20000. You still need the same 5100 rating for hit/expertise which leaves 14900 rating to go into other stats. Because the most you can get on any single piece is 60% you're looking at getting at most 12000 of it, leaving 2900 to go into a different rating. Then your gear gets scaled down to having 11116 rating. This means you get only 4845 of your best rating while getting stuck with 1171 of your second best rating. So having significantly higher ilvl gear actually makes you worse!
The first thing I noticed is even at the same ilvl a piece of gear can have a different rating ratio. The bigger the cap between the two ratings, the smaller the total. I'm sure there's some precise formula but that's something to look up later on. It looks like the biggest split on ilvl 463 gear is 60-40 so I'm going to make some estimates using that split even though it isn't really available in every slot. There's also complications with sockets that I'm going to ignore for now.
All told, assuming primary stat trinkets, you'll have 11116 rating across all your gear with ilvl 463 gear. You need 2550 expertise rating and 2550 hit rating to hit the respective caps. This leaves 6016 rating left, which is actually less than 60% of 11116. So, assuming the gear existed, you could quite feasibly only run with hit, expertise, and your best rating.
Now, assume you have really high ilvl gear. Really, really high level. So you actually have a rating pool of 20000. You still need the same 5100 rating for hit/expertise which leaves 14900 rating to go into other stats. Because the most you can get on any single piece is 60% you're looking at getting at most 12000 of it, leaving 2900 to go into a different rating. Then your gear gets scaled down to having 11116 rating. This means you get only 4845 of your best rating while getting stuck with 1171 of your second best rating. So having significantly higher ilvl gear actually makes you worse!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Pandaren Ambassador Progress
I'm 22 days into my presumed 41 day grind to Pandaren Ambassador. I must say, I'm getting pretty tired with doing dailies. I think it might be best for my sanity to cut back on some of the less needed dailies for a bit... But to do that I need to work out actual ETAs at this point. Hopefully using new information about rep per day since some of the numbers from before seemed a bit off. (Revered with golden lotus took 2 weeks instead of 6 days, for example.)
Lorewalkers - DONE
Tushui - DONE
Tillers - DONE
Cloud Serpent - DONE
Anglers - Need 4688 more rep, get ~1650 per day, exalted in 3 days
Golden Lotus - Need 6168 more rep, get ~1760 per day, exalted in 4 days
Klaxxi - Need 6217 more rep, get ~1700 per day, exalted in 4 days
August Celestials - Need 27975 more rep, and I honestly still don't know how this works. Some days I have 1 quest hub to do. Some I have 2. With 1 hub I get 1210 rep per day which is exalted in 24 days. Possibly half that if I keep getting 2 hubs per day.
Shado-Pan - Need 24642 more rep, 1430 more from quests, 825 per day, exalted in 29 days
Shado-Pan looks to be the only rep that matters. I can take 3 weeks off of most of them (maybe just do them on the weekend or something) and still get done before Shado-Pan. Also, it's going to take more than 41 days! Losing 8 days off of golden lotus due to whatever changed there is a killer. I still have a month to go... Maybe I should just abort entirely.
Lorewalkers - DONE
Tushui - DONE
Tillers - DONE
Cloud Serpent - DONE
Anglers - Need 4688 more rep, get ~1650 per day, exalted in 3 days
Golden Lotus - Need 6168 more rep, get ~1760 per day, exalted in 4 days
Klaxxi - Need 6217 more rep, get ~1700 per day, exalted in 4 days
August Celestials - Need 27975 more rep, and I honestly still don't know how this works. Some days I have 1 quest hub to do. Some I have 2. With 1 hub I get 1210 rep per day which is exalted in 24 days. Possibly half that if I keep getting 2 hubs per day.
Shado-Pan - Need 24642 more rep, 1430 more from quests, 825 per day, exalted in 29 days
Shado-Pan looks to be the only rep that matters. I can take 3 weeks off of most of them (maybe just do them on the weekend or something) and still get done before Shado-Pan. Also, it's going to take more than 41 days! Losing 8 days off of golden lotus due to whatever changed there is a killer. I still have a month to go... Maybe I should just abort entirely.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Video Games Live
I had something on tv in the background yesterday while grinding away at my World of Warcraft daily quests (Big Bang Theory, probably) when an interesting commercial came on. It was for a music concert featuring music from Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, and more and was going to be touring through Canada at some point. It had a webpage listed in the commercial so I went to check it out. It turns out they're passing through the area next week! Toronto on Thursday the 25th, Montreal on Friday, Kitchener on Sunday, Ottawa on Monday. Seems like they'll be zig-zagging all over southern Ontario which seems a little inefficient but I suspect they use local orchestras in each location so it's just the sets and such making the trip so probably not actually a big deal. (They only currently list the KW orchestra for the Kitchener event so maybe they're doing all 4?)
Now, I _really_ enjoyed the Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert I went to earlier this year. Final Fantasy music is objectively the best so I imagine a concert with all kinds of video game music would have to be worse than one of just Final Fantasy music but I expect it would still be pretty good. So I decided to check out the website a bit more and see what the deal would be...
The first thing that jumped out at me is the ticket prices are a lot lower than the Distant Worlds ones were. $37.50 for the cheap seats this time which for more than 2 hours is in the same ballpark as going to a movie. I was a little leery about trying to get people to go with me to a $100 concert when they might not like it... But this seems cheap enough to take a chance on I would think! The Kitchener ones start at $35. In fact, I think the most expensive tickets to VGL are cheaper than the cheapest ones were for FF:DW.
The next thing was extra stuff. Distant Worlds had special VIP tickets where you paid a bunch extra to go meet with the performers afterwards. Now, they had Nobuo Uematsu so this was actually a pretty big deal for Final Fantasy music nerds. Video Games Live seems to run a pre and post show, for free, around every event. The webpage claims they run costume contests and sometimes have game booths and such set up beforehand. They encourage picture/video taking during the concert.
Apparently they have around 60 segments that they could play at each concert. They do about 20 each time and rotate around. Makes me wonder if there will be substantial differences between the Toronto and Kitchener events. If they're using the same orchestra in both places maybe not? It sounds like they have some core pieces (Mario/Zelda/Final Fantasy) and then sub in different things to fill up the 2.5 hours. That said, I don't know that 'filler' is going to be the right term. There's a lot of video games with awesome music out there. They may not have the flashy names, but I expect it'll still be pretty great.
I think it sounds pretty interesting. It'd be tight, but I'm pretty sure I can get downtown in time for the pre-show while leaving work at my normal time. I may even have time to pop home on the way and put on some overalls and a purple hat...
Anyone else interested in going?
Now, I _really_ enjoyed the Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert I went to earlier this year. Final Fantasy music is objectively the best so I imagine a concert with all kinds of video game music would have to be worse than one of just Final Fantasy music but I expect it would still be pretty good. So I decided to check out the website a bit more and see what the deal would be...
The first thing that jumped out at me is the ticket prices are a lot lower than the Distant Worlds ones were. $37.50 for the cheap seats this time which for more than 2 hours is in the same ballpark as going to a movie. I was a little leery about trying to get people to go with me to a $100 concert when they might not like it... But this seems cheap enough to take a chance on I would think! The Kitchener ones start at $35. In fact, I think the most expensive tickets to VGL are cheaper than the cheapest ones were for FF:DW.
The next thing was extra stuff. Distant Worlds had special VIP tickets where you paid a bunch extra to go meet with the performers afterwards. Now, they had Nobuo Uematsu so this was actually a pretty big deal for Final Fantasy music nerds. Video Games Live seems to run a pre and post show, for free, around every event. The webpage claims they run costume contests and sometimes have game booths and such set up beforehand. They encourage picture/video taking during the concert.
Apparently they have around 60 segments that they could play at each concert. They do about 20 each time and rotate around. Makes me wonder if there will be substantial differences between the Toronto and Kitchener events. If they're using the same orchestra in both places maybe not? It sounds like they have some core pieces (Mario/Zelda/Final Fantasy) and then sub in different things to fill up the 2.5 hours. That said, I don't know that 'filler' is going to be the right term. There's a lot of video games with awesome music out there. They may not have the flashy names, but I expect it'll still be pretty great.
I think it sounds pretty interesting. It'd be tight, but I'm pretty sure I can get downtown in time for the pre-show while leaving work at my normal time. I may even have time to pop home on the way and put on some overalls and a purple hat...
Anyone else interested in going?
Monday, October 15, 2012
League of Legends: Mad Cheats!
Over the last week and a bit the season finals for League of Legends have taken place. They had a big 12 team play-off two weekends ago with the finals scheduled for last weekend. For the most part the games were fun to watch and a high level of play was shown by all. They had some connectivity issues at the venue which resulted in some of the games getting played during the week last week but I don't see that as being that big a deal. It would have sucked to been in the crowd, for sure, and I'm sure they'll do something in the future to ensure super backups of their internet connection, but I didn't mind it so much.
One issue that did come up is with the layout of the arena. They had three huge screens set up so the crowd could watch the games. They removed the normal delay so that the crowd could be watching the game live. I have to believe that feeling the crowd react to things as they're unfolding would have to change the way the games played out. I believe at one point a team tried to sneak in a Baron fight and the other team figured it out because the crowd was reacting to something happening. What else could it be at that point in the game?
Even worse, the huge screens were actually set up so the players could look at them if they really tried. Say, by twisting a little and looking up and back a bit. In a game with a fog of war this is a stupidly big deal. Four different games had teams cheat by looking up at the screen. In some cases they paused the game first and then turned to look! While on camera! It's not like they weren't going to get caught! How stupid can you be?!?
Well, it turns out, maybe it was the people not cheating who were stupid. Most of the teams that cheated just got a slap on the wrist. One of the teams was found to have actually gained a tangible advantage by cheating... Their win ended up standing. They got fined $30000 which sounds like a big deal... Except the team went on to finish second overall and won $250000.
Now, people are saying that they didn't really gain that big an advantage. They won 2-0 anyway, so even if they had an edge in one of the games it probably didn't make a big difference. But in one of the final games they got caught out early and it snowballed right away from them. That's what the team in the quarters was trying to do to them... But couldn't, because they cheated and looked to see where they were lining up the level 1 gank. Would it have worked? Who knows. If it had worked, would it have mattered? Who knows. But it might have!
I hate cheating. I hate cheaters. I'm a big fan of doing whatever it takes, within the rules, to win. Going outside the rules? Hate it. I like knowing what is and isn't allowed when trying to figure out how to win. For example, I could win almost every time at Queen's Gambit if I stacked the decks before playing. I could get a big edge in Puerto Rico by making shady VP chit trades. I could stack my Dominion deck into the right 5-2 or 4-3 split and reshuffle prematurely. I could palm cash in St Pete. I could mark the backs of the characters in Lord of the Rings. There's tons of ways to get edges outside of the rules of these games... But I don't want to get into an escalating cheating war. I like clearly defined rules and then figuring out how to work those rules to my advantage.
A monetary penalty just doesn't do it for me. They had to know that pausing the game to look at the big screen was not allowed. I don't care what advantage, if any, they got from it. I think they should have been DQed.
I don't think Riot is in the clear either. Setting it up so the teams could interact with the crowd is bad. Setting it up so they can see each other is bad. Setting it up so they can see the game on the big screen in any way is terrible! They left the safe unlocked and walked away. Not everyone sees everything as black and white as I do, so they shouldn't be surprised that someone poked in and took some cash. I don't think this excuses the cheaters in any way, but I do hope it encourages Riot to be more pedantic about their set-ups in the future.
One issue that did come up is with the layout of the arena. They had three huge screens set up so the crowd could watch the games. They removed the normal delay so that the crowd could be watching the game live. I have to believe that feeling the crowd react to things as they're unfolding would have to change the way the games played out. I believe at one point a team tried to sneak in a Baron fight and the other team figured it out because the crowd was reacting to something happening. What else could it be at that point in the game?
Even worse, the huge screens were actually set up so the players could look at them if they really tried. Say, by twisting a little and looking up and back a bit. In a game with a fog of war this is a stupidly big deal. Four different games had teams cheat by looking up at the screen. In some cases they paused the game first and then turned to look! While on camera! It's not like they weren't going to get caught! How stupid can you be?!?
Well, it turns out, maybe it was the people not cheating who were stupid. Most of the teams that cheated just got a slap on the wrist. One of the teams was found to have actually gained a tangible advantage by cheating... Their win ended up standing. They got fined $30000 which sounds like a big deal... Except the team went on to finish second overall and won $250000.
Now, people are saying that they didn't really gain that big an advantage. They won 2-0 anyway, so even if they had an edge in one of the games it probably didn't make a big difference. But in one of the final games they got caught out early and it snowballed right away from them. That's what the team in the quarters was trying to do to them... But couldn't, because they cheated and looked to see where they were lining up the level 1 gank. Would it have worked? Who knows. If it had worked, would it have mattered? Who knows. But it might have!
I hate cheating. I hate cheaters. I'm a big fan of doing whatever it takes, within the rules, to win. Going outside the rules? Hate it. I like knowing what is and isn't allowed when trying to figure out how to win. For example, I could win almost every time at Queen's Gambit if I stacked the decks before playing. I could get a big edge in Puerto Rico by making shady VP chit trades. I could stack my Dominion deck into the right 5-2 or 4-3 split and reshuffle prematurely. I could palm cash in St Pete. I could mark the backs of the characters in Lord of the Rings. There's tons of ways to get edges outside of the rules of these games... But I don't want to get into an escalating cheating war. I like clearly defined rules and then figuring out how to work those rules to my advantage.
A monetary penalty just doesn't do it for me. They had to know that pausing the game to look at the big screen was not allowed. I don't care what advantage, if any, they got from it. I think they should have been DQed.
I don't think Riot is in the clear either. Setting it up so the teams could interact with the crowd is bad. Setting it up so they can see each other is bad. Setting it up so they can see the game on the big screen in any way is terrible! They left the safe unlocked and walked away. Not everyone sees everything as black and white as I do, so they shouldn't be surprised that someone poked in and took some cash. I don't think this excuses the cheaters in any way, but I do hope it encourages Riot to be more pedantic about their set-ups in the future.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Revisiting Darkmoon Cards
Blizzard went out and substantially buffed the tanking Darkmoon trinket (all the other trinkets had a passive primary stat and a secondary proc/on use effect) by giving it a huge amount of stamina to go with the underwhelming on use. I really like stamina for tanking so this change shifts the tanking trinket from 'garbage' to 'want to have'. On top of that I now suspect the DPS trinket is actually going to be best in slot for challenge modes. There are a couple other strength trinkets I could use but none of them have strength in the proc/on use slot. And most of them are raid drops anyway...
Put both of those together and it feels like it has to be worth making Darkmoon cards for personal use. I can sell the extras and hopefully fill in the gaps by buying missing cards. They were also supposed to bring in an ink trader on Tuesday to make this a lot cheaper but they couldn't get it done. This is a shame because I have a stupid amount of normal ink and would love to trade it in at 10-to-1 rates. But the fact that they've said it will happen 'soon' means I don't actually have to worry about the price of ink staying astronomical and it can make financial sense to make cards now since I can replenish my ink in the future. I can also revise my 'cost per ink' calculations by assuming I trade all the normal ink in for super ink...
Most herbs - 1.048 good ink
Fool's Cap - 1.69 good ink
This means fool's cap is worth 61% more than the other herbs. I'd been mentally valuing it at double which means I need to revise my buy points a little bit. Assuming I pay 200G per stack of fool's cap that means I'm paying 118G per ink. It also means I should be paying up to 124G for the other herbs. I've only been buying at sub 100G prices, so I have a lot more herbs I can buy. Or, maybe, I should scale back my fool's cap purchases...
Another thing to make note of is I forced a 600G floor on my shoulder enchant prices and they are still selling every now and then. Ink is listed on the AH for 700G each (still way too high but I haven't found any buyers so I don't know that it matters). Assuming I can keep trickling out enchants at 600G then I can set a break even value for ink of 200G. This would let me pay up to 338G for fool's cap and 210G for other herbs. I'm not happy with breaking even (I would like a little profit) but I don't need to do much better than breaking even while making trinkets for myself to be happy. Making a fortune while gearing up would be preferred, of course, and it's what I'm used to with inscription, but maybe that's a thing of the past...
Setting an ink value between current values and the 200G cap set above... How much is a card actually worth? Let's go with 140G as the value of ink and 3K as the value of a SoW... That makes an individual card worth 4400G. Tigers and Oxen cards are both above that right now. So I should definitely make my own...
Time to get milling herbs I guess!
Put both of those together and it feels like it has to be worth making Darkmoon cards for personal use. I can sell the extras and hopefully fill in the gaps by buying missing cards. They were also supposed to bring in an ink trader on Tuesday to make this a lot cheaper but they couldn't get it done. This is a shame because I have a stupid amount of normal ink and would love to trade it in at 10-to-1 rates. But the fact that they've said it will happen 'soon' means I don't actually have to worry about the price of ink staying astronomical and it can make financial sense to make cards now since I can replenish my ink in the future. I can also revise my 'cost per ink' calculations by assuming I trade all the normal ink in for super ink...
Most herbs - 1.048 good ink
Fool's Cap - 1.69 good ink
This means fool's cap is worth 61% more than the other herbs. I'd been mentally valuing it at double which means I need to revise my buy points a little bit. Assuming I pay 200G per stack of fool's cap that means I'm paying 118G per ink. It also means I should be paying up to 124G for the other herbs. I've only been buying at sub 100G prices, so I have a lot more herbs I can buy. Or, maybe, I should scale back my fool's cap purchases...
Another thing to make note of is I forced a 600G floor on my shoulder enchant prices and they are still selling every now and then. Ink is listed on the AH for 700G each (still way too high but I haven't found any buyers so I don't know that it matters). Assuming I can keep trickling out enchants at 600G then I can set a break even value for ink of 200G. This would let me pay up to 338G for fool's cap and 210G for other herbs. I'm not happy with breaking even (I would like a little profit) but I don't need to do much better than breaking even while making trinkets for myself to be happy. Making a fortune while gearing up would be preferred, of course, and it's what I'm used to with inscription, but maybe that's a thing of the past...
Setting an ink value between current values and the 200G cap set above... How much is a card actually worth? Let's go with 140G as the value of ink and 3K as the value of a SoW... That makes an individual card worth 4400G. Tigers and Oxen cards are both above that right now. So I should definitely make my own...
Time to get milling herbs I guess!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Death Knight Challenge Gear Targets
We gave another shot at a challenge dungeon on Tuesday and just missed the silver time in two tries. My gear, sadly, hadn't gotten any better in the 4 days between tries. Part of that is my focus on rep grinds for the realm first. Part of that is playing/watching some League of Legends recently. Part of that is not leveling engineering yet because I'm irrationally waiting for my ore to bounce back from Robb's mailbox. And part of that is not having precise goals to know what I need to be running. I also want a tanking set since it's entirely plausible that a DK tank with a discipline priest is as nutty now as it was back in Wrath (with full absorbs failing to knock off bone shield charges). I also want to at least consider putting together a second DPS set for trash. Dual-wield frost is the best for AE situations while 2-hander frost is the best for single target situations. Both of those come up in challenge modes and it would be nice to be able to swap between them. Initially I thought maybe that would be as easy as collecting two more weapons but it turns out they have different stat weights that really make the difference. At any rate... What do I want, and where is it found?
2-handed frost - The secondary stat of choice here is haste rating. More auto-attacks and more rune regeneration for more obliterates. The auto-attacks have a chance of making the next obliterate be a guaranteed crit which devalues crit rating. Needs enough hit and expertise to be capped like any other gearset. Mastery is actually worse than crit rating here (frost mastery increases frost damage done and obliterate is physical damage) which is the real differentiator between this gearset and other ones. Mastery tends to be pretty good for most people... Not here!
Tanking - Mastery, mastery, mastery. The tank set also wants to cap hit and expertise to 7.5% each. Death strike can't be parried so I don't need even more expertise than that. Crit is really, really bad. They changed diminishing returns again which makes dodge pretty smelly. Parry is fine. Haste is looked down on by most people. I remember crunching some numbers last expansion and finding haste was sub-par but not awful. It's no crit rating! I suspect for challenge modes where damage done is quite relevant that it'll be fine to have.
Dual-wield frost - Mastery, mastery, mastery. This set-up is all about hitting howling blast as often as possible. Howling blast does a pretty substantial amount of AE damage, and it's all frost. This makes the frost mastery very good. I believe dual-wielding increases the 'auto-crit' procs for obliterate/frost strike which again suppresses the value of crit. Haste is very good since the faster your runes refresh the more times you get to hit the howling blast button. Hit and expertise to cap is again a given, with a focus afterwards on mastery and then haste. Throw crit away!
The first thing I'm realizing here is it's possible I'd want the same gear for tanking as for dual-wielding. Certainly if I'm willing to ignore parry and pick up haste as my stat after mastery, anyway. I worry a bit about enchants but it feels like there might be some overlap allowing only twoish gear-sets instead of a full three?
Another thing to keep in mind is every slot has to be at least 463 but I don't actually need to go any higher. Gear is scaled down on a piece by piece basis (with some fudging on top to keep hit/expertise even) so it's fine to go higher if it'll get me the right stat mix but not mandatory. Unfortunately this means I may well want another set of gear as my 'farming/pug raiding' set. Getting worse secondary stats is fine if I'm picking up an extra 40 ilvls worth of strength! And by another set of gear I may well mean two more sets of gear, since I probably want a tanking set and a DPS set for raiding, even if raiding is only done in the LFR tool?
At any rate, here are the pieces, by slot, without crit/dodge.
Helm
Helm of Rising Flame - tank - heroic SM
Reinforced Retinal Helmet - any - engineering
Malevolent Gladiator's Dreadplate Helm - tank/dual-wield - PvP
Helmet of the Lost Catacomb - tank/dual-wield - LFR
Shoulders
Malevolent Gladiator's Dreadplate Shoulders - 2-hander - PvP
Pauldrons of the Lost Catacomb - 2-hander - LFR
Shoulderguards of the Lost Catacomb - tank - LFR
Chest
Hateshatter Breastplate - tank/dual-wield - heroic Shado-Pan
Durable Plate of the Golden Lotus - tank - quest reward
Wrist
Bonded Soul Bracers - 2-hander - LFR
Malevolent Gladiator's Armplates of Alacrity - dual-wield - PvP/Sha of Anger
Hands
Hive Protector's Gauntlets - tank/dual-wield - heroic GSS
Starcrusher Gauntlets - 2-hander - LFR
Waist
Malevolent Gladiator's Girdle of Accuracy - 2-hander - PvP/Sha of Anger
Waistplate of Overwhelming Assault - dual-wield - LFR
Legs
Legplates of Durable Dreams - 2-hander - BoE world drop
Jang-xi's Devastating Legplates - 2-hander - LFR
Greaves of the Lost Catacomb - tank/dual-wield - LFR/Sha of Anger
Legguards of the Unscathed - dual-wield - VP
Feet
Spike-Soled Stompers - dual-wield - heroic Shado-Pan
Angerforged Stompers - dual-wield - quest from Sha of Anger
Impaling Treads - 2-hander - LFR
Neck
Whirling Dervish Choker - dual-wield - heroic Mogu'shan
Buc-Zakai Memento - dual-wield - BoE world drop
Helios, Durand's Soul of Purity - 2-hander - heroic SM
Soulgrasp Choker - 2-hander - LFR
Malevolent Gladiator's Choker of Accuracy - 2-hander - PvP/Sha of Anger
Bloodseeker's Solitaire - dual-wield - VP
Mushan Rider's Collar - dual-wield - Galleon
Back
Drape of the Screeching Swarm - 2-hander - heroic GSS
Hisek's Chrysanthemum Cloak - 2-hander - LFR
Malevolent Gladiator's Cloak of Prowess - tank/dual-wield - PvP/Sha of Anger
Ring
Firefinger Ring - dual-wield - heroic SM
Jan-Ho's Unwavering Seal - dual-wield - BoE world drop
Ring of the Bladed Tempest - 2-hander - LFR
Malevolent Gladiator's Signet of Accuracy - tank/dual-wield - PvP/Sha of Anger
Seal of the Bloodseeker - 2-hander - quest @ exalted Klaxxi
2-handed weapon
Lightbreaker Greatsword - tanking - heroic SM
Amber Flammbard of Klaxxi'vess - mediocre, but best option for 2-hander? - exalted Klaxxi vendor
1-handed weapon
Ook's Hozen Slicer - dual-wield - heroic brewery
Inelava, Spirit of Inebriation - dual-wield - heroic brewery
Kilrak, Jaws of Terror - dual-wield - LFR
Scimitar of Seven Stars - dual-wield - LFR
trinket
Carbonic Carbuncle - 2-hander, dual-wield - heroic brewery
Iron Protector Talisman - tanking - heroic Mogu'shan
Lessons of the Darkmaster - all? - heroic Scholo
Jade Charioteer Figurine - 2-hander, dual-wield - LFR
Relic of Niuzao - tanking - Darkmoon cards
Relic of Xuen - 2-hander, dual-wield - Darkmoon cards
Lei Shin's Final Orders - 2-hander, dual-wield - LFR
Jade Warlord Figurine - tanking - LFR
Darkmist Vortex - 2-hander, dual-wield - LFR
Lao-Chin's Liquid Courage - tanking - VP
Iron Belly Wok - 2-hander, dual-wield - VP
2-handed frost - The secondary stat of choice here is haste rating. More auto-attacks and more rune regeneration for more obliterates. The auto-attacks have a chance of making the next obliterate be a guaranteed crit which devalues crit rating. Needs enough hit and expertise to be capped like any other gearset. Mastery is actually worse than crit rating here (frost mastery increases frost damage done and obliterate is physical damage) which is the real differentiator between this gearset and other ones. Mastery tends to be pretty good for most people... Not here!
Tanking - Mastery, mastery, mastery. The tank set also wants to cap hit and expertise to 7.5% each. Death strike can't be parried so I don't need even more expertise than that. Crit is really, really bad. They changed diminishing returns again which makes dodge pretty smelly. Parry is fine. Haste is looked down on by most people. I remember crunching some numbers last expansion and finding haste was sub-par but not awful. It's no crit rating! I suspect for challenge modes where damage done is quite relevant that it'll be fine to have.
Dual-wield frost - Mastery, mastery, mastery. This set-up is all about hitting howling blast as often as possible. Howling blast does a pretty substantial amount of AE damage, and it's all frost. This makes the frost mastery very good. I believe dual-wielding increases the 'auto-crit' procs for obliterate/frost strike which again suppresses the value of crit. Haste is very good since the faster your runes refresh the more times you get to hit the howling blast button. Hit and expertise to cap is again a given, with a focus afterwards on mastery and then haste. Throw crit away!
The first thing I'm realizing here is it's possible I'd want the same gear for tanking as for dual-wielding. Certainly if I'm willing to ignore parry and pick up haste as my stat after mastery, anyway. I worry a bit about enchants but it feels like there might be some overlap allowing only twoish gear-sets instead of a full three?
Another thing to keep in mind is every slot has to be at least 463 but I don't actually need to go any higher. Gear is scaled down on a piece by piece basis (with some fudging on top to keep hit/expertise even) so it's fine to go higher if it'll get me the right stat mix but not mandatory. Unfortunately this means I may well want another set of gear as my 'farming/pug raiding' set. Getting worse secondary stats is fine if I'm picking up an extra 40 ilvls worth of strength! And by another set of gear I may well mean two more sets of gear, since I probably want a tanking set and a DPS set for raiding, even if raiding is only done in the LFR tool?
At any rate, here are the pieces, by slot, without crit/dodge.
Helm
Helm of Rising Flame - tank - heroic SM
Reinforced Retinal Helmet - any - engineering
Malevolent Gladiator's Dreadplate Helm - tank/dual-wield - PvP
Helmet of the Lost Catacomb - tank/dual-wield - LFR
Shoulders
Malevolent Gladiator's Dreadplate Shoulders - 2-hander - PvP
Pauldrons of the Lost Catacomb - 2-hander - LFR
Shoulderguards of the Lost Catacomb - tank - LFR
Chest
Hateshatter Breastplate - tank/dual-wield - heroic Shado-Pan
Durable Plate of the Golden Lotus - tank - quest reward
Wrist
Bonded Soul Bracers - 2-hander - LFR
Malevolent Gladiator's Armplates of Alacrity - dual-wield - PvP/Sha of Anger
Hands
Hive Protector's Gauntlets - tank/dual-wield - heroic GSS
Starcrusher Gauntlets - 2-hander - LFR
Waist
Malevolent Gladiator's Girdle of Accuracy - 2-hander - PvP/Sha of Anger
Waistplate of Overwhelming Assault - dual-wield - LFR
Legs
Legplates of Durable Dreams - 2-hander - BoE world drop
Jang-xi's Devastating Legplates - 2-hander - LFR
Greaves of the Lost Catacomb - tank/dual-wield - LFR/Sha of Anger
Legguards of the Unscathed - dual-wield - VP
Feet
Spike-Soled Stompers - dual-wield - heroic Shado-Pan
Angerforged Stompers - dual-wield - quest from Sha of Anger
Impaling Treads - 2-hander - LFR
Neck
Whirling Dervish Choker - dual-wield - heroic Mogu'shan
Buc-Zakai Memento - dual-wield - BoE world drop
Helios, Durand's Soul of Purity - 2-hander - heroic SM
Soulgrasp Choker - 2-hander - LFR
Malevolent Gladiator's Choker of Accuracy - 2-hander - PvP/Sha of Anger
Bloodseeker's Solitaire - dual-wield - VP
Mushan Rider's Collar - dual-wield - Galleon
Back
Drape of the Screeching Swarm - 2-hander - heroic GSS
Hisek's Chrysanthemum Cloak - 2-hander - LFR
Malevolent Gladiator's Cloak of Prowess - tank/dual-wield - PvP/Sha of Anger
Ring
Firefinger Ring - dual-wield - heroic SM
Jan-Ho's Unwavering Seal - dual-wield - BoE world drop
Ring of the Bladed Tempest - 2-hander - LFR
Malevolent Gladiator's Signet of Accuracy - tank/dual-wield - PvP/Sha of Anger
Seal of the Bloodseeker - 2-hander - quest @ exalted Klaxxi
2-handed weapon
Lightbreaker Greatsword - tanking - heroic SM
Amber Flammbard of Klaxxi'vess - mediocre, but best option for 2-hander? - exalted Klaxxi vendor
1-handed weapon
Ook's Hozen Slicer - dual-wield - heroic brewery
Inelava, Spirit of Inebriation - dual-wield - heroic brewery
Kilrak, Jaws of Terror - dual-wield - LFR
Scimitar of Seven Stars - dual-wield - LFR
trinket
Carbonic Carbuncle - 2-hander, dual-wield - heroic brewery
Iron Protector Talisman - tanking - heroic Mogu'shan
Lessons of the Darkmaster - all? - heroic Scholo
Jade Charioteer Figurine - 2-hander, dual-wield - LFR
Relic of Niuzao - tanking - Darkmoon cards
Relic of Xuen - 2-hander, dual-wield - Darkmoon cards
Lei Shin's Final Orders - 2-hander, dual-wield - LFR
Jade Warlord Figurine - tanking - LFR
Darkmist Vortex - 2-hander, dual-wield - LFR
Lao-Chin's Liquid Courage - tanking - VP
Iron Belly Wok - 2-hander, dual-wield - VP
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