A ring 20 ilvls lower is better. Why?

#1 - Sept. 16, 2016, 1:03 a.m.

I don't like this. My ilvl is being artificially (for lack of a better phrasing) lowered because I have such a strong slant towards crit. It's also just not intuitive for how the game has worked since ilvl was officially exposed.

Nazjatar Manapearl Ring
Item Level 845
+1,045 Stamina
+721 Versatility
+1,081 Mastery
[ ] Socket

Rough-Hammered Silver Ring
Item Level 825
+867 Stamina
+1,099 Critical Strike
+573 Mastery

The top item is worse by a fair margin. I like to think this is because of a lack of main stat and not just that fire mages favor crit too much. Having intellect on this and less emphasis on the secondaries would probably ensure the top one is better.

Note: Yes, I used a sim to determine this but the difference is so high I'm inclined to believe it. And, dropping 4% crit is just massive for a single item. I can't remember anymore but I don't think dropping 4% of a stat was possible in Warlords.

Ornyx

Community Manager

#8 - Sept. 16, 2016, 1:21 a.m.

The word "better" here is subjective. Worse by a fair margin for your class/spec, perhaps, but overall, objectively, the top item is by-far superior, hence the higher ilvl.

If you're worried more about the stats that you need, then just do as other here are saying and avoid the item level. If you're worried that a group wont invite you for wearing a low item level ring, then keep both of them and swap as needed until you get a better ring (those probably wouldn't be good people to play with, anyways :P). All of us have bad luck sometimes and items don't always roll perfect every time for our classes/specs, so it's not uncommon to have items like the top ring which is sub-optimal for your aim.

Ornyx

Community Manager

#11 - Sept. 16, 2016, 1:25 a.m.

09/15/2016 06:23 PMPosted by Looneyluna
09/15/2016 06:21 PMPosted by Ornyx
The word "better" here is subjective. Worse by a fair margin for your class/spec, perhaps, but overall, objectively, the top item is by-far superior, hence the higher ilvl.

If you're worried more about the stats that you need, then just do as other here are saying and avoid the item level. If you're worried that a group wont invite you for wearing a low item level ring, then keep both of them and swap as needed until you get a better ring (those probably wouldn't be good people to play with, anyways :P). All of us have bad luck sometimes and items don't always roll perfect every time for our classes/specs, so it's not uncommon to have items like the top ring which is sub-optimal for your aim.

Higher Ilvl does not mean better item.

I've dropped form multiple 845 items down to 830/835 because the lower ones have haste and the higher ones have gross mastery

Correct, it does not always mean a better item - again, depends on what you are playing and what the item is. There's no clean cut answer to "better" when comparing two very different items to the wider community.

Ornyx

Community Manager

#17 - Sept. 16, 2016, 1:39 a.m.

09/15/2016 06:38 PMPosted by Thrasius
Crit means everything to me, but might mean nothing for another class.

This is more what I was getting at.