Somfas
Lover of life, pvp and consumables! ;)
This thread will surely be useless in BFA with the hopes that stats will matter again.
Terms used:
PoW=Principles of War. While in a Battleground or Arena, your character's stats are adjusted to predetermined values based on your specialization. This is the basic template that is given to everyone once you are inside a BG. All surv hunters have the same stat template, all Marksman hunters have theirs , etc. There is a 1% bonus given to an individual's stat template for every 10 combined item levels over their base average item level for that bracket. This is a buff that can be seen while in instanced pvp or designated areas and it can be seen in the default UI with your other buffs in the upper right area by the minimap.
BiS=Best in Slot. The piece of gear equipped in that slot is the best available for your character. This term is adjusted according to spec, build (haste, crit, stam, "glass cannon" (squishy but hits like a truck) etc) and also applies to any and all enhancements like BiS enchant, gems, sharpening stones. Some people also reference it to buffs, food, etc, even though it doesn't necessarily go into a character slot, if it is the "Best".
OP=Overpowered. self explanatory
IL, il=Item Level. The item level given to any item in WoW. For gear slots, each piece of gear's item level is divided by 15 or 16 depending on weapon/ offhand slots used, to get the character's combined item level. The tabard and shirt slots do not count towards the combined item level.
This thread will hopefully save some people a lot of time that are spending hours farming or repgrinding for that super duper extra OPness! ( about the amount of time you will spend reading my wall of text ) /wink
"The great thing about Dale Earnhardt is that he could take the worst car and win a race with it, he had a knack for squeezing every drop of win power out of any car." The point is, it really is about the driver, not the car, when it comes to this Item Level race. The difference you get is 1% or 2% PoW at best (except for a very few brackets (79s, 101s, 110s).
Can't have a Somfas thread without a lil of my nerdraged opinions, so here's the gratuitous "wall of text" section for my pleasure!
This "fair and balanced" war that Blizzard has waged has taken the "S" off the chest of Supertwink and made BGs about teamplay and coordination.
I believe anything that has to do with competitions, Arenas, Rated BGs or cups etc, should be indeed fair and balanced so that skill wins the day. In some cases real money prizes are involved. In Regular UnRated BGs, however, I believe that if you want to spend countless hours grinding for that special piece of OP gear that polishes off your glass cannon set, to make you stand out above the crowd and be feared, it should be allowed, along with all the toys, quest items, enchants and anything you can think of, to make the regular bgs more fun and creative. For those that don't want to spend the hours, well, they better be Dale or die to my double landslide proc in my bis crit set with my free action pot consumed making me immune to your Hammer of Justice, scrub! (lol, just a lil rp there)
If there was any phrase that could describe an encounter with a twink, surely it would be "WHAT THE F%(K JUST HIT ME?" ( /quickly checks the combat log to look for some GM punishment or glitch in the matrix ). "Twink" was a word that would strike fear into an entire team, but it has become like the last Samurai, shot down and stripped of power by the mighty empire to be mocked by the masses (speaking strictly about inside battlegrounds of course).
Maybe someday, they will return us to our former glory, but until then, we will just have to work together better as a team and learn our classes to the best of our ability, because that, in my opinion, is what will win the day now. (also praying for the wildcard leveling pugs that know wtf they are doing )
WHEW, i feel better! OK, now down to the business of this thread.
OK, so.... yeah, purps are nice to look at
and they work great for world pvp and duels, with the chance they will also matter in BFA bgs. But how much should you focus on getting your IL bis bg PoW bonus gear set and how much of a difference will it make in a BG? and the possible rep grinds? Well, here's some information that may help you make the right choice for your gameplay.
Some people like to have the BiS gear no matter what, so they grind for even that one extra Item Level
, others just want "good enough" but in most brackets at the moment, the line between "just walking out of the character creation screen" gear and "omg that rep/dungeon grind and running to the vendors, but im BiS and ready" gear, is very minimal as to the difference in BGs. In most brackets, it's nearly impossible to even get to the 1% PoW bonus breakpoint since they forced level scaling on drops (hence removing the uber op il gear with insane stats) . In lower brackets like the 19s and 29s it's easier to hit the 1% and 2% breakpoints because the whites give more IL boost. Once you hit the 60s, the whites are nearly equal or useless.
There are some exploits that can be used to increase your bonus and template but I don't want them fixed since we have so little to advantage off of anymore but feel free to pst me in game if you see me for more info.
One of the most important factors is having the right gear type for your class mail for hunters, leather for druids etc. I recommend getting an addon called Deja Character stats https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/dejacharacterstats it shows you all the stats that wow ui used to show you and it helps tremendously in theorycrafting any changes to your toon. To see how much the wrong armor type gimps you (with Deja character stats on) in a BG on a hunter, make a mail loom headpiece and a leather loom headpiece, the stats are identical except for a little extra armor on the mail, but the stats that change are enough to sway most people away from using any filler pieces that aren't the right class type.
Unfortunately for f2ps and characters leveling through brackets, the PoW bonus is figured by the average item level base for the max level of each given bracket, which is the same as the Heirloom il. This means that for all the 20s that farmed the titanforged Legion prelaunch and are BiS enough to have 2% PoW bonus, only get 1% rip. At level 20, the il base is 25, so a combined il of 45 should give 2% but because they are upscaled to a 29s template , so is their average il base requirement (34) and get only 1%. Although, this may be incorrect as I have heard of 20s with enough for 2% showing 0%, can't confirm as i haven't seen their screenshots.
These are the heirloom ilvls for the max level in each bracket, which is the number you have to get 10 higher for every 1% PoW stat bonus in BGs..
10-19 - 24
20-29 - 34
30-39 - 44
40-49 - 54
50-59 - 82
60-69 - 143
70-79 - 183
80-89 - 443
90-99 - 600
I apologize for not being active in here and a part of the community like I should be but I saw people still asking about 49 gearing and needed to toss in my bits. I'm not tryin to be a downer but if you are gearing 49s for BG Item Level (Principals of War) stat bonus... well, you need to break 10 item levels over the Heirloom IL of the max level in each bracket to get to 1% PoW bonus. The level 40-49 bracket looms are IL 54 so that's your base average. If you turned 49 and managed to get some dungeon and bg loot of 57il blues and 55s along with repgrinding the guild cloak and timbermaw trinket and the whites, you will be around combined item level 59 or so, which means you still need to get 6 combined ils or about 96 total from all the pieces, that's almost 2 extra pieces and unless you can find some glitched piece somewhere, .......... I guess what I'm saying is, forget it. In the 49 bracket there is no way of even reaching the 1% bonus bp. the image shows my priest with no pow bonus. If you get a bonus, it will show up under the description as an extra few lines of text saying that "based on your average item level you also get ( )% bonus to those stats". IF there are no extra lines, you have no bonus.
so you may as well just start your stat grind for BFA. No need to grind the timbermaw rep for the trinket as it has no real value towards stats. Also , no point in grinding the guild cloak or visiting the white ring, neck, or off-hand lily vendors if you haven't already, since they will make no difference in your stats come BFA.
so to finish off here, my final summary is that I highly recommend just focusing on the gear with the best stats for your build, not item level and pray that the stats matter in BFA
Love you all and "suffer well brothers" (and sisters) Somfas
Terms used:
PoW=Principles of War. While in a Battleground or Arena, your character's stats are adjusted to predetermined values based on your specialization. This is the basic template that is given to everyone once you are inside a BG. All surv hunters have the same stat template, all Marksman hunters have theirs , etc. There is a 1% bonus given to an individual's stat template for every 10 combined item levels over their base average item level for that bracket. This is a buff that can be seen while in instanced pvp or designated areas and it can be seen in the default UI with your other buffs in the upper right area by the minimap.
BiS=Best in Slot. The piece of gear equipped in that slot is the best available for your character. This term is adjusted according to spec, build (haste, crit, stam, "glass cannon" (squishy but hits like a truck) etc) and also applies to any and all enhancements like BiS enchant, gems, sharpening stones. Some people also reference it to buffs, food, etc, even though it doesn't necessarily go into a character slot, if it is the "Best".
OP=Overpowered. self explanatory
IL, il=Item Level. The item level given to any item in WoW. For gear slots, each piece of gear's item level is divided by 15 or 16 depending on weapon/ offhand slots used, to get the character's combined item level. The tabard and shirt slots do not count towards the combined item level.
This thread will hopefully save some people a lot of time that are spending hours farming or repgrinding for that super duper extra OPness! ( about the amount of time you will spend reading my wall of text ) /wink
"The great thing about Dale Earnhardt is that he could take the worst car and win a race with it, he had a knack for squeezing every drop of win power out of any car." The point is, it really is about the driver, not the car, when it comes to this Item Level race. The difference you get is 1% or 2% PoW at best (except for a very few brackets (79s, 101s, 110s).
Can't have a Somfas thread without a lil of my nerdraged opinions, so here's the gratuitous "wall of text" section for my pleasure!
This "fair and balanced" war that Blizzard has waged has taken the "S" off the chest of Supertwink and made BGs about teamplay and coordination.
I believe anything that has to do with competitions, Arenas, Rated BGs or cups etc, should be indeed fair and balanced so that skill wins the day. In some cases real money prizes are involved. In Regular UnRated BGs, however, I believe that if you want to spend countless hours grinding for that special piece of OP gear that polishes off your glass cannon set, to make you stand out above the crowd and be feared, it should be allowed, along with all the toys, quest items, enchants and anything you can think of, to make the regular bgs more fun and creative. For those that don't want to spend the hours, well, they better be Dale or die to my double landslide proc in my bis crit set with my free action pot consumed making me immune to your Hammer of Justice, scrub! (lol, just a lil rp there)
If there was any phrase that could describe an encounter with a twink, surely it would be "WHAT THE F%(K JUST HIT ME?" ( /quickly checks the combat log to look for some GM punishment or glitch in the matrix ). "Twink" was a word that would strike fear into an entire team, but it has become like the last Samurai, shot down and stripped of power by the mighty empire to be mocked by the masses (speaking strictly about inside battlegrounds of course).
Maybe someday, they will return us to our former glory, but until then, we will just have to work together better as a team and learn our classes to the best of our ability, because that, in my opinion, is what will win the day now. (also praying for the wildcard leveling pugs that know wtf they are doing )
WHEW, i feel better! OK, now down to the business of this thread.
OK, so.... yeah, purps are nice to look at
Some people like to have the BiS gear no matter what, so they grind for even that one extra Item Level
There are some exploits that can be used to increase your bonus and template but I don't want them fixed since we have so little to advantage off of anymore but feel free to pst me in game if you see me for more info.
One of the most important factors is having the right gear type for your class mail for hunters, leather for druids etc. I recommend getting an addon called Deja Character stats https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/dejacharacterstats it shows you all the stats that wow ui used to show you and it helps tremendously in theorycrafting any changes to your toon. To see how much the wrong armor type gimps you (with Deja character stats on) in a BG on a hunter, make a mail loom headpiece and a leather loom headpiece, the stats are identical except for a little extra armor on the mail, but the stats that change are enough to sway most people away from using any filler pieces that aren't the right class type.
Unfortunately for f2ps and characters leveling through brackets, the PoW bonus is figured by the average item level base for the max level of each given bracket, which is the same as the Heirloom il. This means that for all the 20s that farmed the titanforged Legion prelaunch and are BiS enough to have 2% PoW bonus, only get 1%
rip. At level 20, the il base is 25, so a combined il of 45 should give 2% but because they are upscaled to a 29s template , so is their average il base requirement (34) and get only 1%. Although, this may be incorrect as I have heard of 20s with enough for 2% showing 0%, can't confirm as i haven't seen their screenshots. These are the heirloom ilvls for the max level in each bracket, which is the number you have to get 10 higher for every 1% PoW stat bonus in BGs..
10-19 - 24
20-29 - 34
30-39 - 44
40-49 - 54
50-59 - 82
60-69 - 143
70-79 - 183
80-89 - 443
90-99 - 600
I apologize for not being active in here and a part of the community like I should be but I saw people still asking about 49 gearing and needed to toss in my bits. I'm not tryin to be a downer but if you are gearing 49s for BG Item Level (Principals of War) stat bonus... well, you need to break 10 item levels over the Heirloom IL of the max level in each bracket to get to 1% PoW bonus. The level 40-49 bracket looms are IL 54 so that's your base average. If you turned 49 and managed to get some dungeon and bg loot of 57il blues and 55s along with repgrinding the guild cloak and timbermaw trinket and the whites, you will be around combined item level 59 or so, which means you still need to get 6 combined ils or about 96 total from all the pieces, that's almost 2 extra pieces and unless you can find some glitched piece somewhere, .......... I guess what I'm saying is, forget it. In the 49 bracket there is no way of even reaching the 1% bonus bp. the image shows my priest with no pow bonus. If you get a bonus, it will show up under the description as an extra few lines of text saying that "based on your average item level you also get ( )% bonus to those stats". IF there are no extra lines, you have no bonus.
so to finish off here, my final summary is that I highly recommend just focusing on the gear with the best stats for your build, not item level and pray that the stats matter in BFA
Love you all and "suffer well brothers" (and sisters) Somfas
