Spell hit - Gear Swapping?

[Darkonyx]

Was reading over the Kara: Am I Ready? guide on these forums when I came across a rather interesting point in the guide which had not yet occurred to me untill now.

Depending on the level of the mob and the player, the resist chance changes. For a level 70:

• A level 70 mob will have a 4% chance to resist.
• A level 71 mob has a 5% chance to resist
• A 72 has a 6% chance...
• and a 73 (raid boss) has a 17% chance to resist.

No, that is not a typo, and it does need to be repeated. A level 73 boss will have a 17% chance to resist any spell that a level 70 player casts. All but the base 1% of this can be mitigated with spell hit. Roughly 12.6 spell hit = 1%, so 202 spell hit will max you out at 16% and allow you to hit raid bosses 99% of the time.

If this is all true, then we can conclude the following.

You need 202 (12.6 * 16) hit to cap when fighting a raid boss (or 73)
You need 63 (12.6 * 5) hit to cap when fighting trash (<73)

This means that when we are fighting trash, we are wasting 139 spell hit. We must also keep in mind that the majority of our time is spent fighting trash (especially if you do a lot of heroics).

Now with this analysis Im NOT suggesting you should aim for 63 hit and not 202 (unless you never do instances). Even though we spend most of our time killing trash, efficiency to kill a boss takes priority. But here is what I AM suggesting...

Two sets of gear. One set with your hit at 202, another at 63. This way you could increase your dps on trash with the 63 set. And any time you come to a boss, pop your 202 set on before you enter combat (the Outfitter addon is good if you want to do this quickly). This should allow you 99% hit on each type, while allowing you more room to spend points on stats like spell damage and crit on the 63 set.


So why hasnt this been done before? Well you should only really do it if you actually can get better non-hit stats on the 63 set. In addition to that, trying to get a second set of gear for a warlock is time consuming/expensive/greedy. But if you got nothing better to do I would recommend it.

Oh and there is also the possibility that I am wrong about what spell hit you need Please correct me if I am wrong. If I'm not, does anyone actually use this strategy?

[Gritz]

Install Outfitter

Create a Raid Boss set, a Trash Mob Set, and a PvP set.

Raid Boss: 202 Spell Hit > +damage > +Crit/Haste > the rest
Trash Mob: +damage > +Crit/Haste > spell hit > the rest
PvP: Resilience > Stamina > damage/Haste > the rest

[Bodhisage]

So why hasnt this been done before?

Don't mean to burst your bubble, but I'd say most raiding warlocks that are past Kara and pushing 25 mans already do this.

Generally it's trinkets and rings, maybe a wand/offhand that are swapped, along with gloves (enchanted for +spell hit and another enchanted for +damage).

The only problem with this is forgetting to switch out of your trash gear when you start the boss! Get the addon Outfitter to make life very easy.

edit: Gritz wins again.. .bane of my... lol

[Darkonyx]

Originally Posted by Bodhisage

Don't mean to burst your bubble, but I'd say most raiding warlocks that are past Kara and pushing 25 mans already do this.

Generally it's trinkets and rings, maybe a wand/offhand that are swapped, along with gloves (enchanted for +spell hit and another enchanted for +damage).

The only problem with this is forgetting to switch out of your trash gear when you start the boss! Get the addon Outfitter to make life very easy.

edit: Gritz wins again.. .bane of my... lol

Ok well maybe people do this quite often. But I see no advice as to it on these forums. The majority of what I see on the forum says "You need 202 hit". End of argument. My point is that argument is slightly incomplete.

[Mindbomb]

Originally Posted by Darkonyx

Ok well maybe people do this quite often. But I see no advice as to it on these forums. The majority of what I see on the forum says "You need 202 hit". End of argument. My point is that argument is slightly incomplete.

Near the spell hit section (just a lil further down) in the "Am I ready" guide, there is a section called "Stats to look for:" There is a link that points to a thread that talks about swapping.

[Gritz]

The 202 Spell hit rule only applies if your raid is focusing on downing bosses

[Belaide]

I don't think two sets is worth it. For one thing even with the spell hit gems I have my raid gear is so much better than my second best gear that I have better dps just keeping that on. Rolling on drops for a trash set isn't going to make you very popular with your guildy's which means you'd have to build it from things that no-one else wants. Plus, it's trash, who cares? Soloing in my raid gear is not a problem, I pretty well one or two shot everything anyway, unless I'm farming for shards. Also there's the bag space issue. When I raid I'm already carrying two soul bags. If it's SSC I also have my fire resist set for tanking Leo. I just plain don't have room for another set of gear for trash kills. And as Bodhisage says, there's always the risk that you'll forget to switch it out on a boss fight. Or your tank will pull before you're ready, or someone will accidentally aggro the boss. It's bad enough not getting the pvp trinket equipped against Rage Winterchill, let alone your whole set. Once you're in combat you can't change clothes, so you'd be stuck with it for the duration of the fight. Just might be a little frustrating, seeing all those resists come up. Not to mention if the raid leader is on the ball you might get a little talking to. Locks are there as the big guns against the boss. No-one is going to care if you're not topping the dps on the trash. Or at least they shouldn't.

[Theleb]

The thing is that nearly every Warlock I know DOES maintain two/three sets of gear without prompting - and its certainly been mentioned on these forums if you take the time to search and yes, Outfitter for the win.

[Barclande]

Been doing this for quite some time. I swap in Ashyen's Gift, Scryer's Bloodgem and Jewel of Infinite Possibilities on bosses. For Trash I wear Violet Signet of the Archmage, Xi'ri's Gift and Talisman of Nightbane.

[Gritz]

I have 2 PvE sets and 3 PvP sets - though only 3-6 pieces are swapped out for each. It's rare that you'll have a full 14 piece swap-out for your Raid Boss and Trash Mob sets. (As opposed to hybrid classes, who will often have 3 FULL sets of gear, one for each set.)

An example is taking a recently replaced piece, then regemming it with all +12 damage gems instead of +10 hit gems (or +9/+8, depending on your budget) to repurpose it for your trash mob set.