Gear Rating Sites and You

Rating sites exist, love em or hate em they’re there. But really you have to accept these sites for what they really are: data, nothing else. The problem some people seem to have with these sites is the extreme ePeen flexing that typically accompanies them. However, these sites are valuable tools for anyone looking to find their place in the world.

Understanding the Rating Site
First thing’s first, we have to talk about what these sites are. Basically, they mine data from the armory and spit out information about a particular character. Generally, they give you a gear rating, usually based on iLevel, enchants, and gems. But also, these sites tend to give you an outline of where you fit in the raiding food chain. Alternatively, these sites provide an invaluable tool for evaluating new guild applicants and to a lesser degree PUGs, since all you need is a name and a server to get a rating on a given character. If you aren’t familiar with Priests and their gear for instance, you simply look here and it will give you an idea of where the priest stands gear-wise.

The Problem
Unfortunately, these sites do have a slight problem that’s difficult to overcome. It’s impossible for these sites or anyone really to quantify player skill. Just because a Mage is wearing all Naxx 25 gear and a couple of pieces of Uld gear doesn’t mean he’s in the least bit competent. All it really means is his gear checks out. This is a cautionary example, you can’t base all your decisions on the data extracted from these sites alone. Doing so is inviting disaster.

The Personal Touch
So, you say that’s all good, but I’m not concerned about new guild applicants. I’m not an officer, and I don’t PUG. In that case, there’s another reason to familiarize yourself with these sites: Personal Progress and Goals. Occasionally someone will ask me about my gear, where did I get it, how did I decide on that weapon for tanking, etc. It all comes down to planning and setting goals. Unfortunately, individual progress can be something of a nebulous factor. When you look at your own character sheet in game, you have nothing to compare it to. That’s where these sites really shine (and unfortunately where a lot of the ePeen stroking comes from).

It’s easy to say to a new tank, you need to work on your gear. You can tell them to work on avoidance and EH, make sure your hit and expertise are capped. But when working on these stats, how do you know that you’re really making progress? Very simple: keep tabs on yourself with these sites. Let’s take a look at two of my favorite rating sites: Be Imba and WoW-heroes

Both sites offer stat aggregation based on wow’s armory site. Both however use the data in slightly different ways. Be Imba offers a detailed breakdown of your character, explaining where specific core stats are for you, giving you a meaningful breakdown of how much hit you need, how far over the defense cap you are, etc.

Here’s how I stack up on Be Imba
Khaas on Be Imba

As you can see, my hit’s a bit low and my Defense is over cap. To fix this I use Hit/Sta food to fix the hit problem in raids. As for the Defense. Not much I can do except look for upgrades with less Defense and more Avoidance. Similarly, I found that I’m over the Expertise soft cap, which means I can gem for Dodge rather than Expertise now. This is one of the biggest strengths of these sites, you get a different perspective on your gear choices.

The strength of wow-heroes is that you can see where you rate with your peers. Initially, my goal was to break the top 100. When I first found this site I was already showing in the list for DKs. At the time, both DPS and tank DKs showed up when filtering tanks for the server. That has since been changed making search results more reliable. After breaking into the top 100, my goals changed. I wanted to be the number 1 DK on the list, and in the top 10 for tanks. Then of course, to break the top 20, then top 10 for all classes. Overall, I’m quite happy with my progress.

All Death Knights on Bloodscalp

All Tanks on Bloodscalp

All Classes on Bloodscalp

Final Thoughts
Setting goals like this; short term and long term, is a very important part of being the best you can at your class. Approaching situations with this mindset will only help you improve in all facets of your game. As said before, there are a lot of nebulous issues at play here. But the important thing is: find a real way to gauge your progress, and use it. Make goals, and work toward them.

As for the issue of over-inflated egos. This is a tough call, I don’t think you can blame these sites for these egos gone wild. Some people will always want to tell you just how awesome they are. A boosted sense of self confidence is not a bad thing however, since this blog is focused on tanks it’s worth noting the psychological benefit of knowing you’re capable. Many tanks are raid leaders, and those who aren’t still tend to be very vocal in a raid situation. It’s vital that your raiders listen when you speak, they need to know that you know what you’re talking about. A bit of swagger in a main tank isn’t a bad thing, in fact I feel compelled to say it’s an absolute necessity. It’s like being a surgeon, you want the guy who’s confident who lets you know from the beginning he will get the job done.