Project Lore

Honestly, I really didn't plan on covering Armor Penetration as part of this reoccurring column. For starters, the statistic is largely a junk statistic, due to its low usage on our fancy pieces of gear. Mainly, it's because the stat has never been fully understood, until now. A Blizzard Poster by the name of Ghostcrawler - you may have heard of him - revealed the in-depth calculations behind the statistic and ultimately what has had theorycrafters confused since its inception. To my knowledge, this is the first time Blizzard has revealed a formula, and only because of all the confusion surrounding it. Thanks to Patch 3.1 and some friendly pointers from Heartbourne, I've been on a bit of a math kick, which made yesterday's post all that more interesting to me. I must warn you that this discussion is going to have Algebra, serious algebra. Before we get into the complexity of the formula, here are the three things that seem to have held the theorycrafting up for so long. If you aren't a math fan hopefully the bullet points will help you grasp the concept. Otherwise, allow your eyes to glaze until the conclusion. Up To: This is a key phrase in the stats' tooltip that seems to be overlooked often. Simply put, the number displayed is the maximum percentage of armor that can be ignored. It isn't a guaranteed number because of the following two pieces that Ghostcrawler revealed. Constant: Blizzard didn't want Armor Penetration to be too powerful at the high or low end (read level) of the spectrum so they came up with this little diddy. The magic Armor Constant (will be refereed to as 'K' below) is an easy to calculate number that changes significantly when a mob is over level 60. Cap: The Cap, combined with the K, causes the "Up To" statement in the tooltip. If the Cap is lower than the target's armor, then said Cap is used in the Armor Penetration calculation rather than the actual target's armor. If this is the case, then the effective armor reduction will appear lower than the stat lists. The numbers for the first example are being lifted directly from Ghostcrawler's post on the topic, but to try and reduce confusion, I have left some extraneous information out and added additional explanation. If you grasp the original post, then the following block will be redundant. Our formula will focus solely on endgame content, level 80 and level 83 (boss mob) NPCs. Important numbers: Level 80 Constant (K) = 400+85*targetlevel+4.5*85*(targetlevel-59) = 15232.5 Level 83 Constant (K) = 400+85*targetlevel+4.5*85*(targetlevel-59) = 16635 Armor Cap = (targetarmor + K)/3 Example Mob: We will stick with Mr. Street's example, a level 80 warrior creature with 9729 armor. The player attacking has 30% Armor Penetration and no other modifiers. Calculation: Our armor constant (K) in this case = 15232.5 Armor Cap = (targetarmor + K)/3 = (9729 + 15232.5)/3 => 8320.5 The formula choses the lower amount (Armor Cap or actual armor) to apply the penetration stat (.30) to: ArmCap * ArmPen = lost armor => 8320.5 * .30 = 2496.15 Thus 2496.15 of the target's armor is ignored, effectively leaving the creature with 7232.85 armor: armor - armor lost = effective armor => 9729 - 2496.15 = 7232.85 Comparison: If it wasn't for the "Up To" statement then the calculation would certainly be off, since the player only sees a reduction of 25.66% of the target's armor. Due to the usage of the Armor Cap, the Armor Constant was selected, reducing the amount lost below the 30% that you may have expected. Example Boss: For our quicker second example we have selected a boss mob with 25000 armor being attacked by a toon with 30% Armor Penetration. Calculation: K = 16635 Armor Cap = (25000 + 16635)/3 => 13878 lost armor = 13878 * .3 = 4163.5 effective armor = 25000 - 4163.5 = 20836.5 Percent lost = 4163.5/25000 = 16.6% Conclusion: Armor Penetration is certainly not a statistic that you should be gearing out for. As you can see, your penetration percentage actually goes down against a well armored opponent. The original poster of the thread claimed that the toon in question had 116% Armor Penetration, but only reduced the target's armor by 66%. Talk about a loss. Although we may not have known the mechanics behind the calculation before, theorycrafters were correct in assuming that all our other stats are more important. Gear for Hit, Expertise, Agility, Attack Power, Strength, etc, as Armor Penetration is a third rate stat for Melee DPSers. For rogues, warriors, death knights and feral druids, the statistic should be weighed above Intellect and Spirit, but below seemingly every other modifier.

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My new guild - can I still call it new when I get personalized greetings at sign on? - has been going through some troubles lately, and it isn't drama related.  I guess you can blame the lack of healers for causing some drama.  On top of trying to solve this ancient MMORPG problem, we have also been hit by scattershot attendance.  Our GM and Officers have done their best to recruit eager players to the raid, but for everyone four recruited, it seems that only one is willing to show up.  Showing up is only half the battle though.  Being an able bodied raider is the other half.  Apparently, they didn't get the Level 80 memo. At this stage in the game, gear is only part of one's ability to generate respectable DPS.  Don't get me wrong, having the correct gear is incredibly important, but like the global warming problem, it is only one piece of the pie chart. Gear: There is gear, and then there is correct gear.  For instance, I could have some sick 1.8 Speed Daggers equipped.  In fact I have one from Naxx but I never use it.  Why?  Because its slow speed doesn't mesh well with Mutilate spec - this may be changing come v3.1.  There are tons of ways to judge gear which can cause tough decisions.  One of the easiest, but not the best, is to let an addon like RatingBuster do the comparisons for you. Making that type of decision means you have already located and won what you need, which is often the most time consuming challenge.  Thanks to Blizzard's constant updates to the WoWArmory, your character profile can give you some tips on what to hunt for.  Take Solidsamm's rings (or trinkets) for instance.  A quick check through the Upgrade link (On mouseover, hover over the arrow that appears to the right of the item) and you are hit with a two page list of items that are side-grades or better to his Ring of Foul Mojo. If you don't have the time to sink into instances or Heroics, then perhaps player created gear is more suitable.  Crafted gear is a quick and easy way to upgrade many slots.  The catch 22 is that these items can be pretty pricey.  However, if you spend your downtime shopping around for the mats while grinding the other non-craftable slots, you should save some serious gold. Spec: A player's spec is incredibly important for everything they do.  A few misplaced points and a toon can be out of 5-20% of potential DPS, making them a poor choice for a raid or PvP partner.  I am not trying to say that we should all be cookie cutter copies of each other, but the pattern exists for a reason.  My suggestion to those trying to eek out more DPS is to look at the cookie cutter version of your spec and analyze any and all differences.  Weigh the differences to see if what you have selected is truly better for what your spec is built to accomplish.  And don't be afraid to ask guildmates for opinions and tips! Glyphs: These bad boys should be used to strengthen your main spells and abilities.  They are relatively cheap compared to other consumables and will remain viable additions to your character until you change specs or new Glyphs are released, which isn't all that often.  Again, select Major Glyphs that modify the main abilities you use.  For a Mutilate rogue like Solidsamm that would be Slice n Dice (for more poison procs), Rupture and Garrote.  Unfortunately there is no Envenom glyph. Enchants: Enchants are often over looked, and with good reason.  As mentioned in one of my first posts, it is hard to justify sinking tens to hundreds of gold into gear that will likely be replaced very soon.  To avoid emptying your coffers repeatedly, only pick-up the most suitable enchantments on gear that shouldn't be replaced in the short term, meaning most epic quality items.  For those blue items, grab the mats and have a guildmate do middle of the road buffs on the cheap.  If you still have a collection of greens, the money and time are better spent just replacing the gear entirely. Gems: Another often overlooked and easily solvable problem.  Follow the same suggestions for enchants, saving the best gems for the best gear.  Gems are also a fantastic way to boost other stats that you could be lacking, such as Hit and Expertise rating.  Once you get those stats on board with the needed numbers, you should re-gem to help your spec, where applicable. When you do get that fantastic gear that you have been working towards for weeks, be sure to gem it and enchant it ASAP.  I always try to keep a handful of gems on hand to apply to new gear on the spot.  Why would I do this?  Two reasons really.  First, I don't want the new piece of loot to look "worse" than the old piece simply because it isn't gemmed.  Second, I try to get my gems at rock bottom prices, which means I have to wait sometimes.  During the interim, I slap a middle of the road gem in the socket as a placeholder.  The trick is that when you do the on the fly gemming or enchanting, you have to remember to go back and replace it.  That is a personal tip to myself, evidenced by my recent gemming excursion to replace all the green gems I had. Don't forget to play the game the way you want to though.  Just because one spec does a little more DPS than the other, doesn't mean you should suffer through mechanics that you don't enjoy.  After all, you should still want to play the game after you make the changes to be a more productive member of your guild!

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