Project Lore

It Takes Longer To Find All The Weapons Than To Level The Skill Love it or hate it, Blizzard has been changing the leveling aspects of World of Warcraft with each additional expansion.  As the level cap continues to be raised, the developers feel that blasting players through levels is a reasonable solution.  Sure, the slow to level players, and highly casual alt creators may feel a sense of abandonment, but according to Blizzard, the game begins at max level.  With increased XP gains from questing and grinding, lower level access to mounts and cheaper training costs and Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, leveling has become nothing more than a quick chore.  So why is it that we still bother with Weapon Skill? From what I can tell Weapon Skill was part of the combat calculations for two reasons.  Mainly to limit a players ability to take on much higher level mobs than themselves.  Perhaps your skill would let you drop a beast 10 levels higher than you, but all the dodges, glancing blows and misses from your puny weapon skill (still hardcapped at 5*level) negated your epeen.  The second attribute is to please our incessant need to see our character "progressing".  Even though we'd only see an increase of five in between levels, the great driving force of rising statistics kept many of us cracking skulls. Now, at level 80, the statistic is completely meaningless.  Yes, it does impact your DPS when you aren't capped, but does anyone not have max weapon skill with their weapon of choice?  If you grab a new weapon of a skill you aren't proficient in you can have that skill capped within the hour.  The incoming influx of axe wielding rogues are a perfect example.  So what's the point?  Why is it that we have to bother with a relic from vanilla WoW that has ultimately lost its purpose to Expertise?  Is it hanging around for archaeological reasons and the achievement? Unfortunately, we can't completely abandon the system since its main purpose is still in use.  But it'd be nice if Blizzard made it an actual task to accomplish, rather than a challenge to find an elite mob to swing away at.  Of course having to invest additional time into a pointless statistic, repeatedly no less, wouldn't make much sense either.  Make it so once one class of weapons (melee and ranged) is leveled they all would be?  That wouldn't please the RPers out there.  How about giving the statistic back some of its stats that Expertise now possess?  That would require additional dev time and rebalancing for no actual change.  Hmm. The state of Weapon Skill is a sticky situation.  Ultimately, its pointlessness for 'when the game begins' just bothers me, and frankly, reeks of a poorly planned change to a former core mechanic.

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Part 2 of our series on the basics of melee DPS (Part 1 - Melee DPS 101: The Hit Cap) brings us to the category that confused me the most, Expertise.  When I began looking up Wrath of the Lich King's changes to my class' required stats, I was expecting to find pretty clear cut answers.  That was not the case for Expertise. My initial research confused me something fierce due to my own stupidity.  I kept coming across a pair of vastly different numbers that were recanted as the expertise needed for dual and single wielding DPS.  Then the compact fluorescent light bulb went off, the synapse was crossed and I put the final piece of the puzzle together. Expertise and Expertise Rating are convertible statistics, not the same thing.  It really is quite simple and works like Hit and Hit Rating.  The more Hit Rating you have, the more you will connect with your target.  I do not know why this confused me for the length of time that it did, but I never claimed to be Einstein. Let's get to the facts now that you know how slow I can be without my morning tea.  Expertise is a very easy to understand requirement that is the same for all melee DPS classes.  For starters, Expertise is the statistic that will help minimize a mob's ability to Dodge or Parry your attacks.  Once again, our focus for the discussion will be on boss mobs.  Before we begin, it should be noted that all DPSing should be done from behind the target.  This will cut out the need for additional rating, since the mob will have its Parry attribute removed from the equation table. Assuming that you are "hitting it from behind," a melee DPSer will require 214 Expertise Rating or 26 Expertise (you can check this on your character sheet).  Roughly 33 ER or the equivalent of 4 expertise will reduce a mobs chance to dodge/parry by 1%.  If you hit those numbers, you will surpass the 6.5% Dodge chance those pesky Boss mobs are handed and maximize your DPS potential. Here's another "at a glance" guide for easy reference.

All Melee DPS:

Expertise/Expertise Rating = 26 and 214 respectively. You just need to hit one of these numbers to negate a mob's chance to Dodge or Parry (when attacking from behind).  Expertise is generally gained from various talents (Vitality, Combat Expertise, Weapon Expertise, etc) or racial traits (Humans gain 3 Expertise for Swords and Maces), while Expertise Rating is typically obtained from item bonuses. 1 Expertise = 0.25% Dodge reduction, 32.79 Expertise Rating = 4 Expertise = 1% Dodge Reduction and the numbers you are trying to overcome are 6.5% Dodge and 12-15% Parry (Parry percentage remains in debate).  Don't forget, Parry can be ignored if you are attacking from behind.

Tanks:

I am not sure what the sweet spot is for tanking, but it is higher than Melee DPS.  Since a tank is obviously in front of the mob, they don't benefit from dropping Parry from the calculation table.  Therefore they would need additional Expertise/ER to drop negate a the other half of the Expertise equation.  However, if you are generating enough threat per second, you may be able to perform sufficiently with the DPS numbers above, since TPS is a tank's primary concern. I hope this clears up any confusion out there.  Remember to always attack from behind for the avoidance mitigation!  Brownie points to the commentator who can give us the necessary tank numbers.  Next up, all the other statistics out there.

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