Project Lore

You might have heard the term item level "iLvl" and not really known what it meant. It's sort of an extension of the tier system (or vice versa), and it's easy enough to understand at face value: a higher iLevel means more overall stats and superior item. Item levels are not something that you can see in the game with the default interface. You'll need an addon like iLevel Buddy. Most database websites have it as well, you can see it on WoWHead under "Quick Facts". These Conqueror's Darkruned Legguards have an iLevel of 226. The iLvl of an item has some complicated formulas that were reverse engineered by players. Basically, the iLvl of an item, its rarity, and the slot it goes in, like shoulders, waist, and chest, give the item a pool of points to take from. Chest and helms get more points than say bracers and belts. With these points, stats are allocated. Each stat has a certain percentage of these "points" that it costs. For stats like Agility and Intellect, the trade-off is one to one, that is, it costs the same amount of "points" from the iLvl to get +1 Agility as it does +1 Intellect. Gear of the same iLevel then differs based on its armor class and the stats on it. Lets check out how many of these "points" each of the stats take up (via elitistjerks).

Stat	Modifier
Strength	1
Agility	1
Stamina	2/3
Intellect	1
Spirit	1
Ratings	1
Attack Power	1/2
Spell Power	6/7
Mana per 5	5/2
Block Value	13/40

So if you had two items of the same iLvl, some stats might be +40 Intellect, +10 Intellect and +30 Spirit, +10 Intellect and +45 Stamina, or +10 Intellect and +35 Spell Power. A Priest might desire the +10 Intellect and +30 Spirit gear, but a Mage might prefer a +40 Intellect or +10 Intellect and +35 Spell Power. This is called itemization, that is, Blizzard pulling stats that players should want for their class on gear. For example, lets compare 3 iLevel 200 leather belts: Dragonfriend Bracers, Bindings of the Tunneler, and Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands. If you add up all of the points (after multiplied by the modifiers in the table) on the Dragonfriend Bracers, you see that you will result in 163 (49/1 Agility+ 38*(2/3)=26 Stamina +38/1 crit rating + 100*(1/2)=50 attack power). All epic iLevel 200 bracers will result in that sum. For example, the Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands also give us 163 (+36/1 agility +43 *(2/3)=28 stamina + 49 Haste Rating + 100*(1/2)=50 Attack Power). However, because Bindings of the Tunneler are not epic, they should have lower stats, even though they are iLevel 200. Doing the calculation shows us that (+31 Agility +67*(2/3)=45 Stamina + 25 Expertise Rating + 84*(1/2)=42 Attack Power) is 143. These calculations would give us the same numbers, 163 and 143, if we chose epic and uncommon cloth iLevel 200 bracers. We know something is Rogue gear when it's leather and has Agility and Critical Strike Rating on it, and something is Mage gear when it's cloth and has Intellect and Spell Power on it. However, the stats should sum up the same between them. That was just for bracers. There are all sorts of equations that can tell you exactly how many of these points each slot will have at each iLevel, but it's complicated and boring. Set Bonuses and special procs are (usually) a freebie. This is why tier pieces are usually so heavily valued; they come with awesome set bonuses without sacrificing stats. Sockets are usually 16 points. When deciding which piece of gear is better, iLevel is a good guide, but not the end all. PvP items have Resilience on them, which is all but useless in PvE. Some stats may be less valuable to you than others; for example, few classes would value Stamina over AP/SP. Look at the stats carefully before deciding before you give up 10 Agility for 70 Stamina in what you think is a fantastic upgrade because you went from iLevel 200 to 213.

10-man	ilvl	25-man
Naxx	200
KT, EoE	213	Naxx
Ulduar	219
Ulduar hard	226	Ulduar, KT/EoE
CC	232	Ulduar weapons
	239	Ulduar hard
CC hard	245	CC
	258	CC hard

The last thing you need to know is where to get what iLevel gear. Usually, the harder the raid, the higher the iLevel of the drops. Wow.com made this handy little table. Usually, you will want your gear to be within about 20 points of a raid before even considering it. Some gear can be crafted at high iLevels, but it requires Orbs, like Frozen Orbs or Runed Orbs which drop in the same areas as your desired iLevel gear does. You can buy them at top price at the auction house. Questions or comments?

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If you look back at my blogs since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King and compare them to my collection of thoughts from the The Burning Crusade days, you may notice a trend.  During Illidan's and later Kael'thas' respected reigns my posts were more often focused on news and game updates, rather than discussions and dissections about our favorite MMORPG.  The reason for this is quite simple really, I wasn't participating in World of Warcraft as much then as I am now.  For the longest time I couldn't pinpoint the exact reason for is.  It had nothing to do with why I quit WoW in the first place, and I still followed the lore almost as closely as I do now, yet, I was hardly ever pulled into the game. It took me a few months of play, up and downs and a new guild, but I had an epiphany while biking around Philadelphia the other night.  The reason I am more drawn to WoW now is that I don't feel left behind.  Thanks to the new expansion Solidsamm was put on a level playing field with every buddy else.  No longer was I three tiers of gear behind, thousands of rep in the hole or penniless because I hadn't been doing dailies for over a year.  Solidsamm was on equal footing, grinding his way to level 80 with the majority of players and entering the same raids that many other toons ran on a weekly basis.  Sure, he still hasn't seen Ulduar yet, but it's only been available for a few weeks. The irony here is that this ability to catch up was one of the reason I was annoyed with the first expansion.  TBC's opening quest rewards were good enough to replace some of the AQ40/Naxxramas gear that players - including myself - had spent months collecting.  As a hardcore raider I felt that all the time I had put into the game would be tarnished since a player with less than a third of my playtime could now be as geared as I.  How naive I was. It was odd being on the exact opposite end of the spectrum for the second expansion, but it made me realize that the changes are necessary if the game is to grow at all.  That being said, I would argue that the replacement rate of The Burning Crusade's gear wasn't nearly as drastic as vanilla WoW, which was a very smart move by Blizzard. Now that we are almost 6 months from Wrath of the Lich King's release, how is it treating you?  Are you enjoying it more than The Burning Crusade or is it pretty much the same to you?  Personally I think the questing is far better than TBC, but itemization at the high end (normal vs. heroic vs. hard mode loot) seems to be a bit screwed up.  What is your take?

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