Heya guys!!  Rawr!!  No really…Rawr!!  heh  Want another tool to help you pick out your item upgrades?  For those of you who have not heard of Rawr, this was a computer tool developed originally for Feral Druids to pick out their optimal gear.  Since then it has expanded greatly.  While I never had much cause to use it before now, the relative lack of hardcore number crunchers out there pushing numbers and cracking secrets about DK’s have caused me to check back into it again.

There is a decent post about the Rawr Model Development (v2.1.4 released on 12/13) here, and then you can also directly download this tool here.  For those of you who missed my Pawn Scale mod post, you should also take the time to go back and read this post: Pawn Death Knight Scales for picking out your best in slot items.  So wondering why I don’t just sign off on Rawr and tell you guys to use it to pick your gear?

It still needs some work.  For example it’s listing Paladin gear for our T7 and T7.5 pieces, heh.  Also, something about Rawr is that it picks the best in slot items for you based off of your current gear.  It does not pick out the best in slot items in an ideal world.  What’s the difference you ask?

If your gear is currently underpar then it may give one stat too much weight.  Meaning if you only have 5% hit, then Rawr will tell you that items with lots of hit will be the best upgrades.  Which, for your personal dps at that moment and time they will be.  But especially if you are spending DKP to gain items in Raids, sometimes you need to make sure you spend your DKP only on certain specific upgrades.  Buying 2-3 items for the same slot can kill your DKP totals.  Unsure about DKP?  Read: DKP – what it is, what it can be, and how it can affect you.

Otherwise however, if DKP is not an issue, Rawr will tell you which items will currently and most likely give you the greatest DPS increases.  Some of the items seem a little off however, as I’ve seen them rate haste rating a little too well imo.  One trick is to select some of the best in slot items and to make sure that it has hit capped you and that your expertise is at least around 15 or so skill total with spec.  If you’re not sure about Hit/Expertise caps please read here: Death Knights? Hit and Expertise – sounds cool, what’s it about? 

This will usually avoid some of the pitfalls Rawr will lead you into without realizing it.  Always remember if losing one item will bring you under the hit cap, the upgrade for it will likely not be a best in slot item as Rawr will be trying to keep you at hit cap with that one slot. 

Generally speaking, using both Pawn and Rawr will allow you to pick out the best items in game for your character for pure Raid PvE DPS.

• WoW Head - A site resource where you can look up any item easily.
• Atlas Loot Enhanced – This allows you to see any in game item easily for Pawn Scale comparison.
• Rawr 2.1.4 – A simulator program that determines best in slot items for your current gear, not best in slot items in game.
• Pawn – This allows you to use scales to see the in game APE value of any item.  Please read my post here: Pawn Death Knight Scales for picking out your best in slot items.  It has the scales you will need.

You guys didn’t think I forgot about raid PvE dps content did you?

P.S.  I fell asleep watching TV… >.<  So you guys get my backup plan.  Yes, I do sometimes pre-write posts just in case something like this happens and I can’t write what I planned to.  -.-  Anyways, Frost PvP spec info will be incoming tomorrow after I get off of work.  Sorry for the delay.

Tags: Best in Slot Items, Mods