The best option I’ve seen to date for this purpose is the mod Tell Me When.  It’s simple, easy to use, light weight, and efficient.  You can’t ask for much more than that.

Tell Me When

This mods creates new frames that can be resized and moved to any position on your screen.

As you can see from this screen shot above of the Interface Addon control, you have up to eight frames which can have a variable amount of columns and rows.

The above screen shot is the 2nd stage of setup.  From the previous picture you can see that I turned off all of the other frames except for one.  The one that I kept has 2 rows and 7 columns.  More than enough for my needs!

Now to set up the buffs (or debuffs) you need to know the names of the specific buffs (not the item name).  If you’re not sure, search the item on WoW Head.  The comments usually have the buff names listed.

If you click on this 2nd pic and zoom in you can see there are 14 boxes.  I will start on the top row and count from left to right, then repeating the process on the bottom row.

First Row

Number 1:  A lit up Killing Machine icon from my KM talent.

Number 2:  A grayed out Killing Machine icon.  This is where I originally had KM set, but found it was easier to notice putting it one box to the left.

Instead of deleting it however, I set it to inactive so that I can use it later if I choose.  That is why it appears grayed out.

Number 3:  A lit up Unholy Strength icon from my FC weapon enchant.

Number 4:  A lit up Speed of the Valkyr icon from my DBW trinket.

Number 5:  A lit up Unholy Force icon from my SoV sigil.

Number 6:  Empty

Number 7:  Empty

Second Row

Number 8:  A lit up Freezing Fog icon from my Rime talent.

Number 9:  A grayed out Freezing Fog icon.  This is where I originally had FF set, but found it was easier to notice putting it one box to the left.

Instead of deleting it however, I set it to inactive so that I can use it later if I choose.  That is why it appears grayed out.

Number 10:  A lit up Paragon icon from my DC trinket.

Number 11:  A lit up Strength of the Taunka icon from my DBW trinket.

Number 12:  A lit up Frostforged Champion icon from my AV exalted ring.

Number 13:  A lit up Aim of the Iron Dwarves icon from my DBW trinket.

Number 14:  Empty

Options

This mod gives you a lot of options.  How you choose to use it is up to you.

Appearance: You can change the size of the frames and their position on your screen.

Timers: You can set up the mod to even have a “clock” style countdown for buffs.

Buffs: Can track buffs easily.

Debuffs: Can also track debuffs on you or your target.  Whether it’s a debuff placed on you by a boss, or tracking debuffs you placed on a target in PvP.

Cooldowns: Can display an icon when an ability or item becomes available and off of CD.

Focus Targets: Can let you know when a debuff falls off of your focus target.

TMW in Action

Here is just a limited scope view on what TMW will look like in combat.  Fully customized however, this mod can do so much more.

A special notation should be made for “troublesome” boss debuffs as well.  Is there a particular debuff a boss places on you that you’ve had difficulty noticing the boss mod warnings for?

Set up TMW to pop up an icon whenever it’s present on you.  Choose the location and size of the icon, and you’re good to go!

The above shows me with Killing Machine, Paragon, Strength of the Taunka, and Unholy Force buffs present.

The above shows me with Killing Machine, Freezing Fog, Paragon, Strength of the Valkyr, Unholy Force, and Frostforged Champion buffs present.

If you zoom in on the pictures you will see that the buff mod I use on the right hand of the screen shows multiple buffs present.

However only the buffs that I programmed into TMW show in the middle of the screen, making it very easy to see just the important ones.

If you look closely you can also see the circular “clock-like” count down on the icons showing when they will wear off.

A brand new buff is fully lit up, while the count down starts graying out the icon as it wears off.  Once it is fully grayed out, the buff duration has ended and the icon vanishes.

Why is this useful?!

Tracking your buffs and timing your use of buffs, cooldowns, and abilities can shift your dps by a margin of anywhere between 500 to 3000 dps dependent upon numerous variables of course.

That is not an exaggeration.

Frost

As Frost it is critical that you always know when KM and Rime have proc’ed in order for you to take the maximum benefit from those talents.

The same also goes for Raise Dead.  You need to cast this when you have the most buffs on you.

Unholy

As Unholy your Gargoyle damage can shift dramatically by using it when you have full buffs up and Heroism.

If you don’t know when the buffs are on you and cast Gargoyle when they’re down, then the dps gain from that spell drops significantly.

Minions

One shot pets have their stats set by your current stats at the time of casting.  So Raise Dead (non-Unholy), Summon Gargoyle, and Army of the Dead all fall into this category.

They’re not true pets like an Unholy ghoul.  They’re more like one shot minions.

If you have 5 temporary buffs on you when you cast Raise Dead or Summon Gargoyle, and then they fall off 5 seconds later, your summoned minions stay buffed.

Their stats are set at the time you cast them, based off of your own stats.  Or your AP and Haste more specifically.

Summation

This isn’t a guide on how to set up the mod, but it’s very easy to use.  Set it up in the Addon Interface first, and then type /tmw in chat when that is done.

You don’t have to use this specific mod, but you need to be using something like it.  Seriously.

You need some type of UI modification so that you are fully aware when temporary buffs are on you.  It will change your dps for the better.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…

Not sure about you guys, but that kind of stuff catches my attention.  So, since my UI died the week before 3.3.5 release why not talk about it?

Pictures of my UI

Please be aware that my computer monitor is a Sceptre x270-1080P.  I run WoW at a resolution of 1980×1080.

These pics only look right if you click on them, and then zoom in.  And when you do that, they will likely not fit on your monitor unless you have a wide screen 27 inch monitor as well.

If you are looking to upgrade your monitor btw, I *HIGHLY* recommend Sceptre.  I’ve bought their models for my last two monitors and I’ve got zero complaints!  They rock!!

My Dead UI

Yeah, a picture is worth a thousand words.  “!@#$ me” however sums that pic up pretty well I think…

The mods that broke…

I use Rune Watch for my disease timers, runic power meter, and rune cooldowns.  It’s invaluable if you ask me.  I *highly* recommend it.  I’ve not seen an alternative that is as nice as RW.

I use Tell Me When for my buffs so that I know when my buffs are active for popping cd’s, etc…  Also invaluable imo, but there are several alternatives to TMW which work well too.

I use CT Mod for my basic UI fuctions, including my bars.  It’s old, tried, and true.  Been using it since vanilla WoW, and it still works damn well.

There are supposedly much better options out there (than CT), but CT provides several mods that I use in one easy package, so I’ve not seen a good enough reason to leave it behind yet.

What happened?

Right in the middle of H LK my TMW just died and forgot all of the settings I had.  BOOM!!  Dead…  Couldn’t track my Rime or Killing Machine procs, buffs, etc…  It sucked.

In the effort of reloading my UI Rune Watch suddenly died as well and forgot all of my settings.

On top of this, reloading my UI started locking WoW up, as well as logging out/exiting the game.  Both are times when mods are being loaded, saved, etc…

A few minutes later (on a fresh log in) my 5 bars collapse into one big mish mash of bars and I can’t see shit!  Did I mention I was at H LK with my guild during all of this?  /sigh

Long story short I did a WoW Repair, deleted my WTF and Addon folders, and redid my UI from the ground up.  It was a pain.  That pic above is after everything was fixed and re-downloaded, but before I set it all up again.

Why’d they break?

Most likely because it’s been forever since I repaired WoW, cleaned out those folders, etc…  And downloaded mod after mod on top of each other.  It was only a matter of time before my addons broke really.

My New UI…Again!

It’s fairly basic and I like it that way.  I like a lot of visible area without a ton of clutter.

I spent some time looking through pre-made UI’s and they all suck IMO.  Why won’t anyone make a basic pre-made UI that uses core solid mods without messing everything up?

They wanna move your mini-map into the bottom center of the screen almost all the time too…  Who in the hell actually uses the mini-map when you’re fighting?!  NO ONE!!  Fricking idiots…

They also like to cut out a lot of your screen to fit in mods, etc…  No thanks.  I’d prefer to just download a pre-made mod and alter it slightly, but they all seem to suck.

Caveat:  Some of the pre-made healer UI’s looked awesome.  *Really* awesome!!  Why don’t melee have more pre-made UI’s? 

New Mods!

So while looking around at pre-made UI’s I checked out a few new mods as well.  Well, new for me anyways…

I found an interesting one called Nonce.  It’s pretty basic.  It allows you to add a texture or screen color (and alter the appearance of it) depending on the presence you are in.

That link at Curse has a few pics as well that are much more obvious than my setup. But here’s two examples of how I set mine up.

Frost UI

Unholy UI

Now in both of these pics I have the graphic set to being more of a “background” thing.  You can make these much, much more visible if you choose to.

Or even drop the texture and just have your entire screen shade over with the color (to varying degrees).

So why is this mod good?

*I* forget to change presences all the fricking time!!

I’ll swap into Unholy Presence to run back from a wipe on H LK, or just have it on while in Dalaran, and then forget to put Blood back up when I get into a fight…

/facepalm

I know…  Bad SJ.  So I set up Blood to show nothing, and Unholy and Frost to show as above so I won’t forget anymore!!

Mods used by Skeleton Jack

I figure people will wonder about this one…  And I’ve been asked this question a ton.  So here you go.

I am no “UI Guru” or master of addons.  I am 100% sure my UI could be improved in such a way that would blow my socks off.  However I don’t really know how to do that, so this is what I’ve got. 

Deadly Boss Mods

• There are other options such as Big Wigs and DXE, but I’ve been using DBM since vanilla WoW and it works.

CT Mod Advanced

• From this package I use:  CT Party Buffs, CT Buff Mod, CT Map Mod, CT Mail Mod, CT Core, CT Bar Mod, and CT Bottom Bar.
• The other mods in the package are useful, but I don’t have a need for them.

Auctioneer Suite

• I do not use Enchantrix, which comes with this.
• I use the Suite because it’s what comes with all of the bells and whistles…  I likes bells and whistles!!

Rating Buster

• Automatically converts ratings into values.
• Also converts stats for you as well.  Like alt casters who get x % of y stat added to z ability/effect.

Recount

• Solid mod for tracking dps, deaths, healing, etc…

Tell Me When

• I can’t live without this mod.
• It is one of only two mods I consider to be necessary for playing WoW (PvE and PvP content).

Tank Points

• I don’t use this much as I don’t tank much, but it’s a great way for the newb tank to see which items are upgrades for tanking.

Bank Stack

• This will auto sort your bags and do some other stuff too…  I’m not so sure on the other stuff.  But the auto sorting function has saved me a *ton* of time in the past.

Omen

• You should already have this mod for the love of all that is unholy!!

oRA2

• A great raid tool mod imo, and should be mandatory for guilds if you ask me.
• I recently learned there is an oRA3.  I’ve not tried it yet, so can’t vouch for it.  But it’s likely better.

Logger Head

• If you ever keep combat logs for WoL then I recommend this one.  Just makes life easier.

One Bank 3 and One Bag 3

• I like one bag for my bank and backpack.  Opening a bazillion bags and managing them is bogus.

Error Monster

• Helps eat error messages.  /win if you ask me!

Nonce

• Special graphics for being in a DK presence.  YMMV here…

Bad Boy:  Anti Spam Automatic Reporter

• This one is a new mod for me.  So far its caused me no problems and spam is less of an issue.  So this mod is going into the “HELL YES!!!” column! 

Rune Watch

• This is the second mod which I consider to be actually necessary to playing WoW (in both PvE and PvP content).
• Disease Timer
• Horn of Winter Timer
• Rune Tracking
• Two Runic Power Guages
• If you don’t have this you seriously need to try it.

Atlas Loot Enhanced

• Wanna know what the boss drops?  Wanna know what badges can buy what gear?  Look no further.

Displaced Mods

WIM

• I used to *love* this mod, but started turning it off in raids to improve frame rate issues.
• I’ve not used it in a long time, but I used to love it.

Grid

• This is the basis mod for most casters.  If you have a healer, or caster alt, you may find it useful.

Clique

• The healers set me up on this for my shaman Bigeasy when I had to heal Twins in Sunwell.  Worked well.

Move Anything

• It does literally what it says.

Trade Skill Mods

I don’t honestly understand the interaction (read dependencies) of all of these mods.  But I had a glyph business a while back that pretty much required all of them

If you’re into TS’s then you may find some of these handy…  You can do some amazing stuff with them.  I did.

Lil Sparky’s Workshop

Addon Control Panel

Altoholic

Who Has

Kev Tool Queue

Skillet

You have a great UI?

Disclaimer: Links to any sites that are not well known or trusted may be deleted.  Photobucket, Curse, WI, Ace, etc… are trusted sites.  Personal websites?  Those might get deleted.  I have to protect my readers from links to potential viruses.

You know some great mods?  Leave a comment with a link to it.

Know a great pre-made UI somewhere?  Link it!!

Have a pic of a UI that’s really cool?!  You guessed it.  LINK IT!!

Not only am I curious, but I’m sure other readers are too.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…

Heya guys!!  For those who have no idea what’s going on, there is a mod called AVR.  Basically it dumbs down boss encounters big time by drawing circles, graphics, etc… on the game field.  And Blizzard doesn’t like it…

Quote from Bashiok

This is a notice that we’re making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.

We’re making this change for two reasons. The invasive nature of a mod altering and/or interacting with the game world (virtually or directly) is not intended and not something we will allow. World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself. This is mirrored in our stance and restriction of model and texture alterations. The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters. While some other mods also work to this end, we find that AVR and the act of visualizing strategy within the game world simply goes beyond what we’re willing to allow.

The change we’re making in attempts to break the functionality is light in its touch and approach. When blocking any functionality we run the risk of affecting other mods, but we’ve targeted the changes as carefully as possible. If we find that the AVR mod (or any mod attempting to replicate its functions) are usable after 3.3.5 we will take further, more drastic steps.

Hmmm…

“What to think…”

Shenanigans?

First off, some part of you has to call shenanigans.  With all of the mods in game already popping up graphical displays you have to wonder what they are talking about.

AVR already exists in game with the current mods, just without the pretty graphics.  DXE and DBM being the most infamous of culprits…

A chat bubble popping up over someone’s head to indicate where something will spawn and symbols appearing over targets with debuffs is graphical in nature.  I’m sorry, but it is.  I can see it. Derp a derp!!

So their claim “World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself.” is false in practice.  Current mods available and in use are evidence of that.

The flip side of the coin…

Now their other reason “The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters.” is about as accurate as it gets.

Being able to just pay attention to the game field itself and have a graphical display of boss ability interactions makes things significantly easier.

For a player, it’s a huge improvement from the “better living” perspective.  Being able to actually “watch the game” and immerse yourself more is totally /win.

But the flip side is that it messes up the game balance by making encounters far easier than they are intended to be.  AVR really does dumb down the encounters.

So SJ, good or bad call?

Good call on Blizzard’s part even if they’re not being honest with their player base about all of their reasons behind doing so.

I think this news would have been far better received by the community if Blizzard had just stated that AVR goes further past the line than they are willing to allow due to making encounters far easier than intended.  They should have left it at that.

The additional reasons they listed just smack of fallacy, which will lead to community anger and disgruntlement due to the inaccuracy of the claims.

I’ve personally used AVR for a total of 2 weeks.  I found out some of my guild members had the mod, so I got it as well.  So I’m not all that broken up about losing it.

/wave AVR!!  Nice knowing ya!

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…

Heya guys!!  So today we’re gonna get into one of the more confusing aspects of WoW.  Or at least, very often misunderstood.  Having uber leet roxorz deepz!!!  o.O

Three of the biggest names in combat logs are WoW Web Stats, WoW Meters Online, and World of Logs.  Otherwise known as WWS, WMO, and WoL.  And let’s not forget the ranking systems they have.

One of the most famous examples is on WMO.  The current link to the top 20 DPS results for DK’s from WMO looks like this:  (click me!!)

The initial reaction of most players when they see stuff like this is to freak out, “OMG LOOK AT THAT DPS!!!  HOW DO I DO THAT MUCH DPS?!!?” The truth is you don’t.

Unless you upgrade on *everything*, you won’t likely ever do that much.  And when I say *everything*, I mean *everything*.  We’re not just talking about gear.  We’re talking about the whole kit and kaboodle (how often do you get to work that into a sentence?! ).

Combat Log Sites

The first and most important thing you need to know about these sites is that they do not measure dps in the same manner that mods do.

The typical mod, such as Recount, measures your dps based off of your activity.  If you’re hitting something (whether that be you, a pet, or a disease ticking away) then it counts you as being in combat.  If you’re not hitting something, then it counts you as being out of combat.

So that travel time to the boss on the pull, transitions where you have no pet or dot on the boss, etc… does not count against your dps.  A site like WMO however ranks the top dps by the entire length of the fight.  They only care about how long the fight took.

Let’s say you went into a boss fight that lasted for 5 minutes even.  That is a total of 300 seconds of combat from the time the boss is agro’d to the time it dies.  And in that fight you did 3,000,000 damage (3 million).  But during the encounter you lost a total of 15 seconds due to movement and phase transitioning.  How much dps did you do?

By a mod such as Recount you would have done 3,000,000 dmg / 285 sec = 10526 DPS.  However a ranking site like WMO doesn’t care about your inactive time.  As far as it’s concerned, your dps is measured by the total boss encounter.  So by WMO you would have done 3,000,000 dmg / 300 sec = 10000 DPS.

Now in this example 15 seconds of inactivity results in a net loss of 526 DPS.  That extra travel time to run to the boss because you were 10 yards behind the tank?  That extra time to run around the room because you didn’t know your exact positioning?  That time where you ran in the wrong direction at first?  All account and attribute for DPS losses on ranking sites.

So if you want to hold yourself up to these ranked sites, the very first thing you need to learn is how to improve your dps in regard to the total boss encounter length.

Top Raiding Guilds

The next thing you need to learn is why the top end guilds always have players scoring in the top ranks.

Let’s say you are an amazing player and do between 8k-13k dps per encounter.  And then let’s say that you have a few more exceptional members in your guild y, but the rest are lackluster.  They do well, but they never do *really well*.  Let’s say they do 5k-9k dps per encounter.

Now let’s look at a top end guild x where the lackluster members are nearly non-existent.  Everyone is pulling 8k-13k dps per encounter.  How much faster are they killing a boss than you are?

Take a boss with 32 million hp.  If guild x has 18 DPS doing 10k dps on average they will kill that boss in 3 minutes.  If guild y has 18 DPS doing 8k dps on average (and I’m being generous for some people) they will kill the same boss in 3 min and 42 sec.

Why does that matter?  The shorter a fight, the more dps you are going to do in a raid.  Always.

It all comes down to cool down abilities, whether it be Heroism, trinkets, abilities, etc…  The more that are used within a shorter period of time, the more dps that you do.  If you use 5 cool down abilities in a fight that lasts 3 minutes, you will do more dps than you would have using 5 cool down abilities in a fight that lasts 4 minutes.

So if you play with average players who do moderate dps, increasing the length of a fight, they in turn are actually decreasing your dps.  Raiding is more about teamwork than most people realize.  You need the rest of the dps to do well in order for you to do well.

End story?  The shorter the fight the better.  It is actually possible to out dps the top ranked players by “active time”, but because the top end guilds have less total “inactive time” and shorter fights they will always be at an advantage over other players…

Stupid Gimmicks

What are these?  Let’s say you’re an Unholy Death Knight (go figure I’d use that as an example, heh).  And let’s say you happen to have 1 Blood DK and 3 Rogues in the party.  And let’s say you’re a cheese ball.  You get the Blood DK to hit you with Hysteria every time it’s up and also have the Rogues spam Tricks of the Trade on you as well.

That will *massively* change your dps.  And some of the people who get ranked on sites do this.  Not all, but some.

So what does it all mean?

It basically means you need to be aware that your “awesome” damage could be “suck”.  Or that your “suck” damage is more “suck” than you realized…  And then there is also the chance that you do “amazing” dps, but the ranking sites will never recognize it.

I can’t tell you what this means to you because I don’t know how much dps that you actually do.  But if you’re interested, now at least you have an idea of how it all works.  You can go to these sites and learn how to upload combat logs fairly easily.  And you can also keep a mod like Recount running.  It’s all up to you whether you’d like to put in the effort is all.

Being a Top DPS’er

This really comes down to the total package:

• Solid Computer System
• Top Notch Guild
• Leet Skillz
• Good Mods
• Solid Keybindings
• And more…

When I said upgrade *everything*, I meant everything…  It’s not just about being better.  It’s about your computer, your mods, your keybinds, your macros, your guild…everything…

But more importantly its also about being a total “Bad Ass”.  Being a bad ass is kind of like being in love.  Someone can’t tell you that you’re in love.  You can’t ‘think’ that you’re in love.  You can’t wonder if you’re in love.  You *know* when you’re in love with someone.  Being a bad ass is the same thing.  You either know you’re a bad ass, or you don’t.

But just like being in love, there are idiots out there who think they are when they’re not.  *shrug*  There are always going to be morons…

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…

Sooo…  I used to be loaded in game.  Absolutely butt tons of gold.  But I did something with a large portion of it that I’m not free to admit to here in the public eye.  And then on top of that, I had to make that payout for the winner of the donations to Eleanor (lil girl with cancer, the daughter of an in game friend of mine).  Plus, when I quit I sent off all of my stuff to my friends.

So now I’m poor.    I’ve been trying to find new ways of making income.  The gem market, where I’ve always traditionally made my income for the past 3 years is…different now.  Ore prices are so high that buying ore to prospect is no longer efficient with the advent of epic gems.  So that means farming.  I hate farming.  *REALLY* hate farming…

But, I did just so happen to come across a great lil video for helping you efficiently farm to your heart’s content.  So I’m sharing it with you guys.  I got it from: http://www.makewowgold.com/

I was pretty impressed by how well this video lays out how to use these addons.  If you farm, this is a good way to go.

And for everyone else, if you’ve got ways to make gold without “farming” herbs/ore/leather gimme a shout.  I’m curious.  My old methods are failing me now, and I fully plan to get back to over 100k gold again.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters.

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.

Heya guys!!  You asked for it, so now you get it.  Sort of.  What are you best in slot items?  Will this item you’re staring at be an upgrade?  What do you pick?!!?  Zomg!!!  I’ve got it easy mode for you.

OK, so…most of you readers out there don’t look at the addons I use.  Bad move.  As I’ve pointed out a few of them so far, they always tend to be…well…damn useful.  I’m not an addon fan myself.  So when I actually go get one, it’s because it’s probably really helpful.  Now, I realize sometimes better ones come out that I should upgrade too…  But then, no one’s perfect.  Not even me.  Shocker I know…heh.

So today, if you want to make life easy as hell on yourself you are going to listen to what I have to say and do as I tell you.

PAWN

Pawn is an addon that you can find at several different places probably.  However I personally trust Curse Gaming, so I will send you there to download it.  What is Pawn?  Well, basically this mod adds up the stats on an item and gives you a total number.  That’s the simple version.  But to explain this, I need to explain APE, or Attack Power Equivalency.

All melee have Attack Power, or AP.  So eventually the major theorycrafters out there came up with the idea to try to count how much dps an item was worth.  And when you consider the fact that just about every attack is based upon AP, it became the basis for measuring dps gained from items.

The easiest way to figure out how much an item would improve your character would be to equate all stats into AP.  Obviously some stats would be worth more than 1 AP, while others would be worth less.  For Death Knights 1 point of Strength converts (unmodified) into 2 AP.  So with such a simple basis in front of you, you can see where the rest leads.  xAgi = 1AP, yCrit = 1AP, and so on…

Now I’m not going to tell you how these numbers were figured out…because…I don’t know.    I’m not a math wiz here.  I’m just good at understanding things and applying them.  So here is where we give a MAD SHOUT OUT TO ELITEST JERKS FORUMS!!!!  One of the best WoW resources on the net, with a compilation of some of the greatest minds in the WoW player base.  If you’ve not read about your class here, then you’re doing yourself a diservice.

Anyways, when you use Pawn you basically tell the mod what these numbers should be.  How much they are worth.  Or, as you will hear me often say, how much weight you give them.  Once you’ve done this, the mod will always tell you the numerical worth of an item if directly converted into Attack Power.  So this value would be an Attack Power Equivalency, or APE.

Now, this is paramount to remember.  These numbers assume several basic facts:

• You are using an optimal raid spec for DPS.
• You have a balance of stats, not overstacking or ignoring anything.
• You are in entry level LK epics.

This scale is effectively a Tier 7 scale of weights.  It will weight your gear as if you were picking out T7 gear.  So this means that until you’re picking up epics, you have to use that grey matter some.  If you know this item you’re looking at is worth 50 more AP than you’re current item, but you’ll go over hit cap, well it’s probably not good.  If you’re hit is only at 2%, and you’re thinking about giving up an item with 1% hit on it for something worth 50 more AP…also a bad plan.

Too much of any one stat, or too little, is always a bad thing.  Hit caps at 9%, and Expertise caps at 21 skill (or 15 skill as Blood).  Not counting racials.

OK SJ.  I understand already, tell me how to make this work already!!

Pushy much?  Sheesh…

All right.  Install the mod into your Addons folder:

C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns

For those of you with WoW installed elsewhere, well you more than likely know wtf to do anyways.  Once this is installed, if you really want to learn the ins and outs of this mod, go into the folder and read the README file.  It’s detailed, and goes into a lot of the options/features.  It’s in depth however, so don’t bother unless you really want to spend the time learning about it.

Then just log into WoW.

“I already did that SJ.  Nothing looks different.”

WoW…gonna get you some Ritalin…damn!  Right, so open up your character screen and you will notice a small box that says PAWN on it at the bottom right of the character screen.  Click on it.  It will pop up this new Pawn window.

Of note there are FIVE tabs on the bottom:

1. Scales – Read after.
2. Compare – Simple drag and drop.  Once you have installed a Scale, this will compare any 2 items you drag their icons into.  The major upside here is that even enchanted/gemmed items put into these slots will be compared as if not enchanted/gemmed.  So you can really compare them.
3. Options – Read this.  If you understand what it’s saying, feel free to change things.  If you’e not sure, leave this stuff the hell alone until you have a clue as to what you think it will do by changing the options.
4. Getting Started – READ THIS
5. About – meh

Now click on the first tab named “Scales”.  To the top left you will see “Add a scale” and then directly under that you will see “Current Scale”.  It should be something like Pawn, Pawn scale, or whatever such nonsense built in.  Make sure it is selected, and then delete it.  It’s crap.

Now, back here on this site.  Below will be three different Scales for Pawn.  Copy the entire scale for each one (ONE AT A TIME) that you will use.  Highlight the text including the opening and closing parenthesis.  Use “Cntl-C” to copy it.  “Cntl-V” will paste it.

**EDIT**

Due to an HTML issue, when you copy these scales, the quotes get messed up by “dumb internet coding BS”.  That’s the lay man’s terms for it anyways…  >.<  In each three at the start of the scale are the words Blood, Frost, and Unholy.  They are surrounded by quotes ” “.  These quotes are borked.  When you paste the scales in hit the HOME key on your keyboard.  It’ll bring you to the beginning of the scale.  Simply move your cursor to delete the 2 quotes and then retype them.  It should look exactly the same as before.  The spacing, the quotes, etc.  Just the copied ones don’t work.  I don’t know why.

Blood

( Pawn: v1: “Blood”: ArmorPenetration=1.0456, RedSocket=40.912, CritRating=1.1453, ColorlessSocket=40.912, Strength=2.557, ExpertiseRating=1.7023, Agility=0.7336, HitRating=2.6609, BlueSocket=17.899, YellowSocket=25.9161, TwoHandDps=8.9665, HasteRating=0.564, Ap=1 )

Frost

( Pawn: v1: “Frost”: ArmorPenetration=0.7628, RedSocket=37.84, CritRating=1.1894, Strength=2.365, ColorlessSocket=37.84, HasteRating=0.4978, Agility=0.7336, HitRating=2.4046, BlueSocket=16.555, YellowSocket=24.8808, TwoHandDps=10.361, ExpertiseRating=1.2453, Ap=1 )

Unholy

( Pawn: v1: “Unholy”: ArmorPenetration=0.544, RedSocket=39.7552, CritRating=1.12, Strength=2.4847, ColorlessSocket=39.7552, HasteRating=0.621, Agility=0.7336, HitRating=2.474, BlueSocket=17.3929, YellowSocket=25.2329, TwoHandDps=7.567, ExpertiseRating=1.391, Ap=1 )

Once you’ve copied the scale you wish to use, go back in to WoW and the open Pawn window.  The 4th red button on the right side of “Add a scale” will say “Import”,  Click this and it will open up a new window.  Hit “Cntl-V” and it will paste the copied scale in.  Hit OK.  Once you have done this immediately reload your UI or log out and back in.  If your game crashes before this happens, none of this will be saved.  /rl reloads your UI for most modded versions of WoW.

Now, for those of you who would like all of these loaded up, but don’t necessarily want all three popping up on your items you have an option.  On the very same main page of “Scales” for Pawn (from the character screen), you select your “Current Scale” from the drag down window.  If you put in say all three, you should see the three names, Blood, Frost, and Unholy.  Select one.  Now towards the bottom of the Pawn window there should be a box that says “Show this scale in tooltips”.  If it is checked it will appear on items.  If it is not checked, it will not appear on items.  I personally only show Unholy all the time (my spec), and only turn on Blood/Frost if I need to for whatever reason.

Things to know!!

These scales assume that the best in slot gems are:

1. Red: Bold Scarlet Ruby
2. Yellow: Perfect Inscribed Huge Citrine
3. Blue: Perfect Sovereign Shadow Crystal
4. Colorless: Bold Scarlet Ruby

Which…they are the best in slot gems.  HOWEVER, Pawn will tell you the value of the item if you were to slot it with the best possible gem, even if that means ignoring the socket bonus and the color.  Currently the Inscribed and Sovereign rare gem cuts are not yet implemented in WoW (NYI).  Why?  No one is sure.  But this basically means that you’re almost always going to put a Bold Scarlet Ruby in any socket available ALWAYS, unless meeting a metagem requirement.  /sigh

Pawn is a great mod, and if you took the time to get this I also highly recommend you pick up the mods Rating Buster and Atlas Loot Enhanced.  They accentuate each other very very well.

Once you are Hit/Expertise capped (or perhaps a little before that happens) you probably want to reset the values of Hit/Expertise to 0.  Simply open up the PAWN window, select the scale you wish to modify, and then scroll down to Hit and Expertise both.  Change their values to 0, and you’re set.  Again logging out, exiting the game, or reloading the UI is required for these changes to become permanent.  If your WoW crashes, these changes will not save.

IF YOU DIDN’T DOWNLOAD THIS MOD READ THIS!!!!!

I really recommend you take the time to go back, install this, and use the Scale weights listed here.  It will make you realize gearing mistakes you have made, or might make.  And it makes it very easy to choose future items.  Pawn doesn’t take much in game memory at all.

Not using this is only hurting yourself.

“Thanks SJ!!!  We heart you!!!”

Aww…I hope it was still beating when you cut it out!!  Take care guys!!