Originally Posted by Mijae
To be honest, I don't think it's ever a good idea to ignore things like bonuses or caps. Items should never be looked at individually, but as part of a set. How can going over hit cap ever increase your set value? The only way this calculation would be possible is to value one hit rating when under the hit cap and assume that value is static as you raise it. I am strongly against using any form of equivalence points though. They only tell you the value of the next point of a stat. Applying those points to an item and adding up the results does not accurately reflect the value of an item. The only way to truly find the value of a particular item is to update all your stats using the current item and find the new total value. If you only use equivalence points, you'll never be able to accurately identify trends like stacking a particular stat.
People need to learn that individual slot rankings cannot show you absolute, always, best-in-slot items. Any ranking system can only show you value in relation to some baseline. In some of the earlier rankings like Emmerald's, a static average base set was used. For Toskk's, you enter values of your choice. Spreadsheets like mine and Voldin's (and I assume Rawr) use the rest of your current set with the item slot empty as the baseline.
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If I am at 137 hit rating and I have a helm that has 25 hit rating currently and am evaluating a helm with 30 hit rating, unless the program itself does the calculation (which I don't think rawr does), ignoring the hit cap allows me to compare those two helms together in an absolute manner. Even if its not helm to helm, there are times I will want to compare two items together without regard to the hit cap. If I am deciding whether or not I want to DKP something I want to see if its better in a pure sense than what I have currently, with the understanding that I may need to regem, or replace another piece. If I am evaluating set bonus items, ignoring the set bonus is useful for determining which 4 out of 8 pieces I want to use to get my 4t6 bonus. Using Toskk's calculator, comparing each of the hands, helm, legs, chest and shoulders to their best non set piece items without regard to the 4t6 set bonus let me know which non-set piece was the most minor upgrade. Now I know which of the 5 to use with the 3 new pieces to get 4t6.
There are any number of reasons I would want to make evaluations without regard to caps and bonuses. I'm willing to guess that most people, in fact, have learned how to use these magically complicated gear comparison tools and spreadsheets. They aren't that tough.