That mail bracer dropped by Leotheras the Blind appears to be listed as ilvl 115, calculates to 95 without the socket, calculates to 104 with the socket added as an additional 10 of some random stat, or calculates to 115 if, instead of adding as a random stat, you add +20 attack power or +10 agility (i.e. you add an epic gem socket value directly onto the largest stat). Not including the socket bonus anywhere.
That would be a rather unfortunate way of budgeting socketed items.
That mail bracer dropped by Leotheras the Blind appears to be listed as ilvl 115, calculates to 95 without the socket, calculates to 104 with the socket added as an additional 10 of some random stat, or calculates to 115 if, instead of adding as a random stat, you add +20 attack power or +10 agility (i.e. you add an epic gem socket value directly onto the largest stat). Not including the socket bonus anywhere.
That would be a rather unfortunate way of budgeting socketed items.
Unfortunate, but it makes sense to me. Blizzard seems to discourage stacking of stats, and a flat way of adding stats like sockets would get around that. Just look at how many tanks shove 12 stam gems in every conceivable slot, regardless of color.
That mail bracer dropped by Leotheras the Blind appears to be listed as ilvl 115, calculates to 95 without the socket, calculates to 104 with the socket added as an additional 10 of some random stat, or calculates to 115 if, instead of adding as a random stat, you add +20 attack power or +10 agility (i.e. you add an epic gem socket value directly onto the largest stat). Not including the socket bonus anywhere.
That would be a rather unfortunate way of budgeting socketed items.
They said that they are changing gem itemization to be flat instead of a percentage of the item's total value, so these will probably be modified in the near future.
[Supple leather boots] should be 108, is currently 124. Would be 109 if you removes the 30 AP, would be 108 if you kept the AP but lowered the bonus armor by 120 down to +60 [Ash Tempered Leggings] should be 111, is currently 115 [Manimal's Cinch] should be 114, is currently 129. Would be 114 if it has +100 armor rather than the +200 it has currently [Verdant Gloves] should be 109, is currently 103. This is assuming that level 109 blue gloves have a natural armor of 173 [Umberhowl's Collar] should be 109, and is 109. This is assuming that level 109 blue wrists have a natural armor of 121
A good socket calculation continues to elude me. Apparently adding 8 or 10 per socket to the highest stats on the piece makes things come out a lot closer to the "given" item level, but there are still a million pieces that are underpowered due to the Stamina miscalculations, so it's way hard to say what is what. And furthermore, sometimes if an item has three sockets, it looks like I should add 24 to the highest stat, but sometimes it looks like I should add 8 to each of the three highest stats. Results for me are still mixed at the early stage of investigation, Your Mileage May Vary.
I calculated a few epic items I have, while some matched the expected ilevel, the ones that didn't added up correctly with the old world stamina value or if I assumed the socket values costs on the item were higher than blues.
However, all my blue items matched up right on target.
A good socket calculation continues to elude me. Apparently adding 8 or 10 per socket to the highest stats on the piece makes things come out a lot closer to the "given" item level, but there are still a million pieces that are underpowered due to the Stamina miscalculations, so it's way hard to say what is what. And furthermore, sometimes if an item has three sockets, it looks like I should add 24 to the highest stat, but sometimes it looks like I should add 8 to each of the three highest stats. Results for me are still mixed at the early stage of investigation, Your Mileage May Vary.
Blizzard have already said why this is happening - the cost of each socket increases as the ilevel of the item itself increases. Sockets don't have a fixed cost, they increase in value as the quality of the item increases and the ilevel increases. Presumably also, the more sockets an item has, the more each costs as well inline with other abilities.
On the plus side, this is being fixed in an upcoming patch so that sockets all cost the same on every piece of gear, and thus any epic gear with sockets in it will gain some free points to spend on other stats.
Blizzard have told us how they are calculating the cost of sockest in items. It's nothing to do with the potential abilities of the gems that can into it. Basically, the higher the ilevel and quality of an item, the more a socket costs, rising from a flat point.
An epic with ilevel 115 pays more for a socket than an epic with ilevel 100 and that costs more than a blue with ilevel 100. Sockets are effecvtively eating up a rising % of the items budget, and that's why the items are so lack lustre - combine the increasing cost on stats along with a much larger socket cost, and you end up with an item that is barely an upgrade at all.
Thankfully, this is being changed in 1.1 so that all sockets cost the same, but for now, thats how it works - it has *absolutely* nothing to do with the potential gem that you can put in the socket, and no amount of maths will make that work for all items, because that's not how Blizzard are calculating it.
Ya that's true, but it doesn't explain how some of the non-socketed items are so far off as well. Anyway, I supposed i've bludgeoned this particular deceased equine enough
Now, if they'd only rework how you go about getting epic gems and and everything else to do with epic gems Running heroics when you're halfway thru TK25, SSC or beyond, for a mere chance at an epic gem seems a bit of an unreasonable hurdle to me.
They should take off the unique tag on them, remove them from heroics, and give gemcrafters the ability to craft them in some way. Perhaps requiring a transmute similar to metagems. Maybe add some new material in the game that epic gems require and is difficult to aquire.
I had the feeling it was going to be like this. Items are still way underbudget, or they have changed the itemization formula to make everything cost more in a way that isn't understood by the community at this time. Whichever the case may be, the bottom line is that items have fewer stats for a given item level in relation to 1.0 items.
I find this completely unacceptable, and this cements my belief that blizzard has lost their way, and is unable or unwilling to find it. I can't look at these numbers without feeling cheated of my time for trying to aquire these items.
When you combine this lack of item based progression with the nerfing of potions and flasks coming up in patch 2.1, it's a recipe for stagnation in the raid game, and I have no desire to participate in it.
The only conclusion I can come to is that Blizzard has become so deathly afraid of "mudflation" that they have completely stagnated progression. This whole game is about progression. The largest exoduses in this game's history have been from lack of progression. The first was during AQ, when people looked at the items they were getting and realized they were no better than items they were getting from other places for less effort. People quit raiding in droves. Now during TBC we have it far worse progression-wise, and people are quitting in droves. The cardinal sin the developers can make is to allow players to realize that the rewards they (the players) are working for aren't really very rewarding. They've commited that sin twice now, and still don't appear to have learned their lesson.
In light of the past 6 weeks of discussion about this, I'm going to update the calculator to calculate sockets as being worth, for epics, +10 of a stat, stacking on the same invisible stat per socket, with Meta Sockets being worth 1.5x that value. In addition, the socket bonus will be included on the same virtual stat at +2/3/4 depending on whether the item has 1/2/3 sockets. Blues will be calculated the same but as +8 of a virtual stat per, and greens as +6 each. I'm going to make that change in 24 hours unless people have any other ideas or comments.
'War' is too small a word for what I'm fighting. Like a candle in front of the whole burning Sun. Now, I am not going to die today. I have other projects, and other options.
If they are in fact calculating sockets like that, then you have no choice but to socket an item with more of existing stats on the item to receive the full benefit of its item level. In other words, your item isn't worth as much if you don't socket it to stack stats. Doesn't that defeat the whole point of having sockets in the first place, choice?
The cynic in me suspects that the whole idea behind sockets wasn't choice of stats, but merely adding another gold sink and time sink to aquiring gear. Sigh.
03/04/07, 3:59 PM
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