Using WoWHead and CharDev to Help Improve Your Game
Today’s post is the result of an on-going conversation I’ve had via email with a fellow hunter who originally contacted me to try to help him improve his raid dps. I was immediately impressed by this person’s willingness to go the extra mile to pin-point ways in which he could improve. (Truly, it warmed my heart, and gave living proof that I’m not wasting my breath here!) Over the course of several emails, he’s linked me several different WWS Reports; both from private Dr. Boom tests (which he did at my request–which further impressed me) and from live raid data. We’d talked about shot rotations (and macros), which he’d already been using, as well as his talent spec and techniques.
The conversation eventually turned to ways I plan my next gear upgrades to make sure I get the most bang for my epic-buck. While typing out the email, it occurred to me that the process I was describing was probably rather long and involved, and others would probably benefit from seeing it described here on the site. I know I’ve described the processes I go through to determine my upgrades in the past–using pen and paper, calculator, exhausting WoWHead, The Armory and other gear databases to find upgrades–but with the recent additions to WoWHead, and the discovery of new resources, this process has changed drastically for me, and I think it’s worth it to go over the new steps I go through.
1. Hit up WoWHead
My first stop these days is, predictably, WoWHead. Once on the main page, I click “Database > Items > Armor” and I’m on my way.
Create a Filter
To start making use of WoWHead’s new features, you’ll need to start by creating a filter to weed out the “undesirables”. To do this, once you’re at the Armor page, click the “Create a Filter” link at the top of the page:
Here, you’ll want to specify some filter options to help limit results to things that will actually be useful to you. When I’m going to be looking for upgrades for all my equipment slots (for example: if I’m looking to compile a wishlist), under the “Slot” options, I generally start at the top and work my way down the list.
Once you’ve limited your results to just Mail or Leather epic pieces (chest slots items, in this case), you can either limit your results further by source (which I usually do) to make sure you’ll only be looking at items you either already have access to or will in the near future, or proceed onto the weight scale step.
Item Source Filters
While this step probably seems pretty straight-forward at first glance, there were some quirks to the process that I noticed while fiddling with it myself. For one: you may specify drops from say, SSC, to be displayed in your results, however, the list will not include Tier pieces. Because, while its true that the tokens drop there, the items themselves do not–they’re purchased.
So, when creating item source filters, be sure to take care in determining precisely where the items you want to look at come from. Are they drops? Are they purchased with tokens (either badges or tier tokens)? Are they from PvP? Are you remembering to include every raid or instance you have access to?
Here’s my checklist to make sure I’m not missing any possible sources of gear:
- Purchasable With > Badge of Justice
- Purchasable With > (Tier token of appropriate item slot)
- Drops in > Serpentshrine Cavern
- Drops in > The Eye
- Drops in > Zul’Aman
- Obtained through item opening > Yes (to cover ZA timed chest items)
- Obtained through PvP > Yes
- Drops in (Heroic Mode) > Magisters’ Terrace
Those are just a few of the filters I will add to my search. (It depends on the item slot I’m looking at, and what kind of items I want to compare.) Also, I’ll occasionally include filters for sources I’ve already passed (like Gruul’s and Mag’s) to see where the items I already have rank.
Once you’ve specified which places you want to search, make sure you have the “At least one” radio button checked. If you leave “All filters” checked, no results will be shown.
Now, we’re ready to check out the awesome new feature WoWHead has added! (This new feature has saved me a ton of work that I used to do all by hand.)
Stat Weight
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the new feature WoWHead has added to help you find the best upgrades for your class and spec. Lets take a closer look at it.
This next step can be as simple or complex as you choose to make it. To start, select your class and spec, and specify the level of gems you intend to put in your items (uncommon, rare, or epic).
From here, you can either decide to either just click “Apply filter” and view your results, or further customize how WoWHead will evaluate the items it will display for you. To customize how stats will be weighed against each other, click the “show details” link next to your spec.
The above shows the default values assigned by WoWHead when you select the “Survival” spec preset. Personally, I don’t value my mana regeneration over agility, so I’m going to want to tweak these values.
Also worth noting, the values I decide are more important for a chest piece item (which is what I’m looking at now) may not be the same for another piece of gear, so the values I enter here are subject to change. Furthermore, if I find that after swapping a piece or two of gear that I’m low on a specific stat (like Hit, for example), I may wish to value that stat higher than I normally would in subsequent searches.
For now, though, I’m going to use the following values:
- Agility: 100
- Ranged attack power: 75
- Ranged critical strike rating: 60
- Ranged hit rating: 50
- Intellect: 35
- Mana regeneration: 30
- Ranged haste rating: 15
Also worth mentioning, if you’re looking at weapons, you may want to add other weights for WoWHead to consider (such as damage per second, minimum damage, or maximum damage).
Okay, so after setting my values, I hit the “Apply filter” button, and view my results.
If you find your search results are missing data you forgot to include (which, in this example, the chest piece I’m currently wearing was not included, so it’s hard to tell what’s an upgrade–and how big or small and upgrade might be–over what I’m wearing now), you can add new filters and/or remove old filters to adjust your results. You can also search within the results that were returned.
You can repeat the above steps and alter your filters as many times as you would like depending on what you’re looking for, whether that’s a full wishlist, or just a couple of items you want to check on.
Be sure to write down or take note of the items you found in your searches, and the variables you used to get those results so you can refer to them later.
2. Check CharDev
One thing I will state up-front is that, to follow the rest of these steps you need to register for an account with CharDev if you don’t already have one. Also, the developers of the site have said that the site experiences issues when viewed in Internet Explorer, so if you have an alternate browser available to you (the site devs have specifically suggested using Firefox), use it.
Once you log in, click the “Character Planner” link at the top of the page.
At the Character Planner page, I find its most useful to import your data from the Armory and view changes from the upgrades you’ve found on WoWHead as you add them.
To import data from the Armory, on the Character Planner page, click the “armory import” tab, enter the appropriate information, and click the “submit” button.
The site will automatically pull your character data from the armory site and load it into the character sheet.
Once your data has been pulled from the armory, click on the item slot you want to change:
Then click on the “character sheet” tab at the top, and the “items” tab.
To limit the number of items to look through to find the upgrade you want to try, select Leather/Mail items of Epic quality from the side menus, and hit “apply”:
Check through the list of items displayed, find the upgrade you want, and click on it. It will automatically be placed onto your character for you.
Each time you add a new item, be sure to check the “gems” and “enchants” tabs and add the appropriate item enhancements to get a more accurate view of what changes will take place.
Once you’ve added the item upgrades you want, you can check the changes in your stats to determine the quality of the upgrade over what you had before.
From here on out, everything else is a judgment call. This is the process I use to determine my wishlist items and upgrades. I hope you’ve found this helpful! 
Related Posts
If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join the discussion and leave a comment. Don't forget to subscribe to the feed so you never miss an update! You can also Fave This Blog on Technorati, or Vote it Up on MassiveBlips!
Comments
Wow Lass that is awesome,
Now all I need to do is teach Lucas or Kaleigh to do these steps while I am at work so they can have reports on each 70 ready for me when I get home!
Skar
Muron — The problem with that is that some people are more visual/hands-on, which are needs that Cheeky’s spreadsheet does not meet. Also, some may not feel comfortable with spreadsheet software; whereas most people (really, anyone that would visit this site) are very comfortable with a web browser and pen & paper/notepad.
And, more to the point, using Cheeky’s spreadsheet doesn’t teach you how to find what you’re looking for on your own. Automated features such as Cheeky’s spreadsheet are great for people who know what they’re after and how to find it, but just want to save time. On the other hand, for those that are newer to researching their characters, it does nothing to develop the skills needed (deductive reasoning) to make your own choices. In a way, it is cheating.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m much more interested in teaching a man to fish and feeding him for a lifetime, than giving a man a fish and feeding him for a day.
Nice post, but I hardly consider Cheeky’s giving a man a fish. Cheeky’s, in my opinion, provides a much more accurate model for Hunter DPS, which allows for educated gear decisions. However, the comment regarding people and spreadsheets I can completely understand. I feel Cheeky’s requires a good chunk of user input in order to get the most use out of it. Especially considering that it allows users to modify shot rotations in order to see what is going to work most effectively with their current gear set-up.
Regardless of what tool people use for gear and character planning, great post. The more options we have, the better.
I’ve been using an alternative site, similar to Chardev - warcrafter.net. It has similar functionality in a lot of ways, but there are a few small improvements I’ve noticed.
It allows you to search for an item rather than choose from a list. This makes it easy to type in part of a name from Wowhead and have it show up right away to be inserted.
It also calculates the meaning of some of the stats for you. For example, it will tell you your chance to hit a Boss with a spell, along with your Spell Hit Rating. It also tells you your overall avoidance (Dodge, Block, Parry, Miss), so that you don’t have to add them up yourself… a mildly annoying task.
Loot rank is even easier for finding upgrades. IMHO. Everything is already laid out with checkboxes and there are a number of templates you can use to prepopulate scores.
Drotara — Usability was actually my main concern. (The other, I mentioned just because it can actually play a part in the decision-making process.) Don’t get me wrong, I love Cheeky’s spreadsheet. It’s a godsend. Unfortunately, it’s not as user-friendly, which is why having other resources available is, as you said, a good thing.
Walkere — In my experience, Warcrafter… fails. I used to use it, and stopped, because it wasn’t reliable. At all. If the site has improved since I last used it, great. I still won’t go back to it. That’s how horrible an impression it made on me when I was there. (Which is why I, in turn, will not recommend it to others.)
Congi — The problem with allowing it to sort that way was described in the post. You have no way of verifying (unless you keep checking results through CharDev) that what it comes up with really is better for you than what you would find if you went to the trouble of setting up filters yourself. That aside, the other problem with doing it that way is that things it says are best for say, Survival hunters, aren’t. I checked. It’s an unreliable system–which is why it allows you to specify your own filters/criteria.
I read this at WowInsider a few days ago. Looks like Cheeky’s may be a thing of the past. So, thanks for publishing this detailed walk through. I’m working on it now
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/08/01/hunter-legend-cheeky-retires-famous-spreadsheet/
I really hope someone picks up where Cheeky left off, but if not, there are at least other resources available to us.
You could do all this to get upgrade recommendations, or you can download Cheeky’s spreadsheet and use the gear planner tab. The spreadsheet will load your gear/spec from armory and then you can select which buffs you are likely to have and which raids you have access to and it will list the best gear upgrades for you. It’s so easy it’s pretty much like cheating.
http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t9816-hunter_spreadsheets_–_development/