Reforging and Interesting Choices

I had this whole post about some changes I would like to see with reforging.  Anyone that has read my blog for a while knows that in my opinion the best thing to come out of cataclysm is reforging.  Some, or even most, would say transmog but to each their own.  I loved the addition of the option to reforge and I think it was the best addition to the game in cataclysm.

In my post, which I will abbreviate here, I talked about how I believe it was time for reforging to undergo some changes.  The changes I would like to see are that we could reforge to exact numbers (not exceeding 50%) instead of a flat percentage of 40% like we have now.  Any stats past what you need, haste, hit, expertise, etc, are wasted stats and no one really wants wasted stats right?  So I had this whole post about how allowing us to build our stats with a better version of reforging would be a good thing.

Then I pop over the MMO-C, like always, and see our friendly neighborhood crab saying that he basically does not like reforging because, paraphrasing, nobody makes interesting choices except maybe healers.

It almost seems as if they are thinking of removing reforging with a comment like that just at the time I was about to make a post about how great reforging was and how it can be made even better.

I think that ghostcrawler needs to a little lesson in math before he makes conclusions like he just did.  He also needs to understand that what is interesting for him might not be interesting for us and what is interesting to us might not be interesting to him.  He has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is not the voice of the people because he routinely does not feel the same way about things in the game that the player base does.  This, in effect, makes him the worst person to decide what is interesting and what is not.

Now pay close attention GC.  Reforging is about math, what is best.  Math can not be argued with, it can not be reasoned with, and it will never stop... being right.  Reforging lets us be better with the gear we have by letting us get rid of useless stats based on weights of which stat is better.  See, math.  It doesn't need to be interesting.  It is a tool to better ourselves.

I spend a fair deal of time when looking at gear I can get as an upgrade in deciding which piece would be best for me.  As such, the secondary stats on that piece are a selling point that pushes me toward one piece of gear over another.  If I need new bracers and there is one that has hit & haste on it and other that has mastery & critical on it and a third that has expertise & critical on it I need to look at what I am currently wearing to decide on an upgrade.

If I am current reforging out of something else into hit perhaps the hit one will fill a nice place with me because I need that hit and as the hit one is with haste and haste is very good for me this might be the best piece.  But lets say I was over on hit already and reforging out of it every chance I got, adding another piece with hit would not help me.   Even with reforging you can only get rid of so much so all that extra hit would be wasted itemization and devalue the piece for me over all.

Same example goes for expertise.  Those two things both have exact numbers that are good for me, 7.5%, and going over those numbers basically means all wasted stats.  So maybe that means I might lead myself to think the mastery and critical one is much better as it surely would be if I am currently reforging out of both hit and expertise as I am swimming in both.

Lets take this example even further and evaluate that mastery is by far my worst secondary stat and both haste and critical are better by a fair deal.  I now look closer at the one with hit & haste and expertise and critical.  Can I do something with my reforging, gems and enchants to make use of any substantial amount of the hit or expertise on either of those even if not using all of it?

For example, even if adding the expertise one and reforging everything I can out of expertise on every piece of gear would leave me a 7.9% expertise, .4% more than I need and basically .4% of a useless stat that gives me absolutely nothing, would having that piece with the base critical on it in addition to all the other stats I got from reforging out of expertise on all the other pieces be better than the piece with mastery on it because mastery really is not very good.

So off to find data I go.  Is 1000 mastery better than the 700 mix of haste and critical I got from reforging out of expertise on every piece I have even if I ended up over on my expertise in the end?  This is where it gets to what you said isn't interesting so follow closely ghostcrawler, I am about to use an outside resource. 

I see that the value of haste and critical is much more than the value of mastery so indeed having 700 of those stats mixed is much better than having 1000 mastery.  So I go with the expertise bracers even if I do not need the expertise and will end over cap because in the end I get more useful stats otherwise because of it.

I don't know about you Mr. Crab but I find that incredibly interesting.  Most people would just see that they were at hit and expertise cap already and think, the one without either hit or expertise are best.  But it is not.  That seems pretty interesting to me.  Not everything is black and white as long as reforging is around.  Without reforging the ones without hit and expertise are the best hands down if you do not need either of those stats but thanks to reforging not everything is so clear cut.  How exactly is that not interesting?  Because people use addons to help them make this decision?  I think not.

It is not a case of just getting a piece of gear and going to Mr. Robot and asking what should I do with it.  It is deciding what piece of gear would actually be the best.  Even if things like Mr. Robot are great for helping me decide that they are not perfect.  I have seen that, and many other, resources tell me one piece was better than another but be wrong because they over valued one stat or another.  It takes playing with weights, switching multiple pieces of gear, and basically knowing how to use the resource to its fullest extent to get the best data out of it.  While most just look for what it says is best and go with it, the players that know better will spend a fair deal of time with it to find the right thing.  I find that interesting.

So yes, people can just put on gear and ask some website or some addon for what is best and do it and that might not seem at all interesting but you are looking for something to be interesting that can not and will not ever be interesting to anyone in the game that is just looking for a simple, what is best for me right now answer.

Reforging is not about being interesting, it is about being efficient.  Who cares if people just go to use some resource to figure out what is best?  There is a reason something is best.  Because numbers do not lie.  Best is best.  If I get more DPS from having a 700 stat mix of critical and haste than I do from 1000 mastery is it not up for debate.  It is a fact.  Math does not lie and math is only interesting to those that find it so.  Reforging is about math, not about being interesting.

With all that said, reforging is fine.  Sure, it can be annoying that getting one new piece means you need to reforge 6 pieces but that is how things go and that is why the websites and addons are there.  Because they help us remove the step of figuring it out on our own.  But in the end whether we figure it out on our own or if we use an addon it is not interesting.  It is just a matter of what is best.

That is why for healers, as you mentioned, it is interesting.  Because for healers (and to some extent tanks as well) it is not all about one bottom line number.  For damage dealers it is only about what you can put out.  A simple number that is best or not.  For healers (and tanks) it is about feel.

Is your team weak in the DPS department making fights last longer?  Perhaps you need more spirit to last it out.  Perhaps your team is downing things in record time, you can go for another type of build as mana is never an issue.  Maybe you are a shaman that is put on tank heals and find that a mastery build works better for you or you are the type that is more comfortable with a crit build.  Both can get the job done just fine, so you have choice and it is interesting because it is based on how you, as a player, enjoy playing your class.

The thing you need to remember is that reforging was never about being interesting when it comes to damage dealers.  Reforging was always about being efficient.  Getting rid of that extra hit, or picking up that little bit you need.  Passing on that worst secondary stat for something that is actually useful for your class and spec.  Not interesting, but effective.

Reforging is a great addition to the game and sure many need an addon to get it "perfect" but what exactly is wrong with that?

I would love to go back to what I was going to post and explain how now is the time for reforging to move a step forward, even more so with these insane stats on gear and the blanket 40% really not cutting it.  We need reforging to change to exact numbers.  No longer will I reforge 40% of the hit out of one piece when I only need to reforge 32% out of it.  I can enter the exact number and reforge 32% off of it.

Reforging needs to get better.  Reforging needs to get more mathy.  Reforging need to get even less interesting as you would say.  Reforging needs to be what it was intended to be.  Something that makes us be the best we can be with the gear we have.  I love reforging for that and I am sure many others do, even if we do get frustrated that it is just another thing we need to go through each time we get a new piece of gear.

If reforging is not good because it is not interesting then gems are not good because they are not interesting and enchants are not good because they are not interesting and PvP is not good  because it is not interesting (to me) or raiding is not good because it is not interesting (to some).  I am sure every single aspect of the game someone out there will say, it is not interesting.  Reforging is about being effective, not interesting.

Stop complaining that reforging is not interesting because people use addons for it.  That is like saying raiding is not interesting because we have deadly boss mods.  Just because there is an addon out there that tells you how to do it right doesn't mean it is not interesting.  Someone can have the best reforging they can have, it won't make them a good player, just like someone can have deadly boss mods and it does not make them a great raider.

Addons just help make things easier.  The interesting part of the game is actually in getting better playing it.  Let the addons handle reforging and stop worrying about if it is interesting or not.  It is effective and that is all that matters.

For damage dealers it will never be interesting.  There will always be a best reforge for the best damage you can do.  When there is a set right and a set wrong, there will never be interesting.  Unless you find math interesting that is.

Something does not need to be interesting to be good for the game.  It just needs to be useful and reforging is useful.  Not to mention, it works as a gold sink too.