Gear Score: For Your Reference ONLY

No, I don’t get sick of this new “trend” in electronic-penis-society, which is our beloved Gear Score.

Remember, don’t ask how much “more GS” does this new piece give you, but how much more benefit be it in threat generation, damage mitigation, heals per second or damage per second does this piece give you and does it work with your current set. Ok, chastising done.

I attempted to play my rusty DK again. Remember Klupty? The dual-wield Frost death knight aka Jewelcrating Slave?

In an effort to maximize my Primordial Saronite (I don’t know why I made it blue HEY I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT GET OFF MY CASE MOM!) acquisition rate, since my DK has access to the daily Frosts, why not play him?

Sure queuing as a DPS toon in which I have no care in the world for any upgrades may be a waste of time but this game as a whole is a waste of time so…why not?

Klupty’s gear goes to an extent of the T9 helm, and everything else is either ilvl200 and a couple of ilvl 187 or lower pieces. This puts his “gear score” at I think 3500?

Our views have been skewed, THIS USED TO BE VERY HIGH/NORMAL. Once you finished your heroic grind, the only upgrades came from Naxxramas 25, remember remember?

Ok back to story, so I queue him up and plop plop plop we all show up and I do the ritual-scan-everyone-to-check-for-average-dungeon-run-time-and-competency.

Our tank was in ICC25 equivalents and everyone else was sporting somewhere between 4800 and 5100 gearscore, so TOC25 and ICC10 POTENTIAL.

However I don’t let that sway my decision until the first couple of pulls when RECOUNT finishes the tale.

Klupty 85,000 damage 2,400 dps
Tank 80,000 damage 2,350 DPS
Hunter 55,000 damage 2,100DPS
Warlock 55,000 damage 2,100 DPS
Mage (very new toon) 23,000 damage 1,100 DPS

WAIT A MINUTE! How am I generating more damage, let alone DPS than such “geared” people?

First assumption: They are not slacking, but are wearing high level PVP Gear.

Why? I did see the hunter’s Misdirection fire off at each pull. A clear sign of professional. The warlocks’ spells and AOE rotation were appropriate for each of the pulls, no excessive life tapping. WHOA I’m the creepy neighbor that stalks and prowls in the shadows aren’t I?? AHHH!!

Anyways. Assumption correct.

This is the extreme example of using this “Gearscore” thingy to judge. It’s a great base reference but the numbers don’t lie.

After that dungeon Klupty’s saronite count went up to 14 and I’m not sure if I can suffer through five more dailies playing as a DK … D;

Klupty the Death Knight