Jan 27 10:55
Couple of links that can help end any questions or puzzlement over specs and gear
http://elitistjerks.com/f31/
Elitistjerks forums are probably the focus point for the theorycrafting number crunchers who play WoW. Theres a forum section for the class mechanics for every class in the game. Each section filled with useful posts many of which are a detailed amalgamation of the community's knowledge of a class.
'Is this stat or that stat better for me?'
'Is this talent worth losing for that talent?'
Youll probably find the answer to your question, and questions you hadnt even thought to ask within the forums there.
http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr
Rawr started life as a feral druid itemisation program, hence the name. Since then it has been expanded by the community to cover all classes and specs.
Rawr is a windows program that will access the armory to gather the current gear of the character you specify. For each slot, it will present a list of alternative choices ranked in various ways.
For example, a tank can rank gear options by:
Avoidance
Mitigation
Threat
Overall (Avoidance, Mitigation, Threat all combined)
For each slot, it will rate the available enchants and allow you to socket different gems
Rawr will also present a DPS breakdown
You can alter your talents, skill/spell rotation, enchants, gear choices and see how they could impact your performance.
Curious about something you read in the elitistjerks forum?
Try it out in Rawr and save the time and gold of re-specing and re-gearing
Ive played around with gear/talent spreadsheets in the past and they were messy and confusing. Rawr presents everything in a clear and easy to learn interface