Currently the /gs option will show 4 or 5 scores, 1 for each role a class can perform and one for the standard GearScore. The scores for those are calculated with the original formula, and scale correctly with gems and enchants. As you know however, that method isn't available for mouse-over calculations which have become the standard scale used by everyone. I originally went with this method because it allowed players to see their score increase with gems and enchants. However, I currently believe that these numbers are confusing and people ignore them.
So I have decided to make the following changes to these numbers. The changes will occur in a series of phases to see how it goes.
- The score will still be calculated in the same way. Individual states will be looked at and irrelevant ones discarded to arrive with stat specific score.
- Example: a Warrior may have a 5000 GS, but their protection score is 6200.
- The warrior is also only rated at 90% Protection from lack of gems.
- This makes the 6200 score confusing and nearly irrelevant, because it is still higher then 5000 even though the warrior is missing many gems.
- The new method will instead apply the 90% to the 5000 GS to give them a protection GearScore of 4500.
- 4500 is much more informative because it is relative to the standard scoring system.
- If you are looking for a 5000 GS Tank, you would clearly be able to see that this tank doesn't meet that level. (He could however be skilled enough to make up for it, don't be a jerk everyone!)
- This means that the 5000 number you see is in assumption that the warrior is fully gemmed/enchanted and wearing relevant stats. I feel that people already make this assumption so this shouldn't be a problem.
- I will also be updating the spec scores you see on individual item tooltips to reflect these changes, although this change may occur in a another phase.
- This change makes it easier to show spec scores on non-targeted players in the the /gs window. I will be making it so that it will be closely accurate as when you target them.
- The problem comes from reading the gemming information on non-targeted players. In most cases this isn't an issue, rarely does a mage wear everything correctly and then put in a strength gem in to ruin it. However, often times players will use gems to meet appropriate caps such as defense, hit, and expertise.
- Currently the system requires targeting to inspect these gems so that it can apply modifiers if a player is under a specific cap. When they are not in range then they are often under cap and the addon scores them much lower.
- The new method will instead look at the gem slots and calculate the maximum stats those slots could apply towards a specific cap. If they fall short of the cap still they will lose score, if they meet it they will not be punishes.
- This all works in with the assumption that the 5000 is fully gemmed/enchanted. This means a mage under hit cap will still show at 5000 untargeted. However once you target them you will see their score drop to 4900ish or w/e. I feel that this is a good tradeoff to actually see what their score is without the hit relative to the standard GS scale.
In addition to these changes, I have decided that my donation database has grown large enough that it would be detrimental to continue to add sponsor names to the addon. Everyone who has donated to date will still receive their status in the next update (in a day or so), however I will no longer be adding names after this period.
Lastly, I have come under the impression that some at Blizzard may feel the donation status is a way of asking for donations which is in violation of their addon agreement and could result in the addon being banned for that reason. Also some players receive the sponsor notice in game and are harassed by players who hate GearScore but use it to determine their own score. All this has made me to decided to end the sponsorship notice with the release of Wotlk, I'm not 100% decided on this so feel free to communicate your thoughts on this to me. I apologize to anyone who really feels upset about this.
~Mirrikat45 / Arxkanite
