The Economics of WoW: Part 4

So you've determined your best stat, whether it be strength, or spirit, or +damage. So now what? Should you get the items that have only that stat? Is a green item with 40 +damage better than an epic with only 35?

Lets go back to the goldfish/ice cream example. Lets say you bought 50 ice creams. You eat the first one, and it's amazing. Best ice cream you've ever tasted. You eat a second one, and a third one. Soon your brain starts to freeze. You eat a fourth one, and your head starts pounding. At that point, you're starting to wish you'd bought some goldfish, right?

That's called the Law of Diminishing Returns. For each of item A you consume, its value to you diminishes. So you may LOVE the first ice cream, and REALLY LIKE the second, but by the time you've eaten enough of them, you'd rather have something else.

The Law of Diminishing Returns applies in WoW as well. Lets take a mage for example. Mages like spell damage and +crit. Lets say the mage is starting out with 0 spell damage and 0% chance to crit. A Frostbolt will hit for around 655. So what's better? 900 spell damage? Or 800 crit rating? (Blizzard sets 9 spell damage equal to 8 spell crit on gems) 900 spell damage means your frostbolt hits all the time for 1325. An 800 crit rating means that you crit 36% of the time. That means that your average frostbolt hits for (655*.64) + (1310*.36) which is 891. So the spell damage is better, right?

But wait, if you swapped 90 spell damage for 80 crit rating and took 810 spell damage and 80 crit rating, what happens? Your average frostbolt non-crit would hit for 1280, and your crits would hit for 2560. Your average frostbolt would then hit for (1280*.96) + (2560*.04) = 1331.

What does this mean? It means that the Law of Diminishing Returns applies in WoW as well, although it needs worded differently. Each +1% to crit benefits you in the same way. However, the more +crit that you have the less valuable it becomes. This is because the more +crit you have, the better chance there will be that +damage will be more beneficial. The same thing goes with +damage. The more +damage you have, the better chance that +crit will be better for you.

Another thing to think about is how Blizzard handles items with only one stat versus items with 2 or 3 stats. If an item only has stamina on it, it may have 60 stamina. However, an item of the same level might have 30 int and 45 stamina on it. The more stats an item has, the more of each stat it is given in general. This is why the set pieces often have a good bit of a lot of different stats, as opposing to the tailoring pieces that have a ton of very few stats. The tailoring pieces may be a lower level than the set pieces, but depending on how important those stats are to you, it may be beneficial to keep one or the other.

Another note: You need to know where you're at. If you have 500 spell damage, it's a completely different situation than if you have 1200 spell damage. The stats that you have drastically change what different stats mean to you.

As such, try to be as well rounded as you can be. Don't just stockpile one stat. Try to get a balance of all of them. In most cases, this will do you better than just having one or two stats maxed out. But don't take my word for it....try it out for yourself.