An ode to Wowhead

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height… I’m sure Elizabeth Barrett Browning says it better than I could, but then, she never got to play with Wowhead.

Seriously, though, I love Wowhead to bits. There’s so much information there, so many different things it can tell you. And Wowhead has the tools to manipulate that data to give us the most interesting facts and insights into the game. Sure, it might be a little dry, but you can gain so much.

Pull up lists of items

I was discussing best hunter ranged weapons in Wrath with a friend. I couldn’t find a great list of gear like Dwarf Priest has for the priests, but then for the hunters, but figured I could probably make my own. I’ll switch this example to priest ranged weapons, though, because this is a priest blog.

1. Go to Items -> Weapons
2. Click “Create a filter”
3. Slot = ranged, Usable by = priest and level = 213
4. Click “apply a filter”

This returns a list of 8 ranged weapons of types that are only usable by priests. It doesn’t matter that only wands are returned - if there had been other types of ranged weapons priests could use, they would have also been returned. These are then the top 7 wands for priests in the game at the moment.

Thanks to Wowhead, we can immediately see where they’re from and what kind of stats they have. They’re also sorted alphabetically, though you can sort by each column.

Weight scales

OK, out of those 8 wands, which one is the best? Within the filter, you can also add a weight scale.

1. Click “Add a weight scale”
2. Choose the preset “priest”
3. In the second dropdown, choose “holy” - or whatever works for you
4. Click “apply filter” again to add the things to the filter

You’ll see that an extra column has been added to the right with a number value in this new version of the list. The highest value is the best item, according to the weight scale. According to this weight scale, the Wand of the Archlich is the best wand. It has the highest value at 18.09.

So what’s that weight scale actually doing? If you go to where you added the weight scale and click “show details”, it will show you the different statistics (spellpower, mana, mana regen, etc), which all have a weight attached to them. Wowhead has given us a standard weight scale for each class and tree within that class - someone somewhere has decided that spellpower is the most important statistic for a holy priest and has given it the top value of 100. You can also see that they consider intellect more important than spirit, because intellect has a value of 88, while spirit has a value of 85. Critical strike rating is the least important according to this weight scale, as it has a value of 53.

However….. at the moment, my priest has a good bit more intellect than spirit and MP5. I find mana regen a little bit more important than intellect. But this is personal. So, I can change the weight scale to my own personal preference, by putting spirit at 95. When I apply that, the values for the items change. Sure, they don’t change that much, because I haven’t done a very large change. But you can personalise these results any way you want.

This is an incredibly powerful tool. Use it.

Compare items

I know, we’ve just been comparing items. But that’s an overview comparison. You can really pull stuff down into depth. You see, I’ve got the second best wand on that list, Plague Igniter. So how is the Wand of the Archlich better? After all, if it’s only a small upgrade, I’ll feel ok about having the second best wand in the game - honestly.

I could set up an Excel sheet and actually compare these items. I used to do that. But Wowhead has such a nice compare function now, it would be a shame not to use it.

1. Set the checkmarks next to the items you want to compare
2. Click compare
3. Add a weight scale if you feel like it.

Really, you can start a comparison from just about anywhere in Wowhead - click compare when you’re on an item page, go directly to the compare page and click “add item” or the way we just did it.

When you get the compare page (with or without weight scale), it’s pretty cool:

The middle rows are pretty much the same as on the big overview: they show the stamina, spirit and other useful statistics. When one stat is green, it means it’s better than the other item in that area. However, it’s the bottom row that’s the most interesting: it actually says the difference between the items.

In this case, the Plague Igniter has 24 more crit while the Wand of the Archlich has 4 more spirit and 20 more haste. The only reason the one wand is better than the other is because the weight scale has said that spirit and haste are more important than crit. If you, subjectively, feel you need more crit or don’t want any more haste, then the Plague Igniter may very well be the better wand for you. I personally can’t decide - but at least I’ve got the information to make a well informed decision should the Wand of the Archlich ever drop for me.

I love this comparison, I absolutely adore it. You can’t trust a weighted value completely, because it’s subjective. When you need the down and out numbers to actually compare, this function is an absolute gem.

Did I mention you can also link to comparisons?

Link items in game

Ever seen that little “Link” button at the top of the screen on each item? If you click it, it’ll give you a script which you can paste into Warcraft itself. It’ll give you a clickable item, one with a tooltip, which you can then add to chat.

I’ve found two really cool applications for this. The first is a tailoring recipe that I don’t have yet (Glacial Bag, for instance) and someone wants to know the mats. It was easier to just link the item than enumerate all the different mats. Another is the heirlooms - when you view them at the badge vendor, it shows the lvl 80 stats. However, if you paste the item into game on the character you want to use it on, you’ll see the scaled stats for that level.

Conclusions

Well, my conclusion today is really quite simple: I love Wowhead.

I understand that not everybody gets quite as excited about manipulating data as I do. But the things you can make raw data from the game tell you, with the tools from Wowhead, are absolutely amazing. You can get the information to make well informed decisions within your game, which can save tearing your hair out later. Wowhead just makes it so easy to do and the results are absolutely gorgeous.

I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

Oh, Wowhead…. just wait until Valentine’s Day!