Rawr and You!

So, I'm here to answer all of your questions about gearing your characters at level 85! And the answer is, sadly, very simplistic.

1.  Visit www.elitistjerks.com

• This website will provide you the basic knowledge base on what your class should be doing for spec, rotations, and stat weights.  It is generally updated to the latest patch updates and often illuminates basic errors in your own judgement.
• Forewarned, there is a lot of reading to be had and includes math.  If you are scared of either, then you should still visit this site but ask someone to break it down for you that you feel is more comfortable with the information.

2.  Visit the Rawr site.

• This website can be difficult to navigate or understand because it's laid out for people with basic understanding of programming.  To Navigate, do the following
• Click "Rawr4 v4.0.xxx Released!"
• Scroll down slightly and click http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.php
• You're going to be prompted to download Microsoft Silverlight
• You're going to be prompted to allow permissions for Microsoft Silverlight, which I found impossible so...

• Right click the program in the window and click "Download this Application" or some such
• The program will now exist on your computer for whenever you like
• This program, like Elitist Jerks, is sometimes clunky and mathy.  You can take a lot away from it if you're willing to do the work, or you can use it very simply like I am going to illustrate.

 3.  Using Rawr

First, open Rawr.  If you can't do this, you shouldn't be able to open up World of Warcraft either and therefore this whole thing is irrelevant.  Unless of course, you're suffering some kind of error; perhaps email the people at Rawr?

Next, you want to import a character (Preferably yours!) from Battle.net.  You do this by clicking File -> Load From Battle.net

Make sure you select the correct server continent (US for North Americans, EU for Europe, etc), the correct server (Aerie Peak for me, Kel'thuzad for you, etc), and correctly type your character name.  I will be using Wisdomteeth for this!

An important sidenote: Because we are downloading information straight from Battle.net, it is optimal usage to log your character out in what you believe is your PvE raiding set.  That way, you can see what to upgrade from if-need-be.

Now that we've loaded it up, you're going to be fucking bombarded with information.  Information you can use, information you can't use, information that is informative, etc.

Two things to do first:  Talents and Buffs.

I like to use a talent tree already loaded into the Rawr program.  This is generally the accepted cookie-cutter spec for your class and the program is readily able to provide information to you using it.  To do this, click the Talents tab and select a talent tree from the dropdown menu.

Rawr also provides information about your character with a variety of buffs.  Many of these buffs you cannot provide for yourself.  So first, check to see if you are self-buffed by your talents only.  If you are finding that it's all broken and stupid looking, just click the "Unbuffed" option in the dropdown menu and reselect the options you know are available to you.  You'll also find which buffs you really desire in a raid and which ones you can do without.

Now that you've done all that, the information is now pertinent, it's back to the home screen.

Now, if you're an advanced user or just someone who likes to play with numbers, you can feel free to do whatever you want all over the place and do all kinds of silliness.  For this kind of guide, I'm going to show you how to turn off sources of gear so that you can see the best possible gear options for your character.  The WoW Armory website provides possible upgrades to your character with a clunkier system.  I find that Rawr is quicker to use.

First, click Filters:

As you can see in my filters, I have certain things selected off.  I have turned off "Tier 11 Raids" (Including Blackrock Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the 4 Winds) but have left on Baradin Hold.  I have also turned off "Unknown/Not found on armory."  This is because I am not currently downing any content in T11 raids and I want to exclude items found in those raids.  I also want to exclude items that may not exist.

Filters can also be incredibly specific.  In the above image, "Special Currency (Points, Tokens, etc.)" is turned off.  However, I have selected within that tab certain things to turn off:

As you can see, I have turned off "Valor Points," "Armor Tokens," and "Other."  Valor Points are turned off because I feel I am limited in sources (Daily heroic and Baradin Hold runs once a week).  Armor Tokens are off due to only being found in T11 Raids.  And Other is turned off because I want to exclude items that may not exist.

Now, you can go further and turn more or less off.  However, if you find you're like me and that's all that you need to do, you now have an updated list that includes all possible sources of gear for you.  And this is where this tool comes in handy for upgrades.

In the above image, I've clicked the "Gear > Head" button and hovered over the gear area.  From there, I can choose any item and look at available upgrades.  I'm going to use my shoulders for item comparison.

We can see a number of things in the above image.  First, there is a long line of shoulder pieces.  You want to, ultimately, pick the shoulder piece with the longest blue bar.  That is generally the most relevant piece to your spec.  Also, there are items with green diamonds.  Those green diamonds signify an item piece that you own with different variations.  The piece that is highlighted green is the piece you are currently wearing.

This tells me two important things:

1. I need to go get a different shoulder piece from Siamat in Heroic Lost City of Tol'vir.
2. If I choose to not get a different shoulder piece, I need to change my current gem from a shitty green +15 Intellect +15 Critical Strike rating to a much better blue gem of +40 intellect.

And that's a little bit about Rawr! There's a lot more in the program that's available to you for a lot of different things.  It's important to note a couple of things:

• Rawr emphasizes maintaining hit (And expertise) caps.  If you are not currently at cap, it will prioritize all possible options to achieve cap. 
• If you grab an item with a lot of hit and it puts you over cap, it will cease prioritizing items with hit on them and prioritize items with other stats.
• The item upgrades available to you will affect future items that you get, so check with Rawr often.  It could be possible that one piece of gear that you grab puts you over a soft-cap for a particular stat for your class and other items you were after will no longer be as attractive.
• You should have an understanding of your class and spec before using Rawr.  If you do not, you may not understand why Rawr prioritizes certain items over others; worse, you may not understand that Rawr has an error and provided incorrect options to you.