Im using Raidbots, on everything i loot. And up til recently, higher ilvl always has ment better DPS-output. When i sim my new-looted-and-much-higher-ilvl-gear the last few months, i always end up with staying with my old-already-equipped-and-lower-ilvl-gear, because even if the ilvl is much higher sometimes, raidbots showing much lower DPS-output. I understand that corruption and AP is a big deal here. But what i wonder is: Is it worth changing to higher ilvl gear for the better stamina sometimes? Or should i always stick with gear with the highest DPS-output? Especially as im playing DPS-spec (Havoc) maybe?
For example i just got a new head-gear (ilvl450 after i fully upgraded AP on it). I thought it was a no-brainer to equip it instead of my ilvl435 one, but after I sim:ed it on raidbot it told me that would be a -783 DPS-output on it. But it will raise my main stat as follows: +44 Armor, +150 Agility and +405 Stamina.
A second question:
What made me even more confused, is that i looked at “best havoc AP” on icy, and the only thing (DPS -wise) that was the big diff here was that on my old head-gear i had “Eyes of rage”, instead of the new one that had “Swirling Sands”. And Swirling Sands should actually have better DPS then Eyes of rage regarding to icy, if im not totally missunderstand their charts.
So here i am, for the 10th time the last month, with new high ilvl loot, in this case and as i can see, better AP (regarding to icy) but raidbots tells me that it will make -783 DPS output. Will i never get to have better stamina/armor or is it not that important as a DPS-spec!?!?
PS. 1: This post was with concrete examples with links to pictures and stuff to make everyhing much easier on specific gear -comparison for readers and ppl who wants to anwer. But since i dont have trust level yet and this is my first post i couldnt. My thought on this is: To get (and give) the best answers, especielly when ur new to the forum, we really need to get access to link in posts from the beginning.
PS 2: Im pretty tired right now, so if i had missed anything or just need to clarify something, just ask.
Stamina never matters. Ilvl is generally better, but in BFA that is a bit of not the case.
For azerite, if you have a 435 piece iwth Furious gaze and a 450 without, go for the 435. Gaze is our bis trait and with x3 of them DH becomes very powerful in the burst windows of Demonic. A little extra tip that I would like to add is try to get x3 gaze, x1 eyes of rage, x1 chaotic transformation and x1 revolving blades. That combination of azerite is the bis atm. Swirling sands is only good if the azerite piece it is on has a Furious gaze in a different row so you can play Gaze + Sands, but never sacrifice Gaze for any other trait.
To have the best results in damage, always aim for items that have Vers + Crit (if possible). If an item is 460 for example but has Vers + crit on it it would be significantly better than a 470 item with mastery + haste for example.
If the item doesn’t have crit but has vers on it and is at least 5 ilvls more than a crit+vers item (and the vers it gives isnt a LOT lower than the crit+vers item) u could probably use that too.
Secondary stats on DH are very important. Ilvl most of the case won’t be worth it as I’ve had 455-460 items with bis stats that perform better than 470 ones with bad stats.
Thx for answer, appreciate it alot, feels much better now to equip lower gear and not care about stamina. Ive started to do alot of M+ and trying to push higher and higher. My concern has always been like; “when is it better to change for better stamina to make it easier to keep me alive?”. But as I understand after your post i will totally ignore that and be better to avoid damage in the first place. Reading alot posts about the mechanics, watch alot of youtube guides and so forth to make my (and healers) life easier in there
I know that gaze is the AP to go, actually had x3 with them for a while now. the new gear i tried to equip (the head 450 gear i talked about in my first post), had gaze aswell. The only thing that differ was Swirling sand on the new 450 and Eyes of rage on the old 435 one (on different row/ring in other words: never gave up gaze for either of them). What was confusing here was that on icy veins (where they have a chart on which AP is better) Swirling sands stands as a better AP then Eyes of rage -but when i simed on raidbots, it still told me that the 435 had better DPS -output.
My conclusion is: Swap everytime it gives better DPS -output, and if its a higher ilvl then the old gear its only nice-to-have if its has better main stats aswell.
Icy-veins is not exactly the best source of information nowadays regarding bis for classes. I’d suggest for you to choose a couple of top M+ players (DHs in this case) and watch their streams, join their discords, ask them questions, etc. Most of them already have templates with FAQ that have stats, AP, rotations, talents, bis gear, essences, etc.
Dathedr thanks for the clear explanation, was about to respond something similar, but you worded it nicely
As a DH main that raids mythic I can confirm you want to aim for 3x gaze, 1x eyes of rage and 1x chaotic transformation.
Thats a total of 5 traits, so you can fill the last trait with either 1x revolving blades, sands or the stacking dmg trait for chaos strike (cant remember the name haha).
the reason why you always want 1 eyes of rage is because it reduces the CD of eyebeam when you pick up orbs (the dmg part isn’t what you’re after). With this trait you always play the Demonic appetite talent (first row).
so even if you have azerite gear thats higher ilvl but without these trait combo’s its a dps loss (even if the ilvl difference is huge).
Don’t worry about your stamina / max health, DH has insane selfhealing ^^
You can use my char profile for reference (although im in vengeance gear at the moment haha)
