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Hello guys,

I'm new to AT but so far I really like it, mages really rock.
I play WoW since Classic and have a lot of "game-sense", but when it comes to that topic I'm kinda confused, even after years. I'm currently at ilvl 943, which makes me grinding for higher ilvl-items every day and night. My question is very general, to clarify on which kind of priority you guys go.

Do you prefer taking a higher ilvl-item, even if it has a little bit worse stats?

Because I currently am prefering them, which destroys my dps to a point where it isn't even funny anymore. The problem is, if I "sacrifice" 10-15 ilvls just for better stats, people won't give me a chance to raid normal/heroic anyways...

Regards,

Dazz

I can only speak for Arcane as its the only spec I play atm. And for arcane, I believe all stats are pretty close in value, so I usually chose the higher iLvL piece of gear no matter what.
Exceptions are tier bonus set pieces and trinkets of course.
As for getting into raids, I mostly run Antorus with PUGs due to my RL time schedule. And for this, I usually equip the stuff that gives me the highest iLvL so that it shows up in the search tool of the raid leader to get me into groups easier (because that seems to be the measure of choice besides whispering raid achivements). And then after having been invited, I change to the gear set which will give me most damage output.

There's a lot of misinformation here, so I'll try to clear a few things up.

for arcane, I believe all stats are pretty close in value

While the stat weights for arcane are perhaps less skewed than some other specs in the game, that doesn't mean that the different stat weights don't matter. If you take a look at the sticky in the Arcane forum, you can see that the generic stat weights show that Vers is 20% more valuable than Crit for example (you would, of course, want to get your own personal stat weights for your character).

so I usually chose the higher iLvL piece of gear no matter what

You should never blindly equip a piece of gear just because it has a higher ilvl. Instead, you should always sim yourself to see what gives you more DPS (unless it is an obvious upgrade, such as a higher ilvl version of the same item or an item with your best stats). You can check out this post about how to sim yourself and get stat weights for your character. The short version is that you should get the simc in-game addon that will allow you to export your current gear to Raidbots.com in order to do the simulations. Remember that you'll want to get new stat weights every so often, as they'll change slightly every time you equip a new piece of gear.

I usually equip the stuff that gives me the highest iLvL so that it shows up in the search tool of the raid leader to get me into groups easier

This is not how the group finder works. When you use the group finder tool to apply to PUGs, the number that shows up is your "bags" ilvl. This means that it looks at what your ilvl would be based on all of the highest ilvl items in your bags and in your bank as well. Therefore, you should feel free to just stash those unusable high ilvl items with bad stats in your bank for the purposes of inflating your ilvl when applying to groups, since it literally doesn't change anything to have them equipped. You used to be able to see this number on the in-game character sheet, but Blizzard removed it by default from this location and from the Armory as well. If you want to be able to see this number again in-game, I would recommend the addon DejaCharacterStats, which brings this number and a bunch of other stats back to the character screen.

PVP

On a completely separate note, things work much differently in instanced PVP, just in case that is something that interests you. In instanced PVP, the only thing that matters is your ilvl. The game assigns a pre-determined template of stats to your character based on your spec, and this scales with ilvl. All set bonuses, trinkets, and legendary powers are disabled. So, if you do arenas or BGs, for that content only, you'll want to equip your highest ilvl gear and pay no attention to the stats, since you'll be given different ones anyway.

Hey Deaminase,

thanks a lot for the hints on stats and on simming. Sounds like I should finally give this a try As a pretty casual, non-mythic raider, so far I was far more concerned with doing my rotations correctly, integrating them well with fight mechanings and timings and, as a caster, minimizing my movement. But simming is definitly something I'll look into next.

When you use the group finder tool to apply to PUGs, the number that shows up is your "bags" ilvl

I had no idea about this, thanks for the info. Again something learned, as we germans say