Stats ratio

Hello everyone,

I have been looking at BIS equipment for my PLD to optimize my setup and there's one thing that is unclear to me. From what I have been reading online, the general agreement is DH>CH>Det... but I don't know to what extent STR would not have to be considered when comparing equipment (before any meld is attempted).

For example, Omega Armguards of Fending seems to be preferred over Ivalician Holy Knight Gloves even if the IHKG has CH+193 when Omega has the bonus on Tenacity. Is the +10 STR making that much more of a difference over the added CH gained on the IHKG?

In that particular example, those two pieces of gear probably perform almost identically.

I don't have any evidence to point you toward, however, so I'm open to a better explanation if someone else has one.

In general, Weapon Damage > Strength >>>> substats. So Ivalician gloves will never match Omega or upgraded Scaeven gloves. The only exceptions are if a 10 ilv lower item with penta-melds is being compared to another piece that has the worst stats. Example Elemental +1 gloves has DET + SkS + 5 meldable slots (160 crit + 40DH) seems to be outperforming Omega which has capped tenacity, less determination and only 2 meldable slots that end up with 80 crit.

Also stat priority changed: CH > DH > DET > TEN > SkS. As there are also "Stat thresholds" or "breakpoints" you need to keep in mind. i.e. Every X points of crit net you 1% while every Y points of Det net you 1% so you want to always get to multiples of X and Y. So if by melding 40 Determination you gain a 1% because you pass the base+n(X) threshold, it is better to meld it over, say DH that would have you a couple points off base+n(Y). Stat breakpoints also mean that unless you pass the next threshold, you have wasted points.

Example: 820 crit gets you a 0.092 rate increase, the next "break point" is 831. So having crit at any number between 821 and 830 means you're wasting 1 to 10 crit stat points because of threshold overflow.

Without going into any further detail, the best way to gear up is to follow this priority:

1- Get the highest available item level weapon.
2- Get the highest available armor. VIT and Defense are nothing to laugh at, specially during the period of "gearing up" and progressing raids.
3- If you have 2 pieces of the same item level for the same slot, compare stat priority.
4- Reach a comfortable Skill Speed for your ping.
5- Meld for the best stats as per priority.
6- Once you are at maximum item level, check for stat thresholds and see if dropping some stat-overflow and putting points into other stats is more beneficial. (This is the point where dropping item level "might" net you DPS gain).

Most importantly: Outside of reaching the minimum required HP to survive busters, the difference between a "BiS" max item level gear and a "worst stat" item level gear is usually less than 5%. It all depends on player skills at following rotations, keeping uptime, and not fudging mechanics.

For the stat thresholds, you can reference this sheet, courtesy Nemekh of the Balance discord.

Speaking of the Balance Discord, search google for an invite into it, it has a lot of good theorycrafting and experienced players to take advice from. Remember not to take what they say as a gospel though. :)

Very detailed answer, much more than I expected! Thank you very much Phoenicia! :)