What's Holding Up 4.3?!?
So once again, Blizzard has decided to completely overhaul their API and transition it to a completely new format. Gone is the old XML Armory of old and there is a whole new RESTful API which has been rolling out.
Unfortunately, there are still massive gaping holes in item data sourcing with little to no documentation on what's actually there. While we've been able to at least get some base data in the site, but all the sourcing (such as the Mob data based on an ID) data is a black hole. This is delaying getting the 4.3 lists online sadly, and is going to require a full reload of data yet again... sigh.
Rest assured it is in the works, and we hope to have it online as soon as we can.
Thanks for your patience and continued support!
Firelands Update for Patch 4.2
The Firelands loot list have been added as Cataclysm raid instances! Also fixed some handling of zone drops in recent raid and dungeon zones. Good luck!
ZA/ZG Update for Patch 4.1
Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman loot lists have been added as Cataclysm raid instances! Also there has been some tweaking of the Hunter and Enhancement Shaman stat weights; there should be less Strength items now popping up in various lists. Enjoy and happy Troll hunting!
Cataclysm Update is Here!
Yes it took a whole lot longer than anticipated (thanks Blizzard for switching everything over to the new site but leaving the Armory feeds in limbo) but it's finally here! There has been some pretty significant updates to the way things are handled in the back end, but all in all, when the feeds finally started working it was a relatively good process to update the loot tables for Cataclysm.
The duplicate zone issue should now be fixed, some additional sourcing logic was added, the currency system was overhauled and should support things like Valor and Justice points a lot better, and the icon subsystem got refreshed with a much more internally efficient system for keeping them up to date from patch to patch.
There are still some kinks being worked out; right now for some reason the Vashj zone isn't populating with any loot, the vendor sold Cataclysm goods aren't sourced properly so the Vendors section is missing all the VP/JP items until they can be manually added, and Mastery Rating on items is simply missing from all feeds.
The Throne of the Four Winds is also a work in progress due to the loot table having nothing but items with random enchantments. Work is underway to try and support these but since it would have held back this launch it's something on the todo list (towards the top) for now.
Thanks and Enjoy!
Cataclysm Updates
Cataclysm updates are scheduled, along with a few new features but are being delayed as the WoW Armory is in transition from the old site to the new.
As soon as the transition is complete you'll be seeing the new loot! Thanks for your patience!
Welcome to the new WoW-Loot!
Greetings and welcome to the brand new, fully redesigned from the ground up, WoW-Loot.com!
A while back, after first hearing about the news of the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, it became apparent that the World of Warcraft as we know it was going to be undergoing a huge transformation. The old world zones which have remained mostly untouched since the launch of WoW Classic would be overhauled, items would be changed, instances and mobs moved, and much more.
The old WoW-Loot was initially built many years ago by hand-selecting loot based on class types, while later on a more formulaic approach was taken as the lists expanded to areas such as raids, much of the legacy methods of hand-tagging and manual rating tweaks persisted. This meant that every time any loot table was tweaked it would have to be reviewed on a one-off basis and became somewhat static and inflexible. Also, over time, much of the class mechanics, item stats, and basic modifiers have considerably changed; updates such as new equipabble items for classes, consolidated stats, and with the upcoming mastery and reforging enhancements would mean a complete review of all list data.
WoW-Loot needed to adapt to these changes in order to stay relevant, and after a thorough review, it was decided that a complete overhaul of not only how the mechanics of loot rating would need to be changed, but the core principal of what WoW-Loot was intended to bring to the WoW community needed to be properly addressed and that paradigm driving the usability, delivery, and accessibility of content. What follows is a Question & Answer section describing not only the design changes of the new WoW-Loot, but why they were done and what is in store for the future.
What is WoW-Loot?- The Old WoW-Loot: The first version of WoW-Loot was a class based list loot list intended to help characters find relevant loot on their journey to level 60. Later raid lists were added but these were more for overall ratings of items for which classes got the most benefit from acquiring the loot.
- The New WoW-Loot: Is based entirely on delivering a comprehensive class based loot list spanning all content in WoW. Gone are rated raid lists of old, everything is now directly class (and in many cases class role) based.
How is it determined which items are listed?- The Old WoW-Loot: While a formula was used to generate an administrable list of content, most items were manually tagged to be shown on a specific instance of a list.
- The New Wow-Loot: Is entirely programmatic, items are weighted with various AEP formulas by class (and role when applicable) and given a visibility threshold. The initial release of the new site runs these under the cover. but in the near future these will be user editable to better allow you to focus in on not only finding gear more specific to your own personal needs, but also showing quantitatively how much of an upgrade the loot is.
Why AEP, is it really the best for all classes and roles?- While AEP certainly has flaws, especially at the higher levels of content, it is a good general measuring stick of the estimated potency of a given item. It should apparent that AEP is never completely authoritative; it's up to the end user to understand issues such as the value of a capped stats vs an uncapped stat and for them to take it upon themselves to generate meaningful AEP weights.
It seems like there are missing trinkets / trinkets which don't really make sense on the lists- This is a side effect of the new programmatic system. Since item data is pulled from WoW Armory there is very little in the way of support for items which proc effects making rating trinkets very difficult. We'd love to better support these in the future and we're looking in to some ideas.
I only see the highest level armor for my class, where is the lower types?- Due to cross class considerations and the new trainable armor type specialization bonuses added in 4.0, it was decided to only show the best armor type for a class. While we're well aware that itemization, especially pre-Wrath, leaves a lot to be desired for certain roles, it was felt that this is the most neutral format, best from a layout standpoint and to help with the signal to noise ratio for lists. There are some plan for later enhancements which should address these concerns!
Why don't all classes have role? Why isn't my role listed?- In keeping with Blizzards primary class paradigm, there are 3 major roles a class can fill: Tank, Heals, and Damage. There are many classes which can fill more than one of these roles and the base roles generally follow these conventions. Some classes can fill a role in an extremely different way, an Enhancement Shaman and Elemental Shaman both are Damage dealers but do so in a completely different manner which create a divisive split in what fundamental stats they look for; which is why these become specific roles. For the classes without roles or ones you think are missing, we agree that they do have differences (say a Beastmaster Hunter vs a Marksman Hunter), but the core stats are very similar. In the future you will be able to more finely tune your searches via AEP weights.
There seems to be some zone which have duplicates- Ah, the "The" prefix woes. You'll notice the culprit "duplicates" almost always are two zones, one with "The" before it's name. These are actually 2 unique zones according to the WoW Armory database, and in many cases one represents a Dungeon Instance, while the other is the world zone entrance to that Instance (think Deadmines the dungeon vs The Deadmines which is the area you travel on your way down to the instance portal). While we're looking in to way to merge these, there is a lot of shared data which needs to be appropriately modified in a way which won't break things as the world changes.
There is Alliance gear in my Horde lists! (and vice versa)- Yes, and we think we have a solution to this at a core item level, but questing data turned out to be a lot more difficult (once again to due to limitations from the WoW Armory). Perhaps someday we can get this nicely split out but the priority is low.
What about Reforging?- When AEP become user editable you'll be able to calculate the item's value with the lower value stat reforged to the highest valued one.
What about items that are Randomly Enchanted, I don't see any?- Once again the curse of missing data from the WoW Armory plagues rating these along with trying to meaningfully display them. We're looking in to it especially since it seems like in Cataclysm they will be more prevalent.
I don't like this! Where is the old site?- Change can be good! The old WoW Loot has been preserved and will be frozen, you can access it at http://legacy.wow-loot.com/ Keep in mind that the old site will no longer receive updates, the world is changing and it's doubtful how much longer it will remain relevant.
We hope you enjoy the new WoW Loot and we look forward to ironing out the kinks of the new system and brining new features online. Please don't hesitate to contact us with your thoughts, suggestions, fixes, or other feedback. We intend to perform a lot more regular updates to the site and we hope to see you back!
Patch 3.3.5 brings us Ruby Sanctum and...
Patch 3.3.5 brings us Ruby Sanctum and the new raid list is online! Also fixed the icon images, whoops...
Patch 3.3 brings us Icecrown Citadel and...
Patch 3.3 brings us Icecrown Citadel and the new raid list is online and complete with the exception of the Lich King himself! All class pages have also been updated with the 3 new 5-man dungeons and new reputation rewards for the Ashen Verdict. Good luck and enjoy!
Patch 3.2.2 brings us the revamped...
Patch 3.2.2 brings us the revamped Onyxia encounter and the new raid list is online, good luck and enjoy!
Corrected the missing DPS Deathknight...
Corrected the missing DPS Deathknight ratings (honest, there was no conspiracy!) on the missing raid lists.