Monday, May 24, 2010

Data Mining and Relativity













My lack of posting this time of year can only mean one thing: finals. And yes, you would be correct if you assumed as much. You would be incorrect, however, if you assumed that this was all that I was busy doing.

I'm graduated! After four years, my undergraduate education is now complete. My commencement ceremony was Saturday and, if you're really good, I might put up some pics. Stay tuned.

My feelings? A mixture of fulfillment, satisfaction, and nostalgia. The thought of never returning to my campus is extremely depressing, so I might have to go pretend to be a student in the fall. You know, just lay out in the quad, play some volleyball or frisbee, walk around the science building whilst talking about chemical reactions with a friend or two; all the stuff that makes incoming freshman feel completely inadequate.

My future plans? TBD. I did not get into graduate school but I think I'm okay with that. I went into the application process unsure of whether I wanted to devote the next 5+ years of my life to something I wasn't sure I wanted to do and now that I'm on the other side without such a commitment, I feel that I can truly take a deep breath and figure out exactly what the hell to do with my life. Suggestions are welcome!

So what does any of this mean in terms of WoW? I'll probably have a bit more time to write, considering I'm working 9-5's all summer. Provided I have some inspiration, of course.

For this post, I have decided to take the flag from Righteous Defense and I am a Paladin... in terms of coverage of Armory Data Mining! See what the theme is? Righteous Defense did protection, I am a Paladin did holy, and now I'm doing retribution! OMG HOW SERENDIPITOUS!

Ahem, moving on.

GEMS






















The first four are exactly what I like to see. Inscribed Ametrine, in the proper socket, does theoretically give more DPS than a Bold Cardinal. Way to go, guys.

What I don't like to see is that Chaotic Skyflare is more popular than Relentless Earthsiege. Perhaps this is a PvP thing (a theory that I'll be leaning on for this entire post), but any self-respecting PvE retribution paladin shouldn't be taking the kick in the pants to fulfill the meta requirements for the Chaotic. A sad reality, since by itself the Chaotic outshines the Relentless, but when coupled with the fact that it needs two blue gems... frowny face.

Also, the other gem in this list that just makes me cringe is the Bright Scarlet Ruby. Oh, ye misinformed paladins...

GLYPHS


















Glyph of Judgement? Good.

Glyph of Exorcism? Are you really passively expertise-capped? Really? Let me see your gear... Yeah I don't believe you. It's either a PvP thing or you're wrong.

Otherwise, the top three (if you take out Exo) look good. The others I'm going to chock up to not re-glyphing when you switch specs and (as for the case of SoComm and DS glyphs) PvP.

TALENTS














This is really the most disappointing part of the data-mining process. I stubbornly refuse to accept the 5/11/55 spec, especially this iteration which is predominant in the 5/11/55 category. Rather than figure it's a PvP thing, I am certain this is the most popular PvE retribution bulid, which is evidenced in the 0/2 Divine Purpose, among other things (Guardian's Favor, Stoicism). This just goes to show,

"What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right."   -Albert Einstein

2 comments:

  1. I think it's clear that many of the Rets datamined were not 'mainspec, raiding' Rets - the lack of the AV rep rings in the ring slot is a good indicator, I think. Too bad, because I wanted to see how many Rets in the sample chose the wrong ring ;-)
    Anyway, I think that explains some of the weirdness that you pointed out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What do you consider to be the "wrong ring"; Vengeance or Might?

    ReplyDelete