Confusion with T8 & T9 gear (Cat DPS)

[Andanas]

Hi,

I was considering purchasing the item level 232 T9 head & chest pieces, to replace my item level 226 T8 head & chest pieces. Before I did, however I ran RAWR. And I was surprised to see that it puts the T8 higher. In fact, among the items I've selected in the filtering option that I know I have a chance of getting, both T8 pieces were on top, with the T9 midway down. Which puzzles me.

I made a side by side comparison of them in Wowhead (Item Comparison Tool - World of Warcraft (http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=48214;46161;46159;48216)), and I am not seeing how the 2 T8 pieces are so much better. Is it the loss in ArPen & Hit in the head & chest respectively? ArPen isn't something I'm focusing on, and hit for cats isn't that essential(correct?), and if it is I have a hit trinket. Also, is the 2T8 bonus that much better than the 4T9bonus?

Can someone un-confuse me? Here's my armory link for reference. The World of Warcraft Armory (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Farstriders&n=Andanas)

*note* I am primarily DPS on the 10 man raid team I'm on, so that is the biggest factor for me here.

[felhoof]

The reason Rawr rates it so highly is that the 2pT8 bonus is really, really strong, so the difference between 6 ilvls isn't really enough to make up for that.

2pT8 is better than 4pT9, very easily. The 4pT9 bonus is a 5% increase in rip crits which aren't a significant part of your DPS anyway; it's about 20%. Assuming that's a 5% increase in Rip damage (which isn't true, but is better than true) you'd be looking at a 1% DPS increase from that. The clearcasting by itself is more than 2% DPS increase and it scales with better gear.

Also, arpen tends to be pretty awesome as you get more of it; you might be close to a softcap or something. Without looking at your gear it's really hard to say (you're in tanking gear ATM).

[Andanas]

Thanks for the info. I don't think I'm close to the ArPen soft cap, I only have 423 right now.

[felhoof]

Really, T8 doesn't get beaten as a bonus (at least the 2p doesn't) until 245-level gear. It really is that strong.

[Andanas]

Really, T8 doesn't get beaten as a bonus (at least the 2p doesn't) until 245-level gear. It really is that strong. Wasn't trying to argue with you, I'm convinced. :D