Valor Points Upgrade

6.2.3 is coming around the corner soon and it is also the return of valor points. i thought apexis is meant to replace valor points in the first place? and now we have both apexis and valor together lol

as a raider, you want to have any advantage you can get your hands on and the important thing to know about valor points is that we can use it to upgrade our gears. you need to spend 500 valor points to upgrade an item by 10 levels.

im assuming legendary ring will not be affected by valor upgrade, but we still have 8 armor slots + 1 ring + 1 cloak + 1 neck + 1 weapon + 3 or 4 trinkets? that means we need to upgrade at least 15 items, which is a total of 15 x 750 = 7500 valor points.


Getting Valor Points

for solo every week,
100 valor points x 7 day for heroic 5man
75 valor points x 3 wings for highmaul LFR
75 valor points x 4 wings for blackrock foundry LFR
150 valor points x 5 wings for hellfire citadel LFR
500 valor points x 1 weekly event for garrison

for 5man every week,
300 valor points x 8 mythic 5-man dungeon

that is a lot of stuffs to do, looks like the first month of 6.2.3 is going to be very very busy!!

im sure some of us won't have enough time to complete everything in the week. and even if we do somehow managed to clear everything, the max we can get is 4875 valor points for the week. therefore, we have to prioritize which gears we should begin with the upgrades to make the best use of valor points.


Step 1 - Stats Budget

firstly, you must understand that different item slots has different stats budget. for example, if weapon slot represent a budget of 2 items, below will be the stats budget given for different slots:

1st Tier Stats Budget - Weapon 2.00%
2nd Tier Stats Budget - Trinkets 1.33%
3rd Tier Stats Budget - Head, Chest, Legs 0.80%
4th Tier Stats Budget - Shoulder, Hands, Feet, Waist,  0.60%
5th Tier Stats Budget - Wrist, Neck, Back, Finger 0.47%

based on the list above, weapon is obviously my first priority for valor upgrade. trinkets have a much higher stats budget as compared to rings, necklace and cloak. for the same cost of 500 valor points, upgrading a trinket will boost up your stats way more than upgrading a necklace.


Step 2 - Identify BiS

secondly, the gear you like to upgrade should preferably be your BiS. or at least BiS as of where your guild is currently able to progress to. imagine how wasteful it is to replace an item after you had already spent 500 valor points on.

my guild is still progressing on mythic mannoroth so i should include mannoroth loots in my consideration but i can exclude items that drop off mythic archimonde. of course i may get lucky with my HFC mission caches, but that's a different story altogether.


Step 3 - Item Level Scaling

thirdly, item-level does not raise your stats linearly. it scale up quickly around the power of 1.009365. for example, upgrading an item level 700 to 715 give you a boost of 48 strength. in comparison, upgrading the same item from level 715 to 730 give you a boost of 55 strength, and that is an extra 15% stats. therefore, if you have 2 items belonging to the same tier of stats budget, you should upgrade the one with the highest item-level.


My Plan

i thought it is going to be quite easy to decide which items i should upgrade first but it proof to be a very difficult task. when i try to prioritize my own upgrade plan, many arguments went on in my head.


1st Tier Stats Budget - Weapon

our weapon is the single most powerful dps boost for us. since i am already using a level 730 weapon and based on my guild progression,  it should be my BiS. the only replacement is the weapon from mythic archimonde or unless a warforged / socket version drop.

Weapon - Yes


2nd Tier Stats Budget - Trinkets

i mainly use these 4 trinkets in HFC:

Empty Drinking Horn - every boss
Libram of Vindication - 6 boss
Discordant Chorus - 4 boss
Vial of Convulsive Shadows - 3 boss

EDH is definitely our BiS since it is used in every fight.

however, i only have the heroic version of EDH and my guild is currently progressing well on mannoroth. perhaps i should wait for the mythic version?

it is very difficult for me to decide now. if i have mythic EDH, it is definitely a yes. and for the remaining trinkets, their usage are so situational and i am wondering if i should upgrade trinkets at a later stage after i am done with my armor slots first.

EDH - Yes/No?
LOV - Yes/No?
DC - Yes/No?
Vial - i believe BRF items cannot be upgraded


3rd Tier Stats Budget - Head, Chest, Legs

Legs - Yes
Head - Yes
Chest - No

my legs and head is already BiS but my legs has a socket, making it more unlikely to be replace. so i would upgrade my legs first, follow by head.

although i am currently using the chest from iskar, i should wait for the chest tier set because my guild is already progressing on mythic mannoroth.


4th Tier Stats Budget - Shoulder, Hands, Feet, Waist

Shoulder - Yes
Feet - Yes/No?
Hands - No
Waist - No

my tier 18 shoulder happen to be warforged and will not be replaced, unless mythic archimonde drop a warforged shoulder. very unlikely, right.

my boots is now warforged at level 731, and the only upgrade is from mythic archimonde level 735. since boots have a lower stats budget, i think it may be better to upgrade the other slots first.

my tier 18 glove could potentially become my weakest tier piece. this is why i like to wait for the gloves from mythic tyrant before deciding which off-piece tier to upgrade.

my belt is not BiS and i should wait for mythic mannoroth instead.


5th Tier Stats Budget - Wrist, Neck, Back, Finger

Back - Yes
Neck - Yes
Finger - Yes
Wrist - Yes

unless a warforged / socket version came along, otherwise all these slots are my BiS already and i won't be changing them.


Summary Priority Upgrade

this is my plan, meant for my own upgrade priority. although plans may change, it's still good to think it through. you may want to plan early too.

1 Weapon
2 Empty Drinking Horn (mythic mannoroth)
3 Legs
4 Head
5 Chest (mythic mannoroth)
6 Unending Hunger (if mythic version drop)
7 Shoulder
8 Libram of Vindication
9 Discordant Chorus
10 Waist (mythic mannoroth)
11 Feet (mythic archimonde)
12 Hands (depends which is my off-piece tier)
13 Back
14 Neck
15 Finger
16 Wrist