Gear Upgrade Loop - Is A really better than B which was better than A?

Simple Q & A
1

AMR tells me that a certain new piece of loot is an improvement. I equip it and (because I’m paranoid) then check to see what it says about the old piece of loot. It says that the old piece is an upgrade over the new piece. This confuses me.

Here is a specific example:

  1. Load this toon:
    $51;US;Cenarion Circle;KagallaChain;Order of the Ebon Shield;7;2;110;13:650,2:800,12:349,8:721,14:610;1;.s1;10;1112111;868,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,213,241,32,149,1,1,1,116;4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,4,1,1,4,1,1,3,1;137365b1517b1727b3528,141259b1522b3394b3528,133763b1517b1727b3528;.s2;11;;;;;.s3;12;;;;;.q1;121316s9b1537b288b1512;7545s16b-2611x137365y3894z-7496;5480s10b826b272b1513;3s7b-1815b302b1512;46s5b-1809b200b1801;105s2b-2011b210b1801;44s12b-3486b1475b210b1801;2210s13b-2925b934b287b1513;28s1b-1820b210b1801;303s6b-69b111;452s11b-2053b210b81b1720;3341s8b-3488b1437b1859b178;3453s3b-55b111e5882;2659s15b-2088b2046b33;31s14b-2079b326b1720b33;.r;_;.inv;783;1535;1;1912;1;2;1;69;30;1164;1034;416;1202;15;4;0;1;1;0;1882;925;3278;1156;3610;2865;1906;685;1;102;1068;50;8;0;1;336;1;2410;12796;2321;278;278;1878;25077;551;1;1;0;0;1;1;77;0;1;0;404;866;2;3073;28;0;8;42;10004;422;1;3;2543;761;169;4;3357;886;1279;3049;463u491x95346y-18665;1u0x16y0e4822;1u1x-16y0e-18;86u13x0y0e-3201;3080u0x0e3709;1393;1;1;35;8u0;291;351;4748;42;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;1;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;12;1;1;1;2;1;2;14;64;382;94;596;3;268;49;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;2;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;634;311;45;50;7;7;3;7;1272u-14b451;314;1;1;1;314;10;93;1100;229;494;4;285;617;1;2;438;162;1086;1;272;100;0;3;422;6;19;2023;0;268v110b1265b96;1370;1516;14;0;0;0;0;2;0;1;1;1;1;1;1;3;1;312;0;1;1;1;1;195b-1184b21e13;626;259b-46;95b4;1800;343;75;10;36;338;102;33;10;136;294;502;2514;363;1403;105;599b915b1872b134;67b-2001b297b1512;2387b-1809b297b1512;803b-1809b200b1609;575;229b-1879b2063b8;535;241b-2011b307b1704;591b-145b2;3b-4b4;4b-4b5;78;22;33;300;45;395;0;131b53;208;343b-1962b347b1515;82;250b-1524b2b1630e58;4;47;683;1;992;457;3120;1;3;144b-1950b2031b34e499;654$

  2. Click on the neck item (Chain of the Underking) so you get the popup with a gear list.

  3. Enter “warden pen” into the box and set an ilvl of 865. I see an improvement of 1.32%

  4. Click on the entry to set it as current gear.

  5. Close the Neck popup.

  6. Reopen the Neck popup by clicking on the neck item (Warden Pendant).

  7. Enter “chain of the under” into the window. I see that the 865 Chain of the Underking is a 1.77% improvement.

  8. Slap forehead in confusion, wondering which piece is really better.

What am I doing wrong. I’m pretty sure that both pieces can’t be better than the other piece.

2

Is your neck item missing the optimal enchant?

3

Yes - both neck pieces are un-enchanted

4

The neck items get ranked assuming you will put the suggested enchant on them. So what is probably happening is that it says neck A + enchant is an upgrade. You equip neck A and do not enchant it. So, it then says: ok, you want me to rank gear assuming your current neck is not enchanted. Neck B + enchant is better than Neck A with no enchant.

You can make the problem go away by putting the enchant on your neck item.

5

Ahh - that makes sense. So now I have a feature request. Being the frugal sort, I don’t always enchant/gem everything; I don’t want to spend the resources enchanting something I’m likely to discard. Is there a way to force the comparison to be done without having to enchant both pieces? One suggestion would be to add an option to say “Don’t enchant”, say in the same area where I can click on socket, choose a minor stat, or set ilvl.

6

Aha! I see that doing the auto gem/enchant will give me what I’m looking for. I’m not sure if there is a better way for this to work - I’ll leave that to the capable folks at AMR!

Thanks for your help.

7

When using best-in-bags, you can lock an enchant onto a particular item. After doing BiB, click on the enchant slot for the neck. You can then choose an enchant, a dotted line appears around it. Then you can do “save and update”.

So you can basically force the optimizer to think you have already enchanted any item in your bags and optimize with that. Then you can “unlock all” to go back to your “real” gear state.