There is something going on with the information provided by upgrade finder when comparing a one-hander (intellect sword) to a two-hander (intellect staff). This is not an item issue, because I’ve seen it suggest a one-hand with this issue multiple times in the vault rewards. The one-hander is being shown as a large upgrade regardless of the off-hand you would have available to use with it. If upgrade finder is automatically using a comparable offhand to provide the info it should provide that info as well. After you select the reward from the vault it then uses the available off-hands you have in BiB and winds up being a downgrade as expected. Here’s my snapshot but since I selected the Tz’onna Fear-Striker since it was shown as a 1.46% upgrade it won’t show the issue now. You may be able to simulate the issue with add to bags as it seems to give odd results there as well when I add similar ilvl one-hands.
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Just to clarify I have the staff equipped and upgrade finder is telling me the sword would be a big upgrade even though I have only a 372 off-hand to use with it. Not right at all. Now if it assumes I have a equal ilvl offhand to use, then I would understand. Although what stats that off-hand would have would be a question as well.
We rank one-handers intentionally with a comparable off-hand. They wouldn’t get a fair ranking otherwise. You could use the “add to my bag” if you want to see if it is an upgrade “right now” for you or not.
I’ll add a UI improvement to the list to indicate that a comparable off hand is considered.
You actually have a bizarre case where BiB isn’t picking the 1-hander when it should. The Great Vault search of course forces the 1-hander to be equipped, so it’s finding the better solution.
This one took me all afternoon to figure out… and I have to decide what to do about it because it is a significant performance issue to do a simple fix for the issue (essentially requires disabling an important performance heuristic, which can lead to 20x increase in run time in some cases). We’ll need to experiment with some different approaches to keep the speed acceptable and also make it find the better-scoring solution in this case.
But for clarity:
The Great Vault, Valor, and “Add to my bag” searches will pair 1-handed weapons with the best 1-hander that you actually own. That fits better with what these searches are trying to do, which is usually answer the question “how would this item rank if I put it in my inventory right now?”
The other more generic searches will pair a 1-hander with the best 1-hander of equal or lower item level found in the lists of data. This gives a fairer ranking to 1-handers vs. 2-handers than using only what you have. This approach is of course an estimate – there is no way around it.
(This is yet another reason that everyone should petition Blizzard to have only one weapon slot! It is unnecessarily complicated for players to determine upgrades, it creates an unequal number of drops required for some specs vs. others to gear out a character, and it can make getting a 1-hander or off-hand unsatisfying because you have to bank it until you get something to use in the other hand.)
Wow I didn’t think it would be a big thing. Thanks, I was just looking for a more consistent ranking so whatever you can do or did I’ll take it. But yeah, I agree. I always hated the one hand/offhand vs. two hand dynamic. Banking items to wait has always sucked.