Here are the Pawn scales I’m using for my toons in Wrath of the Lich King.   As always, Pawn is for quick comparisons, not for squeezing every last point out of your gear.  Read Skeleton Jack’s post on Pawn for some of the things to watch out for.  I have tweaked some of these scales and I have no strong theorycrafting proof behind their effectiveness. 

A few more points to note:

1. Each rating is relative only to itself.

Some pawn users assume that if they have two strings, that the rating that has the higher value is what the gear is better for. This is NOT the case. You should only use a rating to compare two items together, rather than using ratings to determine what an item is better for. (Note: This rule can be counterfeit, but that requires balancing points)
2. A rating that gives you numbers in the 100’s is no better or worse than one that gives you points in the 10,000’s
Remember, this is a relative comparison tool. So 900 - 1000 may be better than 90,000 to 95,000.
3. Pawn doesn’t account for everything
Raid buffs, gear changing, and Talents factor in here as well. These are static values to help determine relative value, but raid buffs, talent changes, and changes from blizzard will affect the relative value of these statistics, so these strings will more than likely be dynamic.

Warrior

Protection

Balanced

(Pawn: v1: “Balanced”: CritRating=0.89, Agility=8.47, ExpertiseRating=9.22, DefenseRating=11.13, BlockValue=4.86, ArmorPenetration=1, Dps=3.56, Strength=3.84, ParryRating=8.24, BlockRating=8.42, DodgeRating=9.61, HitRating=1.98, Stamina=14.29, Armor=1, HasteRating=0.62, Ap=0.43 )

Survival

( Pawn: v1: “Survival”: BlockRating=8.49, Strength=2.91, ParryRating=8.56, Agility=8.02, ExpertiseRating=7.22, DefenseRating=11.61, Stamina=14.25, Armor=1, DodgeRating=10.09, BlockValue=4.98 )

Threat

( Pawn: v1: “Threat”: ArmorPenetration=4.54, CritRating=4.03, Dps=16.15, Strength=4.66, ParryRating=0.41, Agility=3.26, HitRating=9.56, HasteRating=3.02, ExpertiseRating=9.56, Ap=2 )

Based roughly on Elitist Jerks Tanking Spreadsheet.  Needs to be edited for sockets.

( Pawn: v1: “Heavy”: RedSocket=16, CritRating=0.8, Strength=1, MetaSocket=8, ExpertiseRating=0.7, BlueSocket=16, YellowSocket=16, ColorlessSocket=16, HitRating=0.7, BlockValue=0.9 )

Based roughly on Matthew Rossi’s post,The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Heavy.  This is for leveling as a Prot Warrior.  Vene has a good post for Raid DPS as a Prot Warrior.

Fury

See this post for Fury Warriors.

Paladin

Mostly from this thread on Elitist Jerks. 

Protection

Mitigation

( Pawn: v1: “ProtMit”: DodgeRating=18, BlockRating=1, Ap=1.2, CritRating=0.6, Strength=9.5, ParryRating=14.5, ExpertiseRating=1.5, Agility=14.5, HitRating=1.1, Stamina=19.1, Armor=1.2, SpellPower=0.8, DefenseRating=16.5, BlockValue=16.5 )

Threat

( Pawn: v1: “ProtThr”: Intellect=0.2, DodgeRating=15.1, BlockRating=0.9, Ap=4.7, CritRating=2.4, Strength=18.8, ParryRating=12.8, ExpertiseRating=6.1, Agility=12.2, HitRating=4.2, Stamina=16.8, Armor=1.1, SpellPower=3.1, DefenseRating=13.9, BlockValue=17.4 )

Holy

( Pawn: v1: “Holy”: Intellect=2.25, RedSocket=24, CritRating=1.1, MetaSocket=75, HasteRating=1, BlueSocket=14, Stamina=0.1, SpellPower=1.2, Mp5=2.5, YellowSocket=30 )

Shaman

Enhancement

Based on a run of EnhSim, DPS simulator

( Pawn: v1: “AEP Calc”: Intellect=1.14, CritRating=0.64, Agility=1.39, ExpertiseRating=0.67, OffHandDps=4.33, YellowSocket=32, ArmorPenetration=0.52, RedSocket=32, Strength=1, MetaSocket=16, HitRating=0.68, BlueSocket=32, MainHandDps=8.82, HasteRating=0.81, ColorlessSocket=32, Ap=1 )

Restoration

Based on this post.

( Pawn: v1: “Resto (EJ)”: Intellect=7, RedSocket=105, HasteRating=3, BlueSocket=86, YellowSocket=112, SpellPower=5, Mp5=10, CritRating=3 )

Hunter

Beastmaster

( Pawn: v1: “Beast Mastery”: Intellect=7, RedSocket=128, CritRating=5, MetaSocket=168, HitRating=10, Agility=7, HasteRating=2, BlueSocket=128, YellowSocket=128, ArmorPenetration=6, Mp5=8, Ap=4 )

From this thread

Druid

Cat

( Pawn: v1: “Cat (Toskk)”: ArmorPenetration=1.0161, RedSocket=37.312, Strength=2.332, CritRating=0.83, ColorlessSocket=37.312, MetaSocket=103.21, FeralAp=1, Agility=1.6992, ExpertiseRating=1.0362, BlueSocket=18.66, YellowSocket=26.92, HitRating=1.0334, HasteRating=0.7236, Ap=1 )

From Flyv

Bear

( Pawn: v1: “Bear (Toskk)”: RedSocket=113.7, YellowSocket=101.3, ColorlessSocket=172.4, MetaSocket=329, Stamina=7.185, Agility=3.429, Health=0.411, BlueSocket=172.4, Armor=1.066, DefenseRating=1.885, DodgeRating=2.685, ExpertiseRating=1.306 )

From Flyv

Resto

( Pawn: v1: “Resto”: Intellect=5.79, HasteRating=2.87, CritRating=2.05, SpellPower=9.4, Spirit=5.13, Mp5=10 )

From this Elitist Jerks Post

Death Knight

Unholy

( Pawn: v1: “Unholy”: ArmorPenetration=0.544, RedSocket=39.7552, CritRating=1.12, Strength=2.4847, ColorlessSocket=39.7552, HasteRating=0.621, Agility=0.7336, HitRating=2.474, BlueSocket=17.3929, YellowSocket=25.2329, TwoHandDps=7.567, ExpertiseRating=1.391, Ap=1 )

From Skeleton Jack’s Post.  

Other

Other specs, Warlocks, Priests, Mages, and Rogues are out of luck here.  I suggest Elitist Jerks as a starting point. Good luck in your search!

NOTE: No warranties, either express or implied, are hereby given. All software is supplied as is, without guarantee.  The user assumes all responsibility for damages resulting from the use of these features, including, but not limited to, frustration, disgust, system abends, disk head-crashes, general malfeasance, floods, fires, shark attack, nerve gas, locust infestation, cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis, local electromagnetic disruptions, hydraulic brake system failure, invasion, hashing collisions, normal wear and tear of friction surfaces, comic radiation, inadvertent destruction of sensitive electronic components, windstorms, the Riders of Nazgul, infuriated chickens, malfunctioning mechanical or electrical sexual devices, premature activation of the distant early warning system, peasant uprisings, halitosis, artillery bombardment, explosions, cave-ins, and/or frogs falling from the sky.

I was talking with Jaimie yesterday about our Warcraft characters in a roleplaying sense.  I don’t have much of a backstory for any of them, but I do have a decent idea of their personalities.  It’s conversations such as these that have me considering an RP server if I reroll again.

Despite being a warrior that uses rage, Tristam is very calm.  Solid and reliable are words that come to mind when I’m thinking about him.  He doesn’t get angry and is very relaxed. He sees himself as the shield for the group.  “Is a shield false and only a sword true?”

Merddyn is a warlock because it’s convenient and easy.  He’s very self-centered and barely recognizes the existence of an outside world.  He’s not looking to rule the world (far too much bother), he just wants what he wants and sees no reason why he shouldn’t just take it.  “I’ve divided the world into two types of thing:  The ones I can kill with impunity, and those I have to be more circumspect about.“

Anzu is a very angry shaman.  I have no idea what he’s angry about. He quests so that he has a socially acceptable way to kill things.   Merrdyn will kill you if you get in his way, but otherwise doesn’t care about you.  Anzu wants to kill you but won’t unless it’s acceptable to the Horde.  “In the beginning, the Universe was created. This had made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.“

Early on, Andromache would have preferred to be an alliance paladin working with the Naaru rather than stealing the Light’s power.  She wants to do what’s right.  After having gone through Outlands, she has retained her strong moral and ethical sense, but no longer trusts the Naaru. “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties - but right through every heart - and through all hearts.“

Arthemis wants to take things apart to see how they work.  She’s chosen to be a hunter because people in cities tend to get upset when you take apart magical or mechanical things and you can’t quite put them back together.  She’s happiest out on her own thinking.  “Most things run on smoke. If it leaks out, they don’t work.”

As a druid, Emerys feels a deep connection with nature.  He fits the stereotype of the hippie druid.  He’s calm and quests because he wants to help maintain nature’s balance.  “In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences.“

I don’t know why but I like having some idea of who the characters I play are. 

Warrior Vene’s Quick and Dirty Pre-Naxx Prot DPS Guide gives some tips for when you have to DPS as a Prot warrior. This would also be useful for the daily quest grinds.
EDIT: Do NOT use this for questing. It hugely over values Hit and Expertise against mobs your level or lower. This is only for raiding. Follow Matthew Rossi’s ideas instead for questing or leveling.

At the request of one of the members of our guild alliance, I focused in on leveling blacksmithing last night.  Jaimie had spent way too much time mining saronite, eternals, and the odd bit of titanium so thanks to her I had the raw materials to proceed. 

I didn’t bother following any leveling guides.  If I could make an item from the Tempered Saronite set I made two so that both my paladin and my warrior would be geared for tanking.  The exceptions were the two Daunting pieces, which are better than the Tempered Saronite equivalents for tanking.  I wound up disenchanting about 8 items and now I have tons of Titanium Skeleton Keys but I’m almost at the point of being able to craft any blacksmithing item in the game.  I should hit that point tonight. 

Blacksmithing is expensive to level and so far the good stuff seems to be all BOE.  I suspect that if I had taken mining instead and used the money from that to buy the pieces I need, I’d have been way, way ahead.  Nevertheless, leveling professions is something I enjoy so that’s what I choose to spend my in game gold on.  Next big money sink is engineering! 

Taliafears at Elitist Jerks has a Tanking Spreadsheet up for warriors. I’m probably going to harvest this for values to make a Pawn scale for tanking gear. Then again, using a spreadsheet like this might help me spot when when my gear is not optimally enchanted or gemmed. I’m going to have to think about how much work I want to put into this.

I actually did some leveling on my warrior this weekend as I need to catch up to the most advanced member of our static group.  We thought about running our current four instances (Utgarde Keep,  The Nexus, Azjol-Nerub and Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom) over and over to level, but we decided that would be dull and a waste of the shiny new content.  Instead we’re going to try to stay close to the same level and do a fair amount of solo/duo questing. 

I tried out Matthew Rossi’s ideas for Leveling a Protection Warrior to 80.  With Jaimie’s holy paladin beside me, it feels even faster than our paladin/mage duo.  I did a bit of solo questing and even without a healer this approach is amazingly fast! 

Anyhow, since it looks as though I’ll be hitting 80 sooner rather than later, I need to make sure I’m working on upping my defense gear.  Current target is 540 defense skill (i.e. 689 defense rating).  Ciderhelm has an Easy 540 Defense Gear Guide up.  I should have no problem getting enough of these items.  My blacksmithing is proceeding apace, so I should be able to make a pile of pretty crafted gear.  In a lot of cases, it looks as though crafted gear is giving drop gear a run for its money.  As someone who spends way too much money on crafting, this makes me happy.

Matthew Rossi has a post,The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Heavy, that describes a protection leveling build. He claims that Protection is currently the best leveling tree for warriors. Stats priority for this build is: strength/SBV, crit, hit/expertise - I’m going to have to play around to figure out the weightings. I should have no problem tanking - if anything I’ve been a little light on rage when doing instances. I am definitely going to have to give this build a shot.

EDIT: Rotation is Shield block –> shield slam –> shield bash –> revenge/HS –> shield slam.

I’ve slapped together the following, based roughly on WotLK WotLK Fury Gear Guide - TankSpot.

• 1 STR = 1 SEP
• 1 AP = .45 SEP
• 1 Crit Rating = .9 SEP
• 1 AGI = .75 SEP
• 1 Haste Rating = .55 SEP
• 1 ArP Rating = .7 SEP
• 1 Hit Rating = .2 SEP (Since I’m not hit capped, I put it up to .3)
• 1 Expertise Rating = 1.1 SEP
• 1 Armor = .0075 SEP

Some stuff wasn’t covered so here are the values I’m using

• Sockets (any color except meta) = 16 SEP assuming 16 STR gems in all sockets
• Sockets (meta) = 8 SEP a rough guess not really based on anything
• DPS = 5 based roughly on this
• Block value = .5 A very rough guess

Don’t forget to add in any racials for weapons

Here’s my Pawn Scale for DPS for a prot warrior.
( Pawn: v1: “DPS”: ArmorPenetration=0.7, RedSocket=16, ColorlessSocket=16, BlockValue=0.5, CritRating=0.9, Dps=7, Strength=1, MetaSocket=8, YellowSocket=16, Agility=0.9, HitRating=0.3, BlueSocket=16, Armor=0.0075, HasteRating=0.55, ExpertiseRating=1.1, Ap=0.45 )

Next time I’m in a capital I think I’m going to switch to this Warrior (0/8/54) for leveling. I’m tanking a lot but it looks as though I’ll be doing some questing, which means more DPS would be great.

I managed to get two runs of Utgarde Keep in yesterday.  The first was on my paladin and the second was on my warrior.  They were fun runs.  The bosses have some interesting mechanics to them - adds/random ice tomb, burn down both bosses at once, and a two phase fight.  It’s raid boss mechanics brought to instancing and I like it. 

We were just about to run Nexus when my computer died.  It looks like the motherboard died.  So now I have to deal with that before getting back on - I may just kidnap my work computer for the weekend. 

Karilyn on Tankspot has a great graphical breakdown of Warrior Ideal Warrior Single Target Threat Rotation as of 3.02. As is noted in the comments, be careful with Shockwave as it can easily miss a large target if you don’t aim it dead center while standing inside the target.

I don’t have much to add to this Things Every Warrior Tank Thinks Every Non-Tank Should Know. Mostly I’m making a note of it for when we get back into raiding again in Wrath and a new raider joins us.

As I look forward to Wrath, I’m worried about having to PvP for PvE gear again.  I still use my PvP shield for tanking on my warrior despite having cleared Kara many, many times and having done a good chunk of ZA.  I’m bored with PvP and I really don’t plan on doing much of it come the expansion.  No incoming dramatic protest, I’ll just live with having sub-optimal gear if the optimal gear requires PvP to acquire.  If PvP becomes fun for me again, I’ll do it then. 

Warrior Best item point scale to use going into Wrath? looks like a good point scale for rating items in Pawn for Warriors.

Looks like something similar for paladin tanks.

I’ve missed having a Pawn Scale. Now I need something for a resto druid, tanking druid, and resto shaman.

TankingTips.com has a good post on Maximizing DPS and Minimizing Damage Taken for Warriors. I’ve been in the top 3 overall DPS for our last two Kara runs (okay, so we swapped some other people in and I’m counting trash, but still). I’m looking forward to applying these tips.

Tristam got his Helm of Evil Laughter from the Headless Horseman.  This was the one thing I wanted from the Halloween festival so I’m a happy camper.  I was also happy to get a glowy orange pumpkin sword.  Both of these are purely cosmetic but they’re fun.

We’re getting awfully close to 3.0x’s release - no official date yet though.  Here are the builds I’m looking at for my toons.  I expect that I’ll have made some silly mistakes in picking out talents, but I can live with that.

Tristam is going to be tanking for any raids we get going between now and Wrath and for our static group after Wrath’s release.  I need to track down more build information, but for now I’m thinking Warrior 5/0/54. (I should also look at this build from TankingTips.com.

Andromache is going to stick to protection as well.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up doing 5 mans for most of her leveling.  I’m leaning toward Paladin 0/56/5.

Arthemis is definitely going for a primarily beast mastery spec.  Exotic pets look like fun, but I suspect I’ll stick with my kitty pet for actual leveling.  One of my favorite things about hunters is chain trapping.  Thus I’m aiming for resourcefulness down the survival tree with Hunter 41/0/20.  I know it’s sub-optimal for MQoSRDPS but this is not a grouping toon, it’s a fun toon so BRK can bite me. 

The following toons are not 70 yet, so here’s where I think I’ll head given their current levels. 

Emerys is likely going to stay feral.  I’m leaning towards Druid 0/51/6 at the moment. (An alternate spec from ThinkTank is Druid 0/50/11)

Anzu is going to stay enhancement.  I’m leaning towards Shaman 0/51/6. EDIT: Apparently resto is no longer as useful, so I’m thinking Shaman 6/51/0 instead.

I think I’d like to give demonology a shot on Merddyn, so I’ll try Warlock 0/54/0. 

Flint is staying in retirement for now, so I’m not even thinking about priest builds. 

Most evenings when I get home, I do a daily maintenance routine in Warcraft.  First I log onto my bank alt, see what’s sold, and scan the auction house for bargains.  If I’m lucky I’ll have passed another goalpost money-wise.  Then I log into my enchanter, disenchant the stuff my bank alt has sent, mail the resulting mats back, and check the daily fishing quest.  If it’s one I can do I’ll do it on her and my paladin to skill up their fishing and pick up some extra fish for buff food.  Then it’s on to my warrior for my daily transmute.  If it was one of the tougher fishing quests, I may go do it on him.  Then it’s on to my shaman to prospect any ores that my bank alt may have found.  Finally I log back into my bank alt and put the enchanting mats and gems up for sale.  By the time I finish that, it’s about time for me to log off to help the kids with homework.  I’ll be back on to play in an hour or two. 

The whole routine takes me about an hour.  Why do I do it?  It’s easy money.  I’m nowhere near the gold cap, but I’ve had no problem buying epic mounts for my level 70 toons.  It’s easy to interrupt.  It really doesn’t matter if I walk away from my computer for 15 minutes in the middle of a transmute.  If I tried that in the middle of a run it wouldn’t go so well.  This part of my evening is prone to interruptions anyway, so I may as well plan for them. 

A good chunk of it is just a personality thing.  I like to get the dull stuff out of the way first so that I can enjoy the good stuff guilt free.  Doing this little maintenance routine is enough fun that I get a little break between work and starting housework.  At the same time, it’s dull enough that I’d rather not be doing it during my prime playing time.  Taking care of routine stuff this way works for me.

  Do you have any routines you follow in WoW?

Ciderhelm at TankSpot gives us something to look forward to in his Protection Warrior 3.0 Overview. After seeing what happened to hunter talents in the latest Beta build, I’m not taking anything as gospel. That being said, I did make sure to go farm for Coren’s Lucky Coin in the BRD Brewfest event on both my tanks.

My warrior has 150ish badges that I haven’t gotten around to spending.  I am aware that I should be upgrading my gear with badge gear, but the idea of spending the gold to get things re-gemmed and re-enchanted annoys me.  It’s part of my pre-Wrath blahs - why knock myself out for gear that will be replaced all too soon?  If I think of it tonight I’ll pick up Girdle of the Fearless to replace my Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable as that seems to be a decent upgrade (the bonus is that it has only 1 gem slot and no enchants).  After that, if I make back up to 100 badges before Wrath, I should pick up Sunguard Legplates and spend way too much on leg armor and gems. 

If you want to know which pre-Wrath gear will likely take you up to level 80, demog has you covered with WOTLK Tanking Gear List.  (via Can Tank, Will Travel)  I’m surprised at how much badge gear looks like it will be viable through level 80.  The bit that makes me sad is that I won’t be getting gear upgrades on my warrior till 80ish.  On the bright side, it means that I’ll be more than ready to tank anything up to that point.