Tuesday 5 February 2013

Why and where you should craft Vit BoA items instead of Mainstat BoA items


1.0.7 Introduces the new BoA (bind on account) items that will give us several new best-in-slots. Most people will aim to craft them with main stat (Dex, Str, or Int), but in some cases it may be wiser to craft the Vitality versions instead. Here's more:

  • Several of these slots already have "boosted" or "primary" rolls. For example, current gloves can roll up to 300 Dex, and the new BoA gloves will be able to roll up to 330 on whichever stat you choose. Therefore, it may make more sense for DH or Monk to craft Vit gloves and hope for a 300 Dex / 330 Vit glove than crafting Dex gloves and hoping for a 330 Dex / 200 Vit glove.
  • Vit is equally as useful, if not more useful, than mainstat in PvP and Uber hunting.
  • If you play or plan to play multiple classes, crafting Vit allows nearly 100% of your crafts to have mainstat/Vit. If you craft mainstat, a much smaller proportion of your crafts will have mainstat/Vit.
  • Vit-only amulet crafts can be used by all classes. For example, a 300 Vit, 95% CHD, 9% Crit, 9% IAS, +dmg, socketed Amulet would likely be both a DPS and EHP upgrade for most people.

Therefore, the best strategy is likely as follows:
  1. Craft a few mainstat BoA items until you get a high DPS and mediocre defense roll (e.g. only has high vit, high AR, or a bit of both). Use this for low MP farming.
  2. After you have this DPS-focused piece and want to focus on reaching BiS, try to craft Vit pieces for the slots your class has a primary roll (e.g. gloves for DH/monk/wiz/WD, shoulders for barb). That way, you can eventually reach the 300 Mainstat/330 Vit combo. Plus, all of your extraneous byproducts may still be quite useful for other classes. (e.g. a 100 Str roll on a Dex-focused piece is useless while a 100 Str roll on a Vit-focused piece could be used for a future Barb character).