So from my understanding crafted is gonna beat heroic, and should replace gear outside of tier sets (lets pretend ill never get mythic stuff, as I have no desire to reach that).
I have a few questions:
I prefer having the 5 piece set, I know 4 piece plus weaker item (boots) crafted is best. am I gimping myself hugely by just upgrading all 5 pieces to max heroic? It can’t be more than a 1 ilvl different at the end right?
I have heroic gallywix wep (for enhancement shaman) should I replace it with crafted? Technically crafted is higher ilvl, but the iron thumb does have a dmg thingy on it?
8/8 heroic track = 4/8 mythic track, while crafted items are 681 which is equal to 7/8 mythic track. You can also craft embellishments into weapons, i myself use blessed grips which applies a stacking buff for my highest secondary stat.
Rule of thumb has always been item level is always #1 factor when selecting gear.
crafted loses to their respective crest match by 3 ilvls.
so its going to be 3ilvls lower than maxed champ / hero / mythic.
the only reason to wear crafted gear is if you cant find anything that fits the secondary stats you need. and the 2 pieces you need to use the embellishment bonuses. but they will always be inferior to a piece of their tier. because of that 3 ilvl difference.
That three ilvl loss was only for Myth-track crafted. Base spark gear maxed at 645, which was as high as you could get with carved crests. The runed crest crafted item capped at 658 and 658 was the highest you could get with runed crests on Champ/Hero gear. The only ilvl loss was on Myth track because gilded crest weapon would go to 675 when gilded crest upgrades on myth track ended at 678.
Until you get to gilded crests, there was zero ilvl loss with crafted gear.
crafted gear is locked at an ilvl. that always leaves them behind their relevant base and hero pieces. even with the current 2 upgrade bump. they still sit behind.
As explained, the only piece that was behind is the gilded upgrade crafted. Runed went to 658 and 658 is the highest ilvl you can get with runed crests.
All of them are equal EXCEPT for the gilded ilvl of 681 vs 684.
Carved gets to 645, base spark gets to 645.
Runed gets to 658, runed crafted gets to 658.
If you have gilded crests, the best things to put them into are:
Myth-track item, weapons and trinkets being high priority
If no myth-track item, get 681 crafted.
Hero track is last priority use for gilded crests, such as if you don’t have enough sparks.
If you don’t have gilded crests, everything is equal. Crafted or hero track will reach the same ilvl with runed.
The extra upgrades on Hero/Myth track doesn’t change that because those only used gilded crests (and crafted items could spend the same amount of gilded to cover for that ilvl bump).
Well, without the extra 6 iLv from the upgrade matrix, it’s iLv 675. It still over a maxed out hero item though. So if you can, you should just craft then if you change your mind and want to use the hero item, you can easily upgrade it with just valorstones.
Cost the same among from crests - assuming you are at max champion for that slot; 60 Glided crests.
OP is doing +10s, so realistically save gilded for upgrading whatever myth track comes out of the vault and prioritize major slots there. If there’s a huge stockpile of crests building up, then craft myth track pieces.
The biggest hazard with crafted stuff is that you can pick anything to craft but the vault is only gonna give 3 choices max. The ilvl difference doesn’t matter nearly as much as potentially getting squat from the vault.