2 Corinthians 10:12

"... but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."

So, let's engage in a little foolishness, shall we? Thanks to plowing through Zangarmarsh and partway through Nagrand, Aeven is level 65 now. She's actually just shy of level 66, but for what follows, that shouldn't matter.

The other evening, while I was on, I did a "/who pala" and found a random level 65 retribution paladin questing in Terokkar Forest. Chatted with him for a bit, and took a look at his armory listing. From that, I figured he was probably a reasonable person to compare Aeven to - no heirlooms on him, looks like he had a decent selection of appropriate gear and a reasonable talent selection. He didn't know what gearscore was, so we're definitely not talking about a hardcore raider's alt... just a random player with a level 65 pally, going about his business.

So, let's compare Aeven to Mr. Generic Paladin, shall we? For purposes of the comparison, we'll take whatever MGP has as being 100% - so if he's got a stat at 100, and Aeven has a stat at 50, we'll say she's at about 50% on the scale for that stat.

Aeven MGP Scale

Health 3642 5832 62%

Mana 3077 3947 77%

Hmm. Pretty much what you'd expect, here. Aeven's running at a serious health deficit, because - of course - none of her gear has any stamina on it, except for what she can pick up from enchantments. It actually pretty interesting to note that she's gotten to the point where her rank 10 Holy Light spell is generally enough to give her a full heal. Still, her health situation is better than I thought that it would be at this level.

Mana is surprising. It's still lower than expected, but - probably thanks to talents - it's coming in at just slightly over 3/4 on the MGP scale. So she's running out of mana sooner than she otherwise would, but it's not a huge difference. Given that Aeven can burn through a good dozen mobs before she needs to start worrying about mana, that's not bad at all.

Stats Aeven MGP Scale

Strength 135 362 37%

Agility 67 147 45%

Stamina 141 375 37%

Intellect 75 133 56%

Spirit 81 93 87%

Ouch. That lack of gear is really showing up in the stats. For strength and stamina, she's at about 1/3 of what she otherwise could have, compared to MGP. Agility and Intellect are better, coming in at around 50%. And... spirit? Is spirit still a stat? Huh. Apparently it's not that important to paladins. Yes, Aeven has some enchantments to help make up for these gaps, and her profession bonus for mining gives her a nice little stamina bonus. That's obviously just enough to help keep her from being a complete looser, though. Potions, food buffs, scrolls and the like will obviously only narrow this gap slightly.

Melee Aeven MGP Scale

Damage 125-170 458-563 30%

Speed 1.80 3.50 n/a

Power 560 923 60%

Hit Rating 5 29 17%

Crit Chance 15.37% 14.74% 104%

Expertise 5 0 n/a

When it comes to hitting things in the face with a big ol' chunk of something, Aeven's... wow. Really lagging behind. She's putting out about 1/3 of the damage of MGP, which is going to affect both her auto attacks, and her Crusader Strikes. Fortunately, her attack power is almost 2/3 of MGP, which is good, since that's going to impact the effectiveness of her Hammer of Wrath, Exorcism, Avenger's Shield, Seal of Vengeance... and more and more. For Aeven, it looks like attack power is going to be more of a benefit than just about anything else. Crit chance is higher than MGP because of her profession bonuses from skinning.

Spell Aeven MGP Scale

Bonus Damage 168 361 46%

Bonus Healing 168 361 46%

Hit Rating 5 29 17%

Crit Chance 13.55% 10.3% 131%

Haste Rating 0 0 n/a

Mana Regen 20 42 47%

On the "blowing things up with the power of the Light" side, though, Aeven's not doing too shabby. She comes in at about 50% of MGP overall, again with the exception of crit chance, thanks to skinning.

Defense Aeven MGP Scale

Armor 4225 5125 82%

Defense 323 331 97%

Dodge 6.00% 9.43% 63%

Parry 4.92% 10.26% 47%

Block 4.92% 5.24% 93%

In terms of defenses, she's doing much better. Overall, with the exception of her dodge, she's managing to stay very competitive here, at about a solid 2/3 of MGP overall. Keep in mind that she's only upgraded two items of her armor to tarnished plate - if she was in a full set, I think that her armor overall would be closer to 100% of MGP.

Finally, for completeness, a gear comparison. Looking up MGP on a web site, I saw that his gearscore was 914, compared to Aeven's impressive gear score of... zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothin', buddy, just move along. Note that he had not gemmed, nor enchanted, his gear - if he had, the above comparisons would (obviously) have been a bit worse.

MGP

Item Name Level

Helm of Natural Purity 96

Pendant of the Marsh 93

Expedition Mantle 93

Red Linen Shirt 10

Gilded Crimson Chestplate 85

Darkcrest Belt 87

Flintlocke's Piloting Pants 87

Expedition Footgear 93

Imperial Plate Bracers 54

Defender's Gauntlets 93

Tourmaline Loop 90

Amaan's Signet 93

Terokkar Tablet of Precision 99

Crazy Cenarion Cloak 96

Edge of Inevitability 99

Libram of Wracking 93

Guild Tabard 1

Aeven

Item Name Level

Tarnished Plate Helmet 66

Durable Chain Shoulders 24

Squire's Shirt 1

Platemail Armor 50

Platemail Belt 50

Platemail Leggings 50

Platemail Boots 50

Tarnished Plate Bracers 66

Platemail Gloves 50

Argent Dawn Commission 1

Veteran Cloak 12

Ancient Bone Mace 71

Crested Heater Shield 50

Guild Tabard 1