by wkjezz
Item and Ability enhancement has been around in World of Warcraft since day one and has steadily evolved into a massive core part of developing your character. Every single primary crafting profession has involved in this in some way:
- Tailors – Leg Enhancement
- Leather Workers – Leg Enhancements (and other armor kits earlier on)
- Blacksmiths – Temporary weapon modifiers, Extra gem sockets, Weapon Chains
- Alchemists – Weapon modifiers (earlier content)
- Enchanters – Largest contributor of general gear enhancement
- Jewel Crafters – Sockets and Trinkets
- Engineers – Non statistic enchants (now stacks with enchanting)
- Scribes – Redefining spell books and personal shoulder enchants
And that is just a general over view. As of Patch 4.0.1 the steaks (Mooo) were raised once more and introduced a new way of itemization enhancements, independent of skill or professions. Welcome to Reforging
- What is Reforging?
- What Stats can I change?
- What secondary stats can I reforge?
- Are there any limitations?
- Where can I Reforge?
- What’s the cost?
- What can I reforge?
In a nutshell Reforging is a new game mechanic that allows you to reduce a statistic on your gear, and then gives you a choice of another statistic that you can replace it with.
Sounds simple; and I am sure the gears are turning in your head right now. However, there are a few ground rules you need to know.
Back to the topYou can change any secondary statistic on an item (except resilience), and replace it with a new secondary statistic that does not already exist on that item. (For example, reducing critical rating, and adding haste, when the item already has haste thus creating super lopsided itemization)
A secondary statistic is the inbuilt enchantment on that item, or in simple language, the green text:
As you can see the item I have exampled has haste on it, however you have decided you would like to have a bit more Critical rating instead. With reforging you can do exactly that.
What secondary stats can I reforge?
You can swap any of the following stats with one another, providing you stay within the boundaries listed in the previous paragraph:
Critical Strike Rating, Dodge Rating, Expertise Rating, Haste Rating, Hit Rating, Mastery Rating, Parry Rating, Spirit
That means that Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Strength, Resilience, Attack Power are immune to reforging.
The one exception to the rule is Spirit. In 4.0.1 Spirit in effect took MP5 (mana generated every 5 seconds) under it’s wing. MP5 used to be a secondary stat and didn’t pop its head up as a raw stat until Burning Crusade. So, Spirit adopts the right to be the only primary stat at this time that is reforgeable.
There are a few limitations you do need to be aware of when reforging your gear. The first is the weight of the reforge. You can not take that 52 haste and turn it into 52 critical, you will only be able to reforge 40% of that value. So in theory you would be able to get 21 critical, leaving 31 haste as part of the original stat.
The second limitation is you can on reforge one stat on an item at a time. Don’t panic though, as you can reforge an item as many times as you like, but you have to reset it’s original state before you do so.
As of 4.0.1 Arcane Reforger was the generic NPC introduced to all major cities with the exception of Shatrath City. Looking at the beta information they may individualize the mobs a little more. They can be found by the enchanting trainers.
Alliance:
(54.9,74.0)
(66.0,44.5)
(58.7,13.2)
(40.9,3.89)
Horde:
(53.3,37.7)
(44.8,37.7)
(61.5,61.1)
(70.1,24.2)
Sanctuaries:
(40.5,42.4)
After doing some of my famous pencil and paper scribbling I did come to the conclusion that in Cataclysm or 4.0.3 that Arcane Reforger will get a true identity. As this information becomes more set in stone I will integrate it in with this guide. For now you can read more about these mobs by following This Link
If you have a limited supply of gold, I can be forgiven for saying, it’s not cheap. Though if you reforge an item just once it’s ultimately free (sort of)
The current pricing model Blizzard have implemented is the default vendor sale of the item. So if you vendor the item later and you reforged it once, you are not out of pocket. Also to reset an item to default, you do not pay for the reset.
This is thought to be one of the reasons blizzard allowed the vendor sale and disenchantment of unwanted PVP gear and such items.
Blizzard went on record by saying they do not intend players to feel the need to reforge every piece of gear; that they hope reforging allows more classes to feel the need to roll on something. They also no longer want to make it so that classes stack one particular stat in excess to be powerful in their character. In theory this makes sense, however, I do not honestly believe that they are going to achieve this yet and that the majority of players will indeed be routinely reforging gear, this remains to be seen.
You can reforge any gear items (including pally books etc) with an item level of at least 200. You can reforge trinkets but the secondary stat has to be stationary and these are a little uncommon. Trinkets with variable itemization (You gain X spirit per spell cast stacking upto X times) do not provide that variable stat as a reforgeable option; this is also true of “on use” trinkets (stats that physically require you to use the trinket to activate).
Thanks for reading as always
Jezz
All images used in this guide were constructed by wkjezz. Source files for the image layers were collected from www.wowhead.com
i may have seen it… i havei may have seen it…
i have deeeeeeeeep issues with spirit (almost as deep as my issues leveling a dk). my main alt is a detro lock. I had glyph of life tap that used to generate spirit with a talent that drew sp. from spirit when life tapping, it was all sexy:( now is gone. worse still, guess what trink I farmed for weeks to get… 1 clue; sarth 3d (10)
*nods* Masteries would*nods* Masteries would probably be better handled by class guides.
As for Spirit being a dirty word, I personally don’t think it’s so dirty compared to Intellect due to a comic involving stacking +Int. =)
Yah, mastery would warrantYah, mastery would warrant it’s own guide, doesn’t belong in this one.
etcI disagree with the observation in part on “Double Stacking” being a terminology issue as I said what “double stacking” was in the above paragraph, thought I did reword it a little seems as that might be upsetting for people that have a chronic Wendy’s addiction
Nice pick up on spirit, as you know my main is a pally healer and spirit is something I wish to try and pretend never made it’s merry way into our repertoire (even if it is completely different in its function now, spirit still feels like a dirty word 🙁 )
As for showing the windows… I debated and debated and decided not to on purpose. I wanted this to really be an FAQ more than a guide; as much to say a Where to go and what does it do. And these are questions ive seen pop up the most in trade/forums albeit somewhat adapted to fit the broader category.
I did have the a bit featuring the trade window up there at some point, but it didn’t look right being there to me; oddly enough; maybe it’s because I worded it oddly, I will revise that draft soon maybe.
At one point I started getting neck deep into mastery and going off on each of the 30 mastery effects… but then decided not only do I not want to write that guide, it doesn’t gel in with the FAQ nature of this piece.
Aaaand another one: “You canAaaand another one:
“You can swap any of the following stats with one another, [u]providing it doesn’t double stack[/u]” <-- This one is just nitpicking and could just be my own personal opinion, but I don't think saying 'double stacking' is quite clear for a newbie.
Specifically, I'd state that:
"You can swap any of the following stats with one another, provided the stat that you wish to add through reforging does not already exist on that item."
I’d also like to add twoI’d also like to add two more comments:
1) Should have a picture of the reforging menu, showing the two boxes on the reforging side.
2) Go a little over how to actually do the reforging (and would cover having a picture of the reforging menu). While I found it common sense…I actually have noticed people asking loudly near reforgers for people to explain to them how to get it to work.
They eventually get that it’s just a drag and drop type deal, but just that they felt the need to ask in the first place brings me to suggesting you go over the process of it.
Your picture forYour picture for primary/secondary is incorrect. While you correctly labeled spirit as a secondary stat in the text portion, in the pic you’ve included it as one of the primary stats (it’s the -one- stat that is still considered secondary despite showing up in the primary stat section)