Last-Minute Phase 3 Itemization Changes Including PvP Sets

Late last night, Blizzard tweaked the itemization of some Phase 3 items, including the PvP sets, via hotfixes. We have documented the items that have received recent stat changes in this post.

SoD Phase 3 Overview

Aggrend on the Itemization Process

Senior Game Producer Aggrend also explained the itemization process on X, detailing how many items have their stats adjusted throughout the development process, including a batch of PvP items last night.

Aggrend

RE: Items this patch (as there are a LOT of them).

One thing I want to point out before we go live today is that a lot of the item stats datamined in the last week were not the final stats. Item design in classic is done largely by hand (as opposed to a more procedural design) and as a result, we tend to tinker and test with things throughout the development process, especially when we have the sheer volume of items we've added this phase. Those incremental changes aren't always reflected in datamining if they arrive via a last minute hotfix.

Keep that in mind as you make your BiS lists (or copying others' BiS lists). If you looked at a wowhead post or something last week showing off items, chances are good that the stats on the items you saw may have changed (and some items might not go live at all...).

Another thing to keep in mind is, not all items are perfectly optimized. This is, in fact, intentional. If all items had perfect itemization at 25, 40, 50, and even early on at 60, what would we do in successive raid tiers other than just make those same specific numbers go up slightly? Seems boring. We know what optimal looks like, we just might choose not to do it for a given item. Having some so-so items makes the really good items even more alluring and that's a very classic feeling.
If you have an add on that actually scrapes the in-game api or you use the script that lets you link an item in the db, those should mostly be accurate, though we did make a lot of adjustments late last night, particularly Read more on wowhead.com