Friday, May 25, 2012

I Asked Mr Robot

I'm going to cover a little bit about Ask Mr. Robot.  This post is two-fold.  A Quick Start guide and a slightly more Advanced section.

What is Ask Mr. Robot?  Mr. Robot is a character optimization website.
Before you skip down to the good stuff, if you've never heard about Ask Mr. Robot, you might be missing out on some potentially powerful improvements.  What A.M.R. does is look at your character from the armory, Checks some filters (these are built in, but you can also customize anything you want), and then gives you data showing you how you can really optimize your character via reforging, enchanting and gems at the click of a button.

While there's many alternatives for optimization, I'm going to cover how to get the most out of A.M.R. for now.

At first Glance the AskMrRobot site can look quite intimidating, but it isn't as difficult as you might think. I wrote up this guide for a quick, easy visual tutorial to get you right into optimizing your character the right way, and fast!

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 ASK MR ROBOT QUICK START GUIDE
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More detailed information at the AskMrRobot Primer and FAQ
and also detailed info on "How does Mr. Robot's Optimizer work?"

1: Go to http://askmrrobot.com
2: Enter your Server and your character's name then click "Load".
3: Once your character is loaded you'll see it below. Click the character you want to optimize.


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4: Click Reload
5: Make sure you're in the right Spec and gear!! (If you are not in the right spec and gear, log out of WoW while in the correct spec and gear, then repeat the above steps). This is your character as seen in the Armory.
6: Click "Optimize!"


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7: A new tab appears, and Now you see what Ask Mr Robot is suggesting.
So: My Gear Optimized Score% - My Gear Score% = Difference%, the larger the Difference percent, the more you should reconsider optimizing. 


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8: Gear Optimization: Clicking on the Best In Slot button will show you your best in slot gear,but based on the options you selected.
It may suggest gear out of your current reach, so it is best to adjust your most realistic level of obtainable gear first in the options so that you have a realistic goal.
See Options below for adjusting these settings.


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Any time you've equipped new gear, gems and enchants, Check A.M.R. to make sure you're still optimized (Make sure you didn't drop below any important stat minimum requirements etc).  I don't recommend worrying too much about optimization until you're at level cap since you will be constantly replacing many, many gear items frequently.

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 ASK MR ROBOT
SLIGHTLY MORE ADVANCED START GUIDE
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There are two places you can adjust more advanced choices.
  • Set Options and Filters
  • Edit Stat Weights
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Set Options and Filters: (The Gears / 'Change' button)
  • Did you just ding max level? Are you trying to prep for raiding? Are you already decked out in the latest and greatest?
  • Maybe you don't have the cash or materials for epic enchants...
  • Maybe you don't like to run fast because you have alternatives and would prefer pure stat enchants.
  • Maybe you aren't quite in the latest tier gear yet so using epic gems too soon is a little silly.
  • This is the place you want to set these filters and options!


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Editing Stat Weights
  • Target Level Choose your target leve from the drop down.  This determines a few things in the AMR calculations.
  • Edit Boxes can be manually edited or adjusted to Your specifications if you want to try something different.

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Thanks for checking out my Ask Mr Robot beginners and almost advanced user guide!

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the guide, it was getting old explaining A.M.R. to people. Now I can just refer them to this site. You are great and the guide is great too. Thanks.

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  2. My guildie recommended MrRobot, and I just cringed. Every time I've seen someone use the site it's always giving them bad advice.

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    1. This is always an interesting thing to see. If you know your class and math so well that you do not need to use an outside source for maintaining or improving your characters, congratulations. If you simply do not like A.M.R. that is fine too.

      World/Server/Faction first players don't use these tools, but this is an extreme minority of players.

      However, my experience with most players and A.M.R. is quite positive, that in many more cases than not, using an outside source Such as (but not limited to) AskMrRobot can greatly improve a player's performance and even awareness in the future about things they may never have considered in the past.

      I won't allow flaming topics from anonymous users going forward, but I feel that it merits being seen so that players can understand that not everyone is happy with AskMrRobot. If you figure out how to use it properly and understand why it suggests what it does (Sometimes by the user's own selected filters) you'll come to find that it is definitely a helpful source for anyone not on bleeding edge content.

      I use AskMrRobot and I have only gotten praise from people that I have tanked for. Not one negative comment, especially from my gear.

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  3. Thanks Elunamakata and Ryan! I am glad you found it an understandable guide to get through :)
    When I come across someone that needs an overhaul, they are usually intimidated by most if not all outside help sources.

    After hearing the Devs on a Convert to Raid podcast and hearing that they too were trying to think of ways to ease people into using A.M.R. I decided something visual and introductory like this needed to be made.

    If I can make the quality of life of Raid Finder or Dungeon Finder (or even in guild runs) just a little more Bearable by showing people how easy it is to get themselves in the ball park of where they should be, then I am happy to assist.

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  4. Really helpful post! I jumped into AMR a bit blindly, so this article has definitely helped me understand other functions that were hiding in plain sight.

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