Why you should not use gearscore.

[Chrizesu]

Gearscore....

So one time I was tanking H CoS and we were having a bit of trouble, and then after the 3rd wipe I realized I was in my resto gear.
The healer was like, "I was wondering why a druid with 5k gs had so low health."

....

We still managed to get the drake.

My reply to this thread: Do check your GS right after you obtain/equip a new piece of gear?

[Sarayana]

Hahahahahaha! Well at least the group was cool. Seems to me most people get pissy if they die, let alone wipe... I've had someone bitch at me for "not healing me" on Garfrost when he was not clearing stacks. I mean come on, learn the fight, idiot! >.> /sidetrack.

Aaaaanyway, as for the addon itself, I have to say that I am a pretty firm believer that an armory/in-game inspection will do the job just fine. What the addon attempts to do is to sum up where a potential raider has his/her gear from. What it doesn't do is show whether the person knows anything about his/her class and spec. It's a massively abused addon, but the idea is not bad. People just tend to forget to look beyond the number.

As for being in the wrong gear set? I do that all the time. *sigh* Wouldn't be so bad if I were resto/balance, but it turns out my heals suck in my feral set... >.>

[Adam-Savage]

I always check my gs after I put a new piece on.

[Kalliope]

That's a classic case of gear score picking up something useful, but the brain not being applied to said information in order to use it. This happens all the friggin' time. People use the addon as a substitute for thinking instead of using it to enhance awareness.

That guy should have been able to put two and two together simply by thinking "somethin' wrong here" and actually looking at your gear. -_-

[RimeCat]

If you PuG raid, then yes you have to be aware of your GS. I've gone so far as to equip my ilvl 264 sigil and ilvl 232 trinkets to get a group only to replace them with 245 sigil and 200 trinkets that I actually use. Those of us who can't maintain a regular raid schedule or prefer smaller guilds have to do what we have to do.

And killing GS isn't the answer - then the RL will replace 'minimum 5k GS' with 'link achievement' and people will have an even harder time breaking into the raid circuit.

[Dizzy]

The problem with gearscore is that nobody knows how to use it correctly.

So now everyone's views on GS is completely skewed.

It wasn't meant to be the way that people have made it. (The: UR GS IS 2 LOW UR BAD)

[Dulanie]

new addon = playerscore

records the gear/spec/proffesions/dps/heals/tanking/cc and calculates how bad/good the player is. If done correctly it will reflect skill>gs. I am really hopeing that in Cata Blizz goes back to the way instances were in vanilla. I hate how people think you can just faceroll anything just because everyone has a GS of 5k+ I have seen too many raids wipe in Vanilla raids (ZG, AQ20 & 40, BWL, and even MC) just because they think because they're 80 and ICC geared they can faceroll through it no prob. To date I have yet to be in a raid that can get passed the twins in AQ40 because of this.

[Anansi]

I don't use Gearscore, and have no idea what my GS is on either of my characters. If someone wants some quantifiable data I either point them to http://elitistarmory.com/ or I check that site to get my average gear ilevel (259 on my Hunter, 254 on my Shaman in his healing, ie raid, gear).

Gearscore is meaningless and indicates nothing about the ability of the player. If a raid leader is serious about investigating the quality of applicant raiders, Elitist Armory gives all sorts of great information, but if they don't want to look up the player, an average gear ilevel should be enough. Gearscore reliance is lazy and used as a yardstick by raid leaders who, in my opinion, don't know what they are doing or just want an easy run (5k requirement for Naxx? Really?).

Too many people look at GS as well to determine the usefulness of a piece of gear. I was briefly in a guild where players were obsessed and would only talk about how certain desired items would put their GS at a certain point. Gearscore does not consider the usefulness of a piece of gear to your class or spec, it doesn't indicate the player knows what they are doing in regards to smart gear choices, it does not indicate ability.

[Ryno]

Oi, I hate the hype over gearscore.

I play casually. I PuG raids sometimes. I have enough skill to raid with several classes/specs if I wanted. But I can't commit to one toon enough for this.

I don't pay attention to gearscore for things. I do, however, sometimes inspect someone's gear to get an overall feel for what they have.

Example. I was in a VoA 25. I inspect a healer, a shaman. His gear is mostly quest blues, with maybe three or four epic pieces. He has no chants/gems. Some of his gear is even green quality cloth. The healing he did in the actual VoA was pathetic.

At the same time, we did down the frost guy.

So if the raid leader was checking gearscore, he would've kicked that guy instantly. But at the same time, would it have mattered? Answer, probably not.

[Adam-Savage]

Oi, I hate the hype over gearscore.

I play casually. I PuG raids sometimes. I have enough skill to raid with several classes/specs if I wanted. But I can't commit to one toon enough for this.

I don't pay attention to gearscore for things. I do, however, sometimes inspect someone's gear to get an overall feel for what they have.

Example. I was in a VoA 25. I inspect a healer, a shaman. His gear is mostly quest blues, with maybe three or four epic pieces. He has no chants/gems. Some of his gear is even green quality cloth. The healing he did in the actual VoA was pathetic.

At the same time, we did down the frost guy.

So if the raid leader was checking gearscore, he would've kicked that guy instantly. But at the same time, would it have mattered? Answer, probably not.

Gearscore is like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.

EDIT: Gearscore does help you pick the right players for stuff like Voa 25 or even ICC. I'm not picky with GS but had I seen the healers gear I would of booted himself as well. Reason being is I don't want a fail group. For Voa 25 I usually ask for a min of a 2500 gs unless there really good. The dps does not matter to much if you have strong heals. I also check achievements to see if they have experience.