The aim of this discussion is to derive a few relations that come out of the spellcrafting equations, and then apply those relations to determine some fundamental limits.

First off, the capacity of an item, C, is

(1) C = roundown((2*m1+m2+m3+m4)/2)

Where m1, m2, m3, and m4 are the point equivalents of the abilities on the 4 slots. Note that

(2) m1 >= m2, m3, m4...m1 is the largest ability.

You calculate the point equivalent by,

(3) m = f*p

where the factor f

Table 1: Factors for points
---------------------------
f, ability/skill/attribute
5, skills
2, power, resists
1, attributes
1/4, hp

They have a 'first point is free' rule for skills, power and resistance, where

(4) m = f*(p-1)

So for example to make +3 envenom, you only need

m = 5*(3-1) = 10 points, since the +3 skill (p=3), and the factor is 5 for skills

Define the items total points as

(5) mt = m1 + m2 + m3 + m4

And you can tell by inspection of (1) that when mt= odd number, you get that point for free off of rounddown.

Using (5) and (1) you can show

(6) C = rounddown ((mt+m1)/2)

And for illustrative purposes, ignore rounddown, and solve for mt

(7) mt = 2*C - m1

Now an items capacity, C, is a constant, and a function of material level and item quality. Here is the specific form,

(8) C = k(Q)*L

The capacity factor, k(Q) is a factor that comes from a lookup table based on quality, Q, and L is the material level. Here are those factors, with the capacity for the top end material level 51 (C(51))

Table 2: Capacity factors and Material level 51 Factors
------------------------------------------------------
Q, k(Q), C(51)
94, 0.2, 10
95, 0.28, 15
96, 0.34, 18
97, 0.4, 21
98, 0.46, 24
99, 0.53, 28
100, 0.61, 32

So a 99 quality lvl 46 item will have from (8) C = 0.53*46= 24, and the lvl 51 material capacity is 28 for a 99% quality item from the lookup value.

Note also the material levels are not listed, but ranges for them are printed at the calculator on the herald,

Table 3: Material level ranges
-----------------------------
Level 1-5 Bronze, Copper, Rawhide, Rowan, Woolen, Leaf
Level 6-10 Iron, Ferrite, Tanned, Elm, Linen, Bone
Level 11-15 Steel, Quartz, Cured, Oak, Brocade, Vine
Level 16-20 Alloy, Dolomite, Hard, Ironwood, Silk, Shell
Level 21-25 Fine Alloy, Cobalt, Rigid, Heartwood, Gossamer, Fossil
Level 26-30 Mithril, Carbide, Embossed, Runewood, Sylvan, Amber
Level 31-35 Adamantium, Sapphire, Imbued, Stonewood, Seamist, Coral
Level 36-40 Asterite, Diamond, Runed, Ebonwood, Nightshade, Chitin
Level 41-45 Netherium, Netherite, Eldritch, Drywood, Wyvernskin, Fossilized
Level 46-51 Arcanium, Arcanite, Tempered, Duskwood, Silksteel, Crystallized

So if you return to expression (7), you can see that in order to maximize capacity, you want to minimize m1. The lowest value m1 can be is tied for max with either m2, m3, or m4. So let it be m2, and we see that m1=m2=m, and

mt = 2c - m = m + m + m2 + m3 = 2m + m2 + m3

Again to maximize mt, you see you want m2 and m3 as large as possible. The largest value either can be is equal to m1, so you can find that

(9) mt = max, when m1=m2=m3=m4= m, and mt = 4m

This is a pretty important finding. You can get the most points into an item by having the point values of each gem the same.

In this limit the capacity simplifies to

(10) C = rounddown(5*m/2) ; or you can solve for m = 2*C/5 up to the rounding factor

Now spellcrafting then has upper limits to the capacity, such as the lvl 51 material at 100% quality. YOu can attempt to overload at C = C + 5. So the largest capacity you can spellcraft without overload will ever be 32 pts. If you overload, you can go up to capacity 37. But how easy is it to overload?

Well lets establish the success rate for overload, S

(11) S = O(C) + (SCL-500)/10 + I(Q) + G

where O(C) is the overcharge penalty as a function of how far you overcharged the capacity

Table 4: Overcharge Penalty
---------------------------
C, O(C)
+1, -10
+2, -20
+3, -30
+4, -50
+5, -70

So if you try to overcharge by the maximum amount (+5), you would have a -70% chance to succeed.

All hope is not lost with these negative numbers. The first factor that matters is your spellcrafting level, SCL. The second term in (11) is essentially that. For instance if you had 1000 spellcrafting, you would have a bonus to overcharging of +50%.

Item quality has an overcharge bonus, I(Q). Also the quality of the gems matter a great deal, and you can get a gem quality bonus to overcharging, G

(12) G = G1(Q) + G2(Q) + G3(Q) + G4(Q)

where these values are found in the following table

Table 5: Item quality and Gem Quality Bonuses for Overcharge
------------------------------------------------------------
Q, I(Q), G(Q)

94-95, 0, 0
96, +6, +1
97, +8, +3
98, +10, +5
99, +18, +8
100, +26, +11

So lets say you have a 1000 spellcrafter (SCL=1000) overcharging a lvl 51, 100% quality item to achieve a capacity of 37, the max. He uses 4, 100% quality gems. His chance of success is S = -70% + 50% + 26% + 4*11% = 50%. So a smart spellcrafter will save his 100% quality gems for overcharge comissions. Note that spellcrafters make their own gems from reagents.

So we have derived 2 important limits- the maximum capacity in the game for a spellcrafter is C=37, and the way you get the most points into it is by having m1=m2=m3=m4=m. So what is m in this limit?

From (10), m = 2*37/5 = 14.8 = 15. And the most points you can get on any spellcrafted item is mt = 4*m= 60. The problem is that gems come in specific amounts as a function of grade,


Table 6: Gem value as a function of grade
-----------------------------------------
Gem Type, Raw Uncut Rough Flawed Imperfect Polished Faceted Precious Flawless Perfect
Essence (Stats), +1 +3 +5 +7 +9 +11 +13 +15 +17 +19
Shielding (Resists),+1 +2 +3 +5 +7 +9 +11 +13 +15 +17
Focus, 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Battle (Skills), +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
War (Skills), +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
Fervor (Skills), +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
Evocation (Skills), +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
Primal (Skills), +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
Chaos (Skills), +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
Nature (Skills), +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
Arcane (Skills), +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
Blood (HP), +4 +12 +20 +28 +36 +44 +52 +60 +68 +76
Mystic (Power), +1 +2 +3 +5 +7 +9 +11 +13 +15 +17

But if we express these in terms of points for m values, you get

Table 7: Point equivalents of the gems, m
-----------------------------------------
Gem Type, Raw, Uncut, Rough, Flawed, Imperfect, Polished, Faceted, Precious, Flawless, Perfect
Essence (Stats), 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19
Shielding (Resists) 2, 4, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34
Focus 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Battle (Skills) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50
War (Skills) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50
Fervor (Skills) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50
Evocation (Skills) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50
Primal (Skills) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50
Chaos (Skills) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50
Nature (Skills) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50
Arcane (Skills) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50
Blood (HP) 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19
Mystic (Power) 2, 4, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34


So in the ideal situation where m =15, you can put in +15 stats (precious), +7% resistance ( imperfect), any focus value, +4 skills (includes free +1, rough gem), +60 hp (precious), and +8 power (imperfect). Note that resists power do not come out right since they are even numbers and 15 is odd.

Now lets get into some other fundamental limits- your number of slots.

You have 6 armor slots: torso, arms, legs, boots, gloves, head
You have 8 jewelry slots: 2 rings, 2 bracers, cloak, jewel, necklace, belt
You have up to 2 weapon slots: 2 weapons, or weapon + shield

So the most items you can equip are 16.

If all of these were the overcharged, lvl 51 items at the very limit of capacity, you have the point equivalent from items of:

Maximum points from spellcrafted items = 16*60 = 960. Hitting that maximum is another story. I was asking around on alliance chat the other day what a 100% quality arcanium weapon cost- how many rolls did it take. The answer I got was 40 rolls, or around 4.3 platinum. Call it 4 plat. Now if you do manage to find a spellcrafter who has 1000 skill and 60, 100% quality gems of exactly the kind you need, he would have a 50% success rate to overload that item, and on average you are now looking at 8plat per item. But since we don't know the material cost in producing a 100% quality gem, we can't be certain. The good news is that for the m=15 limit, we are not talking the highest tier gems and the ability to produce these gems probably tracks tradeskill, and lower tier gems are probably easier to get higher quality gems. But I would say probably 1plat for 4 gems of the exact 100% type you need would be a good guess, and with the failure rate, you are looking at 10 plat per item, over 16 items or 160 platinum to completely outfit your character in the best of the best.

Now to get a handle on that kind of gold, my 50th eld used to solo curms for gold in collorary- you would get maybe 3 gold a pull, 1 pull a minute (includes downtime). This is 180g per hour, 10.8 platinum per 24hr day, so you would need 15 days of non stop farming just for gold of these curms to get the warchest you need. Most people have characters at lvl 50 who are between 20 and 40 days old, so 15 days post 50 of just farming gold is probably a bit excessive.

Now your characters caps for items are

Table 8: Item caps for bonuses
------------------------------
+1.5x lvl for stats, +75 @ 50
+L/2+1 for resists or power, +26 @ 50
+L/5+1 for skills, +11 @ 50
+L*4 for hp, +200 @ 50

So say you wish to make the ultimate fighter type. You want to max dex, str, con, and qui, or have +75*4 = 300 points there. To this you of course want max=26% thrust, crush, and slash resistance, or 26*2*3 = 156 pts for physical resists. Then of course you want to max=26% your resist to heat, cold, body, matter, body, spirit, and energy = 7*26*2 = 364 points there. And to finish you want +200hp, = +50 points there.

The above are rough figures and really would be modified by how you package them. For instance a 26% resistance stat on an m=14 cap, would be 7% from an imperfect gem. The next step up would be a 9% gem, which would have an m like 16 since the first point is free, but 16 is above the 15 cap so you step down. Three of these get you to 21, then you would need to go with a rough, 5% gem, which counts like 4% or a m=8pts. So these tag ends at m2=m3=m4=8 would mean for a capacity C= 37 imbue, you would then have an m1 that could go as high as 37-24/2= 25, and the points of the item would be 49 instead of the optimal 60.

Adding it up before you begin your plans of skills, that is 870 points. This of course is ignoring the free 1%'s you get with any resistance gems etc. This leaves you with 960-870= 90 pts for skills. I don't even know if you could make that owing to the fact that gems come in discrete amounts and sometimes those amounts are not ideal. But if you assume that you could squeeze another 90 out, for skills that would be +24 skills from 6 gems. And this is for the 150 platinum madman. Skills are funny in that you can have no more than 1 +skills gem for one particular skill on an item, so to get something like +11 sword, you need to spread that across 3 items -or- put less than the ideal number of points into an item. So you cant have it all with spellcrafting...the cap is set such that you must make some tradeoffs on what you give up.

The good news is items with capacity greater than 37 drop. Lets consider for instance the shadowblade epic armor,

- Epic: SHADOWBLADE EPIC ARMOR
Shadow Shrouded Arms AF:100 CON:15 DEX:16 Crush:10% Thrust:10%
Shadow Shrouded Boots AF:100 DEX:13 QUI:13 Stealth:5 Heat:6%
Shadow Shrouded Gloves AF:100 QUI:12 HIT:33 CS:2 Envenom:4
Shadow Shrouded Helm AF:100 STR:10 CON:12 DEX:10 QUI:10
Shadow Shrouded Jerkin AF:100 STR:13 DEX:13 HIT:30 Heat:6%
Shadow Shrouded Legs AF:100 STR:12 CON:15 QUI:12 Slash:10%

To find the capacity equivalent of these items, determine the m's for each ability, find out what m1 is, and calculate from (1) what its capacity is

arms = (36+18+16+15)/2 = 85/2 = 42
boots = (40+10+13+13)/2 = 76/2 = 38
gloves = (30+5+8+12)/2 = 55/2 = 27
helm = (24+10+10+10)/2 = 54/2 = 27
jerkin = (26+13+7+10) = 56/2 = 28
legs = (36+12+15+12) = 75/2 = 37

So you can see right off that the arms have a capacity higher than is possible by spellcrafting. Epic armor is not that bad. Same goes for Legion drops- it will be hard beating them. Good drops let you beat the spellcrafting C=37 limit, and they are a good pick if everything on the list is useful. We already know that C=37 is probably going to cost you 10plat or so, and C=32 with no overloading is going to cost you maybe 4plat. How can you get a more reasonable SC item?

A valid point can be made that 'Well the packaging of the items is garbage'. For instance on the forgoing epic armor arms, you have a total points mt= 18+18+16+15 = 67. Calculating the effective capacity of this item, you would get 42.5, or to craft this it would be like doing a capacity 42. An ideal C=42.7 item would have m=m1=m2=m3=m4= 17pts, and would have 4*17pts = 68 pts. So this is a fairly efficient item with 67 out of a possible 68 points packed in.

But lets do the same thing for say the boots. Total points are 58, and it would be like a 38 cap spellcraft, but in an ideal 38 craft capacity item you would have m=15.6, for 62 pts total. THis isnt a well constructed item.

So lets define a packing efficiency of an item. Packing efficiency is the ratio of the actual points in an item to the theoretical ideal maximum points an item of that capacity could hold.

Using (6) and (10) you can compute the capacity of the item, and the theoretical m for which you would have ideal pack. Then using 4 times that m to get an ideal points total you can ratio the actual points to those ideal points and find

(13) Packing efficiency = 1.25(mt/(m1+mt))

so something like the legs with m1=18, and mt=57 would have a packing efficiency of 0.95. You could do 5% better than that in an ideal world.

Because of this, a better way to compare items is to just total their mt's and see what you get from the item, remembering 60pts is the most you can hope for on a 100% quality, lvl 51 item that was overcharged to 37 capacity.

Returning to our same list of SB items, we have for MT

arms = 67
boots = 53
gloves = 40
helm = 42
jerkin = 43
legs = 57

It is clear that the arms are in the regime beyond imbuing, and the legs are pretty good, but the gloves, helm and jerkin may be beat by a good imbue.

Well lets say you dont have that lvl 51 material, you have say a 46th material, and you don't have a 100 qua item, but instead have a 99 quality item. That crafter who is busting his butt to make that 100 quality item may have a few 99's banked. Instead of 4 plat for perfection, you can prob get one of these for near material cost. Typical cost of these high end materials is say 150g, and at 3x cost to get a 99, you are around 500g. This material has a base capacity of 24. WIth overloading you could take this up to 29, but somewhere between 24 and 29 would be more reasonable. The most points you could pack into one of these things ranges from 2*24/5 = 10 to say 2*29/5 = 11. So figure m=10 for 4 slots = 40 pts is a much more reasonable imbue. Were you to go all 15 items spellcrafted, this would be 40*15 = 600 points, and you could not max out stats, resists, and hp on these items alone.

So what I would do is instead of planning all slots/items to be spellcrafted, go through your epic armor list, the DF loot list, and the drops list for your class and see if there are any great capacity items on those lists. Then use spellcrafting to fill in the holes. One glaring hole at first glance is in the form of jewelry. Consider for instance the lvl 50 drop list for rings for Shadowblades,

Rings:
- Twisted Darksteel Ring (Spin): +2 CS, +7 Dex, +6 Quick = 18pts, 90% pack eff
- Ring of Glacial Might (Raum): 10 Str, 10 Con, 6% Cold = 30pts, 93% pack eff
- Ring of Ice (Raum): 13 con, 6% cold, 6% heat, 6% spirit = 43pts, 93% pack eff
- Infernal Black Diamond Ring (DF): 12 str, 12 con, 10% cold = 42pts, 87% pack eff
- Ancient Ebon Ring (Malm): 7 str, 7 con, 7 quick, 6 char, 6 power = 30pts, 94% pack
- Flame Wrought Ring (Malm): 9 dex, 9 quick, 8% heat, 8% spirit = 46pts, 96% pack
- Giant Black Sapphire Ring (Vanern): 7 str, 7 dex, 15 hits = 18pts, 90% pack
- Drakulv Mightcaller (Malm): 12 Str, +15 hits = 16pts, 71% pack
- Shadowsteel ring (spin): +18 hits, 4% cold, 4% heat, 4% energy = 22pts, 98% pack

Note most of this junk is just that...junk. Sure you got the occasional rare drop like the ring of ice or flame wrought ring which beats the curve, but in general my findings from looking at the available jewelry is that spellcrafting will have the greatest impact here.

I also think there is a lot of room for weapons and spellcrafting. Take for instance 1 handed axes above 90 quality,

Brilliant Saeor's Serrated Cleaver (Prince)(Either Hand): 16.2 DPS, 4.2 Speed, 94 QL, , 25% bonus, +5 axe, +7 str...Procs an 80 a Tick DOT at level 49. = 27pts, 71% pack eff
- Double Bladed Ice Razor (Raum)(Mainhand): 16.2 DPS, 4 Speed, 93 QL, 9 Str, 5 Axe, 2 Parry, 4% cold (Not sure of Proc) = 25pts, 67% pack
- Axe of the Balefire (Legion): DPS:16.5 DPS, 3.4 Speed, 100 QL,35% bonus, strength 14, 4 Axe, 4 parry, not sure of proc = 43pts, 93% pack

I don't know how to treat the proc, but someone who just wants quality can probably get a nice arcanium axe and get that spellcrafted instead of going on raid after raid hoping to be the one this time that gets the legion/prince/WoW drop.

The implementation plan seems to say that armor/weapon spellcrafting is next, and jewelcrafting will be added at a much later date.


Another thing that I am seeing now is the multiple specs in the mid 30's build that miraculously become multi 50 specs at lvl 50 with ranks and spellcrafted items. An instance of this is say the shadowzerker verses 5 spec shadowblade builds. For instance this spec,

Initial Spec:
39 LA
35 Axe
35 Envenom
34 Stealth
34 CS

Is now considered superior by many than this spec,

44 LA
43 Axe
35 Envenom
35 Stealth
10 CS

With the reasoning that at RR5 (+4 skills) the former would need +7+11+11+11+11 = +48 skills, and the latter would need +3+4+11+11= 29 skills. The difference here is +19 skill points. Because of all the 11's, you are looking at several less than optimal spellcrafts to hit those numbers and on a raw basis you will tie up +60 more points to get the former than the latter. This is just one item on the uber S=37, 150 platinum plan, or its close to 1.5 items worth of points in a more reasonable 40pt per item plan. The guy who got his skills closer to their final level is less dependant upon crafted items on all slots, and can take more advantage of things like S>37 epic armor pieces, and drops, and will overall be stronger from a stats and resistance standpoint, and spend far less time endlessly farming gold for spellcrafting. My feel is such plans will only really become viable when jewelcrafting is introduced, as there just isnt that much you can beat in the epic armor.

My aim here is not to say one spec is more uber than another but to point out that if you count heavily upon items to make up the skill gap, you will pay in terms of reduced resistance, attributes, and hp.

SUMMARY oF KEY POINTS
---------------------
-You get the most points into an item by having 4 equal gems.
-The absolute cap for spellcrafting is C=37, corresponding to 60 points on an item. Its cost is prohibitive (10plat est)
-The absolute limit is 960pts from spellcrafted items, probably costing you around 160 platinum and weeks of gold farming
-Epic armor is pretty good, and hard to beat. The weakest areas are weapons (spellcrafting) and jewelry (jewelcrafting)
-Spellcrafters should save 100qual gems for overcharging, and you want a high craft person doing overcharging
-Dropped items can exceed the spellcrafting limit, and it is worth your time to peruse the drop lists
-The efficiency of how well an item was packaged is determined by the packing efficiency, 1.25(mt/(m1+mt))

Acknowledgments
---------------

Thanks to Sharpblade-Swift, Neospice, for pointing out my errors in neglecting the free points for power, resists, and skills in the original equations. Thanks Deme and Sharpblade for getting me to think about the packing efficiency, and consider item comparison solely upon the basis of points and packing efficiency. Thanks to Josh for pointing out I had neglected the 8th jewelry item, the belt.