Playing as, and comparing gear

The Playing as plate

Under the Retail | Forever switch in the menu is a plate that says Playing as (or Pick a character the first time). On a phone it is the person icon in the top bar. It opens a side panel with:

• the character you are playing, with its level and item level,
• one-click jumps to its sheet, gear, bags, bank, recipes, reputation and history (on Retail: its sheet and gear, and this week),
• what it has Equipped,
• a list to Switch character.

Your choice is remembered, and when you are signed in it follows you to your other devices.

Compare gear on hover

Hover any item on the site (in an alt's gear, a bag, the bank, a recipe, a vault reward, a boss's loot) and a panel appears beside the tooltip. It shows what your current character wears in that slot, with the item level and every stat that goes up (green) or down (red). Rings and trinkets are set against both slots, and a two-hander against your main hand and off hand together. Special equip effects are mentioned, not counted.

Turn it on or off with Compare gear on hover at the foot of the side panel.

On Retail, gear comes from Battle.net, so comparing needs Battle.net connected on the Account page. On Forever it comes from the addon.

Upgrades on the loot cards (Forever)

On Dungeons & raids, the character you are playing gets its upgrades marked on every boss's loot: "Upgrade for your legs, +12 ilvl", or "Upgrade: empty neck slot". Each dungeon says how many it holds for you, and at the top of the page Upgrades for lists the dungeons for your level with the most first. Only upgrades hides everything else.

An item counts when your character can use it (its armor type, a weapon its class can use, and a level at most 5 above its own) and it beats what it wears in that slot. Stats are weighted roughly for the class, and special effects are not counted, so treat it as a pointer, not a verdict. Rings and trinkets are set against the weaker of the two, a two-hander against main hand and off hand together. Where PatchVault players reported kills of a boss, the count uses what they saw drop. It is all worked out in your browser: your gear is not sent anywhere for it.