Editing WoW:ItemString (section)

=== Scaled Random Suffixes ===
Since WoW 2.0, both the SuffixIds and the UniqueIds have the ability to be negative. This indicates a different way of calculating the stats bonuses is being used. Previous to WoW 2.0, every time a new stats bonus was added to a new item, the [[SuffixId]] list needed to be updated via a client patch. This limited Blizzard's ability to arbitrarily add new items to the game, since the new data would need to be accompanied by a client patch if it's stats bonus did not already exist.

Post 2.0, a new system of stats bonuses has been implemented via the [[ItemRandomSuffix]] table. If the suffixId is negative, it indicates that the suffix of the item is instead one of the new RandomSuffixes, and that the uniqueId will contain an embedded suffixFactor, which can be extracted via the following algorithm.

  local suffixFactor = 0
  local linkType, itemId, enchantId,
        jewelId1, jewelId2, jewelId3, jewelId4,
        suffixId, uniqueId = strsplit(":", '''itemString''')
  suffixId = tonumber(suffixId) or 0
  uniqueId = tonumber(uniqueId) or 0
  if (linkType == 'item') then
      if (suffixId < 0) then
          suffixFactor = bit.band(uniqueId, 65535)
      end
  end

To see how this suffixFactor gets applied to get the final stat bonuses, see the [[ItemRandomSuffix]] table.

==== 3.2 wotlk randomstat items changing their suffix factors ====
In 3.2, wotlk randomstat items got upgraded, i.e. their scaling factors changed.

This means that the high 16 bits of the uniqueid remained the same, but the low 16 bits changed.

If this was a one-time thing, we could have lived with item databases etc becoming slightly wobbly. But that's not the whole story. '''As soon as you place an item in mail, or AH, or a guild bank, it gets downgraded again'''. So the uniqueIDs are no longer constant.

'''Update:''' It seems that this only happens with items that were actually looted/spawned/crafted before 3.2. --[[User:Mikk|<span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; cursor: help;" title="Mikk is a WoWWiki Admin">Mikk</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Mikk|T]])</small> 22:51, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Examples:
<nowiki> </nowiki><nowiki>|cff1eff00|</nowiki>Hitem:36050:0:0:0:0:0:-8:-2052980689:76:0:0|h[Crystalsong Bracelets of the Whale]|h|r<nowiki>
 |cff1eff00|</nowiki>Hitem:36050:0:0:0:0:0:-8:-2052980680:76:0:0|h[Crystalsong Bracelets of the Whale]|h|r<nowiki></nowiki>
 0x85A2002F vs
 0x85A20038
 Difference: 9
 
 |cff1eff00|Hitem:36156:0:0:0:0:0:-18:1209139262:76:0:0:0:0|h[Wendigo Boots of Agility]|h|r
 |cff1eff00|Hitem:36156:0:0:0:0:0:-18:1209139275:76:0:0:0:0|h[Wendigo Boots of Agility]|h|r
 0x4812003E vs
 0x4812004B
 Difference: 13
 
 |cff0070dd|Hitem:44741:0:0:0:0:0:-26:77201509:76:0:0:0:0|h[Mechanized Snow Goggles of Spell Power]|h|r
 |cff0070dd|Hitem:44741:0:0:0:0:0:-26:77201534:76:0:0:0:0|h[Mechanized Snow Goggles of Spell Power]|h|r
 0x049A0065 vs
 0x049A007E
 Difference: 25
 
 |cff0070dd|Hitem:44732:0:0:0:0:0:-36:1867317349:76:0:0:0:0|h[Azure Dragonleather Helm of the Sorcerer]|h|r
 |cff0070dd|Hitem:44732:0:0:0:0:0:-36:1867317374:76:0:0:0:0|h[Azure Dragonleather Helm of the Sorcerer]|h|r
 0x6F4D0065
 0x6F4D007E
 Difference: 25
 
 |cff1eff00|Hitem:36675:0:0:0:0:0:-44:-1664483297:76:0:0:0:0|h[Sockeye Dagger of the Elder]|h|r
 |cff1eff00|Hitem:36675:0:0:0:0:0:-44:-1664483292:76:0:0:0:0|h[Sockeye Dagger of the Elder]|h|r
 0x9CCA001F
 0x9CCA0024
 Difference: 5

For added humor, note that GetItemCount() and PickupItem() will work on both the downgraded and upgraded itemStrings (tested for items in bags), but a SecureActionButton using the "target-item" attribute will only work if given the upgraded itemString.