Originally Posted by Bal
And slowing down your DPS does nothing but set you back a couple notches in total.
Why not just use an ability that doesnt generate extra threat so that you can use it more often and end out ABOVE the damage output you would if you used HS and had to hold back once climbing the threat meter?
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Cleave actually generates extra threat, 130 vs 196 for Heroic Strike (source
here, could find an EJ thread about it but it goes well in line with the level 60 values in
Kenco: A Guide To Threat.).
So, maths incoming, what you're really doing is choosing an ability with about 33% less innate threat, but at a talented
56% lower DPR (7.7 vs 17.33.., Cleave does 154 extra damage talented, not 82). If you add the rage loss on next swing to the rage cost the DPR will look a bit different depending on how hard you hit, but HS will always cost 8 less rage and do over 120 more damage.
Another interesting perspective though is that in a threat-sensitive fight what you really want to do, when you have rage for it, is to maximize your Damage per Threat, DPT. Here you only need to look at the additional damage each attack does since the base damage is the same anyway.
Cleave: 154 damage for 130 threat => 1.18 DPT
Heroic Strike: 208 damage for 196 threat => 1.06 DPT
So, while Cleave does 26% less damage per swing and that at 56% lower damage per rage, you do 11% more damage per threat.
This means that in most situations HS is the clear winner between the two and even on threat-sensitive fights you can do very slightly more damage per rage while being much more inefficient.
Edit: Hamstring generates extra threat too, removed bad statement which assumed it didn't.