Overloading on Overload
Hi guys, I'm back!
I've spent most of this time watching TV episodes, movies (Star Trek rocks!), and playing Fallout 3 & Plants vs Zombies. I will get on to the UI post shortly (as voted here), but I thought I'd get something else up in the meantime.
So, uncountably you've heard of the hotfix to Overload, but as with any change like this, it's raised more questions (and complaints) than answers.
First things first: Rotations!
Your standard LB/FS/LvB rotation (with optional CL) will not change! LB spam is still sub-optimal by roughly 700-800 dps, mostly because FS and LvB still result in more damage compared to cast time as well as increasing your ClearCasting uptimes. If you doubt me, go download r15 of SEIC, I've added a LB Spam figure in there for comparison.
But has this "fixed" Elemental? Probably not. It still feels like a band-aid on top of a band-aid, but a buff is better than no buff at all. The problem revolves around the fact that there are no "extra" scaling talents for Elemental (eg: molten armor's spirit -> crit, Moonkin getting spellpower from spirit & int, etc), and by comparison we get a flat spellpower bonus via Flametongue. The end result of these differences is that the net gain from an item will generally be greater for other casters than Elemental, especially if the item in question has spirit on it (dirty dirty spirit).
Another couple of things that have arisen recently, but may be of interest to the more Theory inclined, is the odd behaviour between Overload & Shamanism, and the lower chance of Overload being affected by ClearCasting. These are minor effects, and probably cancel each other out, but it's useful to know.
Overload is supposed to be a half-power cast of Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning. However, when the spellpower calculations are done for this Overload Lightning Bolt, the co-efficient is halved, and then the 10% bonus from Shamanism is added. (ie: 2.5/3.5/2 + 0.1 -> 35.71% + 10% -> 45.71% rather than the 40.71% we were expecting)
ClearCasting, on the other hand, has been noted to have some odd interaction with Overload. Basically, unless the spell prior to the cast that proc'd Overload crit, Overload won't be affected by the 10% bonus. This means it's getting ~53% uptime vs the 80-85% uptime for normal spellcasts.
Both of these points arose in a discussion here by Mightyatom & ldrx
I've spent most of this time watching TV episodes, movies (Star Trek rocks!), and playing Fallout 3 & Plants vs Zombies. I will get on to the UI post shortly (as voted here), but I thought I'd get something else up in the meantime.
So, uncountably you've heard of the hotfix to Overload, but as with any change like this, it's raised more questions (and complaints) than answers.
First things first: Rotations!
Your standard LB/FS/LvB rotation (with optional CL) will not change! LB spam is still sub-optimal by roughly 700-800 dps, mostly because FS and LvB still result in more damage compared to cast time as well as increasing your ClearCasting uptimes. If you doubt me, go download r15 of SEIC, I've added a LB Spam figure in there for comparison.
But has this "fixed" Elemental? Probably not. It still feels like a band-aid on top of a band-aid, but a buff is better than no buff at all. The problem revolves around the fact that there are no "extra" scaling talents for Elemental (eg: molten armor's spirit -> crit, Moonkin getting spellpower from spirit & int, etc), and by comparison we get a flat spellpower bonus via Flametongue. The end result of these differences is that the net gain from an item will generally be greater for other casters than Elemental, especially if the item in question has spirit on it (dirty dirty spirit).
Another couple of things that have arisen recently, but may be of interest to the more Theory inclined, is the odd behaviour between Overload & Shamanism, and the lower chance of Overload being affected by ClearCasting. These are minor effects, and probably cancel each other out, but it's useful to know.
Overload is supposed to be a half-power cast of Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning. However, when the spellpower calculations are done for this Overload Lightning Bolt, the co-efficient is halved, and then the 10% bonus from Shamanism is added. (ie: 2.5/3.5/2 + 0.1 -> 35.71% + 10% -> 45.71% rather than the 40.71% we were expecting)
ClearCasting, on the other hand, has been noted to have some odd interaction with Overload. Basically, unless the spell prior to the cast that proc'd Overload crit, Overload won't be affected by the 10% bonus. This means it's getting ~53% uptime vs the 80-85% uptime for normal spellcasts.
| Cast 1 | Cast 2 | Cast 3 + Proc | Overload Affected |
|---|---|---|---|
| hit | hit | crit | no |
| hit | crit | hit | yes |
| crit | hit | hit | no |
Both of these points arose in a discussion here by Mightyatom & ldrx
Total Comments 4
Comments
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Welcome Back Bink.
Thanks for the insight on this. Still I was curious if sticking to a flat LB spam can be superior to the standard rotation for fight with specific damage boosting mechanics? I'm thinking of General Vezax's clouds, Runemaster's rune of power and Hodir's beams (or in old content, Thaddius, Loatheb although theses shouldn't matter much now). This is with 4p8 bonus. I think I read Ezareth stating he dumbed down his rotation to LB spam for such fights. |
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I looked at that a little bit too, but unless you can hit 18k dps from LB spam, FS + LvB is still better.
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Heh 18k. Looks like threat would then be a greater problem than handling the rotation really
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It certainly would be nice to have the LO bugs (Clearcasting and 4T8) fixed.
Having said that, I think it would have been an interesting way to go to have the LO proc chance be dependent on spirit rather than a flat increase, that way we get another scaling stat. To be comparable to the value Moonkins get, 100 spirit would need to give the equivalent of 30SP -> in the range of 40-45dps -> ~0.8% damage increase -> 1.2% increase in our LB damage component assuming roughly 2/3 of our damage is LB -> 2.4% extra LO proc chance assuming 'proper' scaling of LO (i.e. average LO damage = precisely 0.5 of average LB damage). Back of envelope then gives us ~12 spirit = 1% LO proc chance. Ofc Moonkin get the extra regen benefit from Spirit but increaed LO chance = increased chance of an LO crit triggering clearcasting so I think we do OK there. The final number could be tweaked after proper calculation and testing. To be honest, it never really made sense to me that the 'spiritual leaders' of the Horde had no use for Spirit .... and having spirit scaling would mean just as our gear is shared with holy pallies, we could meaningfully share Moonkin leather and pick up the 90% of caster weapons / cloaks / rings / necks which are spirit-itemised without feeling stupid. |
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