Working Theories of Theorycrafting as of 2.2
 

The following are generally accepted principles of theorycrafting based upon research, testing, and lots of math that has been done by various members of the WoW community. None of the following are absolute laws however some combination of theorycrafting and testing has shown these to be true. If you disagree with any of these you'll probably need some very careful and thorough math as well as parses to convince people that you are correct.

Questions about the reasoning behind something in this post (i.e. why is Fire so much better for a mage) should be directed at a relevant class thread. This is intended to be a quick reference for common questions, not a thesis paper on theorycrafting.

General
- The global cooldown (hereafter referred to as the GCD) is 1.5 seconds for all classes except Rogues and Druids in cat form which have a 1.0 second GCD.
- No amount of haste including Bloodlust/Heroism will lower the global cooldown. This can be proven using the following UI hook and spamming an instant spell with no cooldown inside and outside of Bloodlust:
/run hooksecurefunc("CooldownFrame_SetTimer", function(_, start, duration, enable) if start > 0 and enable > 0 then DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(duration) end end)
[Thanks Shalas for finally getting that settled]
- The character pane rounds up. It may appear that you have sufficient percentage for something like crush immunity, but beware rounding errors.
- Official rating conversion->stat information can be found here: WoW BlueTracker: Combat Ratings: Level 70 Conversions (Note these are rounded values)
As of 2.2, the Haste Rating and Spell Haste Rating both require 15.76 rating for 1% haste.

Bosses
- All bosses (??? listed for a level) are counted as 3 levels above you for purposes of resists and combat (including your AC), regardless of your level.
- Spell resist rate against bosses is 17%; only 16% of this can be overcome with spell hit [202 spell hit rating].
- Glancing Blow rate against level 73/boss mobs is estimated to be 25%. Yellow attacks (specials) do not glance.

Elementals
Elemental-based melee attacks (such as Hydross or most Fire Elementals) follow slightly different rules than normal melee attacks versus a player.
- Elementals can crit the player but will never crush
- Elemental melee damage is not mitigated by AC in any fashion
- Cannot be blocked
- Can be parried or dodged
- Can be partially resisted through the appropriate resist stat
- Attack power modification debuffs such as Demoralizing Shout will affect damage done

Tanking
- Warriors and Paladins require 490 defense [336 defense rating] to be uncrittable while Druids require 415 defense [156 defense rating] with Survival of the Fittest.
- Crushing blows are pushed off the combat table against 73/Boss mobs when your dodge + parry + block + mob miss chance is greater than 102.4%. Most warriors easily attain crush immunity when using Shield Block, and Paladins require an active Holy Shield plus 72.5% dodge+parry+block+miss (5% of which may be supplied by the heroic badge Libram).
- Druid Bear Form's armor bonus does not include enchants or temporary buffs.
- Once you reach your defense cap, stamina is generally the best stat to stack.
- 35,880 AC is required to reach 75% mitigation against a Boss level NPC.

Melee
- Miss rates against level 73/boss mobs:
-- 1h/Shield, 2h, feral: 9% [142 hit rating] (See this post and this post)
-- Dual wield: 28% [442 hit rating] (See this post and this post)
- You cannot apply the benefits of a weapon specialization to a weapon of the incorrect type in the offhand. (That is, a dagger in your offhand when you are sword spec will not get the benefit of sword spec.)
- The formula for determining hasted weapon speed is:
Hasted Speed = Weapon Speed / ( (1+(Haste 1 %/100)) * (1+Haste 2 %/100)) * (1+(((Haste Rating 1 + Haste Rating 2 + ... )/100)/15.76)))
- Weapon Skill is primarily useful for reducing the miss penalty against +3 or higher mobs. See this post for more information.

Spellcasting
- Spell penetration does nothing in PVE once a Warlock curse is applied, except vs. Supremus for fire-spec mages. It is not worth taking over other stats.
- Swapping weapons will reset your swing timer and incur the global cooldown.
- It is possible to switch weapons while casting a spell with a cast time and receive the benefit of the new weapon's +dmg/healing.
- Paladin and Shaman non-instant spells will reset your melee swing timer upon their completion. This includes spells that normally have a cast time that are made instant by other means (such as Nature's Swiftness).
- /stopcasting can be used to increase the rate at which you can cast spells. See other threads regarding this command for details.
- Boss level mobs have a 5% partial resistance to non-binary spells (i.e. those that can be partially resisted). This resistance can not be overcome with spell penetration or hit percentage. [note: This particular mechanic is still undergoing testing, some bosses appear to violate this rule].

Haste
- Auto-Attack appears to be the only attack with no inherent cooldown, and thus is the only attack that has no drop off point where haste effects will not provide additional benefit.
- Channeled spells (Arcane Missiles, etc) do channel faster under the effects of spell haste.
- Until haste drops your special attack speed below the global cooldown, it is generally the most effective stat to stack. (I.E. a pure scorch build gets little benefit from haste since any further haste doesn't allow the spell to be recast more often.) Classes that rely on damage over time will see reduced benefits from haste since the tick timer is not sped up.
- Haste discussion

Healing
- Both 81 healing and Spellsurge are good and effective enchants. There is no wrong answer.

Hunters
- 9% miss chance [142 rating]
- Spreadsheets
- Autoshot has a 0.5 second cast time, Multi-Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot and Kill Command (amongst other abilities such as stings) will interrupt and reset this cast time.
- Scorpid Poison is currently the only pet ability which scales significantly with spell damage and therefore a Hunter's RAP. Nerfed, pick your favorite pet
- Haste effects work on Steady and Aimed Shot cast times.

Mage
- 10/48/3 is the best PVE raw damage spec until at least 2 piece Tier 5 (and maybe even then), but Frost maintains the best control and survivability in non-raid situations (grinding and instances).
- +hit will generally provide the best increase in damage per item budget until it is capped at 16%.

Priest
- Once you reach the hit cap, +damage is the best stat to stack for a shadow priest.

Shamans
- Windfury Weapon (the self enchant) has a 3 second cooldown incurred each time it procs, regardless of which hand procs it. For this reason slow weapons in both hands are preferable.
- Windfury Totem (the totem) does not have any of the cooldown issues that Windfury Weapon does. Its procs do generate rage and threat for warriors and it will no longer proc off of special attacks (yellow damage), except for Heroic Strike and Cleave.
- Regarding Grace of Air vs Windfury Totem: A good rule of thumb is that if DPS Warrior*2 plus Rogues plus DPS Paladins is 3 or more (war*2+rog+pal>2), Windfury will be better group DPS regardless of the rest of the group's composition.
- The best reason to use GoA is to provide a tank with more dodge, not to improve the AP or crit rate of other classes. On low-rage or threat-sensitive fights Windfury may be preferable for a Warrior or Paladin.
- Twisting GoA and Windfury is possible, but it is extremely mana intensive and requires a lot of GCD usage. See the Enhancement Shaman thread for more details.
- Mongoose is the best weapon enchant.
- It is highly probable that Stormstrike uses a two-roll system, much like Rogue special attacks do.

Rogues
- Builds: Combat is the best PVE DPS Spec. Daggers and Swords are both competitive with each other. Mutilate is well behind since the glancing blow changes, suffering additionally from reduced Windfury Totem benefits vs combat, and on bosses immune to poison (Void Reaver, Hydross).
- Hit Cap: 28% +hit required to not miss vs lvl 73 bosses, meaning you need 442 hit rating to cap. 5/5 Precision reduces this by 79. If you have 2/2 Weapon Expertise (or 5/5 Mace Spec) and 5/5 Precision, you need 308 hit rating to cap.
- Shiv cannot be dodged. It may also be unable to be parried or blocked.
- Deadly poison has better DPS than instant poison, whether on main hand or off hand. If you can only poison one weapon (i.e. Windfury totem is being used), you should use DP.
- Dual DP is a waste for all except Mutilate builds.
- Envenom in PvE is a waste of combo points for all except Mutilate builds, except as as the last finishing move of the fight (i.e. the DP stack will not tick out).
- Rogue special attacks use a two-roll system instead of a one-roll system like all other attacks. See other threads for further explanation of what this means.

Warlocks
- There is no "cast rotation" for Warlocks due to variance in DoT duration.
- Shadowbolt will normally provide higher DPS than Incinerate unless you stack the crap out of fire damage gear with a sacrificed Imp.
- Immolate is worth casting, even if you have a lot of +shadow gear. The only time it's not worth casting is when you're out of debuff slots.
- Shadowbolt will always produce more dps than drain life, no matter what drain-life boosting talents you have and what Shadowbolt ones you neglect.
- Warlocks need 16% hit from gear because Suppression doesn't affect Shadowbolt or Soulshatter.
- As long as it can run full duration, CoD > CoA for sustained single target dps, even if you are deep affliction primarily because of the opportunity cost of re-casting CoA.
- Conflagrate will lower your DPS if you use it in a DPS rotation.
- Imp Life Tap is still a necessary talent even if you have Dark Pact (hint, your imp doesn't have infinite mana). BoW and Spirit buffs will greatly increase your Imp's mana regeneration rate, improving Dark Pact's longevity.
- Generally speaking Shadow Embrace is worth it. It's 5% less to everyone that the target hits, not just the warlock. It doesn't matter if it's pre or post-AC mitigation, it's still 5% and it's easy to get with a raiding-focused affliction build.

Spreadsheet threads
Rogue : http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t14304-r...s_spreadsheet/
DPS Warrior : http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t6842-dps_warrior_spreadsheet/
Hunter : http://elitistjerks.com/showthread.php?t=9816
Moonkin : http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t11582-moonkin_dps_spreadsheet/
Mage : http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t10907-vontres_mage_dps_spreadsheet/
Elemental Shaman : http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t13066-shaman_elemental_shaman_dps_spreadsheet/
Rogue Gear : http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t11882-rogue_gear_spreadsheet/
Shadow Priest : http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t10122-shadow_priest_dps_spreadsheet/
Warlock : http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t10065-another_dps_spreadsheet/
DPS / Healing cloth : http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t12636-dps_healing_cloth_spreadsheets/
Paladin Threat: http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t14063-p...s_spreadsheet/

There are likely some obvious things that have not been added thus far since this was compiled with the help of a subset of the forum. If you feel that something is in error or that something should be added or clarified, please post as such.

Probably worth mentioning that Shadowbolt > Incinerate a lot of the time, also. Predominantly because its a 3s cast lowered to a 2.5s cast through Bane. The only time it ought to do more damage (unless you somehow stack the living shit out of fire damage) is with a 0/21/40 spec with a sacced Imp.

First off, amazing post. Very well done. You've hit the key points to .. everything. My only comment is about hit cap for rogues. I agree with 25.5%, subtract 5% from Precision, subtract 1% for wEx, leaves you with 19.5%. 19.5% * 15.77 hit rating per % = 307.5 hit rating.

As "proof" of this, I've had 308 hit rating for nearly two weeks now, and the only time I've ever recorded a miss against mobs is on Attumen thanks to a wonderful debuf. If you armory me *right* now.. I'll be at 302 due to getting a new piece of gear, regeming to remain at 308 hit rating but not having that piece of gear enchanted yet so I keep my old one on 'till the Mongoose guy gets online.

It is common misconception that you require 15.8 hit rating per %. The actual number is 15.77, but turns into 15.8 when rounded to 1 decimal place (as the link you provide mentions).

I was under the impression rogues (most likely feraldruids) had 0.9 GCD?

Spellcasting interrupts auto attacks for Druids, so does weapon/idol swaps.

Just adding to this a bit:

In general any spell will interrupt your swing timer, with Shamans and Paladins being able to cast instant cast spells without interrupting their swing timer. You could also view the instant abilities of Rogues, Warriors, Cat Druids and Bear Druids to fall under the 'does not interrupt your swing timer' rule.

I'm not entirely sure about Hunter melee abilities, but there is the well known effect on their instant shots delaying an auto-shot if cast in 0.5 second window before an auto-shot would fire. Steady Shot is also pretty much the sole exception, being a 'spell' with cast time which does not reset your 'swing' timer.

Rogues:

Deadly poison has better DPS than instant poison, whether on mainhand or offhand. If you can only poison one weapon (i.e. Windfury totem is being used), you should use DP.

Dual DP is a waste for all except Mutilate builds

Envenom in PvE is a waste of combo points for all except Mutilate builds, except as as the last finishing move of the fight (i.e. the DP stack will not tick out)

I have to disagree with two of your "generally accepted" shaman claims.

Bloodlust/Heroism does not lower the GCD. See Slant's FAQ thread in the official forums for details on the experiments:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...79203452&sid=1

Second, Potency, Mongoose, and Crusader are not equally good.

Crusader is generally taken as ~2 PPM with yellow attacks and slow weapons. 30 STR > 20 STR, so crusader clearly beats potency. Mongoose is even more of a win, since it gives twice as much agility as crusader does str. Str is a better stat, but it is not twice is good. This doesn't even factor in the haste from mongoose. The major theorycrafted models and the major simulations all agree on this. Even if you disagree with the estimate of 2 PPM, the conclusion that Mongoose dominates Crusader is inescapable.

Updated with further points or clarifications. I sort of generalized the instant cast/melee timer stuff, I don't have a druid handy to test things like Omen of Clarity resetting the timer.

Considering there are multiple reports from classes that tested spell hate (including one just in of Gor Alt Tabbed In To WoW and Used Bloodlust and Spammed LHW and Got No Spell Not Ready Messages) and Slant's link doesn't actually show anything regarding testing I will leave this in.

Of course regarding your Mongoose declaration:
Strength is more than twice as good as agility, and roughly 5% crit combined with the haste rating on the Mongoose proc itself (2%) is not significant enough for it to conclusively outweigh effectively a 144 AP proc. Potency has much lower material requirements than either Crusader or Mongoose and it is not a poor choice for this reason.

Further discussion of these points should probably be in the shaman itemization thread, though.

Would it be a good idea to, under each class, add links to spreadsheet threads and/or wiki-pages?
In my opinion, this seems to be a good idea, strengthening it as a good place to start (or reference) when in search of answers.

I'm not 100% convinced that this is a fact.

Assuming 1000 Shadow damage, Shadow Mastery, Contagion, Improved CoA -

Curse of Doom: 1.1(4200 + 2(1000)) = 380 mana for 6820 after 60 seconds, or 113.66 dps and 17.95 dpm.
Curse of Agony: 1.3(1356 + 1.4(1000)) = 265 mana for 3582.8 over 24 seconds, or 149.28 dps and 13.52 dpm.

Curse of Agony also scales faster than Curse of doom.

Curse of Doom 1.1(4200 + 2(3000)) = 11220 after 60 seconds, or 187 dps and 29.53 dpm.
Curse of Agony 1.3(1356 + 1.4(3000)) = 7222.8 over 24 seconds, or 300.95 dps and 27.25 dpm.

Feel free to correct me if I'm missing anything important, but the "CoD or bust" mindset seems like something left over from raiding at 60. It's obviously a great "fire and forget" spell to put on something being offtanked, but Curse of Agony still wins for pure dps.

If you have a static link (i.e. NOT here's the link for version 2.353.323 but no previous versions) I will be happy to include spreadsheet links. At this point Wiki stuff is pretty redundant since I doubt anyone will find this board without knowing what wowwiki is.

Hunter Spreadsheets
Wiki-page - Not WoWWiki ;)

I'm a little fuzzy on this issue. As per WF vs DP which should be used? Especially on daggers I've been led to believe that DP/IP in MH/OH respectively is overall a better use compared to using WF. I hope someone can clarify this for me.

On the subject of temporary tanking buffs: Druids in bear form benefit from the full bonus of inspiration; enchants and devo aura/etc don't. I gain ~5k armour from inspiration with ~31k raid buffed. Will try and get a screenshot for proof!