I sure hope they are fake.

Me too. But those notes are awfully complex and comprehensive. They look real to me.

If they are real, then Bliz is really screwing us. Not because the changes are necessarily bad themselves, but because it looks like they think that the ghost wolf thing will solve our problems with CC. Maybe it'll help a bunch in PvP (imp GW will be mandatory), but it does nothing for us in PvE, where we need some sort of CC. Instead, they let rogues sap even in combat. Because everyone knows rogues don't get enough love, and they need more CC...

That aside, I have no problem with WF being less bursty. I'm generally smart enough now, and careful enough with Omen, to not die in the first 5 seconds of combat due to too-lucky crits with WF and SS... but it would be great not to have to think about that. It'll also help a lot for riding close to 110% threat, which is usually too dangerous right now. This all assumes that they don't nerf our total DPS- but sadly, I don't trust them at that either.

OTOH, if they totally got rid of the 3-sec hidden CD on WF, that would be a huge gain for us, because many more weapons would become tenable. Slow would still be better for SS, but it wouldn't be the huge issue it is today.

There is no point to further debate about the 'patch' notes until the PTR goes back up. For rampant speculation please use a different threat, namely the sunwell thread.

edit: stupid typos

I tried to compile a list here to answer this question. Some of the pieces need a bit of tweaking, but they are generally all the best-in-slot armor pieces, in order of power. The main area I'm sketchy on would be gloves though.

Running the sim on your own gear may change the priority slightly, but you won't go wrong by just following that list.

Most of the slots generally have a badge or pvp option in there to get you started.

Edit: Argh ignore this, this is what I get for leaving a browser window open at work from last week and not paying attention.

I appologize deeply if this has already been posted. That being said, the current but where flurry does not refresh itself if you crit with 1 charge left will be fixed after 2.3.2 (or has been fixed this last patch?):

WoW BlueTracker: [Warrior] Flurry / Whirlwind Bug Fixes?

Erm, so I picked up a Spinel tonight, thinking I'd socket it on my Deadly Cuffs, but then I did some calculations...

These are my values:

AP = 1 AEP
Crit = 1.97 AEP
Hit = 1.77 AEP
Haste = 1.76 AEP
-Armor = 0.37 AEP
Strength = 2.2 AEP
Agility = 1.91 AEP
Expertise = 3.26 AEP

So, let me know if I'm messing this up. I don't want to waste a Spinel, so I'm doublechecking.

Deadly Cuffs + Bold Crimson Spinel

Str = 10 * 2.2 = 22 AEP
Hit = 12 * 1.77 = 21.24 AEP
Crit = 28 * 1.97 = 55.16 AEP
AP = 58 * 1 = 58 AEP

[top] 156.4 AEP

Insidious Bands + Inscribed Pyrestone

Agi

30 * 1.91 = 57.3 AEP
Str = 5 * 2.2 = 11 AEP
Crit = 5 *1.97 = 9.85 AEP
Hit = 12 * 1.77 = 21.24 AEP
AP = 58 * 1 = 58 AEP
= 157.39

Deadly Cuffs + Pyrestone ends up on 155.25 and Insidious Bands + Spinel ends up on 154.7 AEP.
I probably dropped the ball on some of my maths, but after second glance I didn't see any errors. Obviously your AEP values are going to be different, but I didn't think it'd tip the favour of Insidious Bands with a Pyrestone really.

I'm pretty sure Sebudai includes Kings, as did I. I never, ever not have Kings, so no reason to leave it out.

Gentlemen:

It's less than 1 EP either way. Let it go.

When comparing AEP values, I'd say if there's less than 5% difference, either item will be fine.

I picked 5 out of the air, feel free to use a lower value. The above case is a 0.6% difference.

Instead of running sim to get EP values and evaluating 2 pieces (sets) of gear with them, it is faster and more accurate to run sim twice with those 2 items' (sets) stats and compare DPS (and do not check compute EP values while doing so to speed up).

Well yes, but doesn't the sims DPS vary too much to compare for just one item?

I don't know if this has been mentioned or covered or not. I've tried in tests with myself, and if I drop windfury totem, and instnatly dropped the agility totem. Once the windfury totem's buff runs out, i still have the buff for anywhere from 3-5 more seconds, can anyone confirm if this is actually happenning? If so, wouldn't it increase the amount of time we'd have to work with when totem twisting?

So, i know this was already covered some times, and that the weapons are almost equal, varying like 1% or less, but...
Every time i input any of the high-end weapons, besides Dragonstrike, i get much less DPS then any other MH.

Is anyone getting same results with their AEP values?

Macked, Blizzard's code behaves weirdly. I think what you're seeing is akin to the flurry bug, by which we get more attacks flurried than we should. Or maybe not. But I know what you're talking about. It's like the server knows that the buff is gone, and your client knows that your buff is gone, but until the server tells your client that it knows it's gone, it hangs on your screen (and possibly your stats).

I'm a little confused by what you mean here. Do you mean the WF buff lasts longer than the 10s if you don't have the totem down? I see this as well, mostly when I forget to refresh WF and need to do it in battles. I've also noticed if I'm using CTbuffmod and refresh WF as soon as the WFT 10s is up, I'll have the buff name WFT but with a 30m timer.

I usually pay more attention to the timers on DQD (thanks Disquette!) than what the server tells me, because if I wait for CTmod then my rogues will complain about not having their WF buff. (Our rogues are pretty on the ball, if they see a string of hits without WF they yell at me in vent.)

If you're really having trouble refreshing WF, you can click off the WFT buff. It's been pretty responsive in my Barrier Hills test, but I haven't ignored WF long enough lately to try this in raids. (If you have WFT down and WF runs out, SCT will display an 'extra attack' pretty quickly. It lets me know when I'm zoning out.)

Dragonstrike proc is overvalued in the sim. Still looking for "true" ppm, or in-game ppm or long-enough sample data. Hopefully it is the only proc that is modelled incorrectly now (few trinkets were too but changed them according to new findings some time ago).

it means if your wf is on cooldown you CAN wait for it until you use ss, which could theoretically deal more dmg. breaking your rotation just to wait for a possible wf (which could also procc on the swing just 0,2 sec before you hit that damn ss button) is in my opinion not a good option, but if you want to maximise your possible dps you may think about it.

regarding dragonstrike: the procc seems to be very irregular to figure out about a proc. if it is somethink like 1 ppm you may consider it (212 x 1.82) / 6 = 64,3 (I'm using t6 aep value, not my own), what makes it equal to syphon without it's procc (in other words: worse). on the other side, i don't know the exact ppm. so you may want to guess about that :P

As annoying and sad as it is, generally the PvP weapons are the best for many classes. Ex. I'm coming from a Demo Sac/SnF warlock. This is a pure raid DPS spec and leaves my idea of PvP stuck as hiding somewhere and sniping with shadowbolts. My chances of great arena success? Very, very low. The best I can get for a main hand? Requires an 1850 rating.

And then I rolled an enhancement shammy where I will undoubtedly see great PvP success . . . or just enjoy a different playstyle. You know. Whatever.

The irony is, PvP weapons HAVE to be good to penetrate all that high resistance PvP reward armor.

The weapons are the only PvP gear that are really good for shamans in PvE content. There are pieces (vindicator neck/ring, for example) that are great upgrades for many but hardly beat the best of T5. An enhancement shaman looking for full set upgrades in PvP is going to be let down (as I'm sure many are when I obliterate them in the battlegrounds).

Edit: I'm an idiot.

For what it's worth, when I was testing stuff around the time of the haste changes I used to get an in-game uptime around 35%(it fluctuated from 30-40) over numerous 30 min sessions on BL mobs using WF+SS, there was no internal cooldown. I don't know if there's been any changes since then.

If you looked up five posts you'd discover that the Dragonstrike proc is overvalued in the simulator. Even if it wasn't overvalued, ignoring the stats on the rest of the items makes your results meaningless. Why would you even use a sim to test whether a 97.6 dps, 2.7 speed weapon was better than a 97.6, 2.7 speed weapon that also has a useful proc?