Infraction for Pinochet: Backseat moderation

• Wizeowel · 01/16/11, 5:05 AM

Post: Arcane in Cataclysm: Updated for 4.01
User: Pinochet
Infraction: Backseat moderation
Points: 1

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

If you have issues with a post or poster, press the report button, don't attempt to moderate in thread.

Also fix your profile, there's no druid Pocketheals on Burning Legion. List your mage if that's is your main now.

Original Post:

Originally Posted by darqueseid

#1 Is there an overall DPS loss if one burns down to 0% mana and then you evocate up to whatever spot you get to and do a "regen" phase of 2Xab or some similar till your mana is back up to 90-100%?

Originally Posted by darqueseid

~arcane blastX3, POM+AB, pop all cooldowns(macroed) arcane blast at X4 stacks from full mana until 0 mana, evocate up to ~60-70%, launch flame orb, then AM continuously with the flame orb AM procs(and an arcane barrage or blast if your unlucky on the AM procs) . By the time the flame orb is done, I will have 80-90% of my mana back. "conserve phase" (2 or 3Xab + am) and then rinse& repeat burn phase when evocate is~20 secs from coming back.

Yes, this is a dps loss.

Your rotation burns down to 0%, where mastery has no benefit--the standard rotation does not cast anything at 0% ever. This means the casts you're doing at low mana are wasting the benefit from mastery compared to someone following the standard rotation. In addition, your rotation starts its regen phase (which both rotations require) at something less than 100 and climbs up, where the standard regen phase sits as close as possible to 100, mixing in more expensive casts to keep from capping mana.

In other words, the "conserve phase" of the standard rotation is a regen phase plus some ABs. Your rotation moves these AB casts out of the conserve phase (where they would have benefited from ~100% mana) and moves them to the end of a burn phase (where they get between 40% and 0% the benefit from mastery), then also forces the regen component of the conserve phase that you split up to start out below 100% mana as well. All the same casts end up happening (more or less), but you've moved them into a suboptimal order.

In the future, speculation about nonstandard rotations should be kept to the "simple questions" thread unless you have tests or theorycrafting to suggest that the standard rotation is actually wrong.