◊ Abynthe

The massive bible threads were great if you already knew what was in them, and not-so-great if you wanted to find a single fact among the 100+ pages of discussion. Now at least you know which of the 5 odd threads (tanking, 3 trees, dw) are most likely to answer your question. I suspect the intent is that the content that used to live in the first post of the bible threads should move to the theorycraft think tank.

 

Teninches

Is there a way to bind Horn of Winter to an ability like say Blood Strike? I know you can bind trinkets with abailities but I wasn't sure about binding abilities with runic power to abilities without them.

 

slant

You could do it with a castsequence and pound the button twice after waiting 1.5s for the GCD to finish, but why would you want to cast horn of winter every time you bloodstrike? That would be wasteful of both runic power and precious GCDs. In other words-- no, don't do that.

 

Noraj

As the above poster mentioned this would simply cast Horn of Winter every time you hit your Blood Strike button assuming you had 20 runic power available, or 10 if glyphed...Since Horn of Winter is on the global cooldown you definitely would need to use a /castsequence macro, and would still have to hit the button again at the end of the GCD to cast the next ability in the sequence.

Unfortunately as of 2.0.1, it is no longer possible to use boolean logic in macros or /script commands to initiate spellcasting, so creating a macro to only cast Horn of Winter if you do not already have the buff isn't possible.

The easiest way to keep it up for me has been to just bind it to a separate key, and reapply it during the RP dump of my rotation.

On a separate note, HoW gives the same buff at rank 2 as the highest rank of Strength of Earth Totem before the shaman puts any points into Enhancing Totems, and shouldn't stack under the new Wrath buff stacking rules, so depending on your raid, you may find that keeping HoW up is a moot point anyway.

If you're looking for an easier way to check and see if you have the buff, you might try Power Auras Classic : WoWInterface Downloads : Buff/Debuff/Spell Mods .

For DPS, your two best options are Chaotic Skyflare (21 crit rating + 3% crit damage) or Relentless Earthsiege (21 agility + 3% crit damage). Agility has the added benefit of upping your armor and if you have Bladed Armor, your AP slightly as well, while increasing your dodge too.

For tanking, there is either Austere Earthsiege (32 stam + 2% more armor from items) or Effulgent Skyflare (32 stam + 2% reduced spell damage taken).

Either one can be helpful depending on the situation, but if you're going for maximum spell damage reduction as a niche tanking role, go with the Effulgent Skyflare.

"The question is not how far we are going to take it... the question is, do you possess the constitution to go as far as needed?" - Il Duce

 

Kurenai

Does Acclimation get triggered only by spells (as the tooltip indicates) or does it also work against elemental based damage done by any elementals throughout Northrend (e.g. Fiery Elemental hits you for 1200 fire damage)?

 

Bashere

For DPS I'd assume the Chaotic Skyflare would be better, simply because Agility doesn't add to spell crit rating.

 

gospel

So, I'm confused. For a DRW spec, why is Annihilation better than Necrosis/BCB? And, why is Obliterate really that much better than Death Strike w/ the Glyph that does more damage per runic power? This seems against intuition so I'm assuming there's some heavy math behind this.

Jesus: "I can offer you eternal Salvation."
Disciples: "Can I get Might or Kings instead?"

http://www.xckd.com/318/

 

Noraj

It's less about Obliterate and more about the fact that the second obliterate in the rotation grants you two extra death runes for more heart strikes instead of having to reapply diseases because the first obliterate removed them. With Epidemic, your diseases last just long enough to get the bonus damage on all four of the heart strikes at the end of the rotation.

Abilities: PS -> IT -> HS -> HS -> OB -> RP Dump
Runes: U -> F -> B -> B -> UF
Abilities: OB -> HS -> HS -> HS -> HS -> RP Dump
Runes: UF -> DR -> DR -> DR -> DR


As for glyphed DS vs. glyphed Oblit: Glyphed DS yields 60% weapon damage + 2% / 5 runic power for a total of 40% extra + 178. Max, that's weapon damage + 178. Glyphhed Oblit is 120% weapon damage + 350, with an additional 350 if both diseases are up.

x+178 > 1.2x+700

That's a very clear numerical difference unless I'm doing the math completely incorrectly.

"The question is not how far we are going to take it... the question is, do you possess the constitution to go as far as needed?" - Il Duce

 

Petersen

Does the speed enhancement from "Unholy Aura" (the talent) affect mounted speed? I know the standard Unholy Presence speed modification is only run speed.

I really wish blizzard would clarify the tooltips to distinguis between Mounted, Run, Swimming, and Movement (all the the former) speed.

¬The Original PalaTank, William Erik Petersen The Unbreakable
Tanking with a Paladin since before it was cool.

 

◊ Bryne

No. Unholy Aura affects your non-mounted movement speed only. Effects that change your movement speed don't affect "all the former" - they affect run speed only. I don't think any effects actually say "run speed" on them, and effects that boost your mounted speed say "mounted speed" specifically. It's much less complicated than you're making it out to be.

 

Petersen

I did not mean to imply I thought it was complicated. It is improper usage. "Movement speed" suggests the speed at which you move, the method of movement is unspecified, leading a logical person to presume it should apply to all forms of movement be it mounted movement, movement through water, or movement on foot. All are movement, all should be enhanced by something labeled "Movement speed".

They do indeed have specifically named Mounted Speed (and swim speed) enhancements. Of particular note is Pursuit of Justice "increases movement and mounted movement speed". Surely I cannot be the only one who finds that awkward if not redundant. Having it read "Increases run speed and mounted speed" would be much more elegant.

¬The Original PalaTank, William Erik Petersen The Unbreakable
Tanking with a Paladin since before it was cool.

 

slant

To clarify slightly, unholy aura will speed up mounts using the WOTLK vehicle system, including the traveler's tundra mammoth and engineering motorcycle, as you're essentially the vehicle's pet and thus in the same party.

 

Thiris

I have a question that I've been confused about for some time now. Are stat focuses heavily weighed to +hit for DW specs or are you attempting to settle around the +hit cap for special abilities? I can't say that I have specced DW yet, so I don't know what the damage breakdown is, but was curious if I should hold onto all of this +hit plate that I've been picking up.



The problem with tying a macro like that to an ability that you use a lot is that you are going to be using runic power like crazy and wasting it. Unfortunately there is no way to tie some sort of conditional to the macro since we cannot use "If XXX doesn't exist, cast YYY"

You can however tie abilities like Rune Strike to spammed keys, which is what I personally do. The macro for Blood Strike looks something like the following. Keep in mind that I'm using two "on use" trinkets so I tie them in as well. I prefer use the trinket name in case I have a PvP trinket equipped, which is actually tied to a different key binding so I don't use the equipment slot number.

#showtooltip Blood Strike
/use trinketname
/use trinketname
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Blood Strike

This will queue Rune Strike any time I cast Blood Strike. I have a similar macro tied to Plague Strike as well and it seems to keep them on cooldown most of the time. I haven't got into raiding yet on this character, but I may change this up depending on the fight mechanics and if there are any burn phases that I need to be aware of.

 

pfooti

Also, with respect to Horn of Winter, that triggers the GCD, which means any other stuff later in the macro that is also gcd-bound (strikes, for example) will not trigger. Unfortunately, we just have to get used to casting HoW a lot. I try to do it after every fight, reflexively.

 

Noraj

Considering that a lot of dualwield specs' damage focuses on procs like Necrosis and Blood-Caked Blades, making sure your offhand weapon is hitting as often as possible is pretty important.

It's roughly the same as warrior shouts and shaman totems (though at least totems got taken off the GCD), so we shouldn't feel too persecuted. During long fights it's easiest to ensure its uptime during your RP dump.

"The question is not how far we are going to take it... the question is, do you possess the constitution to go as far as needed?" - Il Duce

 

Pyran

I was looking at the DPS compendium again (specifically, the 51/13/7 Blood spec, which I'm working towards) and I have a question: Why is Toughness ignored, given the synergy with Bladed Armor?

Also, I just noticed, Improved Icy Touch and Glyph of Plague Strike would be incompatible, wouldn't they. Each one provides more damaged to diseased enemies, so if you have both one of the spells on your IT-PS-HS rotation (or PS-IT-HS) wouldn't get the benefit.

If you weren't using the Glyph would the tradeoff of Toughness for Improved Icy Touch/Glacier Rot even be worth it? I calculate that at 10k armor the extra bonus from Toughness would add just over 41 ap (assuming Blood Presence or Unholy Presence):

How does that 2.975 across-the-board dps increase stack up against the 40% extra damage your Icy Touch would do with Improved Icy Touch and Glacier Rot?

 

pfooti

I think you answered your question there - 3 DPS out of around 1800-3500 DPS depending on gearing levels will not stack up at all. Imp Icy Touch is also a potential avoidance buff for your tank, if nobody else is providing a better haste debuff in the group.

Personally, I actually spec 5/5 toughness, but that's mainly because I want to be able to have the armor for when I tank 5-mans (I'm still only 77, tho, so I have a leveling spec).

 

• frmorrison

41 AP does not equal 2.9 dps. 14 AP = 1 dps is not true for any melee due to having many AP-influenced attacks. For a Ret Pally, that AP is about 24 dps.

To know what is better, you would look at the addition of Icy Touch (assume 100 dps, it is likely more, Recount can tell you), so that is another 40 dps.


So toughness is not a great dps talent (outstanding for leveling/tanking/PvP though).

 

Gorgrom

How important do you consider reaching the spell hit cap?

I plan on raiding as a blood spec for raids 51/13/7 build listed in the compendium, but being someone who has only played a warrior since beta I am doubting my decision to cap for spells.

 

Broseph

Spend 10 minutes on the practice dummy and report what percentage of your damage comes from icy touch and deathcoil. These are the only spells in your spec that spell hit affects. A one percent increase in spell hit toward the cap is a one percent increase in damage done by these spells only. It should be pretty low (0.3% overall DPS increase, estimated). In other words, it's nice, but you can probably find better ways to spend your gear or itemization points.

Oh, this doesn't take into consideration the GCD you might lose by missing an icy touch. So just a little more than the flat damage increase. But still not worth going out of your way to cap.

 

gospel

Okay, I can see the Obliterate usage, but will that spec still do better than Necrosis and Blood-Caked Blade?

Jesus: "I can offer you eternal Salvation."
Disciples: "Can I get Might or Kings instead?"

http://www.xckd.com/318/

 

brahmabull754

My question is about Avoidance. Is it just Dodge + Parry, or does it include chance to be missed from Defense?

 

Venkelos

Does a death knight want haste at the expense of crit in any situation? A lot of plate seems to be loaded with haste and haste seems to always be in conflict with crit for itemization.

 

Pyros

Haste is the worst DK stat for DPS(with maybe the exception of DW builds, but even then). So no, you want crit over haste, but you don't have much of a choice. It's still beneficial, just less than other stats. And you want str/ap over either.

 

Kaij

Sorry, I messed up my own post. I had meant the entire DK class. Our absolute hit rating cap (2h + spells) is 445.91 completely unbuffed. Yes or no?