Whats with deathcoiling your runepower?
Should i

a) always prefer using runes, even if my runepower is already 100/130
b) only deathcoil if no rune is ready, but always save more than 26 runepower for harder deathstrikes
c) only deathcoil if no rune is ready, never save any runepower for deathstrikes
d) deathcoil if you would waste runepower, but always save more than 26 runepower for harder deathstrikes
e) deathcoil if you would waste runepower, never save any runepower for deathstrikes


Would think d)! Am i right?

Bigdan, I have no idea what gear level your gear is at, but for me:
Simulated (with Vengeful heart) (prio diseases up, then HS, then DS, then DC):
Avg DS: 6948
Avg HS: 6219
Avg DC: 5331
Avg HS w/ 15% DC proc: 7018

WWS (Awareness sigil atm) from Razorscale to Mimiron (all trash and bosses included):
Avg DS: 8016
Avg HS: 5826
Avg DC: 4314
Avg HS w/ 15% DC proc: 6473

In sim: 2 x HS = 14036, while DS + DC = 12279
In WWS with SoA: 2 x HS = 12946, while DS + DC = 12330

Reason why HS is so much lower on average in WWS is because there's sometimes some cleaves without second target having diseases.

So, a) and c) (always prefer runes = only do DC when no rune is ready). DC offers me less per GCD than the others, and since 2 x HS > DS + DC, you shouldn't have any openings for spending all your runic power.

Regarding armor pen for blood. If i'm under the expertise cap, is exp > arp at this point?

It seems from the threads i've seen, arp > exp no matter what since it scales so well. I know we should be at cap, but is additional arp point for point better than expertise regardless?

I"ve been looking at a lot of the regular posters and well regarded dks on this thread. Many of them are under exp cap now, not adhering to the 25 exp limit, forgoing it for more arp.

Is that the new rule of thumb? Hit 25 exp unless there is equal amounts of arp you can replace it with?

You would want to be capped in first place - hit as well as expertise. What advantage does ArP give you if you are being dodged/parried? None.

1) So in reverse and in your words you don't need to bother about being expertise capped at all? Since it's your fault if you're being dodged/parried.
2) If there's math for this, why don't you share it?

According to the testing done in the "retesting hit table assumptions" thread expertise is not truncated, meaning that you get value for each point of expertise rating even if it doesn't increment your total expertise (i.e. there is a difference between 209 and 213 expertise, even though they both appear as 25 expertise on your character sheet).

It was previously assumed that bosses dodged 6.3-6.4% of the time, and so that's where the 25 expertise number comes from (as 26 expertise would indicate you had too much in this case). However, what is frequently missed is that at the same time it was proven that expertise does not truncate, it was also proven that bosses dodge 6.5% of the time.

The expertise rating required to reach 6.5% dodge reduction is 213.135. As such, you won't see 26 expertise on your spreadsheet unless you go over the cap and get 214 or more expertise. The .135 rating represents a mere .004% dodge reduction, so it's not worth going over 213 expertise rating, and hence your character sheet should read 25 expertise.

Hence, the recommended expertise is 25, although it would probably be better to specify the rating (213) instead.

1) Yes, it is your fault.
2) Read the OP, specifically the stat weights section.

Another question, I just recently switched from Unholy to blood, I've got the stats to really support it now.

I did some naxx 25, Vault 25, and Udular 25 last night, and something I noticed is that I absolutely cannot stick to the prescribed dps rotation listed by the op unless it really is a true patchwerk style fight. If the tank moves the boss for a second and I'm out of melee range and miss the opportunity to use an attack, or the fight requires me to attack another target, or move out, or any number of things that can interrupt me, I lose my cycle.

Now, I could stick to it if I sat their auto swinging waiting for things to reset just right, but that to me feels like a DPS loss, so what I started doing was basically a prioritized based rotation. Keep diseases up, if U/F runes are up I deathstrike, I then use as many death/blood runes for heart strikes as I can till the last second before diseases fall off. This is leaving me with very, very limited instances where I have the time to fire off a Deathcoil, I think going through 5 rune bars worth of runes I maybe have the time to fire off 3-4 deathcoils. So unless I'm doing this wrong, it seems to me that Awareness sigil is equal or perhaps better than vengeful, though, I could just be bad and uncomfortable with blood atm.

Am I doing it right? If not, could I get some suggestions, I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread till maybe 2 posts before mine, but I know there's gotta be more people that are not able to stick to the exact dps rotation listed by the op in alot of Udular 25 fights.

EDIT: Btw i'm not begging for hand holding, I've played this game since 2004 november, I know a prioritized dps rotation is > than a set in stone one. I was trying to be polite and not act like a know it all and give someone the opportunity to speak up about it.

World of Logs - Real Time Raid Analysis First night ever as blood dps, feel free to armory me and look at my only 2 BIS pieces. That was with a prioritized rotation, not the one set in stone, and I tanked phase 1 in frost pres, 3 lights in the dark.

The blood rotation is strict and with the movement intensive fights in Ulduar, pretty unforgiving. If you are having trouble with this I'd suggest putting 2 points in epidemic if you haven't already to 'loosen' up the rotation a bit. It will help you with the learning curve.

I assure you that even with 1 point in epidemic the rotations are quite doable in Ulduar.

Even so, having done the above myself, I still prefer two points in epidemic because despite the fact that it is less than optimal on paper it is quite useful in a practical sense.

Vengeful heart is good not just because of your rune dump with death coil, but because of your free death coils from heartstrike. So, one of the primary reasons to keeping the rotation tight and consistent is to pump out as many of those heartstrikes as possible.

You'll just have to learn it

There are a couple fights in Ulduar where a parry chance is something that can't be avoided. Kologarn and Auriaya come to mind in particular. That being said, in reference to the post you replied to, it would still be silly to try and cap Expertise for parry to increase the value of armor penetration.

Stacking expertise in an attempt to overcome or better prevent dodge/parry against Kologarn/Auriaya is a terrible idea given the ease of the encounters and the very very low DPS check to succeed. Given that these bosses have no hard mode makes this statement even more true.