Some crude math, assuming a boss fight that lasts 5 minutes (300 seconds):

300/21 = 14.29
Pest every 21 seconds: 14 Pest casts (6 seconds with no diseases at the end)

300/19 = 15.79
Pest every 19 seconds: 15 Pest casts (15 seconds with no diseases at the end)

Now, 15 seconds is obviously long enough that you wouldn't want to be without diseases, so that would turn out to be 16 casts. I'm giving the 21 second the benefit of the doubt and letting it skip that 15th pest and figuring it will use a couple of Death Strikes to fill out those four GCDs with as many hard hitting attacks not dependent on disease modifiers.

So, 14 Pest casts vs 16.

You only lose two Heart Strikes for a five minute boss fight, assuming you strictly use Pest every 19 seconds (keep in mind that refreshing it with less than three seconds left is to give leeway, so you wouldn't actually be doing it strictly every 19 seconds).

Refreshing on the last second of your diseases is best, but playing it safe and refreshing between 19 and 21 seconds isn't going to destroy your DPS and your average boss fight.

With the exception of the hands t9 are the BiS pieces on a per slot basis. The only reason to not use them would be if you are over capping either hit or expertise. Also the 4 pc set bonus is very strong even for blood. Combining the fact that there aren't that many pieces of gear in ToC, and subsequently not many ArP pieces, with very strong set bonuses and it's easy to see why Blood has to pick up the tier pieces.

from mmo-champion. Fairly weak sigil. Looks like we'll be using virulence until cataclysm. Unless it refreshes the 3stack every time you DS after the initial buildup. Still, 19 str boost over virulence puts it fairly low on the upgrade priority list.

I don't have an old enough log available anymore, but before 4P9 my diseases each accounted for 5-6% of my total damage. With 4P9 the damage per disease is ~11%, so the set bonus roughly doubles disease damage. I'm rolling diseases with GoD so it probably helps with the damage.

In an attempt to determine stat weights, I recently ran an EP simulation using Kahorie's simulator and it came up with some EP values that for the most part seemed to make sense, except that my Haste was valued at only 1.38, and the 2-piece tier 9 bonus seems a bit low too. Just wondering if anyone else has similar findings, or if I did something wrong with the settings. In the sim I'm using Glyph of Disease, Blood spec with 2/2 epidemic. 1000 hr sim of many 350 sec fights. I used Darkmoon Card + Banner of Victory, with 4-piece Tier 9. Results as follows:

AttackPower | 1
Strength | 3.05
Agility | 1.74
CritRating | 2.36
HasteRating | 1.38
ArmorPenetrationRating | 2.79
ExpertiseRating | 2.72
BeforeMeleeHitCap<8% | 4.46
SpellHitRating | 1.32
WeaponDPS | 9.34
WeaponSpeed | 622.95
2T9 | 98.31
4T9 | 579.66
2T10 | 279.66
4T10 | 367.8
| Template | Blood2H
| Priority | Blood
| Presence | Blood
| Sigil | Virulence
| RuneEnchant | FallenCrusader /
| RuneEnchant | FallenCrusader
| Pet Calculation | True

The stats I used are as follows (basically using my current gear):

<Strength>2188</Strength>
<Agility>223</Agility>
<Intel>55</Intel>
<Armor>14830</Armor>
<AttackPower>365</AttackPower>
<HitRating>238</HitRating>
<CritRating>892</CritRating>
<HasteRating>127</HasteRating>
<ArmorPenetrationRating>487</ArmorPenetrationRating>
<ExpertiseRating>133</ExpertiseRating>
</stat>
<weapon>
<count>1</count>
<mainhand>
<dps>281.7</dps>
<speed>3.6</speed>
</mainhand>
<offhand>
<dps>0</dps>
<speed>0</speed>
</offhand>
</weapon>
<EP><base>50</base></EP>

Wondering if anyone else has run sims of Glyph of Disease blood spec using mostly 245 gear or better? If so, I would be grateful if anyone could share the results. Thanks in advance!

Does the marginal bit of AGI over Haste have to do with increased crit chance for diseases with 4pt9? Only thing I could think of that would swing it that way, considering thats two spell GCDs we are replacing with just one after our opener with GoD setups.

Would haste make diseases tick faster? IIRC haste makes other dots, e.g. Shadow Word: Pain, tick faster. Are disease crits based off of melee or spell crit? If spell, agi shouldn't effect their crit rate.

In 3.3, a talent or glyph will allow SW:P and Corruption to tic faster with haste. I doubt DK diseases will be affected by haste, DKs are fine in the dps department while spriest and Affliction Warlock need help. Diseases with 4 piece crit based on melee crit.

No, it is more likely due to SS double critting.

This is the Blood thread, SS is Unholy. Agility is better than Haste partly due to 4 piece crits and Blood's decent crit bonus. Anyway the value is pretty close.

I have a question regarding my damage. After a boss fight I view recount and more then likely Melee is my top damage followed by Heart Strike then Death Strike. Heart strike is suppose to be my top damage, but it's usually 1% or 2% less then my melee damage. My rotation is as follows:

IS PS HS HS DS DUMP DS HSx4 DC

I am not using Glyph of Disease but rather Dark Death, Death Strike, and DRW.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is the problem in my rotation or my game play?