Okay, I'm wondering if anyone has found THE best way to use DRW? I know it varies from time to time, but I would like to have a solid rotation in my head that I can pull out and use when all else fails. I guess a scenario would be better: Let's say your about to pull a Patch like boss, just pure dps, you have enough RP to pop DRW, and BL will be used as soon as boss is pulled...what rotation would be best here?

My current rotation for a scenario like that is: DS>>Hysteria/DRW Macro>>IT>>PS>>HS>>HS>>DS>>ERW>>HSx4

Now, that rotation has worked alright, but I feel like I could be getting more out of it. I'm not asking anyone to "hold my hand" or anything, just seeing what other DK's would use in a similar scenario.

Thanks for any advice ahead of time.

DRW question:
UD DK, 0% arpen, 4-6 dmg 2h
0/5 Blood Gorged
3/3 Bloody Strikes
3 Bloody Vengeance stacks
UP

Dummy amor reduces damage: ~0.5887

4-6 dmg 2h, 2601 AP
DK HS:
~655 = 0.5887 *(5+ 2601/14*3.3+736) *.5 *1.45 *1.09 *1.04
Meets perfect, most hits are 655, with a 656 here and there

Now you would think that DRW would just hit for:
~327 = 0.5887 *(5+ 2601/14*3.3+736) *.5 *1.45 *1.09 *1.04 *0.5
But that is way to low, even the lowest hit I managed to get was 444
444-502, 475 avg.

~475 = 0.5887 *(5+ 2601/14*3.3+736) *.5 *1.45 *1.09 *1.04 *0.5*1.45
It just seems as Bloody Strike get applied twice for DRW.
Did anyone else ever test this?

Edit:
Same weapon, no gear, 594 AP
No talents which boost damage
0.5887 *(5+ 594/14*3.3+736) *.5 = 259.3, fits perfect the 240 HS

But how do this numbers happen, DRW is weird :|

One thing I suggest doing, is while you are waiting for buffs before a fight, and whatnot, use DND and HoW to get a runic power pool before the fight. DS will be more powerful on the first hit that way.

The standard that I've always read and that has suited me well is to refresh pest when your diseases are <= 3 seconds. This is enough time for you to process a potential pestilence miss. If you look at your chance to miss twice in a row being multiplicative, and say (this is an arbitrary number) you have a 10% chance, the chances of you missing twice in a row are 10%*10% = 1%. Most of us can live with that, and missing is something we have to live with and adjust for. Waiting until the exact last second has been and always will be more risky, and probably less dps due to the misses you mention, than being safe.

Being concerned with the damage of your opening set of strikes is paltry compared to being concerned with it getting your procs up and obtaining a higher overall sustained dps. Opening with death strike also buffs your raid if you don't have another member putting up a 10% AP buff. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, etc etc.

"Okay, I'm wondering if anyone has found THE best way to use DRW? "

I'm fond of using it asap and as much as possible.

Pre-pull, I find it best to buffer myself with a little RP. Hit your HOW and then DnD off to the side approximately 10 seconds before the pull. Usually, you only need 1, but I will double Death Strike to get Sigil proc going. Your FC and Greatness should also be proccing here too. If you're lucky Mjolnir will be going off as well. Then double heart strike to get your 2pcT9 proc. Speed or Armor pot, orc racial, Hysteria, then DRW. You'll also want to squeeze out a ghoul as well to take advantage of all your procs. Make sure you get your IT and PS off first however to take advantage of your extreme AP advantage for rolling diseases (this is obviously obsolete for 3.3).

The next time your DRW is available, hysteria won't be, so don't re-apply diseases (for 3.3 you'll want to again).

The only time I'll conciously save my DRW is if I know i'm going to have a window where i'll have a gimmick damage modifier (3rd phase beasts, twins buff coming soon, etc).


RE: refreshing diseases.
Yes it's optimal to do it with ~3 seconds left on your diseases. However, I have been burnt by that a few too many times where I failed to refresh because of a few misses in a row on the pestilence (spell hit). In 3.3, if I continue with GoD- which seems unlikely, then i'll most likely err more towards the 3 second mark.

So the rotation I use for GoD Rolling Diseass is

DS HS HS DS ERW IT PS HS HS DS DUMP DS HS HS HS PEST

HS HS HS HS DS dump DS HS HS HS PEST

Does this look right? I have just decided to try this out and am not 100% I got the rotation correct.

I open with DS HS HS DS to give myself the best chance to get everything procced. Sigil, 2pt9, everything.

With the change to GoD and t9p4 in 3.3 would it be wise to go for increased armor penetration instead of strength?
Right now I have about 40% w/o talents which could be replaced for a lot more strength with a little luck in raids. But is it really worth aiming for more strength based gear with the patch on its way? or would it be wiser to go for a balance between the two?
This question may have been answered earlier in this thread and if so I am sorry. I am not the most frequent user of this site even though I find it very usefull

It depends on your gear setup, but more strength the better. If you have 400 ArP+(which you do at 40% without talents), you're at that level where ArP and strength are fairly balanced stats so take what you get. Having lots of strength will never be a bad thing, and I personally prefer going after the highest strength I can(I have 3319 strength unbuffed with 444 ArP and Mjolnir Runestone equipped)and it seems to work best for me.

As a bunch of us have said before in this thread, It's not really a system that you can use a Rotation, because your runes will not always fall upon the same set of abilities every time. You want to use a priority system, its been covered here a lot. Your opener looks fine, and its all based on what you think is a comfortable amount of AP to begin your diseases at. I personally open with DS, HS, HS, BT, HS, DS, ERW, Hyst+DRW, PS, IT, Ghoul. Some people say to wait until you throw down your two HS and another DS before dropping a ghoul, I like to get him out when my STR is highest, its all a matter of preference. Also, swinging PS before IT gives you another melee strike that has a chance to trigger another STR proc from your various items, and that buff is applied on you before the disease is applied on the target.

Ill be looking to make an update for 3.3 in the next few days once we get a feel for exactly how things are working on live. Initially it looks like not a lot has changed for us. The main changes being Glyph of Disease no longer rolling diseases making it a playstyle choice at best and dps loss to Dark Death most likely. The new sigil seems like garbage for blood, especially with the mechanics of many of the IC fights. Ill also work on getting the AMS section updated for the new fights. Any undocumented changes that effect us should be posted here as well. While new content will be nice, it seems like 3.3 will be more business as usual for Blood DKs.

thx gearbox. I was just kinda looking for some confirmation.