There is a simple test. Don't change your gear at all, use the other section and go to the hit rating column, enter -1. if your dps doesn't go down your over the hit cap, (with all the buffs/auras you have selected.) If your dps does go down then your at or below the hit cap and it's just the other item has enough non-hit stats to make up for it.

This is a speadsheet, you can give it negative values and it will pretend you just added a gem that reduces your hit rating. The items don't have to be real.

What about when you are in excess of 200 haste, and you will always get 3 starfires buffed by the trinket using starfire spam? If your normal casts are 2.65 seconds (207 spell haste), assuming minimal lag you could achieve 150 +dmg on 3 starfires. Then you would just have to calculate uptime of trinket. If ~1/3 starfires crit (easily attainable raid buffed in t6), your overall average starfire cast time is 2.5 seconds. Now Im horrible with math, so if someone else could please calculate the uptime if you have a 25% chance to proc the buff for 8 seconds, and you're casting at an average of 2.5 seconds, the we could see if it is decent given the proper endgame gear.

I'm a big fan of the spreadsheet, but there is one thing that has been bothering me for a bit, and I can't figure it out. I got curious about how everything worked, so I took a peek in the Cast Cycles tab after unhiding it. Most of the calculations make sense, but I'm confused by the DPS calculations for the MF, SFx3, W and MF, SFx4, W cast cycles. The calculation for the first cycle is
and the code for the second is similar. I'm confused by the use of Insect Swarm average cast time instead of the Moonfire average cast time. After careful deliberation, my brain surrendered, and I'm guessing that it is just a typo.

This all started because I was toying around with custom cast cycles, and I noticed that entering a custom cast cycle that is identical to a prefab cast cycle almost never results in identical dps for the two cycles. Exceptions (that I noticed) are Wrath spam, Starfire spam, and IS, Wx8. I'm not sure if the first issue is causing this, or if it is just due to non-optimal spell arrangement during custom cast cycles. If it is worth fixing (and I'm not entirely sure that it is), good luck. Thanks again for all of your work on this sheet, and for clearing up my confusion.

I think this is a great idea. I've had questions before that I've wanted to research, only to stare at the daunting 36 pages on this thread, and try to find the answers elsewhere. :P

Sounds great. It'd probably be a good idea to link to this thread as well as the one Efejel started on the wow forums since that actually covers quite a lot of info too. WoW Forums -> Balance One-Stop Shop

And as a friendly reminder, please read this post, as the values I speak of in that post are in the current 2.3 mana regen model, and you're missing out on some free mp5: http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t11582-d...34/#post644254.

You bastard, and I had just finished my 2nd page ><.

Indeed, this is most likely a typo that has survived since the inception of the sheet. Much <3 for taking the time to dig into the mechanics.

As far as custom vs. default values varying: DoT vs. cycle duration is the main cause. For default cycles, all ticks are assumed to tick out. For custom cycles, it checks to make sure you've padded in enough average casting time of other stuff and penalizes you if you haven't.

Oh, and pre-emptive response: the average cast time of MF & IS vary b/c I INCREASE the average cast time of IS based on SPELL MISS, the assumption being it's inexpensive enough and useful enough to recast when resisted whereas with Moonfire, spell miss is translated into damage reduction--if you're resisted, you'll try again later.

For the most part, yes. Based on years of experience rather than any sort of equation. Simply put, there will be interrupts and movement in at least 75% of boss fights, and so if you're using DoTs you want your most efficient one up as often as possible.

For pure min-max I try to keep to two diff rotations: IS-MF->Starfire spam, so that during the MF GCD I can determine if my IS "stuck" or not, or: MF-IS->Wrath spam so I can try and sneak in a Starfire if I notice during the IS GCD that NG proc'ed on MF. This also plays pretty well with where these rotations are used; the first is more boss friendly with the IS lacking initial damage giving the tank more time to build threat, and and the second for trash where on all but taunt-immune mobs that won't one-shot me in the case of a resist--assuming I'm with my tanks who know me well--a pre-emptive Starfire joins that MF giving the tank a nice burst of threat when he taunts.

This is a very basic question and im looking for a basic answer. Im fully aware it may be a bit more complicated with different varying factors but try and base your response on the data given. Ive been discussing the age old question of wrath vs starfire with some fellow moonkin raiders on my server and im getting mixed answers. So heres the scenario:

Givens:

1500 spell dmg
Infinite mana ie unlimited
Stationary for the duration of the fight( one target one fight nuke as fast as you can)
Same amount of crit and hit
You only cast wrath or starfire (no IS of MF)

Which does more dps? Starfire or Wrath?

Very simple question just trying determine which spell does the best dps in a simplistic setting

1) Is this question aimed at 2.4 or live?
2) Is Curse of Shadow on the target, and if so is it 10% or 13% dmg?

Live + no CoS = depends on your crit rate, latency, and skill with timing casts through said latency
Live + 10% = depends on your crit rate, but starfire is probably better (the incidental crit in gear at that +dmg level should easily be high enough)
Live + 13% = starfire is better
2.4 + 10 or 13% = wrath should be better

I'd appreciate it if IFF could be added as a rotation option. I know I can just reduce the dps by 3.5%, or 5%, or whatever, but it seems like it would be an easy thing to add, and would make the spreadsheet all the more self-contained.