Hit over hit-cap does absolutely nothing, I try and get as close as possible without going over.

I try to get as close to the hit/exp caps without going under. A missed attack will throw off your rotation or potentially hurt you if it comes at an important time (like bursting an elegon spark, for an easy example). The loss of 20-40 rating will never be noticed, but you'll certainly notice when you don't get your sprint from judging and die because you depended on the movement speed.

For pure DPS, I think the article has a point, although the chosen examples are maybe a bit unfairly favorable to the point they're making. "You can reforge exclusively out of your best stat, which has a weight nearly as high as hit, or you can reforge exclusively out of your worst stat (and be slightly below hit cap)! Hey look, reforging out of your worst stat is a better option, what a surprise." [Edit: Upon further consideration, this is a silly objection. Of course the chosen example will be a simple case of the thing they're talking about. I wouldn't have minded a more complex/realistic example too, but whatever.] But sure, sometimes getting the final .01% to the hit cap could plausibly be a DPS loss compared to getting more haste.

For Ret, though, hit/exp are worth significantly more than our other stats, so wasting a few points over the cap is frequently still going to be preferable - 70 points of hit (and 30 wasted over the cap) is still weighted higher than 100 points of haste. And there are a few things where your survival, or even the success of the entire fight, can ride on not missing with some particular ability more than just the lost damage might imply. Missing the seventeenth Judgement on Elegon himself is just a DPS loss that could be compensated by extra stats elsewhere; missing a sprint or stun or etc is more problematic.

We are talking about very small differences in DPS either way: their threshold of .1% below the cap is 34 rating, so the distinction is largely academic. Still, I'd rather err on the side of caution and avoid going under the hit cap.

Adding the "force caps" option is a step in the right direction for the Robot, but advocating being below those caps because of a statistically miniscule chance to actually fail is, in my opinion, faulty logic as presented because it does not take into account special class or encounter mechanics. Beyond us missing a Judgment for the sprint or HoPo, what if that 1:435 miss ends up being to apply ES? If the initial application misses, it's a waste of a global and a 1min CD, and some pretty significant damage. Murphy's Law is a cruel mistress, one I would rather cater to as infrequently as possible.

2 Questions about the spreadsheet linked in the first Post

While the lifeblood haste bonus might be less effective than any other profession, could you add it as flat average haste buff in the calculations when selected?

I'm not sure what the best way to do it would be, but we now have the option to upgrade several items in 2 steps , which is currently completely ignored in the gear list. I'd be nice to add.

Trying to calculate a flat average for procs or on use buffs usually tells you very little, due the nature of stacking buffs/cooldowns.

Just run it in SimulationCraft.

Actually, it's rather accurate for comparisons. The entire point is average. On average your procs will even out with CDs. Sometimes entirely out, sometimes entirely in, often overlapping before/after. On Use is even easier, since I can figure it's always linked with CDs (based on its CD), or the frequency with which it overlaps or not. I think you'd be surprised how close my spreadsheet is with averaged information to SimCraft's very specific blow-by-blow modeling.

bamina - I'm working on a system for the upgrades. May have a release soon. Rather surprised no one has previously pointed out the missing Lifeblood. It will definitely be present in the next release.

Should be do-able. I don't presently store itemID in the spreadsheet, but that's an easy add.

Folks - in order to avoid thread derailment (this thread is about Ret in general, not just one tool), if you have spreadsheet feature requests or bug reports, please do PM them to me.

My guild is trying out Heroic Elite Protectors of the Endless which heavily favours ranged dps. As we don't have enough ranged dps to replace all of the melee dps, and melee have to contend with being out of range of the boss in the last phase for large periods of time, I decided to try standing at range and using a druid's symbiosis for Wrath. The results from the last phase on our best try are shown here:

Analyze - 03-01 19:38 - Ascendance - World of Logs

My question is, does anyone have any idea what the optimal ranged rotation would be? Currently I've been keeping inquisiton up, judging only to refresh censure or when moving and casting wrath the rest of the time. Exorcism didn't seem worth it with lower average damage than a wrath and hammer of wrath seemed to possibly be worth it, but I didn't factor in the haste reductions on both gcd, cast time and cd. Any insight into this strange style of play would be appreciated and make good discussion.

I got Symb in a 5-man from a Guardian the other day and messed around with it. Seemed to me that this is a particular instance where you'll need Glyph of Harsh Words, if you're going for a fully "ranged Ret" build. I prioritized HoPo generators, maintained Inq, finished with HW, and filled gaps with Wrath. Don't remember what my damage/DPS came out as, but it was quite fun and novel to toy with.

I'd suggest getting a Druid buddy and running some dungeons or LFR to practice, and get more practical data than my mere anecdote.

For a fully ranged priority it should be thus:
Outside AW, ES on CD. HoW when available (don't be fooled by its listed damage on Recount or WoL, the Mastery portion causes its total to be greater than a cast of Wrath - both tools list Hand of Light separately). Judge to refresh SoT or if you need more HP for a full 30-sec Inq refresh (i.e. HoW is unavailable). Wrath as filler.

During AW it should be ES on CD. HoW, Wrath, repeat (refresh Inq as needed).

When you're moving, I'd prioritize Exo over Judge (it does more damage), other than to refresh Censure. Possibly seal swap to Insight for the bonus 10% cast speed.

My personal anecdotal experience is that Wrathspam in such a setup is around 70-80% normal DPS. I tested on a few Heroic Dungeon bosses for personal amusement. Noticeably lower than normal, but far higher than a melee class could generally venture.

I don't recall precisely how Harsh Words scales compared to Wrath, but I'm pretty sure it's inferior. Not to mention when HoW is unavailable you're not generating a significant quantity of HP. Full out that's 2 Exo per 30 seconds (no chance for AoW when you can't autoattack), and if Judge was able to average 5 seconds that's 6 of them. 8 HP per 30 seconds, 3 goes to Inq gives you 1.66 WoG Harsh Words in exchange for extra Judge and Exo (which we already determined was less damage than Wrath). So even if WoG is straight better than Wrath, the additional inferior attacks would at least eat into this margin, if not tip it to a net loss.