hey guys i have some questions

Zalara @ Destromath - Game - World of Warcraft

thats my char. i know that the gear is not the best yet and that i have too many healing items, but im gearing towards shadow now.

im not sure if im doing the rotation and priority system right tho, since im only doing 12k dps on the dummy and about 15k on raid bosses (single target dps without dmg enhancing effects like the puddles on the omno encounter) which seems too low. we're talking 10man btw.

so i open up with VT (precast it so it lands when the tank pulls) -> DP -> SW:P -> Shadow Fiend > Mind Flay until 1 Shadow Orb is up. then I immediately do a mindblast to get SE buff up and wait for my procs (PT, lightweave, trinket procc) and when those are up i refresh VT and DP. Then i just do the normal rotation. I only try to cast mindblast when theres 3 shadoworbs up, but if SE is about to fall off and i have only 1 shadoworb i will cast MindBlast anyways to maintain the buff. I also use archaengel right before i cast a 3 shadow orb mindblast to maximize the damage on that.

what about mid-fight proc scenarios, should i only refresh vt and dp (even though they are not about to expire) when more than 1 proc is up, or only when all 3 procs are up or should i not even bother? since ill refresh them anyways as soon as they run out?

also ive read here multiple times that ppl want to spam "DP" instead of mindflay when the mob is below 25% ? why the hell would you want to spam a DOT instead of a channeled cast? doesnt make any sense to me

clipping mindflay - should i do it or not? like when i have to refresh a dot but casting mindflay at the moment, clip it or just cast it through and then refresh the dot?


still, im doing only 12k dps and i have absolutely no idea why. im doing okay on encounters like magmaw or omnotron when i can "abuse" the dmg enhancing effects but when it comes to pure single target like atramedes i suck really hard. get outdpsed by nearly every class. and also 12k on the dummy is a joke in my opinion, but i dont know how to fix it.. can anyone help me out?

You can't clip dots, so just think of Devouring Plague like a Shadow Word: Death without the cooldown.

Looking at a recent clear, the average damage for Improved Devouring Plague was 12k for hits, 27k for crits. Mind Flay on the other hand, was 6.7k for hits, 13k for crits. The reason you don't spam DP all the time is because you would rapidly go out of mana. But if your mana can support it, DP is much better DPS than Mind Flay.

Again, you can't clip dots, so while you're spamming DP for the instant damage, it will still be ticking for your dot damage as well.

So basically most of the times you can drop Mind Flay sub-25%? Because you are usually at full mana due to double SW D.

Mind Flay is still a more reliable way to generate Shadow Orbs than Shadow Word: Pain to ensure a decent uptime on Empowered Shadows. However if you Mind flay enough to keep Empowered Shadows up, along with keeping up 5 stacks of Evangelism, then yes, you could use Devouring Plague a bit more sub-25%.

Hi,

I hadn't seen this mentioned on here so I wanted to see if anyone else has looked into it: Was the Shadowfiend's damage stealth-nerfed in 4.1? A few places have posed questions but I haven't found a solid source yet. LINK.

I know that the SF isn't used for it's DPS but rather it's mana regen but I am curious about the change.

Thanks,
Raw

I just went through 2 months' worth of logs and I can't see any major differences in my shadowfiend's output.

WoWPedia states that SF was nerfed.

Patch 4.1.0 (undocumented changes) - Wowpedia - Your wiki guide to the World of Warcraft

Imp DP takes up a whole GCD whereas a single tick of MF is only 2/3 of a GCD. So the equivalent figures are 12k for Imp DP and 10k for MF. Plus MF ticks have a chance to generate shadow orbs and reduce shadowfiend cooldown whereas Imp DP does not.

In practice Imp DP is marginally better than MF but not significantly better. This is backed up by my testing with Simcraft where I tried increasing the frequency of DP casts - dps rose slightly with increased casting but only by about 200 dps at best out of 28k (and that's based on infinite mana). Plus at the extreme if you cast DP to the exclusion of MF then you will lose evangelism stacks which will result in a significant dps loss.

But yes, if mana isn't an issue then there is a small benefit to casting DP more often.

Using DP as a filler, you also loose the possibility to buff it for it entire duration by refreshing during a trinket proc.

Just a few things for those that don't have there 4piece and 372 gear yet.

I personally start out with DP > SW:P > VT > MFx2 > MB > SF > Refresh Dots for procs
(I MB regardless if i have an orb or not with the MFx2, however if i get an orb early i will cut the 6th tick of MF and send the MB off)

In the Kill phase just keep doing the same thing and SW on CD.

I then keep dots rolling and MF where necessary. I also MB on CD. With 3/3 Improved Mind Blast there is no reason why you should have trouble keeping ES up. I personally find it rare that i actually have to track my orbs because for the most part they are up. If you are waiting for 3/3 orbs every time you are going to see a dps loss, and will probably not see higher then 13k.

Keep in mind you do not want to let your dots fall off, and unless you are so proficient that you can time your latency perfectly then you should refresh earlier then right before the last tick due to the fact that there is no more dot clipping.

If you are MF'ing and do not need to refresh your dots, feel free to cast MF again before the last tick since they have fixed it to act like the dots and you will not clip the final tick. If you are doing MF when your MB comes off CD then wait until after the second tick of MF and cast the MB clipping the final tick.

I have personally seen a dps increase by doing these. I have not however tried the VT on pull, and DP increased casts with the SW below 25% but i will try it on my next raid.

So I've read lots of posts last day's.

And I've summed up something. Would like some one to correct me with math if it is possible.

I see people arguing about , rather to make boost while opening SWP > MF (orb) > 3XMS > MB , or make consistant DoT applying VT > SWP > DP etc. I'm not the guy who does math ,but I did experiment a lot with this and I came to conclusions that only 30% of all the tryies it does make increased dmg done in 5 minute fight. But those 30% are better only because none of my trinket proced. Rest of the times when trinket proced, it's better to DoT because the dmg output is much bigger. My conlcusions on this subject VT > SWP > MF and then if trinkets proc , go DoT's if not burts down with 3xMS and MB and then apply DoT's. If I'm totaly wrong please correct me.

And I have unaswered questions: In addition to maximize dmg from DoT's I need to reapply them when trinket's proc or does the game does this auto? Basicly what I want to know , what does apply dynamicly what doesnt?