Guide should be all ready. Feel free to PM me if you think I left something out.
[top]Specs and Glyphs
These are the talents worth mentioning for most fights. Some might have specific uses in a very small number of encounters. For those you’ll have to look up the specific raid mechanics, which for now cannot be found in this guide.
T15 - Subterfuge is ideal for DPS, though Shadow Focus is close behind.
T30 - No direct DPS increase.
T45 - Leeching Poison may boost DPS if it triggers procs like it did for FotF.
T60 - Preparation is best, but for fights with lots of movement Shadowstep may be better.
T75 - Prey on the Weak when targets are stunnable. Paralytic poison is generally bad unless there is a single stunnable mob that should never move.
T90 – Anticipation is best, but for fights with very high amounts of target swapping or importance on range it could be surpassed.
[Glyph of Sprint] if the fight has any movement.
[Glyph of Feint] if you need the extra duration.
[Glyph of Fan of Knives] if a fight has adds that you could potentially land the killing blow on.
[Glyph of Expose Armor] if you are the only one in the raid able to apply that debuff.
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[top]Combat and Rotation
Instant Poison is now baked in to Deadly Poison. Your utility poison depends on what you need to get done.
Relevant Finishers:
Slice and Dice: Increases attack speed by a ton and gives you energy. This is a massive DPS increase and should be up 100% of the time. It is currently unknown whether or not it should be refreshed at 5 CP or with any amount.
Rupture: Deals damage and activates SV. You want this up at all times, especially when there is no Garrote/CT debuff already on the target. Because of how DoTs calculate their effect in MoP and because it is no longer refreshed by Eviscerate, it is not important to get this up during MoS or Tricks.
Eviscerate: Deals damage.
Crimson Tempest (Multiple Targets Only): Deals AoE damage and makes everyone hit bleed. Activates SV. Total damage increase over Eviscerate for two or more targets as long as you are not overwriting the bleed set by the previous CT by much. That said it is an increase to use CT while the previous bleed is up as the bleed activates SV.
Finisher priority:
SnD/Rupture>Evis
Note: It is currently unknown if a Rupture that applies SV is stronger than SnD. Either way it is suggested that stacks of Anticipation are built up to prevent either of these being down for too long.
[top]Combo-Point Generators
Hemo should only be used to keep up its bleed, or if it is impossible to get behind the target.
Without Anticipation: Use BS/Hemo to build CP until you get 4, then let HaT fill in the 5th so you don’t waste any procs. The exception to this is if you are about to energy cap, at as it is generally better to waste CP than energy.
With Anticipation: Same thing really except instead you don’t have to worry about a wasted proc until 5 stacks of Anticipation. More about rotational changes with this talent will be discussed below.
Open with Garrote. If you have Subterfuge, make sure you use an Ambush at the last possible moment to refresh FW.
Vanish: Use roughly on-cooldown to refresh FW and MoS. Always wait for FW to be down before using this, as overwriting FW is a major dps loss. The exception is if it has almost no time left before the refresh. It is best to wait for Premeditation to be ready, any time spent waiting is generally irrelevant. To maximize FW effectiveness you want to fit the most eviscerates as possible into the stage without hurting your rotation, so check SnD and Rupture durations accordingly before vanishing.
Shadow Dance: Same rules for when to use as Ambush. Replace backstab/Hemo with ambush. I usually save Prem for after my first finisher to minimize wasted CP. Wait to use your last ambush until just before ShD expires to maximize FW.
Shadow Blades: Do not overlap with FW as the armor-ignoring effect gets diminished to the point where the extra finishers do not make up for it. This is also best used with low CP, as the number of CP-generators used over the duration should be maximized.
Preparation: Unless you can fit more than one into a fight, this should generally be saved for a burn phase, lining up with Lust/Heroism/fakeversions. Basically you use this to get an extra vanish, so follow the vanish rules. Also note that it refreshes the CD on CoS, so utilize that if it means you will get significantly more uptime.
[top]Stat Weights and Caps
These are sample stats weights according to
Shadowcraft. The current script may require further optimizations which could sway data, but this is the best we have.
Note that these are for single target dps only, and that for any fights with multiple targets where Crimson Tempest is part of the rotation then mastery would be more valuable. For your optimal weights it is best to just use the engine yourself. These all assume you have the t14 4-pc bonus.
Tier 14 Normal
| Stat | T14 EP |
|---|
| Agility | 3.677 |
| Yellow Hit Rating | 1.441 |
| Haste Rating | 1.255 |
| Crit Rating | 1.200 |
| Mastery Rating | 1.172 |
| Expertise Rating | 1.163 |
| White Hit Rating | 0.727 |
Tier 14 Heroic
| Stat | T14 EP |
|---|
| Agility | 3.700 |
| Yellow Hit Rating | 1.517 |
| Haste Rating | 1.311 |
| Crit Rating | 1.233 |
| Expertise Rating | 1.224 |
| Mastery Rating | 1.219 |
| White Hit Rating | 0.767 |
Tier 14 Heroic 2x Upgrade
| Stat | T14 EP |
|---|
| Agility | 3.727 |
| Yellow Hit Rating | 1.591 |
| Haste Rating | 1.398 |
| Expertise Rating | 1.285 |
| Mastery Rating | 1.277 |
| Crit Rating | 1.272 |
| White Hit Rating | 0.801 |
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[top]Trinket EPs
All EPs are calculated with t13 BiS values from Shadowcraft, as seen above.
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[top]Higher Optimization
[top]Anticipation Optimization
Anticipation can be used to move finishers from low-damage phases to high-damage phases by keeping high Anticipation stacks when there are no damage increases (buffs/debuffs, most notably FW) and low stacks during increased damage phases.
Before we go into the technique, let's set some things straight:
We will take Anticipation to mean we have a total of 10 CP. We are going to call any buff or debuff that increases your damage significantly "buff". This could be FW, boss mechanics, procs, etc. There are therefore "buffed" and "not buffed" phases of each fight. It is up to you to decide for which buffs you want to apply this strategy to.
Not buffed phases:
Keep Anticipation stacks high, using finishers when you have 9-10 CP. If you are going up to 10 CP make sure that nothing is going to proc a wasted one. This ensures you will always have most of a finisher to unleash during a buffed phase.
Buffed phases:
Use finishers at 5 CP. Obviously don't worry about anything proccing a 6th.
Note:
Don't worry too much about keeping high CP during non-buffed phases. If you need to refresh SnD and Rupture at the same time, it is better to use both and have 0 CP than to clip one or have significant downtime.
[top]Waiting or Clipping Hemo/CT
It can be better to wait to use these abilities even after the bleed has ended as the damage of the bleed is highly dependent on the initial damage of the ability, and thus if you are about to gain FW it may be best to wait. Similarly it can be wise to clip the end of the bleed if it would mean extra initial damage.
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10/15/12: Initial post, minor edits to make it prettier.
10/17/12: Added content from previous guide.
11/14/12: Noted new EP on Shadowcraft, though advised that testing may be needed.
12/13/12: Added EP tables based on Shadowcraft for T14, T14 Heroic, and T14 Heroic 2x upgrade.
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09/28/12, 4:46 AM
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