Shadowpanther is way too simplistic for these forums. If it's good for anything, it's to see a list of new gear and what stats they have; relative equivalence values depend highly on your gear/other stats. But aside from that, yes: t9 bonuses suck compared to t8. HOWEVER: the "grand total" calculations show how bad of a source shadowpanther is; 5 iLevel 245s out DPS 4/5 t8, without any set bonuses.

I just had a quick question about understanding your calculations on the latest Mutilate sheet. I was wondering where the extra value given to having Berserking on your MH weapon comes from. For example, on my MH (Black Knight's Rondel), Berserking gives a value of 179.93, and on my OH (Golem-Shard Sticker), Berserking gives a value of 160.47. I was just curious about why this is.

Two reasons.

First, assuming weapons are of equal speed, the MH still gets more hits in, as finishers proc MH poison and enchants. Hence, even if you're using two weapons of equal speed, the MH will proc more, as it's hitting more.

Second, you're typically using a slower weapon in the MH than OH, which means you get a higher proc chance on instant attacks, which similarly increases uptime.

Thus, MH weapons tend to have higher uptime on Berserking (and Mongoose), hence it's worth more on the MH than it is on the OH.

A bit of background before I ask my question: I've been building two separate sets of gear (with a few interchangeable items), one for combat and one for Mutilate. The combat set has 5x245 offset pieces and is used with an Evis spec. The mutilate set makes use of 4pT8 and high rupture. For the record, I swap between these two regularly so I do not gem for ArP, regardless if it's a minor upgrade for my combat dps. Now on with the question...

Using your sheet, Ald, I couldn't come up with a spec that showed 5x245 beating out 4pT8 with Mutilate. It occurred to me last night, though, to try out an envenom only build in Mavanas's spreadsheet with the 5x245. The tests resulted in ~200 dps increase for me over 4pT8, without changing spec/glyphs (I imagine a minor dps increase with those modified). Is there a reasonable way to check an envenom only build in your Mutilate sheet? I see the dropdown at the top but it doesn't seem to do anything, and I recall you saying it wasn't currently enabled as of the last beta. At least with offset pieces, this seems like a very viable option, and frees up a couple points in Assassination for other useful talents to boot.

On a side note, I tested the gear + Envenom only (see armory for gear mockup) against Hard Mode Jaraxxus last night. It seemed to work out very well, and I plan to try it out on more fights this week. I do not use weapon swapping with this.

Thanks for this amazing spreadsheet first of all.

I was wondering if there was a way to switch the rotation to ruptureless or if you plan on adding this in the future? Sorry if this has already been asked/responded to before. I would like to see where I stand with glyph of evisc and 3/3 improved evisc over bloodsplatter and making relentless strikes 4/5. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Assuming you mean for Combat, the sheet will automatically tell you when to shift from high rupture to low rupture to ruptureless. Just plug in your gear, buffs, and talents as accurately as possible and flip back to the Equipment tab. At the top it will say Estimated DPS, OH Poison, and Cycle. Whatever the last two tell you are your best DPS options.

If you set those talents and glyphs, the sheet should almost certainly switch over to a ruptureless cycle being recommended, even with 4 tier 8. Once you've got a number with those glyphs and talents, switch glyphs/talents back to a rupture setup the sheet will more than likely suggest a rupture cycle. Compare the two numbers you get and you have your answer.

This is not entirely correct. I have found that the spreadsheet will recommend a Low Rupture cycle even if an Eviscerate-only cycle generates more dps if one is talented and glyphed for rupture. Thus, what I did around the time that I was transitioning from Tier 8 to Tier 9 / Trial of the Crusader gear was to keep track of a "Rupture" DPS value and an "Eviscerate" DPS value in two empty cells on the sheet. To do this, you simply write the spreadsheet DPS output into an empty cell under each talent and glyph configuration and see which is greater. This technique is also useful when swapping around items with expertise (if you are near the cap) or armor penetration, as the EP point value generated for each item -- and thus the basis of gear recommendations -- is a forecast based on one's current EP weights. All of that changes when the new piece of gear is equipped and what one really wants to do is compare the modeled DPS output under differing gear scenarios.

Presumably one wouldn't glyph and talent for rupture if you're trying to obtain accurate eviscerate only feedback. So, even if what you are saying is true, it doesn't really matter. The best way to find out accurately is to make two copies of the sheet, one for Evis and one for Rupture. Talent/gear appropriately, then compare the dps figures.

Question about BIS gear set.

People are setting up for a few different items and I can see each being better (for combat) than their tier piece. Be it the [Bloodfang Hood], the [Gloves of the Silver Assassin], or even the [Cuirass of Calamitous Fate] for the respective slot.

My question is, is it really worth going under the expertise cap to get these items? The BIS gear setup only has 1 way to get Expertise cap which is to get the tier Shoulders and Hood. I think Blizzard really dropped the ball on this, especially considering with 258 of these 2 tier pieces you'd be over the cap. Regardless, this tends to bring me to the decision of using the [Gloves of the Silver Assassin] over my tier gloves in my BIS set. I think the spreadsheet (after I added the BF Hood) said using the [Bloodfang Hood] would still net more damage, so this is where I scratch my head and wonder.

For now I'm using the over itemized (lol 190 AP?) BF Hood as it works best for the time being until I lose my [Soul-Devouring Cinch], but eventually I think I'll be using the GotSA... Am I correct here or?

last night, I received a couple of upgrades from a regular 25 ToC - [Leggings of the Broken Beast] and [Cuirass of Calamitous Fate] which replace [Proto-hide Leggings] and [Conqueror's Terrorblade Breastplate] respectively.

And my expertise drops from 26/26 to 10/10 and an expertise rating of 0. It's hard for me to put them on under the advice that it isn't of any importance ever. So I'm sitting here looking for other pieces to recoup some of that loss. But losing all of my expertise on two items which the spreadsheet says are upgrades is tough to swallow.