3-4% isn't far off of what your other cooldowns net to you, they just don't have a separate column in a WWS. Not to mention there's quite a difference between a KSpree used for when you were just pooling energy and a KSpree used intelligently, e.g. during trinket proc(s) (add an external TotT if you play it real fancy).

To add to that, despite it typically teleporting you behind a mob, Killing Spree can get you hit with frontal attacks as well. Last week on Malygos I used it before any sparks were down, and it earned me a big old breath of arcane damage.

/instantdeath

Save to say, be careful when using it on bosses.

You ought to just use it to get out of the vortex. It works well for things like that or getting you to a target a little quicker.

Ok I updated the simulation spreadsheet and ran the simulation for every spec using standard templates with T8 gear (I accidentally left T7 helm in and decided not to rerun the program). For 3.1 I assumed Savage Combat buff was up. DPS of all specs went up considerably compared to 3.0. The biggest winners are the HaT builds. Here are the results:

vHaT = eViscerate HaT
nvHaT = eNvenom/eViscerate HaT, a version which uses envenom if you have more than 4 DP stacks, otherwise eviscerate.
2 c/s stands for 2 HaT procs per second which usually requires at least 2 top gear hunters and 2 other decent classes.
Mutilate build did not have murder talent selected.

The link to the spreadsheet can be found here.

Mavanas may I ask why you chose to run numbers on IP/DP as 18/51/2? Why would this build change to use IP over WP in the mainhand when it doesn't pick up improved poisons.

For that build, the rotation includes envenoms which increase your chance to proc Instant and Deadly Poison and not Wound. The other two combat builds that have Wound use Eviscerate as you would expect.

If you go back a page to Mavanas's original post, you'll see that for a 18/51/2 spec it is suggested by Mavanas that you should use IP on your MH, DP on your OH, and Envenom in your rotation. By using Mavanas's simulator I was able to match the DPS he posted within 8dps using the same gear, same poisons, and with Envenom in the rotation. I am not sure where your point of confusion is but remember that Envenom itself gains from Vile Poisons as well.

With this rotation, you do perform enough Envenoms to warrant the use of Instant Poison instead of Wound despite having no points in Improved Poisons. If you use Mavanas's simulator with a 18/51/2 spec, IP in the MH, DP in the OH, and using Envenom, and then try the same again except use WP in the MH, you should see a loss in DPS (I am seeing about a 1.21% loss). Meaning that despite using few envenoms, it is enough to raise the overall DPS contribution of IP past what WP would normally give.

So I just want to make sure I am understanding how things are changing for at least combat.
Basically instead of 15/51/5 using SND, Rupture, Evis as your cycle, it's better to switch towards a SND, Rupture, Envenom cycle if you have stacks, or Evis if you don't... and instead of socketing AGI gems you want to socket AP gems instead for 3.1?

Actually for combat you don't really need to count DP stacks. In the time it takes to get 4-5 combo points for next envenom, you will have the stacks. Only for HaT, where you spam finishers, it's not effective (and not even possible) to use envenom all the time, so you will have to weave in eviscerates, and the best way I found to do it is based on the number of DP stacks. Other ways we discussed in the HaT thread were based on envenom buff, but at least in my own simulation I find that other method inferior.

As for IP vs WP discussion, it definitely needs more analysis and doublechecking. I also get a feeling WP could outperform IP even despite the envenom buff, so I will doublecheck poison damage and application rates.

I too am stuck on the your gemming choice Mavanas. Since we've raided together and had lengthy discussions on Rogues. Are you now saying that stacking AP for gems is now the preference for a combat rogue instead of a balanced approach? I've seen you and other Rogues make this mistake in the past (Karazhan days). Would you care to elaborate here?

With the changes to poisons and the scalability added to AP via Trueshot Aura, Unleashed Rage, etc., the value of AP has certainly increased in value to a point where is considered equal in terms of Equivalency Points, and with an additional 4% scalability courtesy of Savage Combat, it logically and mathematically makes sense that Attack Power has been proven to be the best stat to gem for in Combat builds. The buffing of Deadly Poison's AP coefficient by 50% in 3.1 only increases the value of AP.

Got ya. The question I have really is in what kind of cycle was being used. For example I use a 4s/5r/5e cycle obviously losing the Eviscerate if I have to move or my slice n dice is about to drop. So it seems based on what you put that the change is to a 4s/5r/5envenom cycle once you have 4-5 stacks, or just 4s/5r until you get em?

I ran this with 3s/4r/4e cycle, with eviscerate or envenom depending on whether 15/51/5 or 18/51/2 spec was used. If by the time I have 4 combo points I do not have 4 stacks (happens 1-2 times in 5 min of the simulation), eviscerate is used instead of envenom. I am not claiming this is going to turn up the best cycle for 18/51/2 by the way, it's just an extension of the traditional 3/4/4 cycle to envenom combat.

Patch 3.1 - PTR Build 9767

Engineering

* Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket now deals 1440 to 1760 Fire damage (Up from 1035 to 1265), cooldown lowered from 1 min to 45 sec.


Assuming that the activation is off the gcd now (I didn't have the chance to test it yet), wouldn't this raise the dps contribution of Engineering as a profession for quite a bit?

The old one estimated at 25 dps. By napkin math, the buff appears to push it to 40 dps.

For purposes of comparison: 1 AP is around .7 DPS; hence, 40 DPS is worth around 60 AP - which, while certainly more than the 44 AP from Crusher, is not as large a benefit as most professions.

Well, at least its a small buff, making it worth a little more than standard enchants. It would be nice to have a confirmation regarding the cd of the Hyperspeed Accelerators, as the cd is still listed as 2 min in the tooltip, while it has really been 1 min since 3.0.8.

I believe it has been confirmed somewhere that it's 1 min. Merely a tooltip not being updated to reflect that.

Considering the upcoming 3.1 changes, and assuming that the difference between combat and mutilate will be very small (making it more "skill-based" if you are a good dps or not), how do one gear/gem/enchant for combat spec?

I remeber in BC how important the hit-cap was (363 if I remember correctly). Today the hitcap is around 700 (white-dmg hit cap).

My questions are:
*How important is it to be close to the hitcap? Of course it will probably not be possible to reach 700 hitrating without gimping the other stats to much. But what is reasonable? 400?, 500?

*For mutilate rogues, the expertise cap is important (214 expertise rating i believe). How important is it for combat rogues? Can I, for instance, have an exp. rating of 150 and rather try to push up the hitrating to 400 or maybe 450?

*If we take into considiration the 18/51/2 spec, is it enough to reach the poison hitcap in this case? Or is the white dmg still important?

We are getting close to 3.1 and I have started to think about how to "react" in terms of gear/gems/enchants once I respecc to combat. So would be glad if someone can give some clarification into the matter.

Hit rating doesn't hold the same status as it did in Burning Crusade; it's not a be all, end all stat and there's no magic hit rating number to strive for. Hit rating is a dps stat like attack power, agility, haste rating, what have you. The more hit rating you obtain, the less valuable it becomes as a dps stat. Upon reaching the specials cap, its value decreases and upon reaching the poison cap, its value decreases even further. All there is to do is balance hit rating against your other dps stats in a manner that yields the highest dps for you. The same goes for expertise. Both hit and expertise caps are neatly displayed in the Pocket Guide to WOTLK.

As for precisely determining how best to gem or enchant come 3.1: I suspect time will tell, and that until the patch content is no longer subject to change, it'll be conjecture to make statements about it. That's just a personal point of view, though.

I would say for me having high hit/exp is for not getting my routines interupted, having my envenom dodged when I have 1 second back on slice and dice is really bad.

Well if that's the issue then hit doesn't really matter at all. The yellow cap pretty much comes naturally with gear from heroics or early 10-man bosses. The poison hit cap, however, is slightly more important; mainly so for Mutilate, but it still is somewhat valuable with combat. If you raid with a shadow priest, though, I believe you only need around ~230 (not exact) hit to be capped. Hit doesn't really matter that much anymore. AP/Agility have extremely close EP weights for Mutilate and Combat, and the highest (in terms of the numbers that appear on gems).

You're right about expertise though. Luck can sometimes make you its bitch if you're not expertise capped. What separates the two is that Hit has three different caps while expertise just has one. The special cap for both is very crucial in order to have clean cycles.