Since 3.2.2 is out, I have updated the 3.2.2 version of the spreadsheet with my latest innovations:
- slightly improved combat rotation with early SND refresh options (minor positive effect on dps)
- slightly improved mutilate rotation aimed at maximizing envenom uptime (minor positive effect on dps)
- added a couple items, including non-heroic version of DC trinket
- switched DPS rules to seconds instead of simulation ticks, so it's easier to comprehend
- changed some defaults to Hack and Slash in the Talents tab

The front page has also been updated for 3.2.2 patch. As always let me know if you see any bugs. As soon as I confirm that HaT is dead, I will work on a lite version without any HaT support to speed up the calculations.

I am modeling same exact one as you have with instant poison (or wound for combat). If you do not have an identical dagger, you should definitely have a 1.4 speed dagger in the offhand with deadly poison since you want the DP back up as soon as possible. If you have a different dagger with DP for swapping, the theoretical dps estimate is not going to be exactly accurate, but considering that the DP dagger stays on for about 2-3 seconds and one of its swings is reset, the difference in stats is not going to make a big difference, as long as you keep it at 1.4 speed and best quality you can get. I am not going as far as saying do not bother enchanting that dagger because it can still proc berserking in that 2 second window, but perhaps accuracy is a viable option seeing how the extra chance to hit will help your chance to proc deadly poison better. It would take some number crunching to know the difference between berserking and accuracy, but I bet you the impact on final dps is not going to be that high.

From practical point of view, having exact same offhand for DP, or even same graphical model, makes it hard to tell when the swap has occured. (I am using Itemrack to pull out offhand weapon button to see which dagger is currently equipped). I did a full raid tonight weapon swapping with mutilate, and I eventually switched to a worse dagger so that I could easily distinguish between my IP and DP daggers. Ideally I'd love to have some mod tracking which dagger I have on (IP vs DP) and telling me when to swap.

I did get into the rhythm of it though and was able to top the meters just like I did with HaT before 3.2.2.

I have a question as to whether the swap dagger stats will ever be modeled for the mutilate sim. I'm playing around with 3 daggers (2 Steel bladebreakers and a Fang of Oblivion) and the DPS difference between Fang/SBB vs SBB/SBB is negligible. The dual SBBs are ahead by about 10 dps. Because of this, I'm wondering which dagger would be better to have as a swap - or if it even matters.

Hmm unless I'm blind and can't see it, I don't think that's answering my question. I know how to enable it in the SS. I'm asking if the dagger being swapped has a place to put its stats in.

For example say I'm using Fang of Oblivion and Combatant's Bootblade as my default daggers for mutilate. I want to know whether perilous bite or kingsbane would make a better swap dagger. Can I safely assume that the highest value on the gear page is the ideal swap choice? It seems that some stats might be better in a 3 second window, that's why I'm asking.

I recall the key to choosing the weapon you are swapping to is speed. I encourage other people to further analyze this, but I'm under the impression that in that 3-second window (tops, provided DP doesn't fall off) other stats are somewhat negligible.

I'm assuming the negligable stats only matter on the off-hand with DP, as long as this weapon is 1.4 speed.

This brings up an issue with my current set-up. My two choices for off-hand daggers are Dirk of the Night Watch, a 1.4 speed, and the Golem-Shard Sticker, a 1.5 speed.

Obviously the Dirk has the better stats, but it also has the advantage in being a faster dagger. Just trying to think this through, I'm figuring to use the Dirk with IP, and switch to the Sticker to apply DP.

Going with the 1.5 speed DP dagger I know isn't optimal, but in a case like this, it seems unavoidable.

As a side note, is there a level of passive haste that one could acquire that would make a slower (1.5) off-hand dagger more viable?


edit: typo

I'm trying to add Dirk of the Night Watch (heroic). Everything seems to work, it's giving me an additional socket at the bottom for it, but it's not showing up in the socket bonus list. I found a yellow socket with the right bonus and just activated that but the dagger itself is not listed, will it work that way or am I missing a step?

Yes that workaround will work just fine.

To answer some questions about weapon swapping, I used simulation to estimate the dps value of swapping for mutilate and combat, as a function of time left on DP before the swap. I used ilvl245 gear as my base since it's closer to the gear most raiders are currently wearing. However, I used talent and gem settings that are optimal for BiS items since I did not have time to check what would change for ilvl 245 items, but I do not think it would affect the shape of the graphs much.

Mutilate: 51/18/2 spec, double mongoose, AP gems, CT+DC, envenom-only cycle.
Download MuteSwap_liter.bmp

Combat: 51/18/2 spec, double mongoose, AP gems, CT+DC, evisc+rupture cycle.
Download CombatSwap_liter.bmp


Note that I am using AP gems instead of soft armor pen cap setup for combat. I found out that for weapon swapping, the highest dps is achieved with that setup. The agility setup is about 50 dps behind, and soft armor pen cap setup is another 50 below.

As far as optimal switching time goes, it's somewhere between 3 and 4 for both spec, slightly closer to 4 for combat and slightly closer to 3 for mutilate. The benefit of swapping is higher for mutilate as expected by slightly more than 100 dps.


EDIT: If you want to see the graphs that show the DPS value as a function of swap time for mutilate and combat, follow the links. Embedding the graphs in the post was a mistake since they have too big of a size and people decide to quote the message.

At 3.1 level of gear it was not really worth it for combat. Now at 245 and further it's worth it not only during high-haste situations, but also in regular combat. The extra hit and haste we pick up with 3.2 gear make it possible. By the time you reach 245 ilvl as you can see from the graphs, weapon swapping gives you over 450 dps over a 5 minute fight.

It becomes so prominent by the time you reach 3.2 BiS, that it is optimal to gem AP and switch to gear traditionally used for mutilate (such as Broken Beast legs as offpiece and comet's trail trinket).