I'm agreeing with you; I don't think stopping a cast of LB to cast LvB ever has any merit in an actual gameplay situation. It's the same question as "if I have X seconds left on cooldown for the LvB, what should I do?". If you don't have lava surge, then the dps gain/loss is easier to calculate.

Scenario 1: LB->LvB->LB (where the Lava surge procs or LvB comes off cooldown during the first LB)
Scenario 2: (delay) -> LvB->LB->LB

The penalty in Scenario 1 is that you won't actually get to use a LvB every 8s (+LvB cast time), where as in Scenario 2, you'll get a much tighter rotation. If you use Scenario 2 enough times (X ~= 9s/LB cast time-delay) you'll eventually have pushed your LvB CD forward enough times such that you'll get an extra cast at the cost of some amount of time (X delays). Approximately, the gain would be (LvB dmg - (3/4)LB dmg) and the loss would be (X delays/LB cast time) * LB dmg or (9s * delay / (LB cast time - delay) * LB cast time) * LB dmg. Given an expected 24k dmg LvB and a 13k dmg LB, and a LB cast time of 1.5s, the delay comes out to a little under 0.3s.

Now that assumes we don't have lava surge, which is where the math becomes tricky. In the above example, rearranging LB and LvB means that eventually you'll have push your LvB forward enough times such that you get an "extra" LvB relative to Scenario 1. However, with lava surge, if it proc's at a time where in both scenarios LvB is on cooldown, the entire rotation gets reset since your next cast is LvB. All the benefit of delaying your cast is now gone. Therefore, with lava surge, the only time you get this benefit is if it proc's at a time where in Scenario 1 LvB would already be off cooldown, but in Scenario 2 it's still on cooldown. This time period is the same time it takes to cast exactly 1 LB, and the overall time period of the rotation is 8s + 1 LvB cast. Approximately 15% depending on your haste value. So you'd have approximately a 15% chance of getting an extra LvB cast somewhere down the road if you cancel/delay your cast. The math is then similar to the above, which means the delay will have to be less than 0.2s.

I hope that explanation suffices. Either way, the value is so low that after factoring reaction time + latency, it's extremely unlikely you'll get any benefit from ever cancelling a cast.

I use GridStatusHots.
Doesn't display seconds, but rather makes your normal square dot icon change color at 3 different threshold. You can set it all the way you like it. For example Make the icon of Riptide green at start, yellow after 10 seconds, and red when 3 seconds are left. I configured it to be Yellow at start, and red when 4 seconds are left.


May be wrong here, but I don't know any grid module allowing you to do so. It's perfectly possible on Vuhdo though, so you might considered changing Grid for Vuhdo.

Could anyone please post the correct sprit/int to mp5 formula for Resto Shamans in 4.0.6? I find so many different values on the web.

Thanks.

I was playing with the gear I have and testing different spellpower weapons, when I noticed something strange.

When I equip my Biting Wind, the damage shown in the melee tab is 1739-1961, whereas when I use my Scepter of Power the damage shown is 1894-2107. Why is this? I see that dagger's DPS is higher, but shouldn't the dagger also have higher damage because mace's base damage is lower and AP stays the same?
Or is there different scaling with AP on different weapon types/weapon speeds?

I'm afraid this question is a bit more game mechanics than shaman related, but posting it here.

EDIT: in live Scepter of Power's damage is 2-214, not 51-95 as wowhead claims.
EDIT2: The further I think, I think i'm missing something important here. I guess I have thought that the damage formula is more simple than it actually is..

With regards to weapon damage, Attack Power adds to weapon DPS, not to weapon damage directly. So a slower weapon gets more damage per swing than a faster weapon from the same amount of attack power, but the overall DPS increase is the same.

Ah, that makes sense Ohgg. I always thought for some reason that damage is calculated with formula like "(Weapon damage) + ((AP coefficient) x AP)", but obviously I was wrong. Thanks, you made me feel dumb now because even mouseover on attack power says it increases DPS!

Healing surge is the same (roughly) HPS as GHW but is dramatically lower HPM. So no, the situation cannot simply be dealt with by healing surge. Unless you're only defining "dealt with" as having no one die rather than playing as optimally as possible. When that situation arises (as you said, it usually shouldn't), use NS. If it's on cooldown use a healing surge but, barring extreme circumstances, healing surge should never really be cast. The same is true for every other healing class - except for druid/priest clearcast procs. Fast heals are not meant for PVE, they're abysmal hpm. Spamming them is an old habit that should be broken as soon as possible or you won't be able to contribute very well in raids.

That said, if you can find a useful place to put the point and you feel like you never use it, more power to you. NS is certainly not a required talent. I don't advise passing it up, but it's a judgement call.

And that is not true. Tidal Waves make Healing Surge almost same HPM as GHW. Also count additional AA procs.

Let me apologize from the get go, if this wrong forum, wrong thread to post this question, but I spend hours looking at add-ons, installing a few and have not found exactly what I am looking for.

Is there an add-on to track the remaining ticks on FS, not the duration of FS

Enhancement Question

I've been looking through the forums to figure out why caster MH weapons increase our dps. Can someone give me the basics so I can better figure out what to look for in the future?

I can definitely recommend GridIndicatorIconBar. This allows you to use mutliple Icons and not only the center icon. I am currently using four icons, The first one for Earthshield, the second for Riptide, the third for Boss Debuffs and the last one for Dispellable Debuffs. Keep in mind that you have to make the icons big enough, or you won't see the timer in numbers. Adjusting the "ranking" of buffs/debuffs can also help.