It's not the LB so much as the GCD on FS. If you're on the move, then of course you're going to cast FS and use LvB while its up. But if FS falls off while you aren't moving, then the (largely untested) theory is that it is better to continue casting LB than to "waste" time casting FS.

This isn't something that is easy to test, but I can tell from experience (first couple weeks of Ulduar when I was still playing Elem) that I was doing more DPS on Vezax this way.

On the contrary, it's extremely easy to test, or even just count. If FS+LvB+LvB is more damage than LB*3, then you should stick to the normal rotation (protip: it is).

Except you have to test that with 100% haste + raid haste + gear haste, which puts you far past the GCD cap and gives dead time on BOTH FS and LvB. (Which I suppose could be easy to test, but doesn't factor in moving between shadow crashes/moonbeams.)

^ Totally disagree - this is hodir 25m WoL Report (not hardmode because my guild isn't quite there yet) and the % that LB+CL combined drops is maybe 5-7%~ give or take less than normal (or at least for that kill) which i'd assume is dropping from 5/4 to 4/4 or so in equivalence. (Obviously the boomkin light buff increases your haste, so that puts it back on track from moving around everywhere.) Plus if you don't need to run to the person with the buff 3 times or more like i did there, then it should be about the same as normal.


I think what people are trying to say about flameshock, is that if you're moving and it's ticking then your actual DPS will be lowered, whereas if flameshock ran out then you had to run (to shadow crash or some hodir buff) then applied it when you've stopped, your damage done will be slightly lower, however your overall DPS will be higher, as it will count as your "active time" being lower, and so it gets rid of your actual DPS over the main course of the fight (boss alive to boss dead) and just "freezes" your DPS if you will, until you start hitting the boss again. - This same thing happens if you die you don't lose DPS (unless your FS is ticking) when you're dead. - An example is in that Hodir World of Logs report that i linked in the wall of text above. Steve (Neurology) had 10k dps~ however his active time was 191 seconds (68.3%) and he came 8th overall.

It will be a rare occurrence when you don't have to move for 18+ seconds on Hodir. Assuming that storm power's 135% bonus is a 2.35 multiplier, and that it applies to DoT crits, the average Flame Shock is 19k damage vs LB's 17k (or 15k & 10k damage per second casting). The figures for a normal rotation and LB spam is 11.5k vs 10.2k dps (ie: 1.3k dps from using FS & LvB normally).

Thusly, your standard operating priorities apply. If you're moving, cast FS. If FS drops off, recast it.

Hi, just wondering if anyone has any concerns on the amount of hit on our tier gear ? Also any ideas for dealing with it ahead of time ? I'm tempted to pick up the Yogg chest if it drops or some non-tier legs but nothing really stands out.

I tested this today on live (3.1.3) and two crits from different spells within 1s of each other did not gain me two charges. I suppose this cooldown is working as stated in the tooltip now.

That's exactly what MatsT suggested - in a normal rotation without haste, FS+LvB+LvB takes 1.5+1.5+1.5=4.5 seconds, whereas 3*LB takes 3*2 = 6 seconds. In a maximum haste environment (Vezax, Hodir) they take approximately the same time (since LB wil either be gliding GCD or be under it, which LvB and FS will certainly be under it). Therefore, as MatsT suggested, in a maximum haste environment, all you need to check is whether FS-2LvB is less, equal or more than LB*3, because cast time isn't important. Even in such a case FS-2LvB wins (though, because of shorter cast times, the relative contribution of LvB will be lower since you'll be able to cast more LBs between its cooldowns).

Though i am planning to use the yogg chest for my hit issue, 3.2 will bring us a pleasant gift in the form of a craftable (sigh) cloth chest.

Merlin's Robe

-82 hit and 9 SP (tier) vs 66 crit 8 haste and 1 gem slot

see comparison here : Tier vs Merlin's Robe

thoughts?

this is of course a comparison between item level 245 gear alone and may not be suitable for the higher end gear, but is the most substantial swap-out of tier gear that i have noticed.

Looks better than the chest off Yogg and there are bracer's too so we won't have to use an iLvl 213 piece in Icecrown. All depends on how we can get those orbs.

What are you talking about? Use the bracers from Hodir hard mode.

I'm wondering if I'm missing something about the mechanics for Wind Shear.
With it being instant cast, outside global cooldown, outside shock cooldown, and ranged, could we not make macros for LB/FS/LaB that just cast it right before each and use them for every single boss fight where we do not have to interrupt stuff?
I mean, I realize most windshears would just fail to cast because of range/cooldown, but so what? The real spells still would get cast and it would be a constant aggro dump whenever we happen to be in range.
Am I missing something that would make this not work or be worth it?

That would do. Worked perfectly fine for me with Wind Shock. It would work as a minor aggro dump indeed, which would help us to reduce aggro as we start with a high-critting LvB in every rotation.

edit: It makes my casting a bit more interesting. I like to think so at least.

Does anyone know how much our threat is actually reduced by using wind shock / shear? From what I've seen on Omen its rather negligible, don't get me wrong i can see the benefit of using it when all you have cast is 1 FS on the mob, but halfway thru a boss fight will it actually make any difference?

WS dumps 2k base threat, but Elemental Precision actually lowers the amount of threat it drops to 1.6k at 3/3. So while WS might save you after an opening LvB, its return is negligible after that.

Is the 4 piece T9 bonus a multiplier on the total damage or just on the spellpower coefficient?

*edit
Quote from Binkenstein's blog:
This answers the question so far.

Same as usual, we just fall in line with the non-JCs from before the patch. Two 12SP/15STA gems in blue sockets (with the highest return on spellpower socket bonuses), and 23SP/Dragon's eyes in all of the rest unless there's a very attractive socket bonus with a yellow slot, in which case use SP/haste.

I decided to drop JC so I can do Alchemy / Tailoring, but my armory is up to date with epic gems Armory Link

Do we know if there's any confirmed cooldown of Totem of Electrifying Wind ?
If that is the case, was it suppose to be BiS ? Searched a bit around, but couldn't find any answer.

All you have to do is just replace all your rare gems with the new epic gems. You shouldn't have to be changing any around unless you gemmed your items incorrectly beforehand.

Not true for me. Had to replace two +19 gems with the Glowing Dreadstones to activate my meta since I was relying on prismatics.

For reference, my guild's been clearing uld-25 normal, and working on hard modes.. uld-10, my group has cleared all hard modes except mim/yogg/vezax.., so not top-end, but not horrible in terms of availability.

Now we've seen tables of loot lists going around, I'm getting more and more worried about elemental shaman.
(I fully understand there may be items missing here, but there'd need to be a lot missing to fix this)

Looking at these lists, filtering out items with either MP5 (Mail) or spirit/MP5 (non-mail), as these are very suboptimal

The tier sets are fine, no real complaints here.

Non-tier items:

Boots.. Finally a mail upgrade from the Naxx-25 boots (Boots/Sabatons of Tremoring Earth in 25man)
Bracers.. No upgrade in CC (Stuck trying to get hodir hard in 25man, and so wearing Instructor bracers)
Belt... No upgrade in CC (Razorscale hasn't dropped the belt for us at all in 25)
Chest .. No non-tier upgrade in CC
Hand .. No non-tier upgrade in CC
Legs .. No non-tier upgrade in CC
Head .. No non-tier upgrade in CC
Shoulders .. Shoulderguards of the Spirit Walker in 10man

Non-mail items:
Weapons - Fine (2-3 upgrades)
Shields - There's a new shield (Bastion of Purity)
Rings - Firestorm Ring from 10man (Has +hit, which the tier set is running over with). No ring from 25man.
Necks - 2 good necks (1 from 10s, 1 from 25s), can't complain
Cloaks - 1 cloak with hit from 25, 2 from the grand crusader chest on 10/25. Can't really complain.
Trinkets - Clickable from 10man, new lightning capacitor-type from 25man. Probably not an issue.

Craftable gear:
None
Mail pieces for resto and hunter/enhance only.


Emblems of Triumph gear:
Tier gear
New totem, potentially the hit trinket.
Helm/Shoulders for resto and hunter/enhance only.

This means to fill our slots, we have to do one of the following:
1) Wear low item level elemental gear
2) Wear resto gear.
3) Get over the hit cap if due to tier gear + other pieces.
4) Wear cloth

This just seems silly to me.

I don't want to wear cloth, as I'd feel bad bidding vs the mages/locks/shadowpriests in my raid, as they can't use mail gear.
I don't want to wear resto gear, as it has mp5 which is wasted in 99% of fights, thus treating the gear as lower item level
I don't want to wear low item level gear, as it gets me further and further behind other classes as they get upgrades.

I'm beginning to think we should just give elemental shamans a talent to convert mp5 into some form of DPS, and almost combine elemental and resto gear. Tier sets and non-mail pieces can cover the +hit to get to the cap, and it'd be better than the current situation.

Any thoughts as to what to do here?