SimulationCraft for Warlocks (Panda Edition) - Page 8

• Zakalwe · 06/23/12, 5:44 PM

Originally Posted by Jessicka

How is Simulationcraft simming the refresh for Corruption from Touch of Chaos, because I'm finding the in-flight ToC refreshes Corruption after Meta fades returning it to it's caster form damage.

That's exactly what happens in the simulator as well. I managed to get a 600 DPS increase by having the simulated warlock actively cancel touch of chaos early to avoid the late refresh.

• Zakalwe · 06/23/12, 5:57 PM

Originally Posted by realCool

Is Flames of Xoroth implemented in Simcraft? I tried changing the destruction aoe action list so that if you start an aoe fight without an ember you use Flames of Xoroth in order to decrease the ramp up time. I tried to simulate that with the following line:

flames_of_xoroth,if=burning_ember<1.

There was a bug causing the spell to cost an ember when it was killing the pet as well, rendering it rather useless. This has been fxied in SVN.

The temporary drop in the demonology results in the OP was caused by an unrelated bug.

Gilgrissom · 06/25/12, 8:54 AM

After looking through the current Demonology and Affliction profiles, I noticed that they are both running out of health half way through the fight. While they do not run out of mana, it gets rather low towards the end of the fight. I am now curious if that has some influence on the DPS numbers. Unfortunately I can't test it, because "infinite_health=1" is not working for me (might be only active in SWTOR-Simcraft) and increasing Stamina does not change anything (as Life Tap is now percentage based). Ideally, you would want an option to ignore health cost (a working "infinite_health=1") and another option to use the new Soul Leach talent.

On another note, all the BiS profiles are still using DTR. In Beta, Wands (for example Finger of Zon'ozz) have an incredible amount of spellpower while staffs remain unchanged (see DTR). I did a quick check with Fingers of Zon'ozz/Dragonfire Orb and got to about 80k DPS (see here). Are you intentionally ignoring Wands, assuming the buff is not intentional and will not go live? Currently, every Wand has a lot of spellpowe, with the 389 PVP Wand having 15314 spellpower.

• Zakalwe · 06/25/12, 8:57 AM

The simulation does not prevent life tapping just because there's no health left, so the health reaching zero has no impact on DPS at all.

And yes, I'm deliberately ignoring the wands.

ZumoO · 06/25/12, 10:33 AM

I was trying to improve the hopelessly low 2-targets simulation for Destruction and I ran into a potential bug (or I'm making some mistake). I am trying to wait for having 3 full Embers before casting Havoc + 3 Chaos Bolts, just to see if it would net a better result.

A: actions+=/havoc,target_number=2,if=burning_ember>29|target.time_to_die<15 (Havoc if 3 Embers or boss close to dead)
B: actions+=/shadowburn,target_number=1,if=ember_react
C: actions+=/chaos_bolt,target_number=1,if=debuff.havoc.up (CB if Havoc is up)
D: actions+=/chaos_bolt,target_number=1,if=burning_ember>38 (prevents from wasting embers)
E: actions+=/conflagrate,target_number=1,if=buff.backdraft.down
F: actions+=/immolate,cycle_targets=1,if=ticks_remain<add_ticks%2&target.time_to_die>=5&miss_react
G: actions+=/rain_of_fire,if=!ticking&mana.pct>0.5 (~500dps increase)
H: actions+=/incinerate,target_number=1

The problem I encountered is that when looking at the Sample sequence, I'm able to see the Havoc but only two Chaos Bolts are following it. Perhaps the Sample sequence just doesn't work like I thought it did ^^ (I tried simming with only 1 iteration too, then it should be exactly what happened ?).

789EFFGHHHEFFGHHHEGHHHG
ACCEGHFFHGHHHEHHHHHHFFHEHHHHDHHEHFFHDGHHEHHHHDFEFGHHHDHEFFHHHDGHEHHH
ACC78FEGHHHHFHHEHHFHHDGEHFHDHHFHDEGHFHHDEFGHHHDEFGHHHFDEGHHHFHDHHEFHH
ACCFGHEHHHHHHEHHFHHFH78EHHHHFDGHEFHDGHHHDEFGFHDHHEHFHHHDFEGHHHHFHEH
ACCGHHEFHFHHHHEHHHHFFHEHHHDHHHEFFHDGHHH678B9BBEFFGHHBHHEBGHHHBHFFEGHHHBHGHHEBFFGHHHHHBGH EHFFBGHHEHHHHBGHFE
ABFGHHHHBEGHH

Edit: Ok, after looking at the Burning Ember timeline my guess is that the Havoc-ed Chaos Bolt uses an Ember too, which shouldn't be the case.

Edit2: Perhaps there should be a special case in the cost() method of chaos_bolt_t in sc_warlock.cpp for handling havoc-ed executes (same for Shadowburn by the way).

• Zakalwe · 06/25/12, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by ZumoO

Edit: Ok, after looking at the Burning Ember timeline my guess is that the Havoc-ed Chaos Bolt uses an Ember too, which shouldn't be the case.

You're exactly correct. This has been fixed in SVN.

LordObsidian · 06/26/12, 12:50 AM

Posted today about MG changes:

Malefic Grasp: There’s another bugfix coming still for this so it won’t match what you see quite yet, but here’s how it should work:

1) DoT hastening of Malefic Grasp and Drain Soul back to +100%, from +50%.

2) Damage of MG and DS reduced, so that the total DPS gain remains constant (-40% to MG, -13.333% to DS).

3) Since MG once again simply doubles tick rate, it effectively means there should be an additional tick between each existing tick. So, if MG is active during a midpoint between normal ticks, an extra tick goes off.

Beta Class Balance Analysis - Forums - World of Warcraft

Zakalwe i believe you were looking for the the above info for proper MG implementation.

• Zakalwe · 06/26/12, 11:27 AM

Yep, I've gone ahead and implemented those changes in SVN, including the damage nerf to MG and DS. The single target results in the OP reflect these changes.

Note that the sizeable DPS boost compared to previous simulations isn't a result of the specific changes discussed by Ghostcrawler, but rather a result of the sim finally having moved to a dot speedup model that doesn't reduce the duration of the dots.

Karsteck · 06/27/12, 1:16 PM

single-target demo action list: shouldn't void ray if moving be demonic slash if moving? Maybe even meta if moving so you can burn some fury for mobility, but then you might need to double-check the logic on some of the other actions since you could have different amounts of fury than you were expecting the other actions to result in.

Note that touch of chaos doesn't happen while moving, like hunter autoattack. I'll probably use that rather than finding another button on my nostromo for /stopattack. Ugh, I'm starting to think maybe I should just stick with a keyboard for 5.0.

• Zakalwe · 06/27/12, 5:30 PM

Originally Posted by Karsteck

single-target demo action list: shouldn't void ray if moving be demonic slash if moving?

The void ray action entry is entirely superfluous - demonic slash is higher up in the priority list, so it won't ever actually get to void ray.

• Zakalwe · 06/29/12, 7:16 PM

The OP now reflects the changes in the most recent beta patch, but I went with the assumption that Touch of Chaos as an auto attack mechanic was gone, and removed it. Now that the beta servers are back up and I had a chance to test it, it turns out the old mechanic is still in place, even though there is also a regular spell called Touch of Chaos now.

My guess is still that the auto attack is slated for removal in-game, so unless we hear otherwise I'm not going to re-add it to the sim just yet.

Xayide · 06/29/12, 9:25 PM

Originally Posted by Zakalwe

I managed to more than double the DPS gain relative to the previous action list by using your main idea of syncing meta with dark soul and making various small improvements on it. (For instance, consuming pre-25% molten core procs only when *not* in meta is definitely the way to go - not the other way around.)

The updated list is in SVN and should be reflected in the OP results shortly.

I'm sorry to ask this because I must have not understood something or just am not realizing it.
Why is this true? What is the difference between MC procs above and below 25% in terms of determining whether it's worth to cast Soul Fire?
I understand below 25% you get your charge back, but I don't understand how this changes SF's priority.

Is it something regarding Demonic Fury generation?

Jaofindel · 06/30/12, 1:53 AM

Grimoire of sacrifice is looking good for affliction now, with a 90% bonus per stack to Malefic Grasp, Drain Soul and Fel flame. It may even the output above 20% and go nuts when we enter execute range with a stunning buff to Drain soul!

• Zakalwe · 06/30/12, 3:38 AM

Originally Posted by Xayide

I'm sorry to ask this because I must have not understood something or just am not realizing it.
Why is this true? What is the difference between MC procs above and below 25% in terms of determining whether it's worth to cast Soul Fire?
I understand below 25% you get your charge back, but I don't understand how this changes SF's priority.

Is it something regarding Demonic Fury generation?

The difference is simply that because you don't get your charges back above 25%, you're not wasting any procs by letting them accumulate for a while. This means you can choose freely when to cast SF, and it's better to cast it out of meta than to cast it in meta.

Mystearica · 06/30/12, 7:33 AM

For Destro, would it be better to save embers to line 4x Chaos Bolt with Dark Soul?
Was doing 4x CB with DS then cast 2 CB while saving Embers, which would give me 4 embers as DS came off CD. This was at 90 so with gear at 85 it would probably be different, but not sure how to test this in simcraft.