SimulationCraft for Warlocks (4.0.3a numbers at 80 and 85) - Page 138

Althor · 10/09/09, 2:28 AM

Originally Posted by Zakalwe

I'm out of town for the weekend, so I won't be able to work with the code or update the OP until Monday. Thanks to Althor for keeping us posted on his experiments.

One thing I've observed (with debug=1) is spells below soul fire in priority still being cast below 35%. Not sure what's causing that, but if anyone with SVN access could investigate, that would be helpful.

I've found the problem.

Soul Fire was only triggering Decimation after it traveled to the target and hit it. Unfortunately it didn't have a travel_time set so it was never calling the schedule_travel() method and thus wasn't triggering it.

I've set the travel_time to 21.0 (same as Shadow Bolt) for now. If, and I'm sure you Warlocks could correct me, it turns out that Soul Fire hits instantly then I can change how it triggers Decimation instead.

• Zakalwe · 10/09/09, 2:41 AM

Thanks for catching the bug, and I'm sure 21.0 is fine. If anything, it seems to fly slower than shadow bolt. I'll try to get new numbers up ASAP.

Althor · 10/09/09, 3:06 AM

Can those of you with a willingness to test stuff in detail etc. take a look over the information posted (how often a spell is cast, the average it's hitting for, crit rates etc. and in particular pet dmg etc.) and seeing if they mesh up with the expected values and theorycraft.

I don't play a Warlock and while I spend hours last night making sure the Felhunter was correct I do want to move on to looking after some other classes too. ;P

• Zakalwe · 10/09/09, 3:44 AM

Ok, I've posted results from after the bugfix, and demo has a relatively significant edge now.

I wouldn't go around proclaiming the death of destro though - the fights we're simulating here happen to have a length that are very nearly optimal for meta uptime: The first one goes off at the start of the fight, and the third one starts at about 45 seconds left of the fight. Another significant advantage to destro is pushback reduction, which demo doesn't have.

Though of course if these numbers make it to live, it's easy to argue for at least two demo locks in a raid, to ensure 100% DP uptime.

Bringer1 · 10/09/09, 10:01 AM

@ Althor.

I believe it would be a dps increase to change your priorities so that the demo specs keep immolate up under 35% in order to take advantage of the updated T10 4 piece bonus.

Sqz · 10/09/09, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Zakalwe

Though of course if these numbers make it to live, it's easy to argue for at least two demo locks in a raid, to ensure 100% DP uptime.

Well, DP gets overwritten by any reapplication of the buff, so you'd be getting 100% uptime, but you wouldn't have the most powerful DP active all the time. Uptime of DP is very high at the moment and I personally don't see enough reason to bring 2 DP locks to a raid, please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Depending on the fight I can think of reasons for taking multiple Metamorphosis locks though, like for example Anub. Having such a strong execute ability at the same time of having a strong activated passive aoe in the form of Immolation Aura is very valuable there.

And on a sidenote, I have a feeling that Decimation might get a minor finetuning nerf, to prevent it from beating both Destruction and Affliction in a single target dps encounter, but that's just my gut speaking up.

angaroth · 10/09/09, 11:08 AM

Why is it that 0/13/58 has dropped off in favour of 3/13/55 ? Is it that the T9 level gear with hit on it is that badly itemized?

Casstor · 10/09/09, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Bringer1

@ Althor.

I believe it would be a dps increase to change your priorities so that the demo specs keep immolate up under 35% in order to take advantage of the updated T10 4 piece bonus.

Acccording to the older version of the T9 Sample Output (which doesn't include 5% SP),

DPET
Soul Fire - 12,740
Immolate - 9,901

Each Immolate cast has 5 ticks, each with a 15% chance of giving the buff. Looking at each 15 second period in a vacuum and factoring in overlaps, each immolate should provide 4.93 seconds of uptime for the 10% damage buff.

4.93*.1*12,740 = 6280.82

In other words, with the 4-set bonus, Immolate does do more in terms of DPET if you do nothing but cast Soul Fire. In fact, to take this a step further, even if you must waste a GCD of this 4.93 seconds casting immolate:

3.43*.1*12,740 + 1.5*.1*9901 = 5854.97

It still more than comprises the difference between Soul Fire and Immolate.

Warlocomotif · 10/09/09, 8:14 PM

Originally Posted by Sqz

Well, DP gets overwritten by any reapplication of the buff, so you'd be getting 100% uptime, but you wouldn't have the most powerful DP active all the time. Uptime of DP is very high at the moment and I personally don't see enough reason to bring 2 DP locks to a raid, please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Depending on the fight I can think of reasons for taking multiple Metamorphosis locks though, like for example Anub. Having such a strong execute ability at the same time of having a strong activated passive aoe in the form of Immolation Aura is very valuable there.

And on a sidenote, I have a feeling that Decimation might get a minor finetuning nerf, to prevent it from beating both Destruction and Affliction in a single target dps encounter, but that's just my gut speaking up.

On a fight like Anub Arak, sure. On a fight like Northrend beasts or Mimiron or Yogg p2 (etc) where you can't, or can barely use immolation aura- its not great. On fights like Jaraxxus I would also definitely prefer destruction. Its true that on some fights demo is amazing, but in general there's more fights where it's mechanics fall short.

Innulock · 10/10/09, 6:00 AM

I wouldn't regard the loss of immolation aura as a big loss in effectiveness, since it only accounts for 280dps of the 10k+ in the current OP output. Even ignoring the dmg done by the aura, the spec still tops the meters.

The question is if you need high burst every 2 mins and very good execute dps or if you need stustained dps throughout the fight, for example to bring the boss quickly from a hard p1 into an 'easy' p2.

Where demo really looses are fights with dps increasing buffs that only apply to the warlock and not the pet.(valkyr / hodir?)

ultrajustin · 10/10/09, 2:42 PM

The imp scales on a 1:1 basis from external spell power -- so a totem of 280spell would make his firebolt hit for 280 more damage (before debuffs etc.).

I see that the sim has a demonic pact buff in it, is this much higher spell power being applied to the imp's damage? I.e. 400+spell pwr from pact giving his firebolts +400 per hit. If not.. this would buff the destruction sim. I found the numbers a little hard to parse in that particular case. Thanks.

Vigor · 10/11/09, 10:03 PM

Under 35% i managed to pull 10,8k DPS solo as metaspec on a target dummy. That is pretty insane. These were the dummies outside trial though, but still! And it was during metamorphosis ofcourse.

regular damage above 35% i had around 6k solo. It seems pretty awesome!

• Zakalwe · 10/12/09, 5:12 AM

Originally Posted by ultrajustin

I see that the sim has a demonic pact buff in it, is this much higher spell power being applied to the imp's damage?

Yes.

Humic · 10/12/09, 10:11 AM

In warlock=Warlock_T9_00_41_30 profile what is the purpose of having actions+=/curse_of_agony before and after actions+=/soul_fire,decimation=1 & actions+=/immolate? thanks.

pfooti · 10/12/09, 1:25 PM

Originally Posted by Humic

In warlock=Warlock_T9_00_41_30 profile what is the purpose of having actions+=/curse_of_agony before and after actions+=/soul_fire,decimation=1 & actions+=/immolate? thanks.

Looks like a bug to me. But it's not much of a bug, since that should (if I understand the casting engine) just act as if the second CoA wasn't there.