1.8 38/28 Guide Discussion Thread

[Calmethar]

Both I'd say. As LL and VB both scales decently in a raid as well due to cast times. To make full use of all the new charge freed up by SL:dmg you can include Withering Flames as well with a benefit. But it does make it a bit harder and less mobile of course, so sticking with the old 36/30 + rotation is an option as well I guess.

[CericX]

So, I did some parsing yesterday using the old 36/30 spec/rotation vs the new 1.8 spec/rotation posted here that includes Life Leech. I believe I got the rotation as smooth as my old 36/30 and found no significant dps increase by changing the spec to include Life Leech. Has someone parsed this thoroughly enough to be sure it's worth the effort, or was it an assumption based on Life Leech being improved?

I'm following the thread for my poor mage who only has 2 piece HK, so am NOT an expert on these two specs, though I've been using 36/30 for a bit now. That being said, are you testing on the dummy or in raid environment and at what gear level with which crystal?

[Hasmonean]

The question was about Life Leech in 36/30 (which now I realize probably should have been asked in the other thread), so I'm using the Pyro crystal, with 4-piece bonus, on the raid boss dummy. I really kinda wanted to know if the addition of LL was profitable in theory, or if someone else had actually tested the rotations with and without and gotten significantly differing results than I did in my short time testing. The results being that the addition of LL (even while redistributing points to it in the soul tree) had incredibly minimal results.

[CericX]

Fair enough, I had the same question and meant to parse it last night. (Failed to of course) It did occur to me that it might not show well without a certain level of gear or raid buffs, that aside I can see how it works for me.

[Frumpy]

ok. So I have been using 36/30 pyro lock for ages now.. and I am really wanting to swap to Defilemancer. I did some parsing after looking at this guide and once i got used to the spec, self buffed, I was parsing around 2.5k.

Buffs include: Cake, Powerstone, and Heroic Vial.
SP: 1967
SC: 1105

My problem is I cant seem to find a good starting rotation. Specially in raid fights. After about 3-4min of attacking ill hit my cap, but I feel like I can hit the cap much quicker.
My current Rotation is: Sacrifice Life: Damage ---> countdown----> flamebolt----> LL----> Defile---->SV-----> DT----->Fireball and refresh DoTs.

Im not in BiS gear and im using the Darkling Skull and Soultaker as my weapons and Im using Lost favor as my trinket b/c of LL.

I feel like my dps should easily go up to 2.3k withing the first 30seconds of dpsing. Any thoughts as to what the best Opening Rotation might be? (This is assuming you already have pillaging stone up).

[Rexer]

38/28 has a huge ramp-up time, regardless of the starting rotation you use. My starting rotation is based on when flaring power is usually used. If flaring gets casted right at the begining of the fight, I'll stack pillaging from the start so that i am done stacking by the time flaring is hit.

[Frumpy]

hmm. well also I was wondering why you had Life leach over Defile and Countdown... Countdown ends up being about 14-15% of your overall dmg and defile is about the same.. also especially on the starting rotation casting defile gives a 15% dmg increase to your DoTs. So wouldnt it make more since to keep Defile>countdown>Life Leach?

[Rexer]

Well the defile buff lasts an extra 4 seconds, so unless your moving or get a few opp procs in a row, it should be up for LL. The list shows "defile buff" before LL, and then the defile spell after.

The list LL > defile > CD > DT > SV is based off how much each spell will do per 1s cast (you have to normalize LL/VB and make sure you take into account all of the buffs). Think of it like a return on investment problem, you have 1s to cast something so you cast what will give the most dmg overall. Of course CD/SV/fireball are high in your breakdown, but that's just because you cast twice as many. If you used the breakdown to figure out a priority, then you would have cinderburst last . If that does not convince you, think about it this way: Would you rather cast a bunch of spells that do 4k dmg total and last 16 seconds, or a bunch that do 3k dmg total and last 8 seconds?

Also, another reason to put LL in front is because it's hard to time the VB refresh.

[Frumpy]

ok thanks! That makes total sense! I will definitely try out your suggestions and see if I cant raise my dps just a bit!

[Rexer]

Let me know if your dps goes down; sometimes theory doesn't always work.