Blood tap or Runic power?

[WillFeral]

Hi im switching to dw masterfrost and was curious if anyone knows what is doing better for this type of gameplay,blood tap or runic power?I'm thinking blood tap should be better but im just not 100% sure.
Thanks in advance fro any help or tips.

[Varyk]

Hi im switching to dw masterfrost and was curious if anyone knows what is doing better for this type of gameplay,blood tap or runic power?I'm thinking blood tap should be better but im just not 100% sure.
Thanks in advance fro any help or tips.

Blood Tap is the optimal choice if you can use it correctly, but Runic Empowerment isn't that far behind and is probably even ahead if Blood Tap isn't used as efficiently as possible.

[scabobos]

Blood tap sims higher, but that assumes you use it correctly.. which alot of people don't do. I personally use runic empowerment.

[boombeef]

I am lazy and not doing anything cutting edge; (we usually are a month behind on all heroics) so RE is my choice as well.

[Deleted]

It has been simmed by multiple people.
Macroed BT sims higher than regular RE, and even above gamed RE,
regular BT sims higher than macroed ofc.
So currently there is no reason to use RE at all :/, if you don't want the hassle and risk screwing up
(which will hurt your dps more than using RE would) just go bt and macro it to FS.

[Darsithis]

Blood Tap is better than RE or RC, but only if you use it correctly, which means not wasting charges or runic power.

[boombeef]

It has been simmed by multiple people.
Macroed BT sims higher than regular RE, and even above gamed RE,
regular BT sims higher than macroed ofc.
So currently there is no reason to use RE at all :/, if you don't want the hassle and risk screwing up
(which will hurt your dps more than using RE would) just go bt and macro it to FS.

Fyrenz, now you got me thinking about macroed BT. That should be easy enough. Just need to go over my character animation freaking out.

[Deleted]

I used RE til the RC bug was discovered, since 5.4 using macroed BT and it just works so much better, learning to play it non-macroed now...
It feels way better than RE did, to me anyway.

[ThunderPussy]

I prefer playing BT macro'd. It's easy to make sure it's used on an Unholy rune with it macro'd and it just feels so much smoother to me. Plus I really don't want anymore buttons to press. :P

[Tecnice]

I want to be a better BT user (new to DK as a whole) but the macro that I read about (macro'd into FS) has me wasting KM procs too frequently on FS. (I play PvP 2H)
I wanted, say, an addon that would audibly ding KM procs like powerauras. Can I simply macro BT into Oblit and solve a bit of this issue? I know, I know, L2Frost. =p

[Schizoide]

Sure, you can macro it into Oblit for PvP.

[Boneshatter]

The main problem with using RE for DW frost is that DW runs very close to global cooldown locked even in lesser gear. If you get on a good rng streak you just cannot use it all and will waste resources. BT has a steady, predicatable resource flow that is easier to manage.

If you really want to macro BT as DW I would not macro it to frost strike, though. I would macro it to howling blast. This would allow you to bank up charges for burst phases and give you a little more cushion during AMS soaking. The macro would look like this-

#showtooltip howling blast
/cast howling blast
/startattack
/cast blood tap


The start attack line I added because last time I played DW I found I lost some melee uptime because howling blast counts as a spell and does not start your auto attack. They may have been changed, but if it hasn't that line will boost your dps a little. For 2H frost you would have to macro it to frost strike. You don't ever want to macro it to a 2 rune ability because you will waste charges if you aren't watching your charges closely. If you are watching your charges closely it probably isn't macro'd to start with.

[Mawnix]

If you do the /cast Frost Strike /cast Blood Tap, no, it isn't.

If you manually use it whenever you need to, it's an amazing tool.

[Darkfriend]

The main problem with using RE for DW frost is that DW runs very close to global cooldown locked even in lesser gear. If you get on a good rng streak you just cannot use it all and will waste resources. BT has a steady, predicatable resource flow that is easier to manage.

If you really want to macro BT as DW I would not macro it to frost strike, though. I would macro it to howling blast. This would allow you to bank up charges for burst phases and give you a little more cushion during AMS soaking. The macro would look like this-

#showtooltip howling blast
/cast howling blast
/startattack
/cast blood tap


The start attack line I added because last time I played DW I found I lost some melee uptime because howling blast counts as a spell and does not start your auto attack. They may have been changed, but if it hasn't that line will boost your dps a little. For 2H frost you would have to macro it to frost strike. You don't ever want to macro it to a 2 rune ability because you will waste charges if you aren't watching your charges closely. If you are watching your charges closely it probably isn't macro'd to start with.

There is a major flaw in your first line of reasoning, common among many DKs, and it needs to be put down.

Good RNG with RE is NEVER EVER a bad thing. Even if due to good RNG you get 70% of FS returning runs and you are totally GCD locked. Unless you are not using the GCDs at 100% efficiency you are not losing DPS. EVER. Good RNG, even if it causes you to waste resources IS NOT BAD. Wasting resources is only bad when it is accompanied by a DPS loss. If you are GCD locked due to good RNG, AMS, Lust, etc etc etc as long as you use those GCDs correctly it will be a DPS gain.

Yes, BT gets rid of RNG by being consistent. But you would be far more accurate if you said that RE is worse due to BAD RNG streaks, not good ones.

Again, one last time, letting resources be "wasted" is, and can only ever be a bad thing during a GCD locked period of time when your GCDs are being misused. In such a time the only resource that matters is the GCD.

And no, I'm not advocating RE usage (And anyone who thinks they could read what I wrote into saying RE is better needs to take some logic classes). I simply trying to put down the myth that good RNG and wasted resources are always bad.