DPS specs with the least amount of downtime on Alpha?

[Taeldorian]

Blood DK's are both designed to have downtime and from my experience have downtime.

@OP Enhancement is both by design and practice a 0 downtime spec - longterm and going into legion.

I'm assuming OP means in combat downtime and not out of combat downtime based on the post.

Yeah, sorry about the horrible clarification guys my bad. I meant in combat downtime, where you have to wait a few seconds for another button to come off CD and no procs are up.

Enh shamans are what I'm looking towards, seems really interesting and the spec seems to have been improved for sure. Checking out finalboss and bellular and both seem to say that it's a fast paced spec. Appreciate the replies, enh is what I'm looking into currently.

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OP defines 'downtime' as when you have no buttons to push, because everything is on CD and no procs are up.

Basically.. who always has a button to push in combat.

Hes not talking about 'downtime' with regards to time spent eating/drinking between mods and running back/forth.

This. Thanks for clarifying, my bad.

[Saracens]

I've been torn between my Ret Paladin and my Enhance Shaman. This is

[Saverem]

Blood DK's are both designed to have downtime and from my experience have downtime.

@OP Enhancement is both by design and practice a 0 downtime spec - longterm and going into legion.

I'm assuming OP means in combat downtime and not out of combat downtime based on the post.

Are you joking? What down time does a BDK have? I can literally kill those 4M HP bosses in Tanaan and end the fight with 100% HP, and he's using the crappy ilvl700 PvP gear. They have zero down time. DS is too stronk

[Gaidax]

On Alpha it is Havoc DH, Demon's Bite is an attack that has no cd and is your primary resource generator.

So you are pretty much GCD locked, if that's your thing.

[Raiju]

Are you joking? What down time does a BDK have? I can literally kill those 4M HP bosses in Tanaan and end the fight with 100% HP, and he's using the crappy ilvl700 PvP gear. They have zero down time. DS is too stronk

Read the thread. BDK spent half their incombat time waiting, which is massive downtime in this context.

[Gephyrophobia]

Are you joking? What down time does a BDK have? I can literally kill those 4M HP bosses in Tanaan and end the fight with 100% HP, and he's using the crappy ilvl700 PvP gear. They have zero down time. DS is too stronk

Do you have any fucking clue what you're talking about? What the fuck does health percentage have to do with having dead GCDs???????

[Mafic]

On Alpha it is Havoc DH, Demon's Bite is an attack that has no cd and is your primary resource generator.

So you are pretty much GCD locked, if that's your thing.

Don't need to spam Demon's Bit though so wouldn't say it is GCD locked.

Right now a lot of specs have downtime and that intentional by Blizz.

[Taeldorian]

Do you have any fucking clue what you're talking about? What the fuck does health percentage have to do with having dead GCDs???????

Chiiiiilll it's fine, I didn't explain what I meant by "downtime" very well. Other people were a bit confused as to what context I'm talking about, which was my bad, not his.

To be clear (what I meant):I've never really heard downtime meaning out of combat in a really long time, I think wrath is the last I heard of that. Usually when someone mentions downtime it refers to having to wait for another button to come up to continue the rotation. For example, at the beginning of the expac without tier bonuses, arms warriors had a lot of downtime due to rage being hard to generate, so you'd have to wait for rage to generate to do anything, resulting in downtime. Same thing if you're super unlucky and get no procs as a paladin, might have to wait a bit for something to come off CD. That's what I meant, sorry for the confusion.

[Deleted]

Let's be clear please...

Legion Alpha that i've tested so far:

No Downtime between Global Cooldowns in the rotation : Fury Warrior (you can always press furious slash wich has no cost), demonology warlock, Enhancement shaman

No downtime between killing each mob/group going towards the next (aka not losing much health in each combat) : Blood DK, Unholy DK, Ret Pala, BM Hunter.

[Deleted]

I am not on Alpha realms myself, but from the videos I watched, Enhancement shaman has zero downtime, as one of their main dps abilities (rockbite) has no CD, thus the spec is GCD-locked. Also they have several talents that increase their haste/attakc speed, giving for even more fast-paced gameplay.

Yeah enha shammy looks pretty good, will probably be my main in Legion if single target damage is properly tuned.

[Deleted]

I am quite confident you can play every DPS class GCD locked, except for some energy-classes maybe. But marksmanhunter, as stated above, should have no downtime at all because arcane shot is now a non-cd-focus-generator to fill in every gap there is.

As for ret, you can always use a GCD to swap your Blessing of Might to a more apropriate target :P

Some tanks, like blood DK, had massive gaps in the first incarnations of their specs, but I think that has been fixed by now. It might be true for Brewmaster, but that spec's not in yet.

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Don't need to spam Demon's Bit though so wouldn't say it is GCD locked.

Right now a lot of specs have downtime and that intentional by Blizz.

What do you mean by "you don't need to..." ?? If you can, you do it.

And what "lot" specs you refer to that have downtimes?

[Raiju]

I am quite confident you can play every DPS class GCD locked, except for some energy-classes maybe.

Some tanks, like blood DK, had massive gaps in the first incarnations of their specs, but I think that has been fixed by now. It might be true for Brewmaster, but that spec's not in yet.

You can, if you talent for it and play suboptimal.

[Rivin]

I am quite confident you can play every DPS class GCD locked, except for some energy-classes maybe. But marksmanhunter, as stated above, should have no downtime at all because arcane shot is now a non-cd-focus-generator to fill in every gap there is.

All energy-based specs (except MM, as noted) are designed to have downtime.

[Koochulu]

Enh also has an option to go non-GCD-capped. I'd say Marksman.

Marks DEFINITELY has downtime in its rotation now.

[Huggykaze]

Marks DEFINITELY has downtime in its rotation now.

Only if u go for Sidewinders, right?

[shade3891]

Only if u go for Sidewinders, right?

Yes, if you pick that talent you replace Arcane Shot. If not Arcane Shot regenarates focus and can be used all the time. So basically without talents picked the spec has no down time.

[Echo of Soul]

I think it would be easier to ask which specs have downtime. Few examples of those that don't have forced dowtime: Tanks, Healers, Casters.

[Kuntantee]

Assassination rogue. It reflects the genius of developers.














/joke

[Etrock08]

Enh Shaman, Combat Rogue (depending on roll the bones buff), other rogues, Ret Pally (if you take all the talents that speed up their rotation), Fury Warrior, Pretty much most ranged, all have high levels of gcd usage. Ret pally without the right talents is super slow though

[Koochulu]

Yes, if you pick that talent you replace Arcane Shot. If not Arcane Shot regenarates focus and can be used all the time. So basically without talents picked the spec has no down time.

And at the moment, Sidewinders is clearly the best choice for maxing dps.