So Windburst appears to hit a lot more now. I remember hearing that it did not scale with Mastery. So seems it either does now, or a general buff to it.
Anyone else noticing hitting a lot more with it now?
So Windburst appears to hit a lot more now. I remember hearing that it did not scale with Mastery. So seems it either does now, or a general buff to it.
Anyone else noticing hitting a lot more with it now?
Just tried it on the dummies, cast it once and crit for 732k. So yeah, pretty sure it's a lot stronger now.
I noticed this as well. I had my trinket proc during a world quest and the ability did a 932k crit. I was like... "they definitely buffed it... I don't remember it hitting so hard"
Hmm Windburst now does almost the same damage as Barrage (on single target), but it has half the cast time and costs 1/3 the focus; it also applies the Vulnerable debuff. I wonder if Windburst takes a higher priority than Barrage now (on single target). I did some testing and found that using them on cooldown meant that Barrage would always be available after using Windburst, which meant that I would waste half of the vulnerable debuff using Barrage. If I used Windburst after Barrage, it would mean 'delaying' using Windburst for 3 seconds every time they both popped at once, which would mean less Windburst casts throughout.
I did a sim of my character on Simulationcraft and the Windburst damage in the simulation is much less than what I do ingame (the minimum ingame damage I did was around 300k unbuffed, whereas Simulationcraft says my minimum should have been 180k buffed), which is strange considering that Simulationcraft apparently already included mastery in the Windburst damage.
Did 5/7 EN last night with a pug, and what damage meter data I have left(plus some world mobs today) it looks like my average non-crit WB was 323k and crit average was 688k with my max being a 975k on my last Cenarius attempt.
Did you consider the focus cost and cast time? Barrage takes 3 seconds to cast and uses 60 focus. Windburst takes 1.5 seconds to cast and uses 20 focus. You are definitely going to lose 1 Aimed Shot in Vulnerable if you use Barrage, whereas if you use Windburst your Vulnerable window will be extended by 6 seconds and you get 40 extra focus (compared to Barrage), which is almost enough to cast an extra Aimed Shot. In other words, using Windburst over Barrage means you'll have more Aimed Shot damage. This is the reason why Murder of Crows beats Barrage for BM hunters on single target, even though Barrage will do more damage throughout a fight (Barrage reduces the damage of the other abilities).
You regen part of the focus spent while casting Barrage, and as far as I am concerned you can weave Barrage quite nicely into your rotation if you time it well with marked shot. Casting WB on cooldown could be worth it but I think for now it's better to use it as a panic button. You should also never forget that Barrage is excellent to use whenever you need to move (like on Nythendra when you periodically have to switch position), whereas Windburst doesn't quite offer that type of benefit.
It's interesting though indeed. I'm open to the idea of dropping Barrage in favour of something like MoC on single target fights if it means that we can use Windburst more efficiently.