Unholy Clawing Shadows damage has been changed to 130% weapon damage

[Maxweii]

I'm not doing so hot on the setup right now, since I've been just throwing on ilvl right now (840 almost there!) to prep for raid, but I'm going with BS, PP, Castigator, for the top three, with SR. I've got a decent amount of Crit and mastery, but I'm only at about 12% haste and it doesn't feel sluggish, but I feel like I need more. What would you say the ideal % is for haste to be at?

I think with both Castigator and CS you want to aim for 20-22% haste because of SR+BL being such a good combo but not overdoing it at that point. That's where I've been aiming to get but until I have the Suramar mythics I likely can't get there Cus they have some of the best gear for CS (and in general just bad luck on getting lots of vers gear).

[Saracens]

I think with both Castigator and CS you want to aim for 20-22% haste because of SR+BL being such a good combo but not overdoing it at that point. That's where I've been aiming to get but until I have the Suramar mythics I likely can't get there Cus they have some of the best gear for CS (and in general just bad luck on getting lots of vers gear).

Exactly I'm in the hole in the same area. Some great 840 stuff from the current mythics and was lucky enough to get two 850 trinkets (hunger of the pack was one) but some of the gear is all crit vers, which makes me nuts.

[spanishninja]

I think with both Castigator and CS you want to aim for 20-22% haste because of SR+BL being such a good combo but not overdoing it at that point. That's where I've been aiming to get but until I have the Suramar mythics I likely can't get there Cus they have some of the best gear for CS (and in general just bad luck on getting lots of vers gear).

if I am either geared for Haste>Mastery->Crit or Crit>Haste>Mastery, am I better off sticking to either CS or Cast instead of trying the "nonoptimized" spec? I am running 16%crit 31%haste 43% mastery. Would going Cast not produce better results than CS at this time?

[Rothulean1]

Not really. CS and Castigator are basically equal. Again, Castigator has higher highs and lower lows. CS feels far more consistent but with stronger aoe.

[spanishninja]

Not really. CS and Castigator are basically equal. Again, Castigator has higher highs and lower lows. CS feels far more consistent but with stronger aoe.

yeah, I think i'm going to stick with CS cuz I simply enjoy the range. I realized that the main reason my dps has been crap has been that I messed up the artifact upgrade path, and have also been really lazy about artifact points. Decided to sacrifice a level of artifact power to reset traits, and getting armies of the damned was apparently a really significant boost.

[MrTastix]

I don't mind Clawing Shadows trading damage for the utility, it's just when the damage is so low the trade-off isn't worth it anymore.

I've been using Clawing Shadows in Mythic dungeons lately to combat some of the more "anti-melee" mechanics (I really miss the old AMS CD glyph). While it's a little more annoying to get Soul Reaper stacks at least I don't lose them entirely if the boss decides to walk forward a bit, and I don't feel that much weaker at all.

[Maxweii]

Clawing Shadows as an ability is a damage upgrade compared to Scourge Strike. The ability plain hits harder due to half of Scorge Strikes damage behind affected by armor.

More or less it comes down to this. In pure patchwork Castigator will win out. Since that doesn't happen anymore though, Clawing Shadows is for all intents and purposes equal in single target due to higher damage when not at range thus making being at range not affect you as much, as well as the damage for it is much more consistent and less rng based than Castigator.
By and large you won't find a fight where you don't at some point either lose uptime from a teleport style movement, mechanics or other such things that put you out of range. Being able to still effectively do most of your rotation while in such a situation is a huge boon.


I still say go with which you enjoy more, and which your gear points you twords if you like them both. But they are for all intents and purposes, equal to each other in pretty much all ways single target wise, with CS having the obvious boon to AoE.

[Deleted]

Low 20s seems ok for me. 15 feels very sluggish.

Obviously this is just my own opinion and not scienced out st all.

[Nition]

Like, everyone is saying CS is really good/better than Castigator. Having now fully geared crit/haste (sitting at 35% crit unbuffed at 843 iLvl) have I just wasted my time and need to rethink my gearing strategy? I mean I out-dps most people in dungeons generally sitting 190k-220k single target (like 400k+ in opener with burst) which is better than most people I've seen for the ilvl. Thats also running epidemic instead of pestilent pustules because screw changing talents for bosses.