Am I just bad or is WoL bugged to hell?

[Jenerena]

I don't think the theorycrafting/maths has ever been very clear about that. Lost FS uptime is more of an issue for LvB than FS itself (as you're only losing a tiny portion of its DPCT) unless you've only just hit LvB (remember lava surge though), so letting it drop off is a bad option IMO because of that risk. It's also exactly the same thing if you clip it above 5 seconds left because you're just missing ticks that way as well. I personally think it's better to clip FS at the appropriate time and let ES get to whatever it wants. No situation is ideal, but losing an entire fulmination is not the end of the world, because fulm doesn't do a great deal more than a normal LB, which would replace that gcd you would have used.

I might not know the answer, but since the mechanic was brought in I've never come across any hard rules, so I'm presuming there aren't any.

[brirrspliff]

Lag? Haste? He is clearly casting a lot faster.

Maybe you missed some buffs since you are in a 10 man.

if a player has WAY more casts than another in the same time (~10 seconds time frame as mentioned by the OP) it's mostly due to less running and more casting. maybe he seldomly has to move because of a very good crystal soaking tactic/setup. but for that we will not find the answer here. you'd have to ask him personally.

good luck with improving! :-)

[Paf]

Yes, I'm aware of this, though I dont see a problem with the Fulmination? But yes, I do get some wasted stacks from time to time but that is pretty much impossible to avoid, unless you play absolutely perfectly and have good RNG. Quite often lets say I'm stuck at 5 LS stacks for multiple casts and get one more which makes it 6. Then I see that theres lets say 8 seconds left on Flame Shock. Chances are I will probably get 7/8 stacks when FS is at 4-5 seconds or so.

Do I let FS drop off to use Fulmination at the assumed 7/8 stacks @ 4 seconds left on FS or do I refresh FS @ the 8 second mark when I still have 5/6 LS stacks? Then I might get my Shock CD back before LS hits 9 stacks but in most cases it hits 9 before the Shock CD is back, depending on RNG.

And yes, I know that I got 3 non-crit LvBs due to poor FS management at times, but hey, shit happens. I do strive to play as close to perfection as I possibly can, though. Usually I manage them shock CDs just fine and this doesnt happen, though.

Though I'm curions, any idea which is actually more optimal... Letting FS drop off for 1-3 seconds or so or risking "wasting" 1-2 or more LS stacks? I'm not sure myself, which sometimes results in either wasted charges / not-100% FS uptime.

The problem with Fulmination is that it's optimal at nine stacks and you casted it at seven. Whether or not it's easier to manage, it is optimal to fire at nine stacks. Flame Shock and Lava Burst take priority over Fulmination. That has always been the case. If you have to make the tough choice of wasting 1-2 charges or delaying Flame Shock or Lava Burst, you waste those charges.

Also, those "shit happens" Lava Bursts are worth more than you think... not to mention that your count was low. Each Lava Burst you cast is worth roughly 57,000 damage. For good reference, sims are currently putting the current T12 four-set above the future T13 two-set simply because of five extra Lava Burst casts gained due to overlapping Lava Surge procs.

[Drunkenfinn]

Seeing as how he managed to buy Tricks of the Trade for that parse, I'm assuming such a very tiny contribution is quite the difference.

I'm not buying it really. Our Rogue just gives it to me as I'm usually the top DPS (mostly cause I have waaaaay more gear any anyone else in the guild).

[Paf]

I might not know the answer, but since the mechanic was brought in I've never come across any hard rules, so I'm presuming there aren't any.

What you posted is more or less correct. For personal references... three seconds is the very most I will refresh a Flame Shock DoT on, and only if I have buffs like Bloodlust rolling which will waste a HUGE amount of Rolling Thunder procs. Otherwise two seconds left on the tick is my marker if I anticipate wasting Rolling Thunder procs.

[Jinto]

Logs show exactly how many Rolling Thunder procs you get. So you can calculate a rough estimate of whether you are wasting stacks or not. Anyway say you have 103 procs and 18 Fulminations (numbers from one of my recent logs). For each Fulmination you "gain" 3 stacks (you start out with some but waste some in the end so I'll assume they cancel out). So in this example we have 103 + 3 * 18 shield charges which is a total of 157 charges or 8.7 stacks of Lightning Shield per cast. Factor in human error that is probably an average of 8 stacks per Fulmination. As for the OP's number it is 99 + 3 * 21 or 7.7 stacks. It isn't a huge difference however it is probably better to sit on your stacks a bit more. There are ele shamans in top guilds that have a higher average of shields than me (some over 9 which guarantees waste of stacks) and they pull good numbers as well so wasting charges is not "terrible".

Anyway as to the topic it is obviously a bugged log. Most ele shamans in near BiS gear without a staff do around 36k or so. While it is probably possible to do 40k+ without the staff it would be rather difficult. The best I could manage on this fight was like 37.5k which would be 38k if I did not have to soak and had good RNG with countdown. Add in better professions, some outside help and luck 40k is probably doable but certainly not in the context of that particular log.

[Gistwiki]

Seven is safemode. Safemode with the expectation that your reaction will be off and you'll gain more stacks in the time it takes you to hit the Earth Shock button. Nine is the sim top. In both situations though, stacks are eaten. I wouldn't be surprised if his "average of eight" was in fact an average of seven.

Edit: Comparing average damage of Lightning Shield to the damage of Fulmination casts, this is indeed the case.

99 Rolling Thunder procs, 21 Fulmination casts. 7.7142 stacks per.

In Xaric's log he had 107 RT procs and 18 Fulmination casts. 8.9444 stacks per.

[Paf]

99 Rolling Thunder procs, 21 Fulmination casts. 7.7142 stacks per.

In Xaric's log he had 107 RT procs and 18 Fulmination casts. 8.9444 stacks per.

How am I this blind? Looking back on when I avidly peeled through logs, I know Rolling Thunder procs are damn near front page and in your face... but for the life of me I can't find that 99 count anywhere. Help me, anyone! D:

[Deleted]

How am I this blind? Looking back on when I avidly peeled through logs, I know Rolling Thunder procs are damn near front page and in your face... but for the life of me I can't find that 99 count anywhere. Help me, anyone! D:

Character (Elemental Shaman in this case) -> Buffs Gained Tab, Third Column (Power Gains), Click Rolling Thunder

[Paf]

Character (Elemental Shaman in this case) -> Buffs Gained Tab, Third Column (Power Gains), Click Rolling Thunder

Ah, dammit. That's it. But didn't it used to show on the general "buffs gained/cast" sometime back in the day? Or I could totally be imagining things...

[Aroa]

This is all because of a bug in World of Warcraft, not World of Logs. Ever since 4.2 (I think) was released WoW will sometime screw the combat log up so that some lines are duplicated in the combat log.

World of Logs try to correct this so that if they see two lines in the log that are exactly the same they will remove one of those lines. But sometimes the lines in the log aren't exact duplicates, sometimes the timestamp is different but everything else is the same. You can check it here in more detail:
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-ij...%3D%22Xaric%22

[19:47:10.985] Xaric Lightning Bolt Baleroc 25897
[19:47:11.040] Xaric Lightning Bolt Baleroc 25897
[19:47:12.918] Xaric Lightning Bolt Baleroc 22582
[19:47:13.084] Xaric Lightning Bolt Baleroc 22582

I've removed some lines in the quoted text above that weren't duplicated. But here you can see that some spells are duplicated in the combat log but the timestamp is a little bit different which is why WoL can't remove those lines.

So complain to Blizzard that they should fix their combat log.

Btw, this affects Recount and Skada also.