For now, until we know the full details about combat ratings at level 90, it doesn't look too good. http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post15778523
Armor had a hard-cap at 75% DR. The hard-cap made no sense because armor's DR is based on an asymptotic formula. We don't know if the cap will still be around in MoP, but I wouldn't worry about it. If it becomes a problem that affects tank balance, Blizzard will fix it. Cataclysm has shown that Blizzard has detected DR balance issues for bears before each content patch and made adjustments for the upcoming tier before the patch is released.
Of course their testing wasn't always complete and that's why they balanced around the "bugbear" for 4.0.3 while the "normalbear" were underpowered...
Am I the only one really disliking the change to SD? I understand it's a way to make us more like DKs in that we have to choose when to mitigate actively. But, it feels clunky and with the high rage costs, doesn't leave much room for anything else. It's not like the blood shield. If they wanted to do that, they'd simply make mangle proc a stacking absorb, so I'm not really understanding the point.. :-(
The point is the previous implementation was deemed to be overpowered. In a way, it was, as an on-demand massive EH boost with an ~80% uptime.
Of course the funny thing is the new version is actually more powerful if you consider TDR and TTL.
Any good places to see the projected rotation/priorities? I'm assuming something like SD>Mangle>Lacerate>FF does thrash go into the single target still for the dot? And with SD being such high rage costs and something that we should have high uptime on.. does that drop Maul completely off the charts since we'll be needing to pool for SD uptime?
Well, things has changed many times since beta. I update on twitter and theincbear.com whenever I have something new that affects our rotation or stat priorities. SD isn't a priority, it's just something you press when you have the rage for it. Maul is not pressed unless you need the threat/DPS for some reason. Otherwise our priority is simply Mangle > Thrash > Lacerate
Fixed :P 10charMangle > Thrash > Lacerate > Swipe
Perhaps as an opening, Mangle > Thrash > Lacerate would work, however it is misleading in a sense considering what your goal is.
In terms of damage/threat, the AP coefficient and base damage of Lacerate blows Thrash out of the water right now on beta (although the Thrash bleed is stronger/faster than Lacerate, making up that difference over time). Once a bleed is present on the target, Swipe overtakes Thrash application damage by a large margin. If the rotation goal is damage, Thrash drops in priority if it is not for Weakened Blows/bleed DoT maintenance (same with FFF's sunder debuff). Since the Thrash bleed DoT lasts 16 seconds and Weakened Blows lasts 30 seconds, refreshing Thrash every 16 seconds would optimize damage output and survivability.
Mangle > Thrash (maintenance every 16 seconds) > Lacerate > Swipe > Thrash (because all other buttons disappeared from my bars!) is what I think you meant to say. I left FFF out of there since I can't remember the damage coefficient, beta keeps crashing on me non-stop. Fairly certain the damage won't beat Swipe with bleeds on the target at any point, so FFF is a maintenance item once more (or a ranged silence if glyphed).
“Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.”
“It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville
Sorry, forgot Swipe is now free. Thrash impact is ~11% stronger than unbuffed Swipe. Buffed Swipe is ~7% stronger than Thrash impact, so ya it's worth using over Thrash but not really a large margin.
According to Arielle's comprehensive testing @ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...BQUstdHc#gid=0, Thrash impact is doing more damage than Lacerate impact. If that is correct the priority should be:
Mangle > Thrash (noclip) > Swipe > Thrash (clip) > Lacerate
FFF looks like it will catch up at some point of time. It has an extremely low base but high coefficient.
Of course, all these mean that you may be able to make a macro:
/castsequence reset=5.5 Mangle, Swipe, Thrash, Swipe
and do pretty well. Doesn't handle the Mangle CD resets, but if you are lazy enough to use that macro you're lazy enough not to care about Mangle CD resets!
Last edited by tangedyn; 2012-04-20 at 03:02 AM.
If you're really hardcore lazy
/castsequence Swipe, Thrash, Swipe
/cast Mangle
would pull mangle every time it was available and use the rotation when it wasn't. I pray that's not gonna be our rotation though. It's even lazier than what our current AoE rotation is....
Also, having trouble understanding how Thrash/Swipe are ahead of lacerate ATM. Lacerate is hitting like a truck atm. (Over a few hundred hits of each) Lac easily outdamaged both Thrash and buffed swipe. Would've thought it'd be Mangle >Thrash (for dot up)> Lacerate
Last edited by Fudge; 2012-04-20 at 04:09 AM.
I don't know that anyone has mentioned it, but...Pulverize is gone. Like gone as a skill, gone from our rotation, poof. That probably should be noted.
^ Best I can do at the moment ^.. Like I said, at the moment, Lacerate is hitting like a truck. That is probably a bug or something, but I can only go based on what I can see. Despite what tooltip is saying, it's hitting norm at around 21 and critting at 43k .. See below:
Last edited by Fudge; 2012-04-20 at 08:24 AM.
Yeah, your base data is wrong, the damage of Lacerate got buffed a few iterations ago.
Currently on beta, Thrash application is still (AP*0.172 + 1760 to 2172), but Lacerate application is (AP*0.386 + 28025). The DoT portion AP modifiers are pretty much the same (Thrash is 0.0585, Swipe is 0.0516 ), but the base damage per tick for the Thrash DoT is about 1k more than the Lacerate DoT, and Thrash DoT ticks every 2 secs versus 3 secs for Lacerate. The Thrash DoT does a hefty amount of damage by itself as well as having the 12% chance to proc a free Mangle, but it cannot beat Lacerate's damage.
When tested on a target dummy a while ago, Lacerate was critting for the same/more than a 5pt 50 energy FB crit as guardian. More than enough reason to stay in bear form for damage.
Last edited by exochaft; 2012-04-20 at 03:21 PM.
“Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.”
“It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville