[Balance] Starsurge usage question.

[moveth]

I read that you should never cast more than one Starsurge per Solar Eclipse because of how it affects your transition to the next Lunar eclipse. Is this always the case? Or are there times when it would still be beneficial to cast every single starsurge regardless of where you are on your Eclipse?

[Deleted]

That was before MoP, I'd never hesitate using starsurge unless you're out of eclipse and 1 cast away from the next. Otherwise always keep it on Cd.

[Jahlove]

I don't think its about the transition so much as it's about getting 1 less cast while in Solar eclipse. If you're at 20 energy and you starsurge you'll go to zero, but if you wrath once more then starsurge both will still be affected by eclipse since the wrath will only take you down to 5 energy.

[Deleted]

In short;

Chuck it out on CD. Unless your wanting to hold an eclipse.

[Alzu]

No, the claim is false. But it all depends on how many instant Starsurges you think you will get.

If it's a single target fight, the odds are you'll get no instant Starsurges or you'll get one during the Solar eclipse. If you cast one normally on the start of the eclipse and then almost immediately get a proc, save it for when you have 5 energy left. That will give you one more cast to solar eclipse (2 Starsurges and 5 Wraths for the eclipse and 3 outside instead of 2 Starsurges and 4 Wraths for the eclipse and 4 outside of it.)

If there are targets to multidot, you are likely to get more than one proc during the eclipse rotation from Solar to Lunar. Let's say you're going to get 2 procs and one cast of Starsurge off. Then it doesn't matter too much when you shoot them, but the optimal places would be 2 Starsurges in Solar and one on the way to Lunar. In that way you save one cast completely to get to Lunar and it saves time and in return gives DPS. Those Starsurge places have the disadvantage of not getting one of the Starsurges to be buffed by eclipse but a) that is not always possible and b) you lose time with having to cast that extra wrath.

Getting two Starsurge procs isn't anything unheard of even if you got your dots only on one target and with gear improving all the time, it's getting more common all the time. I usually just use my Starsurges off cooldown during solar as it's quite heartbreaking to see the buff refresh itself as you're not in the optimal spot to use the first proc. If it procs before you've used the first one it's instantly a DPS loss and the gain of waiting with the Starsurge is in the end quite minor (one eclipsed Wrath vs. one non-eclipsed one.)

P.S. I've base my claims on some napkin math, so if I'm wrong, please correct me. The differences shouldn't be major if I'm wrong anyways.

[Juvencus]

It all has to do with Eclipse Energy and Eclipse uptime. If you cast 2 SS in Solar then you finish at exactly 0 energy, where when you are at 20 Solar remaining, you can get 2x Eclipsed Wraths off and be already at 10 energy towards Lunar. You can find a more elaborate response in one of the thread over at E.J (from Hamlet).

Edit: Basically if less/equal than 25 Solar energy then hold SS.

[moveth]

Thanks for the clarification, guys. :]

[Sunfyre]

Yeah -- basically, you want to cast your second starsurge in solar eclipse at 5 energy, and not before, as Juvencus said, you'll lose one eclipsed wrath if you cast the second one beforehand. You'll still get the second starsurge IN eclipse, but it just depends where you do it.