(Shadow) Help on Archimonde

[Regia]

What am I doing wrong on Archimonde?

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...done&source=52

I constantly pull 95th and above percentiles on fights where I can play COP, which I consider my mainspec and most geared spec.
AS was kind of my gutter spec because I can't really gear both specs (EPGP system) and COP seemed more flexible/viable for more fights than AS.

Now though, I actually have a decent AS set with 31% crit (that is with raid buffs/food). There is not a whole lot more crit I can obtain from HFC gear... I can upgrade my norm mannoroth non-tier legs to heroic, and change my norm Gorefiend staff for iskar wand + offhand once I obtain the offhand. I am also missing a crit-specific neck, but the one I currently have should be decent for both COP and AS...it has haste/multi, haste enchant, and socket with 75 haste gem. My armory does not have my AS set equipped, so I apologize. Those 3 things could all be improved...but being "mostly-but-not-quite-BiS" has never stumped me this hard with CoP.

I can't use the gear as an excuse anymore. So then why am I getting stuck around 55th percentile on Archimonde? I pull 80-85th on Council and Xhul, but those are subpar rankings for me as well compared to my other ones. I assume I must be getting something horribly wrong with the AS rotation somehow and that's why it shows up so strongly on Archimonde. But I have no idea what's up, so if someone is savvy enough to interpret my logs, I'd really appreciate some pointers.

[Djriff]

I can't look at logs atm, but i'll give you some feedback later tonight when I'm home.

[Regia]

Thanks! Would really appreciate it.

[Kilee25]

AS is more difficult to play, and requires a different mindset, a different UI, and a different play style. The people who are getting the higher ranks are using a very customized UI that is built around making the nameplates and dots very easy to access and maintain. I suspect the people who are getting the highest ranks on Archi are making very, very heavy use of macros. It's not a spec that you can just "wing" and expect to get ranks. At least, that's my interpretation of the current meta of AS+ranking system. I wonder if this is part of the issue. I don't know, I'm just speculating.

[cwlee3]

My kill that I'm comparing yours to: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...done&source=30

Your orb generation in general was quite low, as you generated 148 orbs vs my 200 orbs and I had a 30 second shorter kill time. Consider using a mythic GSR to increase your orb generation.

You also need to cascade at better times, ie when it will hit more adds. You cast it 13 times for 77 bounces and I cast it 12 times for 100 bounces.

I also cast MB two more times than you, and again, my fight was 30 seconds shorter. This means you were sitting on MB but clearly weren't being overwhelmed by orbs due to your lower generation. Get those MB out more often for more DP damage. Also, make sure you're dumping DP into a target that will live long enough for the full duration of DoT goes off, unless your guild was REALLY struggling with prio target damage and needed a gimped, non-full duration DP to kill Deathcallers or something. After saying all of this negative stuff, however, you wasted 0 orbs overall, so very nicely done there!

[Djriff]

I'd have to agree with cwlee3. I haven't been able to 95% archimonde myself, but that's mainly due to raid comp than me (3 warriors, 3 locks, 2 hunters = bad day to be a spriest). Your dot uptimes are very good, could use come improvement on VT (70.75% on archimonde). Something else i've noticed is that you are gemmed and enchanted for haste. It's better to gem for crit especially when swapping between AS and CoP as crit is decent for CoP and provides more DPS with AS. If you happen to have a seperate CoP and AS set, then haste is fine.

[Regia]

My kill that I'm comparing yours to: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...done&source=30

Your orb generation in general was quite low, as you generated 148 orbs vs my 200 orbs and I had a 30 second shorter kill time. Consider using a mythic GSR to increase your orb generation.

You also need to cascade at better times, ie when it will hit more adds. You cast it 13 times for 77 bounces and I cast it 12 times for 100 bounces.

I also cast MB two more times than you, and again, my fight was 30 seconds shorter. This means you were sitting on MB but clearly weren't being overwhelmed by orbs due to your lower generation. Get those MB out more often for more DP damage. Also, make sure you're dumping DP into a target that will live long enough for the full duration of DoT goes off, unless your guild was REALLY struggling with prio target damage and needed a gimped, non-full duration DP to kill Deathcallers or something. After saying all of this negative stuff, however, you wasted 0 orbs overall, so very nicely done there!

I was using a WF heroic Iron Reaver Piston and heroic Unblinking Gaze of Sethe as my trinkets on that fight. I have a mythic socketed GSR, but I feel like that would be a loss.
As for cascade, I use it 1) to bounce between the Doomfire Orb and Archimonde, 2) as an instant-cast during movement if there are multiple targets [i.e. Deathcaller and Arch in p1 when we start running for Allure of Flames] 3) When I see many things up [multiple adds in p2, or infernals] and 4) as an instant-cast to hit the shadowfiend, and possibly bounce off of Archimonde too, but mostly just to kill the fiend. I do this because as AS I have such an unhealthy ramp-up time yet am still required to prio-burn the shadowfiends because others aren't doing it.
When all the adds pop up in p2, I typically prioritize dotting them all up with SWpain and THEN cascade once they are all dotted. They die fairly fast so I worry about the GCD costing me some orbs if I don't dot them up asap. Should I be doing cascade first instead?

I'd have to agree with cwlee3. I haven't been able to 95% archimonde myself, but that's mainly due to raid comp than me (3 warriors, 3 locks, 2 hunters = bad day to be a spriest). Your dot uptimes are very good, could use come improvement on VT (70.75% on archimonde). Something else i've noticed is that you are gemmed and enchanted for haste. It's better to gem for crit especially when swapping between AS and CoP as crit is decent for CoP and provides more DPS with AS. If you happen to have a seperate CoP and AS set, then haste is fine.

I do have a separate CoP and AS set. The only thing shared is my neck, which I'm adamant about keeping the haste gem/chant but will be replacing with a crit neck soon.
VT uptime would be better except when I let it fall off it's typically because I am prioritizing using that time to keep SWpain/cascade/mindbender up. Is VT more important? I haven't noticed it doing tremendous damage for a dot with an annoying cast time :P

[Djriff]

No VT is very low on the priority

[Kaesebrezen]

I haven't been able to 95% archimonde myself, but that's mainly due to raid comp than me (3 warriors, 3 locks, 2 hunters = bad day to be a spriest).

That's something you have to consider always. If adds die left and right - you just won't get high rankings.

Just taking a quick look at cwlee3 log - he got 50% more SW:P ticks on deathcallers and dreadstalker - with the same number of applications. That's massive.

At this point in time you shouldn't expect to get high rankings on most of the add spawn fights until your guild plays around your ranking - which for Archimond means leaving Dreadstalker alive, and stay out of the nether.