It still preforms quite highly without the maidens trinket, as for the ring usage I'm guessing you at least know at what time it's getting popped? Like if it's on the pull and then at 3mins just save your breath until then. Unless your raid is going full yolo on the ring popping it at the most random times, breath will still beat out othe alternatives, especially as the fight length decreases.
As for being a "miniscule upgrade on only a couple of fights" it just sounds like you need more practice.
My issue is most fights my guild pops the ring almost immediately and I cannot get my RP up fast enough to utilize the first ring...does everyone have this problem and just waits for the second ring usage to use BoS or? I am definitely more comfortable with frost, but would love to start using BoS unholy.
On Iron Reaver, Kormrok, and Arc (and Manno I guess after progression), those would be the fights I really worry about using BoS. Other then those I don't bother and usually use NP. Oh well, won't rank as good, but I'm used to being designated to be most of aoe damage as is so that's my "roll" more so then taking Breath to do meager single target.
BoS feels good on almost every fight except Assault now, assuming your raid comp has great AoE outside of yourself.
While true rankings don't matter, helping your group down the boss quicker and more efficiently should always be a goal IMO. Not sure how most other guilds do it, but for mine where I am the ring controller, I can get a decent breath even with a ring on the pull. (still a MASSIVE gain over NP)
Something along the lines of:
- Gargoyle - On Pull
- Outbreak - While running in (depends on the range)
- Ring - Once I reach the boss
- Fester
- Fester
- Scourge
- Scourge
- Breath
- Follow Priority
On some you can also get it off earlier thanks to nice AMS soaks (like the pillars spawning -3secs after pull on Zakuun, P1 Debuff on Socrathar) and I've also heard of some guilds resetting bosses to let raid members build up RP/Shadow Orbs and the like. (Sadly can't convince my guild to do this) Other options might be when your guild resets the boss for a cool down popped on trash, instead of just hitting it and booking it build up some RP quickly and hopefully some of it will still be up on the pull.
Or you can pay a warlock and some frands to summon you from the HFA cannons (Please don't do this)
You missed the point entirely again. I don't bother with switching to Breath as like I said above, I'm usually designated to be most of the aoe damage of the raid so that we don't have people like rogue's (whom have solid aoe but MUCH more solid single target then us) needlessly wasting their damage. Delegation of rolls.
Or.... you missed the point entirely?
Killing bosses in less attempts because people are playing there role correctly helps everyone.
There is no AoE to be lost on Zakuun, Tyrant or Socrathar.
So there is no reason NOT to run breath on these fights. It's better even if played poorly and no one else would have to change anything, it would just HELP your group.
As for designation of roles, it entirely depends on your comp.
Like on Archie (something you listed as a possible BoS fight) there are dogs that can easily be taken care of by a single UH DK running NP and some random passive cleave, keeping other raid members on there full ST specs. But, on most other fights (besides say Gorefiend) you can play BoS and no one will have to change specs. The adds on most fights melt with 10IL buff, making any prolonged AoE that your NP can provide next to useless compared to the AoE burst BB provides.
Obviously your group may not be like this, but it still doesn't excuse not running BoS on fights practically made for it.
I dunno, I guess 'usually' means I always forgo using Breath and never use it on those fights. Of course, it's the internet so technicalities are the pleasantries of newcomers.
When it's progression yeah, make an effort to use it cus it's a lot better single target there. Afterwords, if you don't wana bother and your guild is overgeared? Do whatever. Unless you want to rank you don't have to take Breath on farm bosses.
I guess not caring about ranking is rare to people as well.
the 0.5 seconds a boss dies quicker due to a dps dk using breath over np makes a big difference.
100% srs
Progression maybe over for you and a lot of others but Breath is a clear winner for a lot of fights and there's no reason why you should gimp your raid by not playing the best available damage option you have.
Or, you know you could just play your DK on fights that require grip and reroll a mage for the fights that don't need a DK.