[Legion] Lowest APM, Highest Downtime Spec?

[nazrakin]

They have exactly 0 downtime, as do most other caster specs, though. He was asking for low APM, high downtime, so casters need not apply.

Not necessarily, caster downtime is different from melee downtime. Caster downtime occurs during spellcast/channels. As such, the apm of casters tend to be much lower than melee specs.

[Dokubi]

Right, channeling a spell cast counts as down time. But to really make the spec slow you'd need your filler spell to have a long cast time like Drain Life. The Mage specs can be fairly slow but frostbolt and fireball have cast times that are too short to really make the Mage the slowest spec.

Candidates for the slowest spec have to either consistently cast long cast-time spells or have multiple points in time throughout the rotation where they literally cannot cast any abilities (either because they have not enough resources or all abilities are on cooldown) or periods where it is optimal to wait 3-4 seconds doing nothing to pool resources before you do a burst phase (If you play Assassin without using Garrote it is wonderful for this but not viable).

Unfortunately in practice none of the specs really fit the bill amazingly well. BM without any focus-generating talents is probably the best right now. MM with Sidewinders+Patient Sniper is roughly the same. Feral would be about the same but after factoring the extra movement required it's more APM.

[Mask]

Maybe I should check out BM hunters. I miss playing an MMO with a lot of downtime.

Back in Everquest I played a rogue and this was my rotation in that game:
1.) Press Backstab every 6 seconds (at max haste).
2.) Feint every 10 seconds.

That's it. That is the whole rogue rotation in Everquest. I could actually chat with people during combat without losing DPS, especially during the easier pulls. I kind of miss that cadence of play in more modern and frenetic games.

[Soisoisoi]

BM hunter, maybe assassination rogue.

Definitely not Assassination. Vendetta Artifact restores full energy on use. Trinket reduces CD; legendary reduces CD per energy spent. A lot faster than on live.

OT; BM or Feral.

[Hexxidecimal]

Hasn't the enhancement Shaman a talent that makes it really slow? Boulderfist or something.

Yeah...it's not that slow even with Boulderfist.

- - - Updated - - -

Right, channeling a spell cast counts as down time. But to really make the spec slow you'd need your filler spell to have a long cast time like Drain Life. The Mage specs can be fairly slow but frostbolt and fireball have cast times that are too short to really make the Mage the slowest spec. Candidates for the slowest spec have to either consistently cast long cast-time spells or have multiple points in time throughout the rotation where they literally cannot cast any abilities (either because they have not enough resources or all abilities are on cooldown).

Fire Mage Has spells cast during other spells. Frost, at least in PvP has shatter combo's that require back to back casts. Arcane is pretty simple though, well it might be worse with artifact I can't be sure. But fire is very active if played right.

I hear BM hunters are pretty darn slow. You can probably spec out a demon hunter to be pretty low APM with Demon Blades and just passive talents with long DPS cooldown buttons like Nemesis instead of momentum.

[Dokubi]

Maybe I should check out BM hunters. I miss playing an MMO with a lot of downtime.

Back in Everquest I played a rogue and this was my rotation in that game:
1.) Press Backstab every 6 seconds (at max haste).
2.) Feint every 10 seconds.

That's it. That is the whole rogue rotation in Everquest. I could actually chat with people during combat without losing DPS, especially during the easier pulls. I kind of miss that cadence of play in more modern and frenetic games.

That sounds like heaven.

[Hexxidecimal]

That sounds like heaven.

Healers had it even easier. 10 second rotation full heal. Cast, wait, cast again. Although you HAD to cast at exactly the right time or the tank just died.

[huth]

Not necessarily, caster downtime is different from melee downtime. Caster downtime occurs during spellcast/channels. As such, the apm of casters tend to be much lower than melee specs.

Tell that to Moonkins and Shadow Priests. Both have fillers that take exactly 1 GCD, and Shadow Priests barely have any spells that take longer, and a crap ton of haste due to class mechanics.

Shadow Priest is probably the spammiest spec in all of Legion.

[willtron]

Definitely not Assassination. Vendetta Artifact restores full energy on use. Trinket reduces CD; legendary reduces CD per energy spent. A lot faster than on live.

OT; BM or Feral.

I played it on PTR and found it super slow.

[Deleted]

BM Hunter for One. Would also suggest unholy DK, as it feels pretty slow - waiting for runes.
Arms warrior with sweaping strike (t1) avatar, mortal combo and opportunity strike. Use Cs when it procs, use mortal strike on CD, and if getting close to rage cap you use slam. You make a macro for your artifact ability + avatar+ recklesness . There you go, you can now play it very simple while still doing fine on dmg meter...

[Soisoisoi]

I played it on PTR and found it super slow.

Yeah you will on PTR, you don't have the artifact or trinkets. It's definitely faster than live when you get some gear.

[Kainan]

I've only played PTR but ret paladin abilities take a long time to come back and it doesn't have much apm but that's just from experience with a premade character so not sure if its faster with a properly geared paladin.

[Deleted]

Feral druid on the PTR was slow as usual, and from what I can see they only have 1 artifact trait that can speed up the rotation, which is pretty minor one too.

[Yizu]

Get an autohotkey keypress spammer script, so u just hold a key and auto spams for you lol. Been using it since 2007 doubt its bannable.

[MegaVolti]

You are not alone. I never got why people want "fast paces" specs. What's fun about hammering the same stupid button every single damn second between the "major" abilities? I'd much rather just relax for a few seconds instead of stupidly hammering an annoying button.

So yea, I was looking for a nice slow paces spec, too. I always loved my Feral Druid for the downtime. And it's a complex spec with lots to think about (more so back in WotLK than now but it's still nice) despite the downtime.
BM Hunters look really good, too. I had no idea Havoc might be a candidate. Thanks for all the suggestions
For casters I think Shadow Priest and Affliction Warlock might be okay-ish. They don't have downtime as such but their filler spell is channeled. I wish they would auto channel it on the most recent target (like Mistweaver Monks do for example) but starting the channel isn't that big a deal, it's much better than continuously having to cast filler spells at least.

[Nnyco]

isnt feral like 80% waitin for more energy

[Mazeari]

out of all the classes feral is defo on the slower spectrum.

[Shinrael]

Sidewinders MM hunter stacking mastery over haste. It was sooo painfully slow. No way in hell I'm playing sidewinders MM. Piercing Shot for me.

Sent from my HTC Desire 620 using Tapatalk

[Pull My Finger]

isnt feral like 80% waitin for more energy

My main is Feral. Can't confirm that. Depending on talent choices, it can actually be pretty stressful. Definitely keeps you on your toes.

[Coils]

Feral technically has low APM since there is a significant amount of legit "waiting" time in the rotation by design. That said, it is melee and makes up a lot of APM if you consider movement. It is also a fairly technical spec which requires thought to get results. This doesn't sound like what the OP wants.