The EXACT mechanics of Blood Tap - an inquiry

[Nikkaszal]

OK, so even after playing a DK as my main since the start of WotLK I'm still unsure exactly how Blood Tap functions. Yes, I know what it says on the tooltip, what I'm talking about are the nuances of use and other various bugs which end up having additional effects either detrimental or beneficial.

For example - through Wrath when my DPS spec (Frost) had a rotation instead of priority I would only ever use BT to pop UBA. When tanking, it was saved in case I wanted a VB when runes were cooling down. Even at that time it was fickle, and would often end up with blood runes unsynced (1B1D, for example) unless you hit it at a particular point (can't remember exactly how I used to use it).



Nowadays BT is being used as part of the DPS cycle, and I'm wondering exactly how best to implement it. I found that activating BT at the start of the fight when you have 1B inactive and 1B active (ie just used a BS), then BT will activate both runes and turn them into 2D which is real handy for an extra Oblit. However there are points midfight where I use BT under the same circumstances and all it does is change my active 1B into 1D.

What I'm doing to lead off a fight is this:
Army pre-pull (EDIT: for the purposes of clarity, I usually Army with enough time that the runes are back when I need the second set for Oblits/BS)
Pre-pot
Trinkets + PoF (2B1F2U)
Raise
Outbreak
Oblit (2BxF1U)
BS (1BxF1U)
Tap (2DxF1U)
Oblit (1DxFxU)

Using this model, I'm generally 1 GCD away from my PoF 1F coming back, so I FS and save the spare 1D for another Oblit. However, would I be better off burning that 1D straight away on a HB and waiting on another GCD for the 1U to come back before using Oblit?

[catalystical]

Simply put, Blood Tap isn't fickle; It just changes your first Blood rune into a Death Rune.

Runes when off cool down looks like this:
B B F F U U

For the sake of simplicity, if you use both Blood runes, your runes will go:
C x F F U U

where c means it's cooling down and x means it's in queue.

When you BT in that scenario, it changes the cooling B1 into Death rune. The stagnant B2 would then just begin its 10 second cool down.

In the other scenario where B1 has finished cd, B2 is in cd and you used B1 to put it into queue, ala the opposite of the first scenario:
x C F F U U

When you BT in this scenario, it changes the stagnant B1 into a Death rune while B2 continues cooling down.

So for the maximum efficiency, you want to use BT when B1 is in queue and B2 is under cd.

[Nikkaszal]

But that's the thing - as I mentioned in the post, it DOESN'T always work like that. Prime example is in my opener - when I have 1B coolding down and 1B active, it doesn't follow your rule.

By your definition, what should happen is it goes from this:

C B F F U U

to this:

D B F F U U


Or even if the "first rune" is switched around, going to this:

C D F F U U (which doesn't happen)






What actually DOES happen is it goes from this:

C B F F U U

to this:

D D F F U U

[Deleted]

What actually DOES happen is it goes from this:

C B F F U U

to this:

D D F F U U

Known (abusable) bug, I'd recall. I have no clue how the game even does it, and I have even less clue why it's not hotfixed already, or even in the 4.0.6 notes as a prominent bugfix. It was discussed way back in December already as "in the pipeline for fixing". I'll refer you to ValveTime, or the Blizzard-patented time-unit known as 'Soon'.

[catalystical]

But that's the thing - as I mentioned in the post, it DOESN'T always work like that. Prime example is in my opener - when I have 1B coolding down and 1B active, it doesn't follow your rule.

By your definition, what should happen is it goes from this:

C B F F U U

to this:

D B F F U U


Or even if the "first rune" is switched around, going to this:

C D F F U U (which doesn't happen)






What actually DOES happen is it goes from this:

C B F F U U

to this:

D D F F U U

To help narrow it down, I have yet to see it happen as Unholy nor Blood. So that would be how it's supposed to work. Could be something related to Frost.

[Mofogo]

It always works for me in the bugged fashion unless I screw up and try to BS before the GCD is done, which is when I want to kick my self for missing a KM proc for Oblit. I don't roll unholy, but it also works for me in blood.

[Algroda]

It also works for UH