Survival Rotation - Explosive Trap a Necessity?

[Kraaven]

Lazy SV Hunter here wanting to know two things - 1) What is the DPS loss if I don't use explosive trap at all in my rotation and 2) what is the DPS loss if I only use it on 2 or more targets? I find my rotation tightness is much cleaner without it because I don't end up wasting 1-3 globals per boss fight on traps that I place and the tank either moves the boss or the boss moves to a mechanic. Assuming I will miss completely on say one trap per fight - is it worth it?

[Argotar]

I don't have exact numbers on hand but I think it's about 300 DPS gain/loss. However for AOE it's huge. Explosive trap was my #1 damage on heroic Imperator this week (I COULD have been tired and misread explosive SHOT as trap but I believe it was). Let the 300 dps be your "use it or not" gauge.

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I don't have exact numbers on hand but I think it's about 300 DPS gain/loss. However for AOE it's huge. Explosive trap was my #1 damage on heroic Imperator this week (I COULD have been tired and misread explosive SHOT as trap but I believe it was). Let the 300 dps be your "use it or not" gauge. As for the tank moving the boss that's your fault. You really shouldn't be missing explosive traps.

[Deleted]

I don't have exact numbers on hand but I think it's about 300 DPS gain/loss. However for AOE it's huge. Explosive trap was my #1 damage on heroic Imperator this week (I COULD have been tired and misread explosive SHOT as trap but I believe it was). Let the 300 dps be your "use it or not" gauge.

Don't know how big of a gain it is. But you must've misread explosive trap and shot, you most likely would've used serpent sting on the targets you were aoeing with trap and I have a hard time seeing explosive trap doing more damage than serp sting.

[Redmage]

Don't know how big of a gain it is. But you must've misread explosive trap and shot, you most likely would've used serpent sting on the targets you were aoeing with trap and I have a hard time seeing explosive trap doing more damage than serp sting.

This. If SS isn't your #1 damage on IMP you are doing something horribly wrong.

[Deleted]

the tank either moves the boss or the boss moves to a mechanic

This is fairly irrelevant because unless you're tossing it from max range, it's gonna hit even if the boss starts moving away, and nowadays it just leaves a dot on anything it affects, things don't need to stay in it for the duration.

[Deleted]

For me personally Explosive Trap with its tiny numbers and being on GCD is NOT worth to be cast on single targets.

[Juanpierre]

It is definitely worth it, but it takes some practice laying them without delaying a GCD and proper placement. Not too difficult. I've found doing PvP (which I generally hate) has helped me with quick trap placement.

Another great thing about Explosive Trap is it gives me something to do when having to suddenly move quickly without focus (bad timing on bombs on Imperator or dodging fire on Kargath).

[Beace]

For me, it sims about 300 dps difference on single target. I believe that's pretty much under optimal circumstances though. If you're slow putting the trap down, or it otherwise makes you mess up the rotation, I think it's probably a dps loss.

[Finbezz]

This. If SS isn't your #1 damage on IMP you are doing something horribly wrong.

Pretty much this. When I pugged h imp this week ss was 30% of my damage.

[minigun]

Lazy SV Hunter here wanting to know two things - 1) What is the DPS loss if I don't use explosive trap at all in my rotation and 2) what is the DPS loss if I only use it on 2 or more targets? I find my rotation tightness is much cleaner without it because I don't end up wasting 1-3 globals per boss fight on traps that I place and the tank either moves the boss or the boss moves to a mechanic. Assuming I will miss completely on say one trap per fight - is it worth it?

Simc models human reaction delay, network latency, and travel time. It doesn't make sense to add time for mouse positioning the launcher because that should be done when you don't have other things to do, e.g., while FS is casting, you can trigger trap launcher and place the mouse. Then the trap launch ends up in the normal spell queue and costs no additional latency.

This is how you should play it, (assuming nothing is coming off CD), but not exactly how it works in simc.

According to my sims,
ToTH + explosive trap = 50 dps gain over no Explosive trap
FS + explosive trap = 100 dps gain over no Explosive trap

Simc is set such that it doesn't consider the added delay(Human error) of dropping explosive trap. Instead the sim throws ET just as quickly as you would cast AS, and continues to follow the priority set in place. If you add a slight delay to explosive trap in simc, then it becomes a wash, or even a loss if you really suck at tossing it.

Furthermore, when you have a large multistrike buff or ToTH buff then AS > Explosive trap.

The "smart" refers to prioritizing Arcane Shot over Explosive Trap if you have Scales of Doom proc (Balanced Fate).
Sim'd by Iridar Icy-Veins

This leaves a very very small window in which Explosive trap > AS. Which combined with the increased delay means the potential sim'd gains, which are already all but inconsequential, practically disappear! Therefore, explosive trap is arguably not worth being part of your shot priority in single target! However, there still exists a few circumstances in which it is a good idea to toss it, such as low focus + movement.


EDIT:
LW survival showed a 300 dps gain by using explosive trap.