Well, I was thinking about different hybrid specs that might be fun to play around with. I got to thinking about what you really got from Combat. Mid tier assassination has some pretty powerful talents, and I decided I'd play around on the test realm with some new builds and post my results. I'm not expecting to find a new "best raid build", but maybe I can find some fun alternatives to cookie cutter combat, or 11/28/22.
My gear can be found in my armory link. Tests will go until I'm at less than 500 health, which is generally about 6 minutes.
Seal Fate Hemo
I know, poor critrate makes a poor Seal Fate partner, but increased poison damage, along with CP generation almost as good as Mutilate makes this an interesting idea. The spreadsheet says this is a DPS increase of about 3 with my stats. My tests show otherwise. Lack of raid buffs could be the culprit, as I'm missing a whole lot of crit and AP.
Selling points:
-Only 8 points in combat. How's that for a raid build?
-5/5 Lethality
-5/5 Imp. Poisons
-5/5 Seal Fate
-Cold Blood
Result - 1113 DPS
38 Assassination Hemo
Got your attention yet? This oddball build promises to be interesting at the very least. Find Weakness combined with Dirty Deeds and Lethality make this a Hard Hitting Hemo Power House (yay alliteration!). That's a damage multiplier of 159% on all Hemos below 35%. That's 365.7% of normal damage on a crit! The lack of any points in combat promise low white DPS, but hopefully the huge yellow DPS will make up for it, along with greatly increased poison damage. The spreadsheet says I get about 8.5 DPS increase on this.
Selling points:
-Hemo is going to hit HARD
-Huge damage multipliers on specials
-Seal Fate
-Vigor
-My favorite talent of all time, Find Weakness
-Opens Envenom up as a viable finisher when paired with Cold Blood (~2k non crits without raid buffs)
-Hit cap is increased beyond the point where anyone will ever reach, making gear choices easier at high gear levels
-100% movement speed in stealth
Result - 1132 DPS
Control (standard 11/28/22)
Result - 1138 DPS
Problems with my testing:
One of the things not covered by my test is Precision. I'm hit capped by a long shot on the mobs in Blasted Lands, so that's 5% white DPS I'm not losing when I should be. The same goes for Weapon Expertise.
Going to get a control test once I get my other copy down here to test.
Edited, Nov 25th 2007 9:50pm by Nooblestick
Edited, Nov 25th 2007 10:03pm by Nooblestick