JeeBar wrote:
So a level 76 is doing 1500 DPS while soloing without buffs and not even maxing his DPS with an optimal rotation.
I am using 30stam and 30haste food I think it is, and self buffed includes weightstones (12dmg/12crit)/MotW/Thorns. No elixirs or agility/strength scrolls. Those weightstones seem to make less and less of a difference the higher level I get, but I've got I think another 2 and a half stacks to blow from before the expansion so it's almost too far in the back of my head to care, but I probably should have mentioned them the first go round in any case.
As far as optimal rotations go, I think it's debatable (At least in the context of exp per hour or kills per hour and not the dps number on the chart). I tried once before (to debate), prior to WotLK, but I think for the most part folks of that debate agreed that largely it depended on your targets proximity to each other whether or not prowling/pounce/mangle/shred is worth it. I shared a video actually in filefront as my demonstration as to why I prefer not to prowl for regular exp solo grinding.
With the way the talent tree expanded after the expansion and knowing I had no intentions to tank anything until 80 anyway
(with a single instance as an exception because a friend wanted me to get the Lvl76 staff and it just happened to drop the first try), my spec went toward a very solo oriented path. And it made my style of soloing that much easier because mangles only cost me 35 energy as opposed to 40 prior to the expansion due to spec.
JeeBar wrote:
Unloading the kitchen friggin' sink and I'm still 200 dps LESS than Torzak the 76 manglespamming stuff to death solo?
I do keep Savage Roar up usually with either 1 or 2 combo points used to reapply as needed. The time extension per combo point beyond 1 or 2 is not worth it IMO. To intentionally try for a 5 point Savage Roar while solo grinding targets in fairly close proximity seems silly to me /shrug. It is nice though if you see the opposite faction coming from a distance on a ground mount and you hit a 5 point SR on an NPC and then prowl up on them :p
JeeBar wrote:
As far as upgrades, I know they're out there, but my point is that I know for a FACT Torzak is wearing not a single piece higher than level 76
As a quick note, I think most Lv78 blues are still side grades to me. Other than that, it's probably largely spec related /shrug. Do you have 35 energy Mangles? That 5 energy adds up while mangle spamming and still taking advantage of 2pc T4 (+20 energy procs in conjunction to clear casting). At the very least, if you don't, this could answer part of the concern.
Everything of mine is enchanted, largely because I'm a leather worker/enchanter and I don't mind at all to enchant the same chant on top of a piece already enchanted just to get the skill up in the craft if I manage to pick up the mats from DE'ing misc. greens.
Wrist I went 90 Stam even on my dps piece. Makes the whole leader of the pack while soloing etc a good bit more potent than I was previously used to, so I'm enjoying that. Other that though, everything was re-enchanted/re-gemmed. I've stuck, and plan to stick, with my 70 purples because of the lack of hit on just about everything I've seen even up to Lv78.
I did go ahead and put one of those belt buckle things on my Lv70 belt just because I could /shrug. Replaced the attack/crit leg patch on my Lv70 dps leg option with the newer one for a minor AP/Crit increase there, and even though I had read Strength was better than Agility starting around Lv75 I still regemmed all my +10Agility gems to +16Agility gems expecting that Agility would still net better results for the first several levels after Lv70 (at least up until Savage Roar is what I was hoping), I've been a combo of lazy and just not playing much to redo the agility to strength gems now that I'm 76. There were a few yellow sockets that I replaced from 5agi/5hits with 8expertise/8hits. I am expertise capped for Lv76, I do know that (in part from talent tree). Replaced my +2 damage ring enchants to +32AP Enchants, etc. And most of this I did all while I was still LV70, but a few retools on enchants did come as I learned them a bit later.
Like I said in my first post though, I'm no expert on LV80 and the performance I would expect. All I am doing is making an educated guess that 1500 would be the minimum I would expect in a LV80 Heroic considering higher tiers of abilities than I have access to and 78 to 80 blues that are largely side grades or small upgrades to me (with an exception being the weapons; they seemed to have done quite nicely with weapon progression).
Considering your semi tank specced, do you have Tiger's Fury on spam? I have mine attached to Mangle. I don't have talents specced to gain energy upon using it, so I have no fear of accidentally using Tiger's Fury and wasting energy. So in my case, I'm care free and just spam it along with mangle. Have my trinket on the same button too /shrug. And if it gives anyone any ideas, Savage Roar is on a shift modifier on the same button.
Edited, Jan 6th 2009 11:33pm by Torzak