Post new topic   Reply to topic    Always Faithful Forum Index -> Bone Crushing Melee
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Taiwei
In-Game Rank 7



Joined: 31 Dec 2013
Posts: 8

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Draenor windwalker

0

Windwalker 

To preface, this is for big boy windwalkers, if you want the basics take a look at icy veins.

To start let's look at the best ways to increase our patchwerk single target dps. Most of the regular snapshotting tricks don't work anymore, however, because of its weirdo nature chi wave will still snapshot tigers eye brew so same as last expac be sure to exploit that. Since well be using serenity on pure single targets it's worth mentioning its most efficient usage. As it is essentially 10 free chi consuming gcds you'll want to get the most out of each this leaves us with some conditions. 

-You should not have to refresh tiger power during its duration (it's 1 refunded chi as opposed to 2 from Blackout or Rsk).

- You should have used chi wave 5 seconds or fewer prior to using serenity (Using a gcd during serenity on a non chi consuming ability is a waste) 

-You should have used fists of fury 15 or fewer seconds prior to using serenity (the chi per gcd efficiency is what makes it so valuable so using it in a scenario where gcds are the limiting factor rather than chi generation makes no sense).

-You will want to be at low energy when you use it (since you will be consuming no energy for its duration it's nice to get "free" energy that is regenerated for its duration much like how a combat rogue uses killing spree).

-You will want to have 100% uptime for those 10 seconds (Durrrrrr).

-You should have at least 2 chi before you use it. (Durrrrrr). 

The other thing you might notice about serenity is its 1.5 minute cooldown will line up every other time with energizing brew. Don't stack them. The reason more energy is good is because it allows you to generate more chi. Therefore when you have limitless chi, energy has no value.

Continuing in the vein of single target  damage efficiency and talents, let's look at chi brew. For the most part chi brew will be rotated in to ensure you can always fill gcds even with shitty energy regen. So in most cases you'll be keeping at least one charge on cd and sitting on the other until you have an empty gcd. Additionally, like last expac using chi brew on lust openers for tigers eye is still a thing but try to be slightly more efficient as opposed to popping them both at the same time. 

Cleave.

Welcome to cleave city population windwalkers muthafucka. Were fucking dirty at cleave. Storm earth and fire is broken as fuck and blizzard only buffed it. As a result I'll go over the rules of SEF cleave. The 10 second rule, most guides say that a target needs to survive 10 seconds for ramp up time to be a dps increase. For the most part that's true but you can reduce that time by about 2-3 seconds if the following conditions are true.

-Your next gcd you need to refresh tiger power.

- The following gcd is Rsk and you have the chi for it.

For reducing it about 1-2 seconds

-You have a tiger palm combo breaker.

-The target you will be cleaving to already has the Rsk debuff.

- Optional: blackout kick combo breaker

Other scenarios where you might want to SEF cleave a target despite it surviving too short a time to be a dps increase 

- You are needed at your current your location to interrupt or stun (all of our stuns and interrupts are close to mele range and a clone will not copy them).

-You will need to return back to a far away main target and do not have enough movement cooldowns to get there and back efficiently (Your clone will move at FSK speed to the target and can merely fly over any obstacles or fire that would otherwise waylay you).

Other notes about clones 

-They do not inherit your tiger power, refresh it once the clone reaches the target.

-The clone does not copy your first gcd if it has to move to get to its target. (Therefore avoid refreshing tiger power until it reaches the target, ideally you'll want to use a chi generating ability while the clone goes to the target).

-The clone does not inherit tigers eye brew, therefore it is a dps loss to cast a clone while under its effect.

- Your clones will position themselves the same way pets do, that is to say directly behind the target.(keep this in mind in regards to the range of rjw/sck and the reach of Fof).

Cleave/Aoe talents

With haste limited, our usage of Rjw is a lot more restricted. For the most part we need to have at least 3 targets close enough to generate chi for about 35% of the fight for rjw to work. For burst aoe derp tigers aoe lightning has been somewhat buffed, so for cases where you will only need the occasional burst of aoe. 

Chi burst. Take it, love it, embrace it. For cases when you are only on one target it is more efficient dps wise to use 3 chi for it, but the moment there are 2 targets within range you should always wait for 4 chi to use it. A minor complication of chi burst is that it's damage to chi ratio is greater than that of Rsk. As such you should only use Rsk enough to maintain 100% debuff uptime.

As a rule, you should always take ascension with chi burst. The extra chi allows you to avoid the predicament of wasting chi because of the imbalance of abilities that consume an odd number of chi, an our inability to generate an odd amount of chi. Furthermore the extra energy regen helps increase rjw uptime.

Off boss time 

One of the hallmarks of a fantastic windwalker is effective usage of off boss time. Ideally your off boss time should be zero, but oftentimes it is necessary. Let's take a look at a couple scenarios and what the best option would be.

Small boss centered aoe, short duration high energy/energizing brew.

Roll out > expel harm  FSK back in

Large boss based aoe (options in order of best to worst)

- Karma to eat it and maintain uptime 

-Diffuse magic to eat it and maintain uptime

-Zen med to ride it out and avoid having to run back and forth

- Chi wave > use rolls to get out> apply clone to target while rolling out> expel harm> sck until safe to return> FSK back and dismiss clone.

As a general rule you only want to use expel harm at range when you are not chi capped, and until we get the haste to gcd cap, only use it while out of range if you're liable to energy cap, because while in t16 trading out a jab gcd for a chi consumer would be a net increase, there may be scenarios in which you will be energy starved and that jab would fill an empty gcd and be a dps increase. Jesus Christ that was a run on. But remember that getting back to the boss takes precedence over any of these at range shenanagins. So if you're running when you could be rolling in just to use expel harm, you're fucking up. The exception to this rule is chi wave as it is decently high on the priority list, however it's still always preferable to use FSK to get back because our auto attack damage is still worth a decent amount.

So in short the priority is

-Avoid energy capping (chi generating)

-Get the fuck back to the boss via FSK 

-Chi wave

- Roll back to boss

-Avoid energy calling (non chi generating

Tigers eye brew.

This is where you separate the windwalkers at the top of the meters from the bottom. Most everything else in the guide is just finesse tips that will provide small dps increases that demarcate skill differential between the best. Tigers eye brew management on the other hand will provide noticeable dps changes. You will want to stack tigers eye brew with any and every other dps increasing thing you can. This includes but is not limited to:

-Bloodlust

-Trinket procs

-On use trinkets 

-Serenity

-Energizing brew

-Tiger strikes

-Aoe phases

-Damage increasing boss mechanics

-dps potion

Now while I did say to stack these things there are some things that you should not stack together. Things that give you enough energy/chi to become gcd capped like bloodlust serenity and energizing brew should be staggered so as to result in the highest damage output over the course of a fight.

There are other  important things to consider when using tigers eye brew. Things like boss uptime or the type of abilities you'll be able to use during it. Ideally you want to use more chi consumers than chi generators during tigers eye brew because they do more damage. Furthermore you ideally want your first and last spells to be chi wave, to benefit from its snapshotting ability. In addition you want to make sure you get a fists of fury in at some point during the duration. In the same vein you should aim to have 2 Rsks during tigereye brew. Lastly you want to avoid having to refresh tiger power as it's chi to damage efficiency is shitty and causes you to have 1 fewer chi consuming gcd during tigereye brew.

So let's look at how you should use tigereye brew. To begin, there's a reason you can only consume 10 at a time, and hold up to 20. You're supposed to use that extra 10 stacks as leeway to give you more time to find an optimal scenario in which to use your tigereye brew. That means when the heavens open up and shine down upon you with the perfect alignment of trinket procs and all that bullshit you had better be sitting on at least 10 stacks. This early in the expansion your brew generation will be limited, and therefore your decision of when to use it becomes more important. In mop you typically sat on it until you hit around 17 stacks then dumped it if you couldn't get the procs you needed. However in wod, you have many more ways to essentially "force" a tigereye scenario. Energizing brew and serenity are both big players that are acceptable excuses to pop tigereye. It should be noted that it is worth delaying popping either of these a few seconds to get a tiger strikes proc. Furthermore on use trinkets are far more prevalent in warlords, those in conjunction with a dps potion are a great way to dump tigereye brew without procs or CDs.  

Let's look at trinket procs. Most of them last 20 seconds. You'll note that this is 5 seconds longer than the duration of tigereye. These 5 seconds are leeway. It gives time for a bunch of shit. It gives you time for reaction, lining up your Rsk cd to guarantee 2, lining up your Fof cd, wait for a tiger strikes proc, wait for serenity or energizing, wait for combo breakers, pool chi, etc. Don't low your brew too early, make good use of these 5 seconds of setup. Now, if you're already mid tiger strikes proc when your trinket procs, by all means go ahead, but if you don't have anything going for you, use those 5 seconds to see if you get lucky with anything else.

Uptime. This is the most important thing to consider when using tigereye brew. If you won't have uptime for most if not all of those 15 seconds it's probably worth it to sit on your brew. Always weigh the power of the procs you have versus the uptime you'll get out of your brew. 

Aoe phases. If you want to scumbag, or if aoe is an important component of the fight, the best dps bang for your tigereye buck will be aoe phases. The regular rules all still apply, however the number of targets alive takes precedence over everything else.

Touch of death. It's currently broken. Abuse it. If there's anything in the fight that has your health or more you should aim to get a death touch on it. The only reason to glyph it is for fights like butcher where you will only get 1 use of it.

Touch of karma, or "HEALERS HATE HIM ONE SIMPLE TRICK TO INCREASING YOUR DPS". This is the ultimate scumbag maneuver but fuck it. It's a dps cooldown, sure if it happens to save you from something that's lovely, but let's face it were dps scumbags so that comes first.

Step one: open dungeon journal

Step two: find ability that does ~50% of your health (60% if you use fort brew at the same time)

Step 3: Stand in it with Tok

Step 4: ???

Step 5: profit 

Step 6: get kicked from raid team for being too hard to heal

Disclaimer: using touch of karma purely to increase damage and not to survive (or using it in conjunction with fort brew) will leave you strapped for defensives. Only do this if you know how to not stand in shit.

Posts from:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Always Faithful Forum Index -> Bone Crushing Melee All times are GMT - 6 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum