So our DoTs equate to about 25% (give or take) of our total dps on a Patchwerk fight. This post is just a (kind of) simple guide to managing your DoTs to optimize the GCDs that it costs to apply them.
The first thing that everybody should be aware of, is in the time it takes you to apply a DoT, you could have gotten off half of a Starfire cast or 66% of a Wrath cast. This is just something that everybody should keep in the back of their minds.
In an ideal world you want to be refreshing one tick before DoT expiration. Our DoTs do initial damage. The next best scenario for DoT refreshing would be to refresh it directly after its last tick. The only time refreshing early is okay is if the DoT will be falling off within 7 seconds, the DoT will be Mastery&Haste buffed, and you're about to leave the eclipse that buffs that DoT.
Let's start off at the start of your rotation after you have finished your initial burst cycle.
So we'll be starting at 0 eclipse energy (middle of the bar) going TOWARDS solar eclipse.
We'll also assume that your raid has decided to use Bloodlust/Heroism on the pull.
Now that all of that is out of the way, we'll move on to why everybody is reading:
You should have just re-applied your DoTs before Celestial Alignment ended. 15 seconds of DoTs should hold you over through almost all of Solar eclipse, if not all of it. Here is where we start making decisions based on different situations.
If we never got any DoT extensions through crits with hard casts, then our DoTs would never differ more than 1 GCD in duration.
So, hypothetically, let's assume that you got a Starsurge crit and 2 Wrath crits between Celestial Alignment ending, and you LEAVING Solar eclipse (You have the best RNG). Well by now your Moonfire has 3.5sec left on it and your Sunfire has 6.5sec left on it (it is hypothetical guys) with 5 Solar energy left. So how do you go about refreshing your DoTs. Well you're going to start by refreshing your Sunfire since it will be both Mastery AND Nature's Grace buffed.
Make sure that you always get at least one Mastery&Haste refresh per eclipse.
So you're going to be refreshing Sunfire so that it stays Mastery&Haste buffed for another full duration. Since Sunfire doesn't have enough time left on it to carry over to Lunar anyways, you're better off refreshing it now. Now since Moonfire still has 2.5seconds left on it (3.5 - 1GCD) you have time to hardcast a Wrath before refreshing it.
Understand that since Moonfire doesn't benefit from Solar, you don't have to refresh it before you leave Solar. You merely have to refresh it while you still have Nature's Grace. This is where a lot of people go wrong, they think that "Eclipse is good, so this is when I should refresh my DoTs."
Now let's keep going. You've now refreshed both of your DoTs and have saved one hardcast and 2seconds on Moonfire.
You're continuing your rotation and get into Lunar. Another common mistake that is made, is people refresh their Mastery DoT the moment they enter its respective eclipse. This is something of the past, it's what was best to do in Cataclysm. It's a dps loss now in Pandaria. You save 4-5 seconds on the DoT if you don't refresh immediately and you STILL get the FULL duration of a Mastery buffed Moonfire, you just have to be patient.
What should be done, rather, is Starsurge (if off CD), followed by Starfall, into normal rotation. After 2-3 hardcasts your Sunfire should be falling off, refresh it one tick before expiration. Refresh your Moonfire when you have 20 Lunar energy left and continue to hard cast as usual.
If your DoTs fall off at the same time, refresh the NON-Mastery buffed DoT first so the Mastery buffed one will get added damage from Lunar Shower.
I hope most of this made sense and I hope people get use out of it. I'll be posting more on this thread in the days to come such as a Burst Guide and whatnot.
Comment if you have any questions.
The first thing that everybody should be aware of, is in the time it takes you to apply a DoT, you could have gotten off half of a Starfire cast or 66% of a Wrath cast. This is just something that everybody should keep in the back of their minds.
In an ideal world you want to be refreshing one tick before DoT expiration. Our DoTs do initial damage. The next best scenario for DoT refreshing would be to refresh it directly after its last tick. The only time refreshing early is okay is if the DoT will be falling off within 7 seconds, the DoT will be Mastery&Haste buffed, and you're about to leave the eclipse that buffs that DoT.
Let's start off at the start of your rotation after you have finished your initial burst cycle.
So we'll be starting at 0 eclipse energy (middle of the bar) going TOWARDS solar eclipse.
We'll also assume that your raid has decided to use Bloodlust/Heroism on the pull.
Now that all of that is out of the way, we'll move on to why everybody is reading:
You should have just re-applied your DoTs before Celestial Alignment ended. 15 seconds of DoTs should hold you over through almost all of Solar eclipse, if not all of it. Here is where we start making decisions based on different situations.
If we never got any DoT extensions through crits with hard casts, then our DoTs would never differ more than 1 GCD in duration.
So, hypothetically, let's assume that you got a Starsurge crit and 2 Wrath crits between Celestial Alignment ending, and you LEAVING Solar eclipse (You have the best RNG). Well by now your Moonfire has 3.5sec left on it and your Sunfire has 6.5sec left on it (it is hypothetical guys) with 5 Solar energy left. So how do you go about refreshing your DoTs. Well you're going to start by refreshing your Sunfire since it will be both Mastery AND Nature's Grace buffed.
Make sure that you always get at least one Mastery&Haste refresh per eclipse.
So you're going to be refreshing Sunfire so that it stays Mastery&Haste buffed for another full duration. Since Sunfire doesn't have enough time left on it to carry over to Lunar anyways, you're better off refreshing it now. Now since Moonfire still has 2.5seconds left on it (3.5 - 1GCD) you have time to hardcast a Wrath before refreshing it.
Understand that since Moonfire doesn't benefit from Solar, you don't have to refresh it before you leave Solar. You merely have to refresh it while you still have Nature's Grace. This is where a lot of people go wrong, they think that "Eclipse is good, so this is when I should refresh my DoTs."
Now let's keep going. You've now refreshed both of your DoTs and have saved one hardcast and 2seconds on Moonfire.
You're continuing your rotation and get into Lunar. Another common mistake that is made, is people refresh their Mastery DoT the moment they enter its respective eclipse. This is something of the past, it's what was best to do in Cataclysm. It's a dps loss now in Pandaria. You save 4-5 seconds on the DoT if you don't refresh immediately and you STILL get the FULL duration of a Mastery buffed Moonfire, you just have to be patient.
What should be done, rather, is Starsurge (if off CD), followed by Starfall, into normal rotation. After 2-3 hardcasts your Sunfire should be falling off, refresh it one tick before expiration. Refresh your Moonfire when you have 20 Lunar energy left and continue to hard cast as usual.
If your DoTs fall off at the same time, refresh the NON-Mastery buffed DoT first so the Mastery buffed one will get added damage from Lunar Shower.
I hope most of this made sense and I hope people get use out of it. I'll be posting more on this thread in the days to come such as a Burst Guide and whatnot.
Comment if you have any questions.