Spec Doctor: PvE Warrior Arms Hybrid

When starting up a new game, there are always mistakes made at the start. Luckily, World of Warcraft is very forgiving of talent-tree mistakes. (Bad memories of Diablo 2 coming back...) With a little bit of in-game money, you can wipe out all of those problems and start over, or change focus completely!

Here's an example of a Warrior build from a new player (now at level 63). He has a good idea in general (Arms/Prot, to be able to DPS well while questing, and be the MT for the 5-man instances), but there are a few problems with the spec.

Let's clean it up!

This build is meant for a character that uses a 2-hander to quest and do DPS, but is also a reasonably good tank for 5-mans as well. This spec is not appropriate for someone who quests with sword+shield, someone who is tanking raid bosses, or for someone who dual-wields while questing. For the first two, a full protection spec is recommended, and for the last a 0/31/30 Fury hybrid is much better than an Arms hybrid.

Current Build

Talents are fully taken, except when noted in parenthesis.

Arms (33):
Deflection
Imp. HS
Imp Charge (1/2)
Iron Will (4/5)
Imp TC
Imp Overpower
Anger Management
Deep Wounds
Impale
Death Wish
(Mace) Spec
MS
Second Wind

Prot (21):
Anticipation
Tac Mastery (2/3)
Shield Spec
Last Stand
Imp Shield Block
Imp Revenge (2/3)
Imp Sunder
Imp Taunt

New Spec (@ 63):

Changes:
Improved Heroic -> Improved Rend
- Now, I'm not saying that Improved Rend is a great talent. Far from it. However, Heroic Strike is terrible for 2-handers (as I've shown here), and if you aren't raid-tanking you won't have the rage to fuel every-swing Heroics. You will be using Rend however, as it is a reasonable use of the rage and puts a nice +4% damage debuff up. 3 points need to go somewhere to advance down the tree, and this is about the best spot for this type of build.

Iron Will (4/5) and Improved Overpower -> Imp. Charge x1, and 2H Specialization (5/5)
- Iron Will is purely a PvP talent, and not a great one at that. For PvE, stuns/charms don't happen nearly enough to justify taking this talent.
- Improved Overpower is a nice talent, but there are two things working against it:
* It doesn't work in Defensive stance
* We're going to reduce monster Dodge by 1.5% (with Defiance), so it won't trigger as often. Even-level mobs will Dodge 3.5% of the time, and Imp. OP gives you 50% extra crit on that dodge, so it's effectively 1.75% to crit (i.e., worse than Cruelty, and stance-specific to boot)
- Adding the 2nd Improved Charge point, which is very nice for questing.
- Adding 2-Hand Specialization - 5% extra damage on everything is good (while questing)!

Second Wind -> Blood Frenzy
- Second Wind is another purely PvP talent. We'll take Blood Frenzy instead, which is a great, great talent. 4% extra damage for melee (including yourself) and hunters. Keep Rend up on the mob!

Shield Spec -> Toughness
- Toughness is a better Damage Reduction talent than Shield Specialization is. Not having the Rage-gen on blocks is a bummer, but you can only get one of the two with this spec, and Toughness is better. It also works while questing, where Shield Spec doesn't.

Improved Revenge + Improved Taunt -> Defiance
- Defiance has always been required for any kind of tanking. Defensive stance threat bonus is normally 30%, this makes it 45%. They've recently added 6 Expertise to this talent, which makes it totally incredible! (6 Expertise gives 1.5% enemy Dodge and Parry reduction - that's a 3% DPS/threat increase for both soloing and tanking!)
- Improved Revenge is an ok talent, but not strictly required, so it can be dropped.
- Improved Taunt is not that good. You really shouldn't be Taunting every 10 seconds, much less 8. I don't take this in my full protection spec, so there's definitely no room in a hybrid spec.

2 Improved Sunder, 1 TM, Improved Shield Block -> Cruelty
- Cruelty is required for basically all Warrior specs. Extra crit is extra damage (for DPS types) and extra threat (for tank types). It also helps with Deep Wounds and Impale from the Arms tree.
- Tactical Mastery and Improved Sunder Armor are both important for this spec, and will both be filled out. I just like to fill the whole Arms tree and Cruelty first. You could certainly fill these out in the other order, especially if you're mostly tanking and only occasionally soloing. I would still fill the 33 in Arms first, as Blood Frenzy is better point-for-point than Cruelty.
- Improved Shield Block is an absolute requirement for raid bosses, but not for 5-mans. In a 5-man, the only thing Shield Block is good for is to get Revenge to light up, and a single block accomplishes that.

Final Spec (@ 70):
Fill out the rest of these in order to get to the final spec:
Imp Sunder (2/3, 3/3)
TM (2/3, 3/3)
Conc Blow
Imp Bloodrage (x2)

Final Note: If you want to hold out on Cruelty and tank a bit more, then use those 5 points to fill Imp Sunder, TM, and Conc Blow at level 63, then the next 5 go into Cruelty, then the last 2 into Imp Bloodrage.

Continue reading 'Spec Doctor: PvE Warrior Arms Hybrid'

Hunters: You are 2-roll combat table, not 1!

Well, it looks like I was wrong with Hunter shot mechanics. *sigh*

It seems that all Hunter shots are based on a 2-roll system, not a single "table-based" roll. Even for Autoshot.

For example: If you have 5% to miss, the game first makes a "hit" roll (0..5 is "miss", everything else is "hit"), and if that lands in the "hit" area then it makes a second roll for everything else (for hunters, this can only be "hit" or "crit").

What that means is maxing hit rating first is even more important for hunters, as misses lower your actual crit rate.

If all melee "yellow" attacks are two roll (seems to be true for Rogues, unknown for others), that makes getting "yellow hit-capped" an absolute priority. That also means that Expertise is an amazing stat, even for non-tanks (that shouldn't get Parried), if the wowwiki 2-roll melee working is correct (dodge/parry/block on first roll along with miss, then 2nd roll has just crit).

Can someone confirm 2-roll specials (non-rogue) for me? Should be fairly easy, as a "blocked crit" is sufficient (stormstrike/WF for shaman are both yellow I believe). For the life of me, I can't remember having a blocked-crit Heroic/Shield Slam/Revenge as a warrior, but there's no way I can say that I never saw it, either. Continue reading 'Hunters: You are 2-roll combat table, not 1!'

Quick note...

Just a quick update:

I'm going to refocus this blog to being strictly WoW stuff. *points at new title* Going to delete all the non-WoW posts, and also mess around with the layout a bit.

I'm also working on setting up another focused on game design - it should be ready to start up in a few days, with my new project I'm starting on. Keep an eye out for it, as I'll be looking for volunteers to help me in testing it out! Continue reading 'Quick note...'

WoW Bloggers Forums

Just noticed this pop up at a couple of other sites, so I'll link to it as well.

Blog Azeroth

Looks to be a good resource - I'm new at this so it'll definitely help! Continue reading 'WoW Bloggers Forums'

Warrior 2H DPS (spec and sim results)

This post over at Altosis started a small discussion about Arms 2H Warrior specs - whether it was better to use Endless Rage and Improved MS, or go with a MS/Slam build. Since lots of things are random procs (Sword Spec, WF totem, Flurry), I threw together another sim. Much tougher than the BM Hunter one!

I've used the following basics for each test run:
30% crit (before AxeSpec), 2000 AP (before shout), 3000 mob armor, Weapon is Gorehowl (3.6, 345-518). That seem reasonable? Too low perhaps?

Tried 4 different specs:
#1: 41/20 (Imp MS, EndRg, BF, Imp Shout)
#2: 41/5/15 (Imp Bloodrage, Defiance (+6 expertise))
#3: 33/28 (Imp Slam, Blood Frenzy, 3/5 Flurry)
#4: 31/30 (Slam, 5/5 Flurry)



Base results:
#1, Sword, WF, no Heroic-ing: 820 DPS
#2, same setup: 816 DPS
#3, 0.2s "Slam-lag": 923 DPS
#4, 0.2s "Slam-lag": 925 DPS

Couple of interesting results that I've seen:
- Sword Spec == Axe Spec. It's nearly identical. Axe spec gives slightly better Blood Frenzy uptime, but just use the best weapon you have among those.
- Using Heroic Strike REDUCES DPS! When I use "best-case" Heroics (spec 3/3 ImpHS, only use at 100 rage and not within a GCD of MS or WW), it's about equal to never using it at all. DPS drops off dramatically if you trigger it any earlier than that. Yes, you overflow on Rage a ton by not using it, but that simply doesn't matter.
- WF Totem is a huge amount of DPS: 10% to 15% extra, depending on build (it's better with the Slam/Flurry builds, as those can use the extra rage and crits far better)
- Slam builds are super-sensitive to "Slam-lag". Going from 0.0 to 0.2 latency on the Slam gives a 5% overall DPS loss. Going from 0.2 to 0.5 gives another 7% DPS loss.
- Slam at 0.5s lag is STILL better than 41/x/x, and by quite a bit.
- If MS and WW are both available, use MS first. It's not a big difference between the two, but using MS first is better.
- SpamString-ing is no good either, even with SwordSpec. It is, however, better than using Heroic! (But not better than doing nothing *laugh*)
- 33/28 is probably strictly better than 31/30. The personal DPS is almost identical (assuming the mob bleeds), and at this simulated gear level, it's gonna be another 30 to 40 DPS for each other physical melee class, with the associated threat benefits (Multiplied by Defiance for Warrior and Bear tanks, and Feign-able/Vanish-able by Hunters and Rogues)

One of these days I'll add Bloodthirst/Rampage builds to be able to compare those too, but that's gonna take a while to do.

BTW - if anyone wants any of the sims I've written, shoot me an email or a comment. I can provide source code as well - let me know.

Continue reading 'Warrior 2H DPS (spec and sim results)'

The Melee Combat Table (aka: Dispelling "You can't crit what you don't hit")

Sheesh - there seems to be an absolute and total misunderstanding of melee (and hunter shot) mechanics over at the BRK Forums. I've seen it posted about 5 times in 2 different threads (about the Animal Handler talent) that "I take AH so my FI uptime is better" and "the pet can't crit if it doesn't hit".

THIS IS WRONG!!!!


WoW attack mechanics make a SINGLE ROLL for melee attacks, and compare the result against a table that is "built up" in a specific order. That order is as follows:

Miss
Dodge
Parry
Glancing Blow (only PCs vs Mobs)
Block
Crit
Crushing Blow (only Mobs vs PCs)
Hit

The table is built up from bottom (miss) to top (hit). Hit is everything left over that isn't already covered by something else.

We'll build the table a hunter pet (0/2 AH, 5/5 Ferocity, buffed by LotP) against a boss, attacking from behind it (so no Parries or Blocks):

0.0 - 9.0	Miss	9% vs +3 mob
9.0 - 14.6	Dodge	5% base, +0.6% vs +3 mob
14.6 - 39.6	Glancing	25% vs +3 mob
39.6 - 59.0	Crit	5% base, +10% Ferocity, +5% LotP, -0.6% vs +3 mob (19.4% total)
59.0 - 100.0	Hit	Everything else (41%)

Now, we'll throw on the 2 Animal Handler points (+4% hit), and build the new table:

0.0 - 5.0	Miss	9% vs +3 mob, -4% for 2/2 Animal Handler
5.0 - 10.6	Dodge	5% base, +0.6% vs +3 mob
10.6 - 35.6	Glancing	25% vs +3 mob
35.6 - 55.0	Crit	5% base, +10% Ferocity, +5% LotP, -0.6% vs +3 mob (19.4% total)
55.0 - 100.0	Hit	Everything else (45%)

See what happened there? The pet's chance to "hit" went up by 4% (just like the talent says - amazing!), but it's chance to crit REMAINED THE SAME! FI uptime (a proc-on-crit) is going to be the same regardless of the extra +hit.

Now, there is one situation where your hit chance can affect chance to crit, but that is a super-rare case nowadays.
"RogueTard" likes big shiny crits - it's all that he specs and gears for. He's also stupid, and attacks from the front of the mob. He's Assassination/Subtlety speced (so no Precision), and is geared out with +50% crit equipment and talents.
Let's build his combat table vs the boss mob:

0.0 - 28.0	Miss	9% vs +3 mob, +19% Dual Wield
28.0 - 33.6	Dodge	5% base, +0.6% vs +3 mob
33.6 - 49.2	Parry	15% base, +0.6% vs +3 mob
49.2 - 74.2	Glancing	25% vs +3 mob
74.2 - 79.8	Block	5% base, +0.6% vs +3 mob
79.8 - 100.0	Crit	5% base, +50% equip/talents, -0.6% vs +3 mob (54.4% total)
N/A	Hit	Everything else (0% - nothing left)

Neat! His massive 50% crit stuff gave him..., er..., a whole 20.2% crit chance. He's "crit-capped". In this case, +hit gear will actually make him crit more, as the reduced "Miss" shifts the whole table down and opens up more crit. This is an extreme example, obviously, and super-rare nowadays.

(BTW - none of this applies to spells - only melee and hunters)

(Edited to make the tables look nice, and to fix a minor math mistake) Continue reading 'The Melee Combat Table (aka: Dispelling "You can't crit what you don't hit")'

BM Hunters - the last talent point

BM Hunters have had a bit of a dilemma for a while now - once all the "mandatory" points are taken, there are 3 talents that all want to be filled out (Frenzy, Animal Handler, and Bestial Discipline) and 1 point too few to do it.

The "common knowledge" is that 4/5 Frenzy is "best", with some people even taking points out of Bestial Discipline because GftT covers it. Everyone (except for me, of course) thinks that 2/2 Animal Handler is required. (I was wrong on this one BTW - those 2 points need to be there...)

Well, I'm tired of wondering. I'm a programmer, so I wrote a simulator! It's rough, but it's fairly accurate - no accounting for latency or shot travel time, but everything else is modeled correctly.

Ran a bunch of scenarios with a couple of "gear" setups, and varying talent setups. The results are interesting, and totally against the "common knowledge".

General Notes:
- Frenzy and FI both do fall off, even with 5/5 Frenzy and a 20% pet crit rate (LotP). How much it's down is dependent on the hunter crit rate (because of GftT), but they do drop off.
- LotP is, by FAR, the best BM hunter buff. That 5% crit drops Frenzy and FI downtime by two-thirds, minimum. Because of that, I almost think that Improved Seal of the Crusader is a required raid debuff if there is >1 BM hunter in the group.
- Improved Hawk is also important - it raises the # of shots fired by the hunter by 7-8%, and also increases Frenzy and FI uptime (feedback through GftT). Stop using Viper on bossfights - get your mana from Elixirs/Weapon Oil/Mana Pots!

For Jabarii's gear level (new-ish level 70), the best setup is to have 2/2 Bestial Discipline, 4/5 Frenzy, and 2/2 Animal Handler. My crit rate (18.5%) isn't high enough to keep from focus-starving the cat from time to time, so 2/2 BD makes a big difference. (I get more hits from the extra AH point than the "lost" Frenzy attacks, to the order of one per minute.)

For BRK's gear level (mid T5), that changes. His crit rate is quite a bit higher than mine (26.6%), so he gets a lot more focus out of GftT than I do. His best setup is dropping the point from BD, so he would have 1/2 Bestial Discipline, 5/5 Frenzy, and 2/2 Animal Handler. For him, the attacks gained by the 5th Frenzy point cancel out the focus "downtime" from not having the other BD point - total # of attacks are about the same, but 5/5 Frenzy has 2 advantages:
- In any fight with interruptions, getting Frenzy up guaranteed on the first crit is huge. Also, the pet will be full-focus as well, so the BD points aren't as useful.
- Extra gained attacks from Frenzy are "base" pet attacks, which scale off the Hunter's AP (and raid/group buffs). Extra gained attacks from BD are Claws, which don't scale at all.
- Giving BRK a Feral Druid for LotP widens the gap further.

Now, I don't know where the actual "tipping point" is to move that talent point from BD to Frenzy - I would imagine that it's somewhere around 22/23% crit range.

TL;DR version: Go 2/2 AH. If crit < 22-ish, take 4/5 Frenzy and 2/2 BD. Otherwise, take 5/5 Frenzy and 1/2 BD. Continue reading 'BM Hunters - the last talent point'