Playing Arms, bottom 25% of dps. I need help, please. (Included armory, logs to help decipher the issue)

[Darksong 0]

Dear Fellow Warriors,

I've been playing arms for quite awhile now, and I've not been doing well in raids. On fights like the Dragons, routinely bottom tier of my group's dps.
On Ursoc though, I was 4th. However, my dps seems too far from what others are able to accomplish. (IE, I'm only doing 212k DPS on Ursoc - Normal)

On the Lesser Sparring Partner, i'm only doing about 150k dps. after two minutes-3 minutes of parsing

 

To help distill the issues with my rotation and take away most of the mechanics, let's use the gear check boss, Ursoc, since it's relatively immobile.

My Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/frostmourne/Darksong/simple

Let's compare two logs. One's mine (ilvl 844 - 212k dps), with someone of similar iLvl (844 368k dps), on the same fight in Normal Ursoc:

My Logs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/YDcMvgnAJpPhXyfK#fight=13&type=damage-done&source=56

Comparison Logs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/93kqYVwpQv1fA2ag#fight=19&type=damage-done&source=135

Ok, taking out the fact that I don't have a legion pot, and didnt use Pot of the Old War, I seem to be doing very little damage, my MS hits for a lot less, etc.

Taking a look at my damage during Heroic Dragons of Nightmare, is rather depressing. Here I finally managed to buy some flasks, but not to much effect it seems.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/T9QJD4LVZHfMzwgP


Let me explain my rotation:

1. Charge
2. Stack Focused Rage to 3 stacks
3. Battle Cry + Colossus Smash + Avatar,

(During Battle Cry)
Hit CS/MS when it pops up, else FR+Hamstring till 3 points, slam if FR already at 3.

(Once out of Battle Cry)
Continue building FR stacks, hit CS and MS when it comes up (even if FR less than 3)

(Once in Execute Range)
Colossus Smash->Execute ->CS->Exe when available.

PS: One question, since I've been focusing on maximising my mastery, my non-CS/shattered Defenses MS has been pathetic, maybe doing 200k damage with 3 FR stacks. Should i be maximising my CS duration (IE: do NOT hit CS again when there's still a few seconds left on the CS duration?)

Thanks in advance for ANY help at all.


 

[Unigolyn 0]

The other guy has a tighter rotation in all respects:

0.145 CS cast per second vs 0.122 - a difference of 16%
0.145 Slams cast per second vs 0.039  - a difference of 74% (!)
0.209 MS cast per second vs 0.145 - a difference of 31%

The Slam disparity is huge and points to you not spending rage efficiently. This in turn affects Tactician. You don't have advanced logging for your parse so I can't see resource gains/spending but that's gotta be it. Basically, stop cheesing with Hamstring and use Slam.

The rotation difference probably accounts for about half of your 156k dps difference. The other half seems to be:

1. Fight length. 2:04 vs 4:14. Their heroism uptime is a third, yours is a quarter. Same goes for pots and dps buffs. Notice how his Avatar is up with the pre-pot and initial time warp, and then comes up again for the execute phase, as does the pot.

2. Consumables. You have no Satyr neck, you're not using a competitive potion. Old War and Satyr end up doing 10m damage during the fight, which is 20% of what you did in a fight twice as long.
 

[Darksong 0]

Hi there Unigolyn,

Thanks for the help and the time you took to read the reports.

So during the Battle Cry, What do you usually do?

I used to make sure i had a 3 FR MS, turn on BC,  and use a macro for FR + Slam, until either CS or MS procced.
However i was told I should just macro FR + Hamstring, in case a CS or MS procced, and I didn't want to waste a GCD on slam.

Now starting to think otherwise. Hamstring of course no longer procs Tactician, but Missing out on Slam damage if CS or MS doesn't proc during the remaining seconds of Battle Cry, seem like such a wasted DPS opportunity, especially when you take into account Blood of Zakajz.

thoughts?

 

[Draogn 0]

hi, usually top dps wherever i go

playing arms, my opening rotation:

single target: charge, colossus smash>battle cry>spamming MS and WW, got both macroed with Focused rage (#showtooltip Mortal Strike/cast mortal strike /cast focused rage), also spammed hamstring but they changed that today (28.09.16) not proccing tactician.

whenever i get a reset on colossus smash, i use it. You always want to use MS after a CS, or execute depending on the % on the mob youre hitting (because of artifact trait: shattered defenses)

using warbreaker if i dont have CS up, MS coming off CD because i want to get the use of shattered defenses.

 

aoe rotation: charge>warbreaker>battle cry>bladestorm, after BS i use cleave>whirlwind (with macro for focused rage, MS when i can on targets with CS up.

 

my armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/ragnaros/Chipman/simple

[Valks 2,373]

Thanks for picking up this analysis guys. Inclined to agree with Unigolyn here.

As for your further questions, I'm not sure, but this bump should help find someone that does know, I hope!

[Malarik 0]

You are making a mistake during Battle Cry.

FR/Hamstring are not on the global cooldown, so you should be spamming that along with Slam, you can do both at the same time, rather than waiting for 3 FR stacks then using slam which is what you are describing.

[Valks 2,373]

Good point Mala, thanks.

[Boomwhistle 1]

I've been reading through a lot of these threads lately.  After the recent hot-fixes, Hamstring obviously no longer procs Tactician. Is it still a good idea to keep it macro'd with Focus Rage and Slam for the soul fact of it not being on the GCD? Or not? If not what's the best macro to spam during Battle Cry? I know Darksong asked the same thing in one of the previous posts, I just wanted to clarify.  Currently during BC if CS isn't up (generally I wait for at least a reset before even using BC) I have a macro for FR, HS as well as Slam which I spam for resets. Sorry if I'm kind of thread-jacking but this will probably help others with a straight forward answer. Thanks in advance.