Contents
1 The Spec
2 The "Priority Rotation"
3 Concerning Combust
4 Sacrifice Lag:Damage
5 Burning Fury vs Improved Fireball
6 A Brief Note on Life Leech Refresh
1 The Spec
I use two different versions of the spec.
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zzIv ... MhzVVxo.-6This is my primary spec, which maximizes DPS in optimal conditions.
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zzIv ... MhzVVxo.-6This is the variant I use for fights that feature constant raid damage, with Fiery Concentration to prevent pushback. The only fights I currently find this necessary for are Sicaron and Ituziel. I have personally found no need for Fiery Concentration for fights in which I can avoid damage or the damage I take is periodic rather than consistent, especially if that damage is predictable. You may also notice the 2 points in Burning Fury and Improved Fireball each. See below in section 5 for more information regarding that decision.
FB Flame Bolt
CD Countdown
SV Searing Vitality
DT Dark Touch
Def Defile
LL Life Leech
VB Void Bolt
IC Internalize Charge
SL:D Sacrifice Life:Damage
2 The "Priority Rotation"
There are two ways to think about, and therefore explain, this; I'll start with the "rotation" version. I'll lay out the structure first, and then explain the details. Start with this opening sequence, which is 16s:
(SL:D)[FB,CD,SV,Def,DT]LL<2s>
[FB,CD,SV]<4s>VB
Once that's set up, you should be good to repeat the next 32s indefinitely:
[FB,(IC)CD,SV,Def,DT] (/IC) <2s> VB
[FB,(IC)CD,SV] (/IC) <4s> VB
[FB,(SL:D)CD,SV,Def,DT] <3s>
[FB,CD,SV] VB <4s>
Each line is an 8 second phase that contains your main DoT block, a priority window, and maybe a Life Leech refresh. Each bit labeled <#s> is a priority window that lasts the number of seconds indicated. During this window you may cast Cinder Burst on Opportunity, Fireball on Opportunity or hard-cast, and extra Flame Bolts from Wildfire (the priority of these is explained below in the next section about Combust).
You may look at this and notice that Void Bolt is 1.4s (actually 1.42) which makes the phases longer than 8 seconds, but when in a raid Burning Purpose alone reduces Void Bolt's cast to 1.2s and Fireball to 1.8s; so usually that priority window and Void Bolt will add up to the correct number of seconds. When you have Opportunities or Wildfire Flame Bolts to cast during the window instead of hard-cast Fireball(s), you do lose that .2s, but in a spec with a 1-second GCD and non-whole-second casts, you're going to have to deal with some rough edges.
The part at the beginning of each phase in [brackets] is the essential Block at the heart of the rotation. You want this Block to remain unbroken throughout the rotation. It contains the instant DoTs (the full Block all of them and the half Block the 8s refreshes) and starts with a Flame Bolt. That Flame Bolt provides the GCD you need to activate either IC or SL:D (explained further in section 4) which you'll leave on for the rest of the block. During the IC cycle you can turn IC off after the last DoT or leave it on for another cast, especially if it's an instant, depending on your charge.
Wildfire gives you 3 extra Flame Bolts; feel free to use these 3 during the priority windows, but always save the fourth, after Wildfire is used up, for the Block. Save your Flame Bolts for refreshing or applying Combust, or for filling in single seconds in priority windows (say you get an Opportunity proc in a 2s window that would normally be spent hard-casting a Fireball, you have 1s extra); spaced-out Flame Bolts can give you more time on Combust, and more opportunities for it to be refreshed by Fireball.
2.1 Another Perspective
There is another way of thinking about this that I feel is key to being versatile with the spec in a raid environment. I'll update with that information shortly.
3 Concerning Combust
Combust fulfills two functions: it is a DoT that contributes upwards of 200 DPS and it provides a damage buff for Countdown. While it is a good idea to keep Combust up as much as possible, its priority rises when Countdown approaches the end of its timer. What all of this means for you is that your priorities during the priority window are in constant flux, depending on the status of Combust and Countdown. Take note that nothing in this spec guarantees a refresh or application of Combust, therefore every decision you make is based on confidence and probability.
Wildfire: When you have a Wildfire proc, use the Flame Bolts to maintain Combust; if your first one refreshes 3 stacks, then hold the others for when the timer gets lower. Wildfire lasts for 15s so you have plenty of time to use them. Use them all before they run out though, they're good DPS.
Opportunity: Your instinct is to throw a Cinder Burst if it's not on cooldown, but a Cinder Burst is not worth losing 3 stacks of Combust when Countdown is near. Instead, you will usually want to use Opportunity on a Fireball. There are 2 case scenarios in which you should prioritize Cinder Burst, and those are when Combust is either Safe or Hopeless. Combust is Safe when it is at 3 stacks, the timer is high (~5s or more), and the timer is ahead of that of Countdown OR when you have confidence that you have the means and the time to refresh it some other way (4s with a Wildfire proc). Combust is Hopeless when it's at one stack, the timer is low, and you have no means of refreshing in time (even a successful Opportunity Fireball will have travel time) AND Countdown will go off before whatever you cast hits the target.
Though there is a lot of grey area in which we must make split-second judgments, we can at least make 2 simplified tables for the priority windows; just remember, this is an oversimplification:
Combust is Safe or Hopeless
(Opp) Cinder Burst
(Opp) Fireball
{Inferno}
Fireball
Flame Bolt
Combust Grey Area
(Wildfire)Flame Bolt
(Opp) Fireball
(Opp) Cinder Burst
Fireball
{Inferno}
There is also one other time to use these things. Remember when I said that the DoT Block should remain unbroken? Well there's one exception: any last minute business that needs to happen can supercede Dark Touch. If Opportunity or Wildfire is about to expire, you can throw it in before Dark Touch. If Combust is about to fall off and you have a Wildfire available, you can hit it before Dark Touch.
4 Sacrifice Lag:Damage
I would like to thank Xano for pointing out this flaw that changed the game. Here's the deal: Though Internalize Charge and Sacrifice Life: Damage theoretically take no time because they are off the GCD, they do both feature a casting animation, and if you are not already in the middle of a GCD this animation takes around 0.3s. This means that every time you toggle IC or SL:D right after a hard cast you incur a .3s animation lag that delays your next spell. You may think that .3s is not significant, but in a 5 minute or longer fight, think how many times you might do that toggle, and it begins to add up to seconds. Seconds of lost time means lost casts and lost GCDs which means lost DPS.
Before 1.8 this loss of time from toggling IC constantly was made up for by IC proccing additional Opportunities and the fact that charge management was difficult, if not impossible, otherwise. With the changes in place, since IC can no longer proc Opportunity and since SL:D greatly reduces the difficult of charge management, we not only can but should leave IC on for the duration of the DoT Block. Whichever phase you're in, you want to do the toggle right after you hit Flame Bolt, during its GCD, to prevent being affected by the animation lag.
5 Burning Fury vs Improved Fireball
So, in variants of the spec that include Fiery Concentration, we have to choose talents. I find that in fights that I need pushback protection I don't really need Flicker, but for those of you who only carry one version of the spec, you'll want both Fiery Concentration and Flicker. So our choice is between Burning Fury and Improved Fireball.
Let me start by saying that Burning Fury is a complicated animal, not so much in the way it works in the game, but in the way it affects your long-term damage. The effectiveness of Burning Fury is higher at lower base crit rates and decreases as your crit increases, but since at top-end raiding we're mostly at the soft-cap we can assume a relatively even crit level.
Every time you cast a spell it either crits or doesn't crit. If it crits then Burning Fury doesn't come into play at all. If it doesn't crit that's where Burning Fury begins its work; with 3 points it applies a +10% crit buff to your character. The next spell you cast has a +10% crit chance applied to it at the time of cast, regardless of whether it crits or not. This seems irrelevant at first, but if that cast is a DoT then that entire DoT has +10% crit added to its stats. If the first tick of the DoT doesn't tick, then Burning Fury doesn't get consumed and applies another stack. This is complication #1.
#2 is that Burning Fury effectively raises the overall crit rate of all spells, but you have no control over which spells benefit. That makes it relatively volatile, especially with shorter parses (and by shorter I mean anything under 10 minutes of straight DPS). I did tons of tests and the crit rates vary widely each time. Mathematically, Burning Fury should be better than Improved Fireball, however since most raid fights average from 5 to 8 minutes (as far as consistent DPS goes) it's difficult to predict how Burning Fury will affect your damage.
Improved Fireball, on the other hand, increases the crit rate of Fireball by a flat rate with no complications and is very predictable. My conclusion is this: Burning Fury has potential for a higher range of DPS but also a lower low end, while Improved Fireball is in contrast a stable investment. It comes down to this: do you want to play it safe and get a flat crit increase on one important spell, or live dangerously and go for potentially more crits in unexpected places? Or the third option, and my preference, get a little of both flavors.
6 A Brief Note on Life Leech Refresh
You may notice that I generally advocate tight DoT timers and that this rotation refreshes Life Leech quite early most of the time. This is partially because when you're keeping the other DoTs in a block together there isn't really any other time to refresh Life Leech. But a big part of why this works is that Void Bolt itself deals damage, comparable to Fireball DPS (hits about 2/3 as hard, but takes about 2/3 time to cast).
