Unbearably HoT is currently having moderate formatting problems. Please bear (HAHA GET IT) with me while I attempt to fix the issue. Sorry for any folks who read the RSS! EDIT: Big thank-you to Phaelia from Resto4life for helping me troubleshoot. And by troubleshoot, I mean totally fixing my mess.
While my new job has foisted some necessary scheduling changes on me, I am still raiding—although admittedly, I pass out almost as soon as we call it. Leveling alts has ground to a halt, farming is a trial and it’s been an effort to log on for anything beyond normal raid time. In the meantime, I’ve been staring at an ever-growing backlog of posts that I haven’t had the proper time to fine tune, and (more exciting) I’m making inexperienced forays into the world of video editing.
To capture video, I use Fraps and then import the massive video clips into Adobe Premier for further editing. I have no idea how to utilize the veritable toolshed of capabilities Premier presents, and I’m still just trying to figure out how to render my workspace in the proper aspect ratio. Regardless, I wanted to include one of my trial videos with a discussion of the Brutallus encounter and thus present the following:
The above was not rendered properly (as you can see that the sides were cut off), and the picture quality didn’t end up being as crisp as it should have. Additionally, there isn’t an intro like I wanted, and the end screen disappears more quickly than it should. My UI is another issue altogether, and I’m attempting to maximize the viewing area for videos while still including all the information I need to use for tanking. The video is taken from my (a feral druid’s) perspective and showcases an ill-fated 1% wipe on Brutallus. The encounter is approximately six minutes long (that’s the time before his enrage) and has been sped up by 280% for ease of viewing. The enrage is clearly visible as that’s when he beats the shit out of me and one-shots Lycentia through Shield Wall. Premier advice is greatly appreciated (and anticipated). Music is “See the World” by The Kooks, and was chosen purely on a basis of tempo and duration. Discussion of the encounter to follow.
While I was attempting to write up an article about druid tanking weapons and which I preferred and why (this will eventually get thrown up down the road), I ended up chilling out on the DruidWiki looking at game mechanics. Translation: MATH OH SHIT. Thinking that I might use these particular numbers at some point down the road, I casually scrolled down to the Bear Tanking section and pondered over the bit about Mangle. According to DruidWiki:
Mangle (Bear): Damage done * 1.3
Example: Mangle crits for 1000 damage. 1000 * 1.3 * 1.3 = 1690 threat (1885 for 3/3 Feral Instinct).
The above formula assumes the 30% inherent threat caused by Dire Bear Form. The problem, however, was that when I tried to find out how they arrived at the 1885 number for 3/3 Feral Instinct (which assumes an increase of 15% to inherent Dire Bear Threat for a total base threat gained of 45%), I couldn’t get the numbers to work out.
Lol, wut? Now, I’m certainly not any sort of math genius and I occasionally have problems with basic arithmetic, so I asked the hottest paladin I know to take a look at it. Almost right away, he told me that the way they arrived at 1885 was to use this formula:
Additionally, he explained to me, using their base formula doesn’t take a critical hit and multiply the TPS twice; the formula effectively calculates 30% of 30% rather than 2 * 30% (if that’s how critical hits actually scale with TPS in Dire Bear Form). An amended formula that calculates the TPS gained from a critical hit with Mangle (assuming 3/3 Feral Instinct) might look like this:
In the case of the assumed mangle crit of 1000, we’d be looking at this a little more accurately as:
Neither of us is sure whether this is correct, but it makes a lot more sense. I’m going to attempt to test this out in game as soon as the regularly scheduled maintenance is over. If you have any questions, comments or corrections, please let me know.
EDIT:
Grundie has reminded me that Bear threat is not (as warrior threat is) calculated multiplicatively. He asserts that the value of 1.3 is the mangle mod regardless of the inherent threat (of 30%) that Dire Bear Form produces, and thus if you’re going to calculate it correctly, it should be:
Interestingly enough, all of the above end values are remarkably similar (between 1600-1900), which leads me to believe we’re definitely in the ballpark, here.
This might not be worthy of another post entirely, but after resocketing some of my DPS gear and finally being able to take advantage of myT4 two piece bonus, I reopened Rawr to take a look at things. Needless to say, I was a little surprised. While I was wearing the Mask of the Deceiver and the Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation, Rawr suggested that the Cursed Vision of Sargeras was the best helm upgrade in terms of raw DPS. When I uploaded my armory data today, however, Rawr only presented me with a few different socketing options for the Stag-Helm of Malorne instead.
Compare this screenshot to the ones from my last post:
What happened? Rawr took into account the fact that I was wearing two pieces of DPS socketed Tier 4 gear and acknowledged the energy restoring set bonus as an overall DPS upgrade. Once I get my T6 feral shoulders and pants I’ll be able to better utilize the T4 set bonus for DPS by switching my Stag-Helm of Malorne to something such as the Cursed Vision of Sargeras (I think I might be up next for it) and then resocketing my T4 shoulders. It might look a little something like this:
While I realize the image is a little difficult to read because of the small numbers, you’ll notice that there’s an overall damage increase by replacing my relatively junky Razor-Fury Mantle (which arguably doesn’t have a decent upgrade besides PvP until 2.4) with a resocketed Mantle of Malorne: more AP, more AGI, a considerable +HIT increase, and a much bigger crit rating. And of course, I’m still rocking my energy restore bonus. Very nice.
If you’re at all like me, you must agonize over what particular trinkets to use and when, which gems would best suit your current build or raid position, and how exactly to tune your DPS set so you can buff your groups and still churn out the numbers. As any good tank knows, there isn’t ever one set of gear to rule them all—a solid base of (generally) tier gear and an assortment of interchangeable accessories can optimize you for maximum threat generation, dodge, damage soak, or overall survivability.
That being said, I’m well aware there are mods such as EquipCompare that are specifically created to help tanks and other numbers crunchers get the most out of their gear, and various spreadsheets created by intrepid players, like SuraBear’s ThreatCalculator or Phae’s Trinket Comparison. Unlike some people, I’m not a fan of having eight billion mods that will inevitably reset at an inconvenient moment or after a crash, and when I open up a spreadsheet and start seeing numbers swimming in front of my face, I’m alternately boggled or gripped by the rigor mortis of high school statistics memories. Astrylian of Whisperwind (US) has somehow foreseen my woeful mathematical skills (and everyone else’s) and created a mastermind of a program called Rawr. Updated frequently, as soon as new information about abilities, coefficients and gear becomes available, Rawr allows druids to import their armory information and view exactly how their gear fares compared to the “best” out there—and offers intuitive suggestions on what will improve it.
“Radtacular!” I thought, mulling over my recent upgrades and deciding how best to enchant them. “Why don’t I check this out?” I downloaded the program this morning and found that it was entirely more easy to use than I’d anticipated and that it offered gemming and chanting advice, options that allowed you to customize what buffs you’d be wearing and what auras would be affecting you, what particular chants you already have or want to change, and, in the case of cat DPS, whether or not your powershifting and when. Every piece of information available about your gear and the gear you could have (including items available in 2.4) has been broken down into how it will factor into your combat: what your approximate avoided attacks will be, what your white and yellow damage might be, and even an estimate of overall DPS based on properly utilized rotations. Wowzers. Let’s take a look at how it works, using my less than optimal DPS gear as an example:
Here we’re looking at my helm, the Mask of the Deceiver, and where it stands in terms of DPS as compared to other leather items available. Clearly, it’s not that awesome, but until just yesterday I had my T4 gear gemmed for tanking. Now that I’ve replaced my gloves and helm with T6, I can re-gem the Stag-Helm of Malorne for DPS and utilize the two-piece energy bonus appropriately (until I can get my grubby paws on the Cursed Vision of Sargeras). Rawr is showing me where I stand in terms of overall damage (as indicated by the purple), and even how I can improve my particular piece of gear by gemming it differently—if you notice, Mask of the Deceiver is listed again beneath the one I have highlighted, but it’s gemmed in an (arguably) inferior fashion.
Now let’s take a look at what Rawr does for tanking. I’ve loaded Runyarusco’s armory profile into the interface (so it’s whatever bear gear I had on) and ticked off the raid buffs I’d be using under the “Buffs” tab. Here’s what I get:
Rawr once again shows me where I stand in terms of overall survivability, but I can use the “Sort” function at the top to show pure mitigation stats or pure survivability stats. The red part of the bar graph represents the amount of mitigation stats the item possesses while the blue portion represents the survivability an item’s stats possess. I had initially been uncertain whether or not I wanted to socket the Thunderheart Cover with AGI/STA gems for mitigation, as I’m generally of the more STA the better! camp, but after using this program and sorting items based on overall survivability (the sum total of the survivability and mitigation stats), I seem to be somewhat justified in my assertions.
Essentially, Astrylian has provided us druids with an incredibly accessible interface that utilizes spreadsheet data provided by a myriad array of theorycrafters, and I highly recommend that anyone interested in maximizing their tanking or DPS gear download it. No, seriously. Do it. My only real complaint is that it seems a little buggy; if I switch between “Bear” and “Cat” mode too often, the program crashes and I need to restart it. Fortunately, you can save your profile for quick loading later.
If only I could keep track of all my trinkets.
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