The Murloc DPS Thread

This is the thread for all DPS discussion about gear/specs/classes/problems.

I have written a basic guide for all DPS classes at the top. Please add your knowledge and corrections.

Basic Numbers:

Melee Hit Cap: 8% against raid bosses.

Spell Hit Cap: 17% against raid bosses.

Dual Wield Suggested Cap: 13%, this be enough to guarantee most of your spells (shaman) or all of your poisons (rogue) hit the target.

You can take off 1% from the above if there is a Space Goat in the party, plus whatever hit your talents give you.

Expertise Cap: 26

Expertise stops the target dodging. The less he dodges, the more you will hit him, the more damage you will do. Expertise only affects melee attacks.


Gearing Priorities:

For all DPS classes being hit capped is the first objective.

After being hit capped, the following is what you should focus on from gear, gems and enchants – in order of importance...

Paladins: Strength, expertise (until capped), crit

Mages: Spell power, haste, crit.


Note: Haste does not reduce the global cooldown on instant attacks for melee characters. All it does is increase your white (auto-attack) damage. 1% haste on a melee character would increase your white damage by 1%, not your overall damage. Melee characters should gain enough haste from gear without having to gem or enchant for it.


Enchants:

(Coming Soon)

Recommended Enchants for Melee DPS:

Recommended Enchants for Caster DPS:

At least until Ulduar is on farm, I would like (but won't force) the Rets who come raiding with us to spec like this:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sZErz0bZVfbxbIuhdIfsu

Improved Divine Sacrifice is a 2 minute shield wall for the whole raid. Even if you just use it when the tank is about to die, it could make all the difference. The good news is that the Ret tree is so streamlined now, you won't miss out on any DPS talents to get it.

Depending on the circumstances, you may well need to bubble up first before using it or it'll be the quickest suicide you ever did.

I will have Divine Sacrifice in my tank build, but I can only use it when I don't have aggro.

Woo for Sacrificial Ret Goats

An update for Enhancement Shamans for Hit Rating - since you can't cap DW, the best thing is to get 340ish hit to get within the boundaries for spell cap. That leaves you without 8% miss on Melee, but no misses on spell. The best you can do without gimping your DPS.

I would say taking Pursuit of Justice out as its really not needed, putting one of those points in Command the other 5 in Toughness (Taking 4 talents out of Stoicism and Guardian's Favour as they don't benefit you in any way).

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sZE0t0bZVfbt0IuhdIfsu:h0Vz0c

Balgarim wrote:I would say taking Pursuit of Justice out as its really not needed, putting one of those points in Command the other 5 in Toughness (Taking 4 talents out of Stoicism and Guardian's Favour as they don't benefit you in any way).

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sZE0t0bZVfbt0IuhdIfsu:h0Vz0c

Totally agree. POJ really isnt worth two talents.

D

I disagree, 15% movement speed helps with getting out of the fire, and keeping up with moving targets. The more mobile a fight is, the more it's needed.

We won't have Death knight speed aura any more, it's been nerfed, so it's PoJ or enchanting, and as no sacrifices must be made to take it, I think PoJ wins.

tbh, I think it's too early to post very detailed information here, seeing as most of us still haven't even logged on

But yes, the above is basically correct.
And 25% hit is what you need if you are dualwielding.

Also, interesting to note, from 3.1 patchnotes:
# Armor Penetration Rating: All classes now receive 25% more benefit from Armor Penetration Rating.
# Haste Rating: shamans, paladins, druids, and death knights now receive 30% more melee haste from Haste Rating.

This means that, although both were previously pretty low rated, they've received a fairly substantial boost in return.

That said, for Death Knights, ArP will most likely remain the (primary) domain of the Blood DKs, as they are probably 75%+ physical damage, while the Unholy (Scourge Strike) and Frost (Frost Strike, Howling Blast) are mostly magical.

[Wow, "Estimated time left: About 2 minutes... been that was for over 15 minutes now...]

Oh, and yes, while I do agree that movement speed talents are under-rated, it all depends on what you're giving up.

Though, keep in mind that pre-TBC, minor speed was considered to be far the superior boot enchantment for melee DPS.

(R.I.P. Unholy Aura )

I have a number of debuffs I can help the melee/tanks with (especially now that treeform is cheaper and I don't lose the mana discount on HoTs in caster form):

- Faerie Fire: Decrease the armor of the target by 5% for 5 min. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible.

- Hurricane: Creates a violent storm in the target area causing 451 Nature damage to enemies every 1 sec, and increasing the time between melee, ranged attacks and spells by 50%. Lasts 10 sec. Druid must channel to maintain the spell.

- Mangle: Mangle the target for 200% normal damage plus 634 and causes the target to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 12 sec. Awards 1 combo point.

- Revivify: Your Rejuvenation and Wild Growth spells have a 15% chance to restore 8 energy, 4 rage, 1% mana or 16 runic power per tick.

Revivify will normally be active as both Rejuv and WG are two out of my top 3 healing spells. The Hurricane debuff is not really spammable when I'm healing, but it's an option if we get a lot of adds that need to be downed fast. And Mangle will be up if I'm in kitty spec (though not sure who other than warriors can benefit from this). Faerie Fire received a buff in 3.1 - it's now up for 5 minutes if it lands, although the change to a % armour reduction is a nerf against unarmoured opponents. However, it is easy/cheap/spammable in caster form, so even if it misses on the first few attempts, the 5 minute duration makes it worthwhile. I assume it still doesn't stack with Sunder Armor/Devastate/Expose Armor/.. ?

Also, while I don't have this talent, it's only 3 points I need to shift so it's also an option:

- Infected Wounds: Your Shred, Maul, and Mangle attacks cause an Infected Wound in the target. The Infected Wound reduces the movement speed of the target by 25% and the attack speed by 10%. Stacks up to 2 times. Lasts 12 sec.

This is mostly to Balgarim, but anyway...

I've been speaking to Marveen and she's pointed out to me just how much healing Judgement of Light actually does. It's a very big chunk. For example, on the Iron Council hard mode kill, Gimi did more healing than Derky thanks to JoL.

JoL is no replacement for a healer. It's a small, unintelligent heal, but it's fast and constant and on certain fights where everybody is taking minor damage, it's very powerful.

Judgement of Light scales with spell power AND attack power, meaning a Ret paladin can use it far more productively than any other paladin spec.

From now on I'd like the Ret paladins to be the ones who judge Light and I'll change to Wisdom. This frees Derky up to do other things. Obviously if we don't have a Ret, that'll change, but pigs might fly first.

I used to think Ret's would run out of mana if they didn't use JoW, but actually their talents give them replenishment and 25% base mana back regardless of what they judge, so it shouldn't be a problem?

I still find that I run out of mana even with all the talents, glyphs and using JoW.

I'm all for giving it a shot and testing it out, but if it looks like my mana isnt holding up well then I'll change back as a Ret without mana is as helpful as a fat kid on a sports team.

I have Innervates to spare nowadays, and will have them even more if you do more healing this way..

I'd rather be self sufficient rather than asking for an Innervate every 5 minutes =p

Nobody wants my innervates...

/tar Corpsebiter
/cast Innervate

Balgarim wrote:I still find that I run out of mana even with all the talents, glyphs and using JoW.

I'm all for giving it a shot and testing it out, but if it looks like my mana isnt holding up well then I'll change back as a Ret without mana is as helpful as a fat kid on a sports team.

Sure, give it a try. In theory it shouldn't lower your mana regen any more than now. You'll still get wisdom from me and the talents work with anything you judge, but let's see.

Druid DPS (moonkin)

Resources:

- Elitist Jerks: http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t41030-moonkin_guide_dummies/
- Foofy's Cupcake Factory: http://foofyscupcake.blogspot.com/

Rules:

- Q: What's the Hit cap? A: You need 17%. Spacegoat = 1%, Balance of Power = 4%, Imp:Faerie Fire = 3%, Gear = 9% (236 rating)
- Q: Crit or haste? A: I prefer Crit, but don't let your Haste drop too far. Rule of thumb is aim to keep them equal, both over 20%.
- Q: Do I need regen talents? A: take Omen of Clarity. The other three talents are optional, in the order: Intensity > Dreamstate > Moonglow.
- Q: What gems? A: Chaotic metagem. Other gems: Hitcap > Spellpower > Spellpower/Haste > Spellpower/Spirit
- Q: What glyphs A: Starfire + Moonfire > Insect Swarm > anything else.
- Q: What idols: A: Starfire idol for a Lunar rotation (using Wrath to proc SF Eclipses), Wrath idol for a Solar rotation (using SF to proc Wrath Eclipses).
- Q: Lunar or Solar rotation? A: Lunar rotation is higher dps, but SF suffers if you don't have the Haste for it. Until your Wrath starts to clip the GCD, use Solar rotation!

Talents

- Basic moonkin dps build: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0xRbuqIscdIVhouZbxczb
- Optional talents (3 in that spec): Gale Winds (AoE), full Nature's Reach (range), Dreamstate (regen), full Moonglow (regen), Typhoon (frontal cone attack, it won't knockback if glyphed).
- Poor PvE talents: Brambles (PvP), Owlkin Frenzy (didn't work for me on Hodir!), Genesis (more of a resto talent).