Definitely agree not to use it during FBO. As far as usage outside of that, it honestly won't make a huge difference either way. The damage from our Dicho is pretty terrible, especially considering the mana cost. How I personally like to use it if I know I won't go OOM is by weaving into the dead time of our sustained rotation. RS->Storm->Spear->Spear has a small amount of dead time, in which weaving another "normal" nuke (bolt or spear) can hurt more than it helps because of their cast time. The one saving grace of our dicho is its relatively quick cast time, so I generally weave it into that gap to minimize lost time from casting it. 100% agree on Twincast. Additionally, if you're conscious of how long the event is likely to take you, you have even more leeway than 30s. If I know the event is going to be 7 minutes, I'm just looking to get two uses total. This gives me ~90s from twincast refreshing (if I started the event with it) for either my own discs or ADPS. This also depends on your guild though, and how consistent you are with your event times. As far as RS, I would agree that casting RS in the last few seconds of a boss or on an add that dies very quickly is a waste. I don't think that precludes having it in a multibind though, you'd just swap back to your burn multibind for the last dozen or so seconds of the fight.
Is this the expected damage on a non-disc/apds nuke? No one's talked here about how much juice it takes for direct nukes to out perform rains, but certainly rains are more than 110k
One of the issues with recommending lineups is everyone's raid environment is different. Rains are viable if you have no ADPS at any given time, with Spear of Blistersteel (worst spell in RS->Storm->Spear->Spear) doing about 10% less than Rain of Cutlasses. Adding an ability like Black Wolf causes the damage to essentially even out. Ideally in raids you'll always have some form of crit chance modifier running, at which point I don't think switching to rains are worth it. If you have mana issues or lackluster ADPS, then you can definitely consider rains for your particular situation. They do have other situational uses, though. I'll sometimes use them on mobs that have no hatelist (and which of many does not affect) like prime healers, but that can still depend on ADPS and fight length. I've also experimented with adding Rain of Cutlasses to my weave during Vim and Vigor (Storm->Spear->Spear->Rain), since it gets an extra line from hitting both bosses.
Sounds like you're not using the spell casting bar for your mash keys, which is correct. You want to use your Hotbutton keys, and bring over a bank of hotbutton keys parallel to your spell bar, then drag your spell bar spells to the corresponding hotbuttons. Around the 4th or 5th button down put your "social' macro key. Here's the thing. And it is anecdotal but I find it true. In any given bank of hotbuuttons you can only use one AA per social, within the entire bank.. So after the Banestrike (or whatever) use another bank for the next one. They cycle naturally through (automatically, given the cast and delay, so you get max efficiency of clicka-clicka, and macro without torturing yourself too much). Insofar as multiple item click macros, if the global delay can stand it, I I have more luck using multiple /useitem command macros. Like the Baelfire gem, say, and the shield nuke, or the necro lifetap bone, whatever it's called .. can't remember right now. Anyway, I've been using hotbutton key multibinds instead of spell button multibinds for some time now and I don't ever see that (*@#$(@# annoying greyed out spell anymore. If you don't want to go that route, avoid Banestrike, and also you'll find that placement of servant (and other spells) is going to make a difference, too. So (torture) you'll have to play with that, and pauses. Another nice thing about the hotbuttons is that you can load your alternative weaves, and simply change the page of that particular hotbutton bank to use the new weave. You can even get multiple weaves using the same spellset, using that method, depending on what support spells you fell you *must* have. Or you can play with your DPS efficiency by just moving the spells to different hotbuttons instead of having to completely reload another spellset. Hallelujah. Amen.
Guys, I have been gone for a bit. Did we get anything in Empires of Kunark that would greatly change our rotation? I will start working on parses but i figured i would ask here first. Cream
Yeah, Empires of Kunark saw quite a few changes, probably the most of any recent expansion in terms of rotation. A quick list: Chaotic Fire: This is basically a hybrid of the Wizard claw spell and the Mage Fickle spell. It has mediocre base damage, but makes up for it with a variety of strong procs, including a 10% chance to proc 18s of spell twincast. Firebound Orb: This is an upgrade to Blazing Orb but with significantly increased base damage. It's worth using whenever possible during the GCD, and the damage is high enough that it's worth resummoning during the fight. Firebound Alliance: This one is a bit trickier to explain. It's basically an 18s debuff on the mob that adds a flat value (~37k, doesn't crit and isn't focused) to DDs that other Mages have cast. The spell has eight counters, and if all of those counters are used up before those 18s are over, the spell procs a ~2.35 million damage nuke (doesn't crit and isn't focused). The catch is you cannot use any of the counters, and only one Mage can have this debuff on the mob at a time. The massive fulmination (which is what the 2.35 million damage nuke is called) makes it worth it. Pet Swarm: This isn't necessarily a rotational change, but it's still a big one. A command (/pet swarm) was added to redirect swarm pets to new mobs after they died, which helps RS's viability on a lot of encounters. It still is not great with very fast fights, but it definitely helps with preventing them from just being wasted. Conjurer's Synergy: With AAs maxed this has a 100% chance to proc off of each Remorseless Servant cast, and it lands on your whole group. It is a 50% focus for your next fire spell which does crit. This helps increase RS's viability in raids, and it also means toying around with your rotation to ensure the proc is used by the highest base damage spell possible is worth thinking about. The same is true for Enchanter's Beguiler's Synergy as it is also a % modifier, but you have less control over when that procs. Theft of Essence: This is now and aura and now procs off of Storm of Many. It significantly increases the ATK of swarm pets (+2750) in addition to other, smaller benefits. It's passive and storm already gets used in raid settings so it isn't necessarily a rotational change, but it does make RS more viable damage-wise in raids. Storm Changes: Storm was changed from 5 individual lines of damage to a single line of damage that increases with the number of pets. This was a nerf to it in a vacuum because we weren't really compensated for the loss of many modifiers that used to add to each individual line, but it also means that it is now properly focused by procs like Conjurer's Synergy and Beguiler's Synergy. It also received a 40% focus AA instead of the 16% other spells received, which helps keep it as a very strong spell. Proc Changes: Pretty much every % based proc had a minimum damage added to it, stopping RS from eating counters of everything. It's not a huge rotational change, but it's helpful to know when trying to manage what will use each proc. There are some other smaller changes that happened, and I'm sure I forgot something. That should be a decent overview though, and I'm happy to answer any more specific questions. If you want to look at this post it might give a decent starting place. I've changed some things and some things have changed (specifically related to alliances) since making that post, but it probably gives a decent starting place.
