How am I messing up my Arms rotation (Help my dps)

[Darksong 0]

Hi guys, long time lurker on these forums. I thought I'd ask for some advice here.

 

My guild just finished with Heroic Flamebender, and by the end of the fight, the top DPS was another warrior who was about 3 ilvls lower than myself, in Arms, but had 8k DPS difference. Here's the log.

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/gGJXPDW8KzYf12tn

I never thought it would be possible to screw up the rotation but here's some of the stuff I think I'm doing wrong:

 

I macro'd bloodbath to almost every ability. I'm going to stop doing that now, but when would be the best time (other than during Recklessness ham) to use it? I binded it because I was forgetting to use BB when up. Should I only use it when I've pooled enough rage to maximise?

 

I've binded sweeping strikes to every attack, another ability I forget to use sometimes, and I figured that 10 rage every 15 seconds isn't too much to squander. Am I wrong? It adds up, but does it add up to ah 8k damage PER SEC disparity?

And here's my armory:

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/barthilas/Darksong/simple
 

 

My rotation is mostly:

Charge, rend, place Ravager, CS, Recklesness+bloodbath, MS, (Sudden Death procs), WW as filler.

 

Thank you for your time and effort in advance.

[Sajakain 104]

Good morning, Darksong:

 

Without even looking at your armory or your log...

 

"I macro'd Bloodbath to almost every ability." and "I binded Sweeping Strikes to every attack"; let's look at these first.

 

Sweeping Strikes:

 

This ability costs 10 rage. The tooltip's first sentence says "Your melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent...." Unless you're cleaving - why would you use this ability? It's an absolute waste of rage and I can imagine you doing this because, as you said, it's binded to "every attack".

 

Specifically dealing with your boss encounter, you should have only used it if a wolf was close enough to Flamebender (dependant on your strat, obviously). You cast it 28 times. Your buddy only cast it 10. Just assuming he used it correctly, you've wasted an additional 180 rage just on that one ability.

 

Sweeping Strikes should only be used when a multi-target situation presents itself. For this reason I personally macro it solely with Thunder Clap. Combined the macro only requires 20 rage as opposed to your potential 30 - 50 depending on the "attack" you use.

 

Bloodbath:

 

This is a little better off but can be managed more effeciently. Notice your BB ability has a 1 minute CD? The most efficient ability to tie this to would be Colossus Smash as it has a 20 second CD and can be aligned perfectly (pending minor execution of some common sense). While it has no rage cost and can, technically, be aligned with every ability on your action bar - I wouldn't do it. Use it intelligently.

 

______________________________________________________________________
 

 

As far as your logs go, here's some pointers:

• Try to manage your Rend better. You had an uptime of only 81% while your buddy had 96%.
• Try to align your offensives better. Cutting the macros down some from above will help this.
• Talk to your buddy. If he seems to be doing something better - ask for guidance. =)

 

This may not be everything you're expecting but it's a start. If you should have any further questions or specific things you want cleared up - don't hesitate to ask.

[Sirtip 0]

Everything he said is true however the 8k difference you are seeing is a result of the execute phase. He got off approximately 15 more executes with a higher crit chance and damage average. He did this by aligning recklessness and bloodbath with a full rage bar of executes directly following a CS. The execute phase is the single most important piece of the fight for an arms warrior. Make sure to pool rage and follow every CS with execute spam. Aligning bloodbath and recklessness is critical for maximizing your potential. Essentially you are goinging through two phases with execute. When CS is on the target you are executing until it falls off. Then Yuri out conserve rage and hopefully enter your next CS phase with a full (don't sit on full rage just be very near full) rage so you can abuse execute ignoring armor. Hope this helps. Also unravel that stuff and create tellmewhens or weak auras so you won't forget. No one can manage your abilities better than you, but you need your UI to work for you to make it easier.

[Rhaegnar 0]

Is it beneficial to have both bloodbath and recklessness macro'd to colossus smash as I have been doing? Could they also be macro'd to execute as well?

[Sirtip 0]

No because imagine if recklessness came off cool down at 25 percent boss life. In this situation it would be more beneficial to since on those cooldowns until the execute phase. You would have wasted your two largest cooldowns shortly before your strongest phase. What I am trying to say is that typically popping your CDs on cool down is most effective; however, there are time such as the above mentioned example in which it is ineffective to use them until the proper timing. In general you want to pop your CDs in a manner that will not let youblose and entire rotation of them. So with recklessness as an example in a 4 minute fight youvwill get two uses. Once at the very start and it will come off cooldown at the three minute point. Since you will not get another use of the cooldown regardless of your actions it does not matter if you pop it immediately or 30 seconds later, so at that point it is more beneficial to wait until you could align it with a CS execute phase. If I am still unclear please let me know. English is not my strongest suit.

[RaduRazvanNicolae 0]

I have Blood Bath macroed with Ravager, I think it's the best use of both cooldowns. On a 1 minute CD, you can choose if it's safe to use both for single target DPS or just wait for the AoE opportunity.