Help me improve my DPS - Arms/Fury!

[Nessira 0]

Hey guys,

 

I've recently converted from tanking to DPS and I'm having a terrible time matching up to my peers during raid. I know that I'm still using a tanking neck but I haven't found a DPS neck that is weighted better. I've read both the Arms and Fury guide on Icy Veins and in the MMO-C warrior forums and while I know my execution is still lacking, I'm trying my best to play optimally. 

 

Link to Armory here. Just to note, I have a SoK as well. 

 

Fury

Normal Gruul - https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/F3qLATQbdzGWDtZw#fight=1

Normal Oregorger - https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/F3qLATQbdzGWDtZw#fight=8

 

I don't really have much fights logged as Fury because until recently I was tanking for my guild as the main tank and have slowly been handing over my duties. Finally bit the bullet and have been able to roll with Fury/Arms.

 

Arms

Heroic Flamebender - https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/TnQhYRXM3yFxAJr1#fight=16

Normal Beastlord - https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/F3qLATQbdzGWDtZw

Heroic Beastlord - https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/pMV3PmkW9z8xZ2Nq

Normal Hanz&Franz - https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CfbatjTB4GP3xkpV#fight=22

 

I would sincerely appreciate any help/analysis to improve my DPS. It makes me sick that I'm getting geared and I'm not able to pull my weight. 

 

Cheers!

[Amputate 1]

Since it seems like you're starting to panic I'll just flatout tell you instead of letting you find out on your own like everyone else

The majority of the time, as a warrior DPS without Tier, you will do shit damage. it's that simple.

 

Warriors don't do stable consistent damage, they do crappy damage with bursts of ludicrous dps which in the end makes it look like the overall dps was high.

Let's say an Arms warrior did 40k dps. For most classes that means that you've done a pretty consistent 35k~40k dps with some spikes here and there.

As an arms warrior 40k means you've been doing 20k half of the time and found openings where you did 150k+ dps.

Especially arms, doing good damage is all about finding an opening where you can blow absolutely all your CDs and get massive damage out of it.

 

I like explaining Arms dps in Flamebender because that's fight contains almost all the elements that will seperate a good from a bad arms warrior.

For the most part your rotation is pretty straight forward.

Keep rend up, use smash and keep MS on CD, Execute whenever you can... there's not much you can do wrong on your rotation tbh

When the wolves spawn that's where you get one of those openings to go bonkers.

keep sweeping strikes up at all times and try to position yourself in such a way that sweeping strikes and WW hit both the boss and a wolf.

When you're in position this is a great moment to start blowing some CDs... Ravager, Bladestorm, Bloodbath, Avatar, whatever you have, that's the time to use it because you're doing damage to (at least) 2 targets.

 

Another thing that you should note (and for as far as I can tell that is something you're doing wrong) is the execute phase.

Execute phase doesn't mean you get to spam execute like a dippy bird.

Once the boss is on 20% you still keep rend up at all times and yes you are spamming execute but only during colossus smash.

When you have Colossus smash on the boss execute can crit for well over 300k.

Without smash Execute hardly does 100k damage if even that much.

So what you do is wait and play around smash pretty much...

You keep your rend up at all times, you smash, dump all your rage in execute like a maniac and then wait... just wait. auto-attack for rage and wait for smash to come back up.

Sure, if you're about to reach rage cap, go for it, spend some because there's no point sitting rage capped.

Saving all your rage for colossus smash will increase your dps by a ton btw. (since that is the time where Arms warriors do the most damage)

 

I'd focus on those 2 things primarily for now though.

Execute phase and save CDs for times where you get to cleave. (and actively look for openings to get some cleaves in)

 

 

Edit: I've also noticed that on beastlord you keep using bladestorm and ravager at the same time.

That's almost always a bad idea since they both do enough damage to kill the pack before the entire thing went off.

On my warrior for example, bladestorm is enough to kill the entire pack.

Sometimes when we have some firemages with us I even cancel the storm because the adds are dead before my entire bladestorm finished.

I know that for the second pack I won't have bladestorm off CD even with Anger management, it's too close so that's when I use Ravager instead combined with WWs for days and dragon roar if I have it.

(And ofc keep that sweeping strikes up AT ALL TIMES WHEN CLEAVING)

Edited March 5, 2015 by Amputate

[Nessira 0]

Hey Amputate, 

 

Thanks for taking out the time to analyse my logs! Real life slapped me in the face for a few days there but I'm back now.

 

I'm trying my best to finally finish up the 4pc but my guild hasn't really gotten around to making attempts on h blast furnace or h maidens. Pugging is an option but its a large timesink that I can't really afford to do right now. 

 

So its better to delay Ravager/Siegebreaker and Avatar for the wolves portion? Is there a rule of thumb as to when to delay CDs and when to use them? Ie within 10s is okay, anything else use on CD.

 

I'll keep in mind lining up CS with Executes during the next raid - sometimes I just get so excited that I'm finally going to execute that I forget to pool and save for CS.

 

I'll keep in mind what you mentioned for Beastlord. I'm not a fan of Ravager as my tanks are kinda new and like to move around a fair bit.

 

What talents/specs do you normally roll with for BRF fights?

 

Thanks again for taking the time to analyse.

Cheers!

[Sajakain 104]

Just throwing some things in here for consideration:

• As Arms, I'd say it's still better to take Bloodbath (Single Target) or Bladestorm (Multi-target) instead of taking Avatar for anything. I haven't solidified this belief via SimulationCraft but I'm willing to wager on it regardless.
• Although, via SimC, Siegebreaker is technically better for Single Target (most notably in the Mythic Item Level range), Anger Management / Ravager are still the preferred choices.
• In the instance of using Ravager, for example, you can use it even on Single Target. The decision to delay it only comes when it will benefit you more (ie, hitting multiple targets). Encounters such as Beastlord are prime situations where you can delay this ability with confidence in preparation to quickly nuke the adds. If done correctly, you won't need to use both Ravager and Bladestorm - you can alternate each phase as to which one you use.

Execute (specifically for Arms) gives 195% more damage at 200% more rage cost.

 

Let's, for example sakes, assume that a 10 rage execute hits for 100,000. With straight numbers this would make a 40 rage Execute hit for 295,000. (Again, pure examples)

 

If you were to cast 12 Executes @ 10 rage each, that would equate to 1,200,000 done in damage while casting Execute at 40 rage each would equate to 885,000 damage done (3 casts @ 295,000). This would, theoretically, answer the question "Is it better to pool rage and spend it at 40 or spam it at 10?". I would also venture to say this also, indirectly perhaps, answers the question of whether or not to save Execute exclusively for Colossus Smash. In the time a player is pooling rage (20 seconds) they could have potentially gotten off just as much - if not more - damage by spamming execute.

 

Now don't get me wrong - I'm all for getting those numbers in on a CS window. I wouldn't take the whole 20 seconds, though, to just sit there an auto swing to pool the rage. It's relatively easy to cap your rage in a short amount of time - say 5 to even 10 seconds so I'd keep spamming Execute until the last possible second to pool for a CS window rather than straight pooling it exclusively for Execute. Make sense?

 

Anyway... I'm done rambling. I apologize, Nessira, that I haven't reviewed your logs yet. This specific reply is in regards to what I've only read thus far in this thread. I hope to get to your logs this week. If you should have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. At this point in time, though, it's been almost 24 hours I've been awake and I have to go back to work in about 5 hours or so lol.... so I'm gonna go take a nap.

 

I hope my reply not only makes sense but is also helpful. Thanks for taking the time to read it.

[Nessira 0]

If you were to cast 12 Executes @ 10 rage each, that would equate to 1,200,000 done in damage while casting Execute at 40 rage each would equate to 885,000 damage done (3 casts @ 295,000). This would, theoretically, answer the question "Is it better to pool rage and spend it at 40 or spam it at 10?". I would also venture to say this also, indirectly perhaps, answers the question of whether or not to save Execute exclusively for Colossus Smash. In the time a player is pooling rage (20 seconds) they could have potentially gotten off just as much - if not more - damage by spamming execute.

 

Now don't get me wrong - I'm all for getting those numbers in on a CS window. I wouldn't take the whole 20 seconds, though, to just sit there an auto swing to pool the rage. It's relatively easy to cap your rage in a short amount of time - say 5 to even 10 seconds so I'd keep spamming Execute until the last possible second to pool for a CS window rather than straight pooling it exclusively for Execute. Make sense?

 

Thank you very much for that explanation! Yes, it does make sense. So pretty much keep spamming that execute until a few seconds before CS comes back up to pool and then get back to spamming. I'll give it a shot during the next raid.

 

Thanks again!

[Amputate 1]

 Do try to get max range when CS comes off CD though :P