Question about MM rotation

[Swerrve 0]

First of all, I just wanted to send a huge thanks for the daily support the core team seems to provide.  So appreciated.

I'm new to MM, and I'm trying to clean up that last 20% gap in my DPS compared to sims.  

Re: the rotation, Azor's guide says to hit Marked Shot at 50 min focus, and Windburst at 70+.  But, I'm regularly hitting both with more focus already in the tank - not always a full 130, but frequently more than 50/70.  

So, my Qs:

1.  Is this already a mistake? In other words, do I need manage focus so I'm not running it all the way to zero during a V-window, and not spamming Arcane until it goes all the way back to 130 before reopening (even if I don't cap)?

2.  And, say I already made the above mistake. What's the best recovery?  Do I simply skip 1 or more of the Arcanes (so i don't needlessly cap) and then cast 2-3 Aimed if given the opportunity?

I feel like I'm always managing cooldown windows to get max usage, so it's hard for me to resist the temptation to fill focus completely then shoot as many Aimed as I can during Vulnerability.  But, I suppose what that does is give me fewer V windows, even if they have 3 Aimed shots.  As opposed to keeping more consistent V windows that start with 1-2 Arcane focus bumps followed by *only* the two Aimed shots required for the crit buff?  I can see that latter will produce more buffs in the long run.

Happy to post logs if it comes to that.

Thx, all.

[Khallid 110]

Minimum means you can have more than 50. The advice is to not cast Marked Shot if you have 25 focus because then you'll be focus starved during the vulnerable window.

If you screw up and cast Marked Shot without enough focus, you basically have to skip the first Aimed Shot and use Arcane Shot instead. You'll probably end up only using 1 Aimed Shot for that Vulnerable.

I don't know what you mean about managing cooldown windows. The only cooldown is Trueshot and it doesn't come that often. If you're using Crows it doesn't have any effect with Vulnerable so they are independent.

The disadvantages of casting 3 Aimed Shots are as follows:

You cast Aimed Shot at the very beginning of Vulnerable, when the damage increase is at its weakest.

You spend more consecutive time without movement, so it's less flexible.

You end up with no focus after 3 consecutive Aimed Shots, and need to spam Arcane Shot multiple times afterwards, so you always drop the tier 20 4-piece buff.

This also makes one long section of Arcane Shot and one long section of Aimed Shot, which has a higher chance of wasting Marking Targets procs.