How to properly use Shadow Dance

[Carrn 284]

I noticed that the actual guide section here doesn't have a section on how to best use Shadow Dance, so I'm going to add a short one here. This is a fairly huge part of learning to play Sub properly, and will hopefully explain some of the finer points of one of the most complicated DPS Specs that the game has to offer

 

A few seconds before you Dance (so when you have under ~10 seconds remaining on the cooldown), you should check a few things:

 

1) Energy. Entering Dance with low energy is almost useless, so you should try and pool energy and enter Dance with as much of it as you can. This is where Glyph of Energy really comes into play, as having an extra bit of cap space is very nice.

 

2) Shadow Reflection's cooldown. Assuming that you're running with SR as your level 100 talent, you should check to see if you will have them both up for this Dance (every second Dance gets a SR)

 

3) DoT timers. Rupture and Hemo will need to be refreshed before or during your Dance, so that you don't waste Evis casts. Exceptions to this one are listed below:

• If SR will come off cooldown with this Dance, do not refresh Rupture until after you cast SR. This way you'll get a second Rupture from your clone. which is great. Recast Hemo to keep the 20% damage boost from SV up if it will fall off
• If the boss is close to dying (next 10-15s)

 

4) Combo Points & Premeditation Cooldown. Because you should have a separate button for Prep (for pre-fight) as well as macroing it to your openers for easy use during combat, you should keep an eye on how many cp you have compared to how many you will generate off the bat. For example, if you will start Dance with 4 cp already, you'll get 2 from Ambush + 1 from HaT + 2 from Premed totalling 5 and bringing you to 9. This is pretty good cause you'll get 2 finishers off relatively quickly, but could also be bad if you end up energy capping in that time due to the refunds. Using Dance at more than 4 cp without Premed isn't as big a deal, it's just something you need to take into account and be aware of when preparing to Dance

 

Note that all of the above tips apply to Vanish / Subtetrfuge as well. The more Casts that you can get in, particularly of Eviscerate and not Rupture, during your Find Weakness uptime the better

Edited November 26, 2014 by Carrn