Baseline/I don't understand

[DeathKat 0]

Hey guys/gals. I have been playing wow for a long time, but just alone maybe with a friend. Quests & dungeons mainly. Never raided until mop. Legit Raid. Anyhow, needless to say im ignorant to all the stats and rotations and maxxing dps per my gear and stats. I ask ppl ingame for help to no avail other than look it up. So i read and read and still don't understand what im doing wrong other than maybe my rotation but my dps fluxuates so much from day to day doing the same dailies or dungeons. Now we raid MV every tuesday and my guild says im improving, i just think that with the gear i have i maybe should be about 10k higher. With that being said...

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/uldaman/Deathkat/simple

This i think is the link to me in the armory. As far as rotation i am very comfortable with = HB/PS/OBLRT/FS - FS/OBLRT MAINLY LOOKING FOR PROCS ON BOTH AND USING THEM WHEN I CAN. I normally start out with the PoF macro suggested in the DK class guide. I did try a different rotations as suggested but it seems i run out of runes and am on intergalactic CD for most boss fights. so i am using this one atm. I guess i haven't really asked a question yet so i think what im asking is, is there anything im doing wrong or something i can do better. DPS equalls on average 38-42k. not including the leatherworking prof furlining and eng synapse springs. I hope this isnt an annoying post but i tried to figure it out myself and am just lost at this point. Thanks!

[Vlad 411]

Hey there!

First of all, your character's set-up looks pretty good overall. There are a few minor tweaks you can make, which you can see if you put your character into Ask Mr. Robot and click on Optimizie (http://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/gear/usa/uldaman/deathkat is your link).

Secondly, regarding your rotation, I would try to phrase it a bit clearer to make sure you're doing things right.

• Keep diseases up. Always refresh them with Outbreak if it's available. If not, use Plague Strike to put Blood Plague on. Frost Fever should pretty much always be on from Howling Blast.
• Only use Howling Blast when you have a Rime proc. This is very important and you should never use Howling Blast without a Rime proc (exception if Frost Fever is not on the target and Outbreak is on cooldown).
• Only use Frost Strike when you have two runes of the same kind fully-depleted (for example, none of the two Unholy runes are finished regenerating). This is the only way in which Runic Empowerment will proc, and Runic Empowerment is a major source of runes for you, allowing you to cast Obliterate much more often. If you're capped on runic power, you can use Frost Strike regardless of the state of your runes.
• Never use Frost Strike on Killing Machine procs. I can't stress the importance of this enough. Whenever you have a Killing Machine proc, try to use it with Obliterate - the difference is huge. Sometimes, it's not possible to avoid Frost Striking Killing Machines (either because it procs at the same moment that you are using Frost Strike, or because you have no runes for Obliterate for a long time).

Also, I didn't see you mentioning Soul Reaper - you should basically use this on cooldown when the boss is below 35% health (yes, even above Obliterate).

That's really about it as regards to rotation. Just focus on not wasting Killing Machine procs on Frost Strikes, and not wasting potential Runic Empowerment procs by Frost Striking when you shouldn't.

Also, your weapon is only item level 463 - which does hold back your DPS quite a bit.

Let me know if you are still unclear on some things, or have more questions.

[DeathKat 0]

thanks Vlad. That is actually very helpful. i do use Soul reaper like u said i just forgot to mention it. my bad. however i do have another question about auto attacks. it seems as if i get procs more often if i let a couple auto's land? is this just my imagination?

As far as ask mr.Robot i tried that and my dps went from what i mentioned earlier to about 25k. and i got in big trouble from my guild. Not really big trouble but u know. so they recommended i get reforge lite? ok or not so much? seems to be working great so far.

[Vlad 411]

thanks Vlad. That is actually very helpful. i do use Soul reaper like u said i just forgot to mention it. my bad. however i do have another question about auto attacks. it seems as if i get procs more often if i let a couple auto's land? is this just my imagination?

As far as ask mr.Robot i tried that and my dps went from what i mentioned earlier to about 25k. and i got in big trouble from my guild. Not really big trouble but u know. so they recommended i get reforge lite? ok or not so much? seems to be working great so far.

Hey.

You are very welcome.

I don't know why using Ask Mr. Robot in this instance would be a DPS loss, or why your guild would mind. Looking at what it is recommending for you right now, you end up gaining 546 Strength, 1.6% Mastery, and 2.31% Haste (though in a few cases you have no enchants at all on the pieces of gear, so the improvements are no-brainers). Yes, it puts you slightly below the Hit and Expertise caps, but this only creates the illusion of being a huge DPS loss due to the way the community has been interpreting it over the years - such a small amount under the caps, in your case, is actually a DPS increase due to the amounts of stats you gain in other places. Also, if you click on Options, you can set it to Force Hit and Expertise caps, so you avoid this problem.

Regarding the procs, I'm not sure what you mean. I don't know what you mean about "letting a few autoattacks land". It is indeed auto attacks that have a chance to proc Killing Machine, so the more attacks you make, the more chances you'll have to get procs. But if you're suggesting that auto-attacking several times in a row without using any other abilities in between somehow increases the chances for a Killing Machine proc, then there's no reason at all for this to be the case. If I misunderstood your question, feel free to clarify :)

Let me know if there's anything else!