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Fight Length and DPS



On monday I went over a little bit about stacking CDs. If you read that post, you surely noticed my little chart going through the seconds of the fight.   One thing I didn't mention, however, is how important it is to know how long a fight is going to take.

When I started this blog, I did not intend for it to be aimed at the best hunters in the world.  Nor did I want it to be for the average, super-casual, couldn't-care-less sort of hunter.   My goal was to to make something for the hunters of the world (of warcraft) who were trying to step up there game: the hunters who aspired to greatness, to be the best hunters they could be, regardless of where they were on that journey right now.

This is one of those things that we eventually have to tackle if we're wanting to make that step up from average damage dealer to great damage dealer.   And chances are, you're already thinking about it, at least to some extent.

Major CDs
The most prevalent way that hunter think about this is with their Stampede.  As our most significant PvE DPS Cooldown,  you want to get off as many Stampedes as possible,  but you also want to line them up with your major trinket procs and your agility potions.   Toward the end of most fights, I'll have to consider where my Stampede will line up with one of my trinket procs.   Since Assurance of Consequence is on an internal cooldown, I have a timer set up for it (using needtoknow, if you're interested).  In general I want to make sure I wait until that proc is up to use Stampede, but if the fight is coming to an end, and it doesn't look like there's going to be enough time left to get another trinket proc,  I'll use stampede on it's own,  since it will be more dps to use it on its own than to not use it at all.

Minor CDs
A lot of hunters will do the same thing with their smaller CDs as well.   Say, for example, a boss is down well below 1% health, so you've got maybe 10 seconds of fight left,  and your Kill Command and Kill Shot come off CD at the same time.   Normally your Kill Command is going to be higher priority.  But in this case,  you're only going to get 2 more Kill Commands, no matter what.  If instead you hit your two Kill Shots first,  you'll still get your 2 Kill Commands,  and you might get an extra Kill Shot right at the end.

Especially in the last example there,  we're looking at fairly small, nit-picky changes.  If you're still at a point where you're trying to work on the basics of your rotation,  focus management, etc., then it's not going to make a significant difference in your dps to focus on these things.  If, on the other hand,  you've got your rotation down solid,  you're not taking any avoidable damage,  and you're looking for any extra DPS you can get,  then it's time to start looking at fight length.

The reasons I bring this up in regards to monday's post, is there are certain fight lengths where you might be able to get extra Rabids if you use them on CD, instead of delaying them to stack with BW.   Knowing how long it takes your raid team to finish the fight is the only way you'll be able to determine which way to go.

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