#Arms warrior, great in M+, poor performance in raid.

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

weak kindle
#

Hello! I am Dahl - Skywall, I've been doing M+ and Raid as Arms and have like last season had a wonderful time in M+ doing damage and so far that holds up well enough in M+ this season now that I've got closer to the stat balance and gear I want.

Unfortunately, in heroic raid I've had abyssmal performance and have been using the cookie cutter slayer build from Archon. I usually prefer Colossus in all activities so I generally don't play slayer much. I've been trying to self-diagnose most my issues using raid bots, reviewing rotation incase it changed, wowanalyzer and recording for wowlogs of course.

I've felt I've done better on doing rotation, and when it comes to fights such as one armed bandit and gallywix, I tend to heavily do mechanics in the raid such as grabbing one or two element coins quite often to slot into the machine, and for Gallywix, always tend to be the one to get to the generator with a bomb first.

After last night and how low my damage has been comparable to the rest of the raid, feeling I've got better gear, understood the rotation better, I thought I'd perform better by now but this has not felt like the case.

I will say in 3 of these wipes, I have been responsible for my own death due to speed problems and not using leap in-time, but largely I feel I do fine on positioning.

So I thought I'd ask for some assistance on the matter and how I can improve - I'm also interested in a colossus raid build if one's available.

dusky flame
#

I'd highly recommend checking out WoWAnalyzer for some of the basic insights, which should help significantly https://wowanalyzer.com/report/rkm4ZK9wyvftNzDc/4-Her

I did look over some of your logs manually, namely Heroic Mugzee, and it seems like your opener is a little off, and rotation is filled with lots of downtime (unused GCDs, lots of time away from boss), and i'd focus on those first.

From WoWAnalyzer the big ones are:

  • Use Mortal Strike more (with Slayer it's one of your highest priorities, but you missed a significant number of casts on it)
  • You're missing 3 enchants (free stats!)
  • and you had 15%+ of downtime where you weren't doing any damage at all, it's best to stick on the boss or an add at all times. Fill downtime.
WoWAnalyzer

Use WoWAnalyzer to analyze your gameplay and get suggestions to become a better raider.

#

it also seems like you're not using Opportunist correctly (talent). It takes priority over Mortal Strike for the Slayer build. I'd suggest using OP more and tracking the Opportunist proc.

Or you can simply drop the talent and take Fierce Followthrough and your rotation becomes (Execute Conditions) > Mortal Strike > Overpower > Slam for like a 1% dps loss.

weak kindle
#

So pretty much for rotation I mash MS on cooldown, and use OP to reset MS if possible - if MS and OP are not available, I use Execute>Slam.
Since the slayer build I'm using has executioner precision I like to use execute first to boost the MS damage. This is correct right?

dusky flame
#

That's almost correct, but there's some very important conditions to be aware of.

#

You do not mash Execute just because it's available, yes it increases MS's damage, but you only want to press it under certain conditions.

#

Same goes for Overpower (especially with Opportunist)

#

When the boss is below 35% HP, you basically want to do the following:

  1. If Juggernaut is about to fall off, cast Execute
  2. Overpower with the Opportunist buff and less than 85 rage
  3. Mortal Strike only when you have 2x Executioners Precision debuffs applied
  4. Execute if you can afford it
  5. Overpower if you can't afford Execute.
#

If you chose to drop the Opportunist talent, just ignore the 2nd item

weak kindle
#

I don't use weakaura's, only thing I have running for mods is details, simcraft and wowlogs and that really it for all activities. I'm generally pretty good at paying attention to boss health thankfully. I have slam in my button 3 and execute in 5 - once boss reaches 35%, I flip the button placements to make it easier because if execute is available, there no reason to use slam.

I also got better about ensure that I cast no more than 2 executes, though occasionally did mess it up - because its required for the stacks to increase damage, anymore exe casts and I theoretically waste dps and rage. I will need to review opportunist though, I was not expecting that one to come up, I've always prioritized MS over OP in all situations unless MS in CD. So I will try to look at it more closely, especially considering the tier set this season. I'm also not use to using Juggernaut since I'm usually Colossus M+ but I can try to keep better track of it.

I also have been really bad about enchants because its hero, I keep hoping for myth gear to replace but thats probably not a wise choice on my part, in addition the high downtime I feel is largely attributed to my over-focus on raid mechanics, I can try to lax a bit on it, see if it improves, but generally I been good about staying in range with charges, leaps and Vulpera potion to stay within range of the target, even better if adds die because of war machine.

dusky flame
#

For sure, and on the subject of WeakAuras, I know they're not "required", but it does take a massive amount of cognitive load off your plate to track things like procs, casts, and overrides (such as Opportunist). I can't force you to use them, but if you're looking to improve it's probably my #1 suggestion. Even simple ones (like the audio one linked above).

It's a bit like trying to improve as a chef, but refusing to use anything but a kitchen knife as a tool.

#

Opportunist, for example, procs mid-gcd, meaning you have less than 1.25sec to react to it before you cast your next ability. By default, the WoWUI will not show you the difference between a flashy Overpower proc due to a Tactician reset, and a flashy Overpower proc due to Opportunist. This alone is a massive dps gain, but the baseline WoW-UI doesn't communicate it effectively via action bars.

weak kindle
#

That's greatly troubling considering I enjoy using the default UI as it is, but I'll try to review Opportunist more closely, if its really that short of time and isn't communicated well, that is indeed a concern. I been trying to get my haste as high as I can to hit buttons faster since I think it still perhaps a bit low, but it should be enough of a reaction time.

I'll see what I can do though, if I need to breakdown and succumb to Auras I will, was just hoping to avoid it, I do know they were planning on making it part of the default UI here soon if I recall correctly.

dusky flame
#

Yeah! they have a new ui coming soon (eventually)

#

Generally i'd recommend dropping Opportunist then, it removes that part of the pre-execute-phase rotation entirely and simplifies it down to:
(execute conditions*) > Mortal Strike > Overpower > Slam

*It should be noted that the Execute Conditions above are also not trackable easily without weakauras.

#

Those conditions are:

  • If juggernaut will fall off in less than 2 gcds
  • If you have 2x Sudden Death stacks
  • If Sudden Death will expire in less than 3 seconds
  • if Marked For Execution has 3 stacks
#

casting Execute just because Sudden Death is available is a decent performance hit, unfortunately.
It delays Mortal Strike casts, doesn't spend rage effectively (needed for Anger Management) and causes other problems with the rotation

weak kindle
#

That's unfortunate, I'm still tempted to give Colossus another try too since that my favorite, but I'll need to see how massive of a dps difference it would be to change things up like that. I know the movement and MS benefits are hard to beat when it comes to slayer.

dusky flame
#

Totally! Colossus is also perfectly fine for heroic. You may not parse quite as high, but Colossus is much easier to track conditions on

weak kindle
#

I may do that, personally I'm a big fan of Colossus, not so much Slayer, just doesn't feel as good or as fun. But I'll continue to practice and take this advice, and greatly appreciate you taking the time to help me ❤️

dusky flame
#

always! It's what we're here for! 🎉
If you ever want to give WeakAuras a shot, I can give some basic recommendations so it's not an overwhelming nightmare, feel free to hit me up whenever