Wind Walker 5.4

[Raconlok]

The great questions of our time: Chi Brew vs Ascension? Xuen vs RJW?

Seems like for all but maybe 3 fights, Xuen may not be the answer you want, but its the answer you need.

This post on MMO provides some strong evidence that the difference between brew and ascension (when reforged appropriately for each) is very small - and since ascension is certainly what you want for aoe, I'm leaning towards reforging back to ascension (really like that 5th chi as well).

What have you guys found? RJW for Protectors, Galakras, Spoils, Xuen for everything else is how I generally run.

More generally - Haste to comfort zone > Crit to softcap > Mastery > Haste looks to be our stat priority ... agi > 2x secondary. Oh, and weapon damage is ridonculous ... wru warforged .

[Raconlok]

Just found this for high-quality SEF tracking - can't wait to try it out, looks awesome. http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/127 ... e-WeakAura

[Raconlok]

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/storm-earth-and-fire

Standalone addon for SEF tracking, with sound effects for attacking the same target and clones dying.

[DarthCanibal]

i tried the one from curse with the sound effects...have you figured out how to move the clone's target windows...they default to the middle of the screen and its rather annoying.

I like ascension with the extra chi because I think it offsets FoF cost of 3 chi and makes the rotation more smoother i.e. when tigereye brew hits 10+ stacks cap on chi (blowing all your energy) then you can RSK and FoF before having to continue chi generation and energizing brew while FoF is on CD.

Another reason I like ascension is that if you look at the numbers between the 2 options(as taken from posts on http://elitistjerks.com/f99/t131848-ww_ ... #Resources), the difference isn't significant enough to wanna have to put yet another CD/GCD on my list to watch for. If it offered significant dps increase (say after reaching 9350 haste cap without ascension with SoO haste driven gear) I would make the switch.

[DarthCanibal]

Another thing I want to look into is the effect of T16 4 pc bonus with Ascension vs Chi Brew...more to come.

[Raconlok]

Re: Moving. There should be a small red circle in the top left corner that is dragable. You would need to have "config mode" on in the addon settings (/sef config).

[Raconlok]

Post on FoF from one of the main WW theorycrafters.

Jist - without AoC using FoF perfectly is not a dps increase over BoK spam (they are equivalent). I've read alot of different opinions on this, and have tried to weave it in myself here and there where I could; based on this post and my own experiences, I'm probably going to stop using it for now, except for cases like stunning on garrosh/heroic galakras etc.

[DarthCanibal]

i had read something similar to this before and have almost completely eliminated it from single target dps fights and rarely use it on AoE fights in that using FoF for an AoE stun also resets swing timers on all npcs affected making spike dmg to the tanks more likely and unneeded. I didn't see what haste value he was working with but regardless of haste, even using AoC made almost no difference. I'm going to stick with BoK spam for tomorrows raid and see how it affects my overall dps

[DarthCanibal]

I got my 4 pc today and was wondering if anyone had seen the numbers for having the 4 pc bonus

[Raconlok]

Darth - what I have seen is not more than 1%.

Spent a little time browsing around on some top single target logs. This guy seems to have all of the top parses, at least non-asian, for the fights I looked at. 579 ilvl helps ... . But what I'm seeing pretty universally is mostly avoiding mastery/reforging out of it. I see chi brew with 10k+ haste where possible, some cases up to 12k (12k may be related to running RJW). I also don't see any particular concern for the soft crit cap at 57% ... I've read suggestions that crit only loses 15% of its value above this cap, which leaves it well above mastery and excess haste. Agility is still #1 for gems.

This is not the way I have been gemmed/reforged/specced for the past month ... going to make the change and see what comes of it.

Oh, players I looked at are divided on the 4 piece vs warforged off pieces ... 2 piece is definitely worth it though.

[Jiansun]

Chi Brew and high haste is the way to go. The four piece isn't really essential if you have other pieces without hit or expertise on them and a ton of crit and what not. I haven't been able to make the switch yet. I got an off-set shoulder but the sockets aren't ideal. The stats are, otherwise.

I've been saying this for a while now, on single target fights Chi Brew out-performs significantly, but you need to time it well. Part of the reason the haste is high is because there are so many fights where RJW is necessary and we can't reforge on the go all the time. If you don't have 9k or higher haste you won't be able to use RJW on cooldown and that's key.

[Raconlok]

The part that feels weird to me is - with ascension and about 6.5k haste currently, I really don't have energy issues. I know dropping ascension has a cost, but I'm seeing some of the highest performing people run over 10k ... and that seems like a constant state of energy cap to me, even with chi brew. Now I've also had input lag/ISP issues for some time now and it's possible that with those cleared up I would be able to get abilities out a little faster. Just don't want to return to combat-rogue-in-DS levels of crappy energy cap.

The other thing I saw, that I have seen poo-poo'd in alot of forum threads, is that these top parses all had a decent amount of FoF damage. It's been pretty extensively refuted that using FoF on CD is worthwhile, but I definitely see the value for filling in resource gaps. However, with running that much haste ... where are the gaps?

[Jiansun]

You use FoF to extend your trinket duration when it's a viable thing to do, regardless of your energy level. If you can get it at the right time, it's no joke. That much haste and ascendance, again, is for using RJW on cooldown. If you're rolling with 6.5k and ascendance you won't run out of energy if you use all your cools when you should.

The other, side-factor of that much haste is how blizzard increased WW weapon damage. I don't know where the breakpoint is but I imagine there's a point where your white damage hits are so rapid, combined with your global being at 1 second, you're just dumping out damage at a very very fast rate.

[Raconlok]

Some thoughts on the pull/what I am doing now ...

Always starting with 3-4 Chi (going to waste 1 anyway, so 3 is enough).
Pot at 1 on the count down.
Chi wave as soon as the pull occurs, run in, and RSK > TP. - The idea being that you will have started your procs/trinkets before you first melee ability (RSK) which you want to be significantly buffed.
Chi Brew twice. If TEB >= 7, use it, otherwise do 1 BK. I believe I read that using Spinning Fire Blossom pre-pull can help reset where you are on the "3 Chi" counter for next TEB stack gain ... can anyone confirm?
Proceed with normal rotation, enjoy having a facsimile of opening burst?

[Jiansun]

Are you using Chi Brew, or Ascension?

And then if you're using Chi Brew you are losing the TEB stacks, which reset once you enter combat with a boss.

You could get 2 chi by Expel Harm, but you run the risk of activating both of your weapons and even your trinkets, so you should not do this. The ideal is to pop before pull, Chi Brew just after pull, punch, kick - (you will always have Xuen when you're using Chi Brew) wait for both trinkets to activate and snap-shot pop Xuen. The opening isn't as absurd as Enhance, who gets up to nearly 1mil or more (locks too sometimes) but you start off around 600 or so and while everyone falls down really fast you stay up.

The point is that you can reasonably RSK twice with most trinkets, and I'm pretty certain what you lose in not hitting anything while your stuff is procced is more of a loss than what you lose for having one of two RSK not 100% buff and just maybe 50 or 75% buffed.