Chapter 4 – Trinket Rotations
Goals:To determine the effects of various, passive and activated/cooldown, trinkets available up to Naxxaramus combined with the hunters ability to Feign Death and swap trinkets in the middle of a fight.
Trinkets considered:Blackhands Breadth (2% Crit)
Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas (+48 Ranged Attack Power)
Drake Fang Talisman (+56 Attack Power)
Devilsaur Eye (+150 Attack Power for 20 seconds, 2 minute cooldown)
Earthstrike (+280 Attack Power for 20 seconds, 2 minute cooldown)
Slayers Crest (+64 Attack Power, +260 Attack Power for 20 seconds, 2 minute assumed cooldown
Trinkets not considered:Jom Gabbar (I'm at a loss as to how to model this accurately)
Kiss of the Spider
Scenario:A fully raid buffed, reasonable well geared hunter with range against a zero armor target, with no aggro or mana issues, using Rank 5 Multishot and Rank 6 Aimed shot with a 3.0 speed (after quiver bonus) crossbow, 13.5 DPS ammo, in a 10 second shot rotation. I'll be using the Xbow of Smiting average damage for the calculations.
Rapid fire will not be calculated into the damage results, as it is a multiplier of your current average DPS, thus whichever trinkets increases your average DPS the most will benefit the most out of Rapid fire.
Calculations used:Damage is calculated per 10 seconds, assuming 1 Aimed Shot, 1 Multishot, and 3 Auto Shots take place during the 10 second rotation.
Total Damage Done = (Non-crit damage)*(1+((Crit rate)*1.3))
Non-crit damage average = 600+150+(2*((((AP/14)*2.8 ))+7+155+(13.5*3.4))))+ (3*(((AP)/14)*3.4+155+(13.5*3.4)+7))
Initial stats:1700 Attack Power (no trinkets equipped)
25% Crit rate
Base Damage:600+150+(2*((((1700/14)*2.8 ))+7+155+(13.5*3.4))))+ (3*(((1700)/14)*3.4+155+(13.5*3.4)+7))
=3708
Accounting for crits:=3708*(1+((0.25)*1.3))
=4913
Which is:491.3 DPS
Using Blackhands Breadth only:Base Damage
= 3708
Damage with Crits
= 3708*(1+((0.27)*1.3))
= 5010
Or:501.0 DPS
Using the Royal Seal:Base Damage
= 4985
Damage with Crits
= 3762*(1+((0.25)*1.3))
= 4984
Or:498.4 DPS
Using the Drake Fang Talisman:Base Damage
= 3771
Damage with Crits
= 3771*(1+((0.25)*1.3))
= 4997
Or:499.7 DPS
Using the Slayers Crest in passive mode:Base Damage
= 3780
Damage with Crits
= 3780*(1+((0.25)*1.3))
= 5009
Or:500.9 DPS
Conclusions from Passive Trinkets:Since we already know that crit scales to your attack power, there is a breaking point with each of the passive +AP trinkets vs the 2% crit from Blackhands Breadth, this one happens to be pretty close to 64 AP, given that guilds breaking into AQ40/Naxx, DFT + BB combo is the best combination of passive trinkets outside of Naxx as shown below (Slayers Crest is assumed to be not activated for the following calculation, for purposes you will see later in this thread):
Combination
Base Damage
Damage with Crits
DPS
SC + BB
3780
5107
510.7 DPS
DFT + BB
3771
5095
509.5 DPS
SC + DFT
3844
5093
509.3 DPS
DFT + 48AP
3825
5069
506.9 DPS
Active Trinkets:There is several schools of thought on actived trinkets such as Devilsaur Eye and Earthstrike, one is to open with the trinket, Feign Death and swap to a passive trinket, Feigning Death again 30seconds from the expiration of the trinkets cooldown in order to minimize the time spent without a stat boosting passive trinket.
Another is to juggle several activated trinkets, in the hopes that the damage done during the time the trinkets are active will out damage the 30 seconds worth of no stats during the trinket swap cooldown.
Methods analyzed:During a 120 second (the cooldown of many activated trinkets) cycle, the followed methods are used:
1) Starting with an activated trinket and a passive trinket, opening with the activated trinket, FD and swapping to a passive trinket for the duration of the cycle, without ever swapping back.
2) Starting the same with the above combo, however, 30 seconds out from the expiration of the cooldown, FD and swap to the activated trinket for another burst when the cooldown/equip cooldown is finished.
3) Starting with one activated trinket and a passive trinket, opening with the activated trinket, FD and swapping to another activated trinket at the 30 second mark, activating the second one at 60 seconds, and swapping to the first activated trinket again at the 90 second mark.
4) Starting with two activated trinkets, opening with the first one, activating the second trinket, FD and swapping in two passive trinkets.
5) Same as the above, however at the 90 second mark FD and swap in the two activated trinket to continue the cycle.
For the passive trinket, the priority will be Blackhands Breadth, followed by the Drakefang Talisman. For the activated trinket, the priority will be Earthstrike and then the Devilsaur Eye.
First scenario:Earthstrike with Blackhands Breadth, FD @ 20 seconds and swapping to Drake Fang Talisman.
Damage done during seconds 0-20 (ES active + BB)
= 10873
Damage done during seconds 20-120 (BB + DFT)
= 50950
Total Damage done / 120 seconds
= 61823 / 120 = 515.2 DPS
Second Scenario:Earthstrike with Blackhands Breadth, FD @ 20 seconds and swapping to Drake Fang Talisman, FD @ 90 seconds to swap in Earthstrike.
Damage done during seconds 0-20 (ES active + BB)
= 10873
Damage done during seconds 20-90 (BB + DFT)
= 35665
Damage done during seconds 90-120 (ES cooldown + BB)
= 15029
Total Damage done / 120 seconds
= 61567 / 120 = 513.1 DPS
Third Scenario:Earthstrike and Blackhands Breadth equipped, FD and swapping to Devilsaur Eye at 30 seconds, using the Devilsaur Eye at 60 seconds, FD and swapping Earthstrike for Devilsaur Eye at 90 seconds (This ones very messy, I’m open to a better way of sorting multiple activated trinkets, and be happy to model it).
Damage done during seconds 0-20 (ES active + BB)
= 10873
Damage done during seconds 20-30 (ES inactive + BB)
= 5010
Damage done during seconds 30-60 (DE on cooldown + BB)
= 15029
Damage done during seconds 60-80 (DE + BB)
= 10477
Damage done during seconds 80-90 (DE Inactive + BB)
= 5010
Damage done during seconds 90-120 (ES on cooldown + BB)
= 15029
Total Damage done / 120 seconds
= 61426 / 120 = 511.9
Note: There is just too much dead time of not having a +AP buff during this rotation.
Fourth Scenario:Earthstrike and Devilsaur Eye equipped, activating Earthstrike followed by Devilsaur Eye, FD and swapping in Blackhands Breadth and Drake Fang Talisman.
Damage done during seconds 0-20 (ES active + DE inactive)
= 10664
Damage done during seconds 20-40 (DE active + ES inactive)
= 10275
Damage done during seconds 40-120 (BB + DFT)
= 40760
Total Damage done / 120 seconds
= 61669 / 120 = 514.2
Fifth Scenario:Earthstrike and Devilsaur Eye equipped, activating Earthstrike followed by Devilsaur Eye, FD and swapping in Blackhands Breadth and Drake Fang Talisman, FD and swapping n Earthstrike and Devilsaur Eye at 90 seconds.
Damage done during seconds 0-20 (ES active + DE inactive)
= 10664
Damage done during seconds 20-40 (DE active + ES inactive)
= 10275
Damage done during seconds 40-90 (BB + DFT)
= 25475
Damage done during seconds 90-120 (ES and DE on cooldown)
= 14740
Total Damage done / 120 seconds
= 61154 / 120 = 509.6
Conclusions:According to my calculations, In order to have an overall higher DPS, in a sustained fight, than a Blackhands Breadth + Drake Fang Talisman combination, the simplest solution that requires the least amount of Feign Deaths is keeping Blackhands Breadth active, and cycling Earthstrike with the Drake Fang Talisman.
This does not take into account the times that you would be otherwise unable to DPS. Maximizing the time DPSing while the trinket is activated, and keeping as much of the cooldown time during a time that you would be otherwise unable to DPS will maximize the use of such activated trinkets. Given my lack of experience with endgame content, I cannot point to a specific fight and say which times that would be.
In addition, given the knowledge that FD+Drink is less than optimal for DPS, I wonder how much more benefit that a FD+Drinking rotation would get out of using the trinket swap cooldown during the drinking time. I' ll be attempting to model this soon.
Slayers Crest:The Slayers Crest and Kiss of the Spider are two excellent trinkets, having both passive stats and an activated bonus, thus eliminating the lack of having a passive +stat trinket during the cooldown phases of either trinket (which is the killer behind other activated trinkets)
Slayers Crest + Blackhands Breadth:Damage done during seconds 0-20 (SC active)
= 11007
Damage done during seconds 20-120 (SC inactive)
= 51072
Total Damage done / 120 seconds
= 62079 / 120 = 517.3
Summary:
Trinket 1
Trinket 2
DPS over 120 seconds
Slayers Crest (Activated during Cycle)
Blackhands Breadth
517.3 DPS
Earthstrike -> DFT
Blackhands Breadth
515.2 DPS
Earthstrike -> DFT -> ES
Blackhands Breadth
513.1 DPS
ES -> DE -> ES
Blackhands Breadth
511.9 DPS
Slayers Crest (Inactive)
Blackhands Breadth
510.7 DPS
Drake Fang Talisman
Blackhands Breadth
509.5 DPS
Slayers Crest (Inactive)
Drake Fang Talisman
509.3 DPSI apologise for the lack of formatting -_-. Thoughts? ______________________________________________________
This is the initial post from Xaeroflex , the whole discussion goes over 3 sites, but I think the most important things are already covered by the text I quoted above. If you want to read the whole discussion, please visit
Personal Note:
And remember, Feign Death not only lets you change your Trinkets, you can switch arround your whole gear. You could think about wearing 2/9 T3 for more duration on Rapid Fire and 5/5 T2.5 to lower its cooldown by 2 minutes. After your first Rapid Fire you could switch back to your 8/8 T2 to apply the Expose Weakness effect again.
When you use Feign Death to switch arround gear, make sure to have no Serpent Sting on the target, no arrows flying and your Pet not attacking. Otherwise you will be in combat again very soon and it won't switch your gear. Addons that help you doing this can be found in
Chapter 7 – Macros / Addons .