The Hidden Forest

That recent wizard parse thread reminded me that this was a topic that I meant to bring up. We all have our own way of playing our favorite classes, and I'm curious about what yours is. Some DPS rotations I have tested thoroughly, others not so much, but the following is what I do.

Overall Theme:
I prioritized the actions from 1 to n, with 1 being of highest importance. If something is a duration attack like a dot or debuff, I prioritize that it is active before I move on to something lower on the list. I'm purposely ignoring duration disciplines and item clickies (with the exception of epic 2.0) since they're not as ubiquitous as the spells alone.

[Bard]
1) Slayer's Destiny & War March
2) Auto attack
3) Any available disc
*nothing else*

Why? Slayers for haste & spell dmg, War March for + ATTK.

[Beastlord]
1) Pet alive and buffed
2) Maintain Growl Buff
3) Auto attack
4) Any available disc

Why? The pet is steady, unresistable dps that is mana-independent. Bst melee, while lacking double attack, can be quite formidable with proper self-buffs.

[Berserker]
1) Auto attack
2) Frenzy
3) Enraged Volley
4) Any available disc

Why? They're pretty simple - not much else to do!

[Enchanter]
1) Wrath of the Phantasmist IV
2) Epic 2.0 Debuff
3) Euphoric Spasm
4) Overbearing Power
5) Visions of Power
6) Entwining Thoughts

Why? The first two are unresistable and invaluable on high-resist mobs. 3 and 4 are tremendously helpful to all DPS classes. 5 and 6 are my max dps fillers.

[Mage]
1) Pet alive and buffed
2) Torrent of Malsoin
3) Bolt of Flaming Stone
4) Summon: Ornament of Fire

Why? The pet is steady, unresistable dps that is mana-independent. 2, the debuff increases the dps of all caster DPS in the raid, along with the chance of a short-duration spell vulnerability. 3, so long as the fight is longer than 4 seconds, this still reigns as king and higher than any combination of mage nukes that I've tried thus far. 4, if there is a full group to summon boomsticks for, they can be very devastating.

[Necromancer]
1) Pet alive and buffed
2) Scent of Mastery
3) Desolate Pyre
4) Cobra Venom
5) Curse of Undeath
6) Chaotic Funeral
6.5) Lure of Fiery Death if debuff slots permit
7) Cry for Blood (until Blood Power procs)
8) Grasp of the Reaper

Why? The pet is steady, unresistable dps that is mana-independent. 2, the unresistable debuff increases the dps of all caster DPS in the raid. 3-6.5 are ordered by DPS. Rearrange if you are missing a focus effect for any particular one. 7, boosts 3-6.5 and does decent direct dmg even when it fails to proc. 8, casts faster than 7 and heals group.

[Rogue]
1) Backstab
2) Assassin's Chaos
3) Any available disc

Why? 1 is the big money maker. 2 is a modest addition to dps, and 3 of course aids the white damage nicely with some procs.

[Wizard]
1) Sorcerer's Veil
2) Chaotic Detonation
3) Gelid Strike
4) Flame Blaze
5) Storm Strike
6) If all else is on cooldown: Tactical Fire/Ether Flame (unless you have enough clickies that this is never needed)

Why? 1, I find it best to buff myself while resist debuffs are going in and hold off on dps for a moment. 2, has an awesome resist check and a nice slow cast to allow the tank to build up some hate. 3, if this procs the slow cast debuff, I want it wearing off asap before I start casting slow nukes again. 4 - 5 high DPS fillers between slow nukes. 6, is a last resort. I prefer to never use it if I have clickies to keep me busy.

What sorts of dps rotations do you folks use out there? I'm sure there's room for improvement in mine.

Good thread - what do others think? Is this the golden standard most people use?

Pretty well what I do as well. I use the necro 2.0 first in my rotation is the only real difference. I do use more bard songs because I don't have any fully evolved BP yet. As someone who uses no donor items I find the extra 400ish ac gained from Cantata and Minstrel's to be quite valuable. Its quite unfortunate that I know I am going to have to stop using these T8 spells due to slot limitations

Once I'm higher tier I'll give input on this. Right now I am not high enough in tier to talk about DPS rotations.

I have a burn hotbutton made on all chars that I can click and activate their clickies or discs for maximum dps. Things like 2.0's, donor clicks that aren't 100% uptime, long reuse discs

Mage -
Pet buffed with donor v1 and elemental mastery from VP staff
malsoin
bolt

Necro -
Pet buffed with donor v1 and elemental mastery from VP staff
scent of midnight
Desolate Pyre
Curse of Undeath
Cobra Venom
Soul Theft
feign, repeat as dots wear off

Wiz
cycle through Tactical Fire, Chaotic Detonation and 2.0 nuke

Rogue, zerker, monk
autoattack

Debuffers (druid 2.0, ench as above) called on demand, usually only on boss fights that I need to max dps on.

Shaman -
keep lion on melee/pets, gladiator on wiz/necro/mag if max dps needed otherwise heal duty

cleric - heal duty

druid - spot heal, maybe dot if long fight and not too heal heavy

my sk tanks and makes sure donor 1 click is on mob, threat/agro clickies/spells as needed to keep the zerker from turning into paste.

*edit cause Mary reminded me of bard*
Bard - usually melody Slayer, Cantata, and guard.

Don't know if I can contribute much since bards just auto attack but I did want to say something about songs.

Noren has a very good point in only using Slayers destiny due to limited song slots and also since a single song cannot be silenced. I also do this on mobs that silence, but that's the only time. Unless you REALLY need those slots for aura and clickies your missing out on a lot of AC.

For Mary, Minstrel's Guard Rk. II gives me 250ac and Cantana of Hope Rk. II gives 202ac. 452AC is more AC than most pieces of gear even fully augged.

My standard melody is Slayers, Minstrel's Guard, Cantana of Hope, and War March of Chaos. In places like VP or other mobs i know i can slow, i'll switch out War March of Chaos for Zurikik's Song of Shenanigans. This song is an AE 50% slow. Sometimes i also use this song for extra AE agro. I go with the AE slow since it doesn't break melody when I dont have a target.


Regards,
Sticky

What are rogues using for rotations? Aside from obviously backstab. I notice when I use Assassin's Chaos my energy drains absurdly fast and I am contemplating if it is actually worth the use.

However my rogue is only in mostly vp gear with a couple T8 weapons, so id imagine that doesn't help my energy situation.

How do you ranger players (if there are any) play them? Do you utilize them as melee dps + nukes / emp water or as ranged dps?

Banai wrote:How do you ranger players (if there are any) play them? Do you utilize them as melee dps + nukes / emp water or as ranged dps?

Ranged dps, buffing emp water as needed for boss fights.

On my Beastlord and Sk i use the stun settings on mq2melee to spam their nukes. Add mana inferno and notice a nice little dps increase.