Midgey
02-12-2011, 09:12 AM
Haste Breakpoints for a Shadow Priest
======================================
In Cataclysm a casters DoTs can gain an extra tick when they gave enough new haste.
For a Shadow Priest the following spells are effected by this:
1) Shadow Word: Pain
2) Vampiric Touch
3) Devouring Plague
4) Improved Devouring Plague.
For most DoTs you determine the number of ticks it will do by applying the following formula:
adjusted_num_ticks = round( base_tick_time * base_num_ticks * 1000.0 / round( 1000.0 * base_tick_time / player_haste ))
Where round() means it rounds the number to the nearest integer, and player_haste is the combined haste of the player including buffs expressed as a multiple. i.e. 5% haste is 1.05. 15% is 1.15.
Of note is the 1000.0 that appears twice. This is because Blizzard round things off to 3 decimal places.
For example: Vampiric Touch has a base_tick_time of 3.0 seconds. It has a base_num_ticks of 5. Darkness gives 3% haste, Mind Quickening gives 5%. Let's say we had 10% haste from haste rating.
Haste stacks multiplicatively so our player_haste would be: 1.03 * 1.05 * 1.10 = 1.18965
Plugging these numbers into the formula:
adjusted_num_ticks = round( 3.0 * 5 * 1000.0 / round( 1000.0 * 3.0 / 1.18965 ) )
= 6
Thus with 10% haste from gear we have 6 ticks on Vampiric Touch. 10% haste from gear at level 85 is 1280.57159423828125 Haste Rating.
So we'd know if we had 1281 Haste Rating (and 3/3 Darkness and Mind Quickening) that we'd have 6 ticks of Vampiric Touch per cast.
Now that formula works for Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague. It doesn't however work exactly like that for Improved Devouring Plague.
Instead Improved Devouring Plague bases its damage off a slightly different number of ticks.
idp_adjusted_num_ticks = ceil( base_tick_time * base_num_ticks * 1000.0 / round( 1000.0 * base_tick_time / player_haste ))
i.e. Whereas normal DoTs round off to the nearest integer, Improved Devouring Plague always rounds up to the nearest integer.
Improved Devouring Plague has another bug in that it *only* benefits from Haste Rating. It gets no benefit from Darkness, Mind Quickening, Berserking or Bloodlust/Heroism.
Knowing all this we can calculate the "breakpoints" for each DoT. i.e. The point where it suddenly gains another tick of duration when cast.
Here are the results assuming 3/3 Darkness and Mind Quickening (the 5% haste buff) are active:
Shadow Word: Pain
-----------------
Ticks Rating Required
------ ---------------
6 0
7 21
8 1993
9 3970
10 5945
11 7913
Vampiric Touch
--------------
Ticks Rating Required
------ ---------------
5 0
6 218
7 2589
8 4951
9 7326
Devouring Plague
----------------
Ticks Rating Required
------ ---------------
8 n/a
9 0 (thanks to Darkness and Mind Quickening)
10 1255
11 2737
12 4211
13 5691
14 7179
Improved Devouring Plague
-------------------------
Ticks Rating Required
------ ---------------
8 0
9 3
10 1602
11 3205
12 4805
13 6408
14 8000
So how valuable are the various breakpoints to reach for DPS?
Results of a test that uses SimulationCraft to test a Priest_Shadow_T11_372.simc priest with its haste levels changed to be 1 below a breakpoint and then at the breakpoint can be found at:
http://www.simulationcraft.org/ShadowPriest_372_Haste_Breakpoints.html
Each profile is named in the format: p372_<X> where X is the amount of Haste Rating it has.
Looking at the results you can see that:
a) A Shadow Word: Pain breakpoint gives no sudden spike of DPS gained. This is of course expected as SW:P is constantly being refreshed anyway.
b) A Devouring Pain breakpoint might give you an extra 1 or 2 DPS for that extra 1 Haste Rating but that's pretty much expected anyway. i.e. It doesn't add much.
c) The same is true of Vampiric Touch. You might gain 3 or so DPS for that extra 1 Haste Rating to get you to its breakpoint but it's minor.
d) Improved Devouring Pain breakpoints on the other hand *are* significant.
Going from 2 Haste Rating to 3 Haste Rating you gain 76 DPS.
Going from 1601 Haste Rating to 1602 Haste Rating you gain 80 DPS.
Going from 3204 Haste Rating to 3205 Haste Rating you gain 81 DPS.
In general you might gain around 1.5 to 2.0 DPS per point of Haste Rating but at an IDP breakpoint you suddenly gain around 80 DPS.
What does all this mean?
First: It means that Haste Scaling Factors need to be calculated carefully if they cross over an IDP breakpoint.
Second: If you're at a gear level where you've got around 1600 Haste Rating, try to get it to at least 1602. If you're near 3200 try to get it to at least 3205.
This doesn't of course mean you should suddenly stop gearing Haste once you reach these breakpoints.
It still does scale pretty well but it's possible that another stat like Crit *might* overtake it for a while.
-- Delmortis/Althor
======================================
In Cataclysm a casters DoTs can gain an extra tick when they gave enough new haste.
For a Shadow Priest the following spells are effected by this:
1) Shadow Word: Pain
2) Vampiric Touch
3) Devouring Plague
4) Improved Devouring Plague.
For most DoTs you determine the number of ticks it will do by applying the following formula:
adjusted_num_ticks = round( base_tick_time * base_num_ticks * 1000.0 / round( 1000.0 * base_tick_time / player_haste ))
Where round() means it rounds the number to the nearest integer, and player_haste is the combined haste of the player including buffs expressed as a multiple. i.e. 5% haste is 1.05. 15% is 1.15.
Of note is the 1000.0 that appears twice. This is because Blizzard round things off to 3 decimal places.
For example: Vampiric Touch has a base_tick_time of 3.0 seconds. It has a base_num_ticks of 5. Darkness gives 3% haste, Mind Quickening gives 5%. Let's say we had 10% haste from haste rating.
Haste stacks multiplicatively so our player_haste would be: 1.03 * 1.05 * 1.10 = 1.18965
Plugging these numbers into the formula:
adjusted_num_ticks = round( 3.0 * 5 * 1000.0 / round( 1000.0 * 3.0 / 1.18965 ) )
= 6
Thus with 10% haste from gear we have 6 ticks on Vampiric Touch. 10% haste from gear at level 85 is 1280.57159423828125 Haste Rating.
So we'd know if we had 1281 Haste Rating (and 3/3 Darkness and Mind Quickening) that we'd have 6 ticks of Vampiric Touch per cast.
Now that formula works for Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague. It doesn't however work exactly like that for Improved Devouring Plague.
Instead Improved Devouring Plague bases its damage off a slightly different number of ticks.
idp_adjusted_num_ticks = ceil( base_tick_time * base_num_ticks * 1000.0 / round( 1000.0 * base_tick_time / player_haste ))
i.e. Whereas normal DoTs round off to the nearest integer, Improved Devouring Plague always rounds up to the nearest integer.
Improved Devouring Plague has another bug in that it *only* benefits from Haste Rating. It gets no benefit from Darkness, Mind Quickening, Berserking or Bloodlust/Heroism.
Knowing all this we can calculate the "breakpoints" for each DoT. i.e. The point where it suddenly gains another tick of duration when cast.
Here are the results assuming 3/3 Darkness and Mind Quickening (the 5% haste buff) are active:
Shadow Word: Pain
-----------------
Ticks Rating Required
------ ---------------
6 0
7 21
8 1993
9 3970
10 5945
11 7913
Vampiric Touch
--------------
Ticks Rating Required
------ ---------------
5 0
6 218
7 2589
8 4951
9 7326
Devouring Plague
----------------
Ticks Rating Required
------ ---------------
8 n/a
9 0 (thanks to Darkness and Mind Quickening)
10 1255
11 2737
12 4211
13 5691
14 7179
Improved Devouring Plague
-------------------------
Ticks Rating Required
------ ---------------
8 0
9 3
10 1602
11 3205
12 4805
13 6408
14 8000
So how valuable are the various breakpoints to reach for DPS?
Results of a test that uses SimulationCraft to test a Priest_Shadow_T11_372.simc priest with its haste levels changed to be 1 below a breakpoint and then at the breakpoint can be found at:
http://www.simulationcraft.org/ShadowPriest_372_Haste_Breakpoints.html
Each profile is named in the format: p372_<X> where X is the amount of Haste Rating it has.
Looking at the results you can see that:
a) A Shadow Word: Pain breakpoint gives no sudden spike of DPS gained. This is of course expected as SW:P is constantly being refreshed anyway.
b) A Devouring Pain breakpoint might give you an extra 1 or 2 DPS for that extra 1 Haste Rating but that's pretty much expected anyway. i.e. It doesn't add much.
c) The same is true of Vampiric Touch. You might gain 3 or so DPS for that extra 1 Haste Rating to get you to its breakpoint but it's minor.
d) Improved Devouring Pain breakpoints on the other hand *are* significant.
Going from 2 Haste Rating to 3 Haste Rating you gain 76 DPS.
Going from 1601 Haste Rating to 1602 Haste Rating you gain 80 DPS.
Going from 3204 Haste Rating to 3205 Haste Rating you gain 81 DPS.
In general you might gain around 1.5 to 2.0 DPS per point of Haste Rating but at an IDP breakpoint you suddenly gain around 80 DPS.
What does all this mean?
First: It means that Haste Scaling Factors need to be calculated carefully if they cross over an IDP breakpoint.
Second: If you're at a gear level where you've got around 1600 Haste Rating, try to get it to at least 1602. If you're near 3200 try to get it to at least 3205.
This doesn't of course mean you should suddenly stop gearing Haste once you reach these breakpoints.
It still does scale pretty well but it's possible that another stat like Crit *might* overtake it for a while.
-- Delmortis/Althor