Patch 2.0: Combat Potency

Combat Potency is a 35 points combat talent that gives, at 5/5, 20% chance to regen 15 energy on successful OH attacks. It is quite easy to model the amount of energy regen.

Energy Regen as a function of Weapon Speed and Mitigation, without any speed mods.
ER (S, M)
= (1/S) * (1 - M) * 20% * 15
= 3 * (1-M) / S

Grahpically depict, ER (S, M) looks like:
To maximize ER, take partial derivative on S:
d ER / d S = -3 * (1 - M) / S^2

No minimum or maximum function can be obtained as this is an negative squared function, but the graph indicates that any weapon speed 2.0 or under offers higher marginal value than those with speed 2.0 or above. Doubling OH weapon speed will reduce the rate of energy regen by 50%.

Combat potency has proc quite often during PvE fights with my 1.8 speed Anbisath Warhammer, and I would have to adjust/micro manage my PvE cycles because of the energy regen. Instead of a steady 5/5 SnD cycles, I could actually throw in a few cp worth of rupture when I got lucky on procs.

In summary:

• ER (S, M) = 3 * (1-M) / S, without any speed mods such as BF/SnD. To factor BF into account, multiply everything by 1.2; SnD, 1.3; both, 1.5.
  
• Combat potency benefits much more from fast OH weapons than slow ones.

P.S. I am currently working through a backlog of emails, and I will be updating/reviewing every post to fix errors and fit them for expansion.

Patch 2.0: Day 1, Blade Twisting

Patch 2.0 finally arrived yesterday and I log on right after getting home from work. The spec of choice is 10/41/0 Combat Mace stun/daze build. I have tried 41/3/7 mutilate build on test servers for couple of hours, but I figures that its time for me to change. I have been in the various SF builds for majority of my time in WoW, or at least 100 days out of the 130 days played, including new and old builds like 30/0/21, 30/8/12, 31/8/12, 30/20, 31/15/5. Misplaced Servo Arm remains to be the weapon of choice as it is currently the second hardest hitting SS weapon besides Gressil. Despite I have access to Kingsfall but the chance of me getting it before expansion is very slim. :(

The focus of the build is to annoy the shit out of people in PvP with Mace Spec Stun (5% chance) and Blade Twisting (20% chance) while maintain a certain degrees of PvE/farming viability with Combat Potency (20% chance to gain 15 energy per OH attack). I also want to investigate what weapon skills have become after the nerf with my decent +8 mace skills (5 from mace spec, 3 from Anubisath).

Here's some thoughts:

Blade Twisting - 20% chance per SS/BS/Shiv/Gouge to daze target for 8 seconds; targets will have a daze debuff when it procs. Sounds perfect on paper but it doesnt deliever. Assumes all SS lands, it should proc:

(SS / 40 energy) * (20 energy / 2 second) * (60 second / minute) * (1 proc / 5 SS) = 3 ppm.

Compare to my Crusader MH (1 ppm):

(1 proc / min) * (min / 60 sec) * (2.8 sec / swing) * (swing / 0.80 hit) = 5.8% proc / hit

which translate into (0.058 * (60/4 + 60/(2.8/0.8))) = 1.86 ppm.

Compare to Mace Spec stun (5% proc/hit)
(5% proc/hit ) * (2.8/0.8 + 1.8/0.8 + 4 hit/s) * (60s / m) = 2.94 ppm

So theoritically, Blade Twisting should proc as much as Mace Spec and a lot more than Crusader. However, from 4 hours of PvP and PvE, it's proc rate is definitely less than either of them. The problem with it is it proc only off special attacks, which has a 4 second cooldown, so the larger interval offsets some of the proc chances.

So in summary:

• With 2.8s MH, 1.8s OH, SS, +5% hit, Blade Twisting will proc roughly 3.00 ppm, compare to Crusader's of 1.86 ppm and Mace Spec Stun of 2.94ppm.
• Despite similar theoratical proc rates to Mace Spec, Blade Twisting will proc less than Mace Spec and even Crusader due to the large time intervals between special attacks (4 second cooldown for SS, 6 second cooldown for BS).
• My feeling is that Blade Twisting procs less than Crusader after 4 hours of PvP/PvE.
• Blade Twisting needs to be buffed, to roughly 30% proc chance to offset the large time interval between specials.

EDIT: Oh and btw, the Crit Scaling post is still TBC...

TBC & Crit Scaling

In TBC, Blizzard introduced one additional stats called Resillience Rating (RR) of which decrease your crit rate by 1% and crit damage by 2% per every 39.4 RR @ level 70. Here is the list of damage calculations:

Assuming a crit rate of C, resillience of R, mainhand damage of MH, offhand damage of OH, respective damage modifier of Mod, then Backstab(BS), Hemorrhage(Hemo), Mutilate(Mut), Sinister Strike (SS) damage will be:

BS(C, MH, R, Mod) = 1.2 * (1.5MH + Mod) * {[1 - (C + 0.3 - R)] + 2.3 * ( 1 - R) * (C + 0.3 - R)}
Hemo(C, MH, R, Mod) = (MH + Mod) * {[1 - (C - R)] + 2.3 * ( 1 - R) * (C - R)}
Mut(C, MH, OH, R, Mod) = 1.2 * 1.5 * (MH + OH + 2Mod) * {[1 - (C - R)] + 2.3 * ( 1 - R) * (C - R)}
SS(C, MH, R, Mod) = 1.06 * (MH + Mod) * {[1 - (C - R)] + 2.3 * ( 1 - R) * (C - R)}

After some simplification, the respective formula becomes:

BS(C, MH, R, Md) = (1.8 MH + 1.2Mod) * [(1.39 + 1.3C) + (4.6R^2 - 4.6RC - 2.68R)]
Hemo(C, MH, R, Mod) = (MH + Mod) * [(1 + 1.3C) + (4.6R^2 - 4.6RC - 1.3R)]
Mut(C, MH, OH, R, Md) = 1.8 * (MH + OH + 2Mod) * [(1 + 1.3C) + (4.6R^2 - 4.6RC - 1.3R)]
SS(C, MH, R, Mod) = 1.06 * (MH + Mod) * [(1 + 1.3C) + (4.6R^2 - 4.6RC - 1.3R)]

Taking partial derivative on RR,

dBS/dR = (1.8 MH + 1.2Mod) * [9.2R - 4.6C - 2.68]
dHemo/dR = (MH + Mod) * [9.2R - 4.6C - 1.3]
dMut/dR = 1.8 * (MH + OH + 2Mod) * [9.2R - 4.6C - 1.3]
dSS/dR = 1.06 * (MH + Mod) * [9.2R - 4.6C - 1.3]

Sub in the highest level modifiers,

dBS/dR = (1.8MH + 306) * [9.2R - 4.6C - 2.68]
dHemo/dR = (MH + 10) * [9.2R - 4.6C - 1.3]
dMut/dR = (1.8MH +1.8OH +364) * [9.2R - 4.6C - 1.3]
dSS/dR = (1.06MH + 104) * [9.2R - 4.6C - 1.3]

Plug in some decent level 70 numbers at the very high end, 500 MH, 250 OH, 30% crit

dBS/dR = 11095R - 4896
dHemo/dR = 4692R - 1367
dMut/dR = 15768.8R - 4593
dSS/dR = 5833R - 1699

TBC -> to be continued...

Mutilate, Part 2: Crit Profile

In part 1, Mutilate was evaluated from a lv60 perspective with rosy 30% crit rate and 1540 attack power. So in this post, I am going to investigate how Mutilate will scale at lv70.

I will use my mediocre gear as an example.
434 Agi

• 135 Naked
  
• 299 item

29.97% Crit

• 5% malice
• 4.65% naked
• 10.31% item agi
• 10% item +crit chance

The crit profile of Mutilate will therefore be:

• 49.04% Non Crit
• 41.98% Single Crit
• 8.98% Double Crit

At level 70, using 5 piece Gladiator gears, 2xGladiator Daggers, Gladiator Thrown, Lv70 Dungeon Hard mode Cloak, Neck, Ringx2, General's Bracer/Belt/Boots, I would have:
411 Agi

• 165 Naked
  
• 246 item
  

25.88% Crit

• 5% malice
• 165/34 = 4.85% naked
• 246/34 = 7.24% item agi
• 194/22.08 = 8.79% crit rating
  

The crit profile of Mutilate will therefore be:

• 54.94% Non Crit
• 38.36% Single Crit
• 6.70% Double Crit

Thus my mutilate crit rate went down from about 51% t0 about 45% as I level and obtain top end gear at the same time. Absolutely horrible.

Mutilate, Part 1: Dual Wield Spec vs Opportunity

The rogue class has evolved over time. I remember we used to wear the OH weapon purely for the stats (Bonescrapper) as OH weapon DPS were basically nullified by dual wield penality. As gears progresses, OH DPS becomes more and more important and at some point, become a significant part of the overall DPS profile. Mutilate elevate the OH DPS to another level as it is the first skill/talent that is mitigated by dual wield penality.

Mutilate adds 101 damage (rank 4) right on top of your MH and OH damage, does 150% when your target is poisoned, and awards 2 combo points (without SF). To maximize Mutilate damage, a slow offhand must be deployed.

Since I am not in Beta, I still have 3 questions about the mechanics of Mutilate.
1. Is Mutilate normalized?
2. Does OH receive the full bonus damage of 101 (rank 4), or bonus damage will first be adjusted by duel wield penality before adding?
3. Does Mutilate adds more than 3 combo points?

11/17/06 EDIT: Mutilate is normalized, the OH receives the full bonus damage, and adds at most 3 combo points.

That being said, an idea came to mind when I was on WoW over this weekend. Is Duel Wield Spec worth giving up Opportunity for?

Mutilate Rank 4, 101 with each weapon.
Assuming 30% crit, 5% hit, and 1540 attack power. Dual wielding Grand Marshal's Shanker (103-155, 1.8 speed). Also assuming Mutilate IS normalized, and OH receive the full bonus damage.

MH = 316 average damage

Mutilate, with Opportunity but no DW spec:
MH = (316 + 101) * 1.2 * (0.7 + 0.3 * 2.3) = 696
OH = (158 + 101) * 1.2 * (0.7 + 0.3 * 2.3) = 432
Sum = 1128 (1692, if poisoned)

Mutilate, with DW spec but no Opportunity:
MH = (316 + 101) * (0.7 + 0.3 * 2.3) = 580
OH = (237 + 101) * (0.7 + 0.3 * 2.3) = 470
Sum = 1050 (1575, if poisoned)

For comparison basis, backstab (rank 10) damage:
BS = (316 * 1.5 + 255) * 1.2 * (0.4 + 0.6 * 2.3) = 1557

So Mutilate is virtually the same DPE replacement for Backstab in PvE and is a slight boost in PvP. Keep in mind that I am calculating using 2 very slow and high damage daggers. So mutilate will benefit the GM/HWL crowd or the high-end raiding guild (Kingsfall/Deathsting) a lot more than random NE/UD rogue out there.

Mutilate should get a little boost on either damage or the poison requirements.

11/2/06 EDIT: Fixed the BS calculation. Apologies on the brain fart.

Combat Rating System Explanation - Bliz

With the upcoming release of the Burning Crusade, we thought we would take the time to explain more on a new stat that we are introducing: Combat Ratings. These ratings are being used for any combat stat that previously was percentage-based such as: critical strike chance, hit chance, dodge chance and defense skill. Combat ratings are only used with effects generated by items and do not apply to effects that are generated by spells and talents which will continue to work the same.

The following combat ratings are currently in use: weapon skill, defense, dodge, parry, block, hit chance, spell hit chance, critical strike chance, spell critical strike chance, resilience, haste, and spell haste.

*We may introduce others at a later time.

Combat Skills

Unlike fixed percentages such as 2% critical strike chance, combat ratings diminish in potency as your character increases in level. 2% crit is the same at every level, while 28 critical strike rating grants 4% crit at level 34, 2% crit at level 60, and 1.27% crit at level 70. This allows us the ability to create and add new and better items to the world without eventually reaching a point where every character has a 100% chance to critically strike.

Below is the level 60 conversion for combat skills:

Weapon Skill Rating 2.5 rating grants 1 weapon skill
Hit Rating 10 rating grants 1% hit chance
Spell Hit Rating 8 rating grants 1% spell hit chance
Critical Strike Rating 14 rating grants 1% critical strike chance
Spell Critical Strike Rating 14 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance
Haste 10 rating 1% haste
Spell Haste 10 rating grants 1% spell haste

Defense Skills

The impact on the defense skill and weapon skill systems is slightly more complicated. Many people do not realize these skills actually grant percentage-based benefits already. For example, every 25 points of defense skill grants a 1% dodge chance, 1% parry chance, 1% block chance, 1% increased chance to be missed and 1% decreased chance to be critically hit by physical attacks. Weapon skills have a similar effect for the attacker. Items will now grant skill rating rather than skill directly, and that will convert to an actual skill increase.

Below is the level 60 conversion for defense skills:

Defense Skill Rating 1.5 rating grants 1 defense skill
Dodge Rating 12 rating grants 1% dodge
Parry Rating 20 rating grants 1% parry
Block Rating 5 rating grants 1% block chance

Resilience

Resilience is a special new rating which we have created to reduce the effects of critical hits against your character. It has two components; it reduces the chance you will be critically hit by X percent, and it reduces the damage dealt to you by critical hits by 2X percent. X is the percentage resilience granted by a given resilience rating.

Below is the level 60 conversion for resilience:

Resilience 25 rating grants 1% resilience

Each time you go up a level, the amount of rating needed to get the same benefit will increase. An example of the scaling involved would be the current implementation of Agility which has always worked this way in the live game, requiring more agility for the same critical strike chance as you go up in level

__________________________________________________________________________

10.30.06

We've seen a number of players (since we've released the combat rating information) display a desire to be empowered with the knowledge of the appropriate level 70 values. As a result, we've gathered them for you. Enjoy your weekend of theorycrafting! :P

Combat Ratings conversions at level 70 (rounded to 1 decimal point):

Weapon Skill Rating: 3.9 rating grants 1 skill point

Defense Rating: 2.4 rating grants 1 defense skill.

Dodge Rating: 18.9 rating grants 1% dodge

Parry Rating: 31.5 rating grants 1% parry

Block Rating: 7.9 rating grants 1% block chance

Hit Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% hit chance

Spell Hit Rating: 12.6 rating grants 1% spell hit chance

Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% critical strike chance

Spell Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance

Haste Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% haste

Spell Haste Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% spell haste

Resilience Rating: 39.4 rating grants 1% less chance of being struck by any type of critical strike, and 2% less damage taken from critical strikes

__________________________________________________________________________

GG Rogues. On top of already ridiculously high caster armor, they added another layer of melee damage mitigation. Seriously we need some magic resilience/armor rating that reduce magic damage by a flat percentage, similar to armor rating...

Memorable Rogue

Today Chalon announced his "retirement" from WoW and community. He is a highly respected rogue and raid leader of Eternal Reign on Light Bringer. He is the author of Rogue FAQ and the famous combat dagger DPS calculator spreadsheet.

I have never spoke to him, but I started my WoW 'career' following his Rogue FAQ, and he has been very helpful on the rogue forums.

Raid Leader, ER - http://www.eternalreign.net
Rogue FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/qbeyn
Combat Daggers/Swords Spreadsheets: http://tinyurl.com/k4vc8

Wish him all the best.

BC Talent Preview: Surprise Attacks

Suprise Attacks
Requires 1 point in Adrenaline Rush
Requires 40 points in Combat Talents
Your Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Gouge can no longer be dodged.

Melee attack ruleset explained here
Energy regen explained here

Assuming a typical melee attack table of a well equiped rogue and a backstab damage of B. Energy loss for miss/dodge/parried backstab is 11.

00-04 Dodge (5%)
05-09 Parry (5%)
10-44 Crit (35%)
45-99 Hit (55%)

Damage WITHOUT Surprise Attacks

Total damage = 1.355B
Total Energy Cost = 55.1
Total CP gain (without SF) = 0.9

DPE = 0.0246B
CP per Energy = 0.01633

With Surprise Attacks, it effectively move Dodge out of the melee roll table, so now the table will look like:

00-04 Parry (5%)
05-39 Crit (35%)
40-99 Hit (60%)

Damage WITH Surprise Attacks

Total damage = 1.405B
Total Energy Cost = 57.55
Total CP gain (without SF) = 0.95

DPE = 0.0244 B
CP per Energy = 0.01652

Surprise Attacks thus in decrease your DPE by 0.8% and increase your CPE by 1.1%. The slight decrease in DPE will be offset by the slight increase in CPE. In other words, your white DPS will be flat.

The only time it will be useful is when you are fighting at the Crit cap. Consider an target with 90% dodge (a rogue with evasion).

Before -> Target
00-04 Dodge (5%) -> 00-89 Dodge (90%)
05-09 Parry (5%) -> 90-94 Parry (5%)
10-44 Crit (35%) -> 95-99 Crit (5%)
45-99 Hit (55%) -> 99-99 Hit (0%)

Your Crit is capped by the high dodge andd parry of your target. Now if we are to remove dodge from the table, it will look like:

00-89 Dodge (90%) -> 00-00 Dodge (0%)
90-94 Parry (5%) -> 00-04 Parry (5%)
95-99 Crit (5%) -> 05-39 Crit (35%)
99-99 Hit (0%) -> 40-99 Hit (60%)

Surprise Attacks will be extremely benefitial at this situation.


To find out for how much dodge, crit, etc will Surprise Attacks actually increase DPS, we have to solve some fucking nasty equation:

Assuming special attack damage of SAD, crit rate of C, dodge rate of D, parry rate of P, miss rate of M.

No SA:
Crit damage = MIN [(100 - M - D - P), C] * 2.3 SAD
Non Crit damage = MAX [(100 - M - D - P - C), 0] * SAD
Energy Cost = 100 * 60 + (M+D+P)*11

SA:
Crit damage = MIN [(100 - M - P), C] * 2.3 SAD
Non Crit damage = MAX [(100 - M - P - C), 0] * SAD
Energy Cost = 100 * 60 + (M+P) * 11

DPE WITH SA > DPE WITHOUT SA
(MIN [(100 - M - D - P), C] * 2.3+ MAX [(100 - M - D - P - C), 0] ) / [100 * 60 + (M+D+P) * 11] > (MIN [(100 - M - P), C] * 2.3 + MAX [(100 - M - P - C), 0] ) / [100 * 60 + (M+P) * 11]

Yay for a massive 4 variable inequality equation. Take out block and parry if you believe Blizzard fixed the bloc/parry from behind bug.

Simplifying by assuming you won't miss or parry:
(MIN [(100 - D), C] * 2.3+ MAX [(100 - D - C), 0] ) / [100 * 60 + 11D] > (MIN [100, C] * 2.3 + MAX [(100 - C), 0] ) / (100 * 60)
(MIN [(100 - D), C] * 2.3+ MAX [(100 - D - C), 0] ) > (2.3C + 100 - C) / (6000) * (6000 + 11D)
(MIN [(100 - D), C] * 2.3+ MAX [(100 - D - C), 0] ) > (1.3C + 100) * (6000+ 11D) / (6000)

(MIN [(100 - D), C] * 2.3+ MAX [(100 - D - C), 0] ) > 1.3C + 100 + 14.3CD/6000 + 1100D/6000

Alright. I gave up here. Something is wrong here. There is no way in hell for me to crunch through this and I probably made thousands of errors up to this point, but if anyone could please plot this simple 2D piece of shit on Excel or Matlab, I would helluva appreciate it.

EDIT: fucking bloggers killed my work, but I have simplified the equation into 3 cases and done some math.

Summary:
SA will increase your DPS only at the shaded region of the below graph, with Dodge being the y-axis and Crit being the x-axis. The boundry condition will be dodge + crit = 100. What does it all mean? SA is FUCKING USELESS under most conditions.
EDIT 2: Disregard the above graph. Somehow my brute force calculation is just a brain fart. Need to do something on Excel once I figure out how do. The equations are true.

More to come: BC Talent Preview: Mutilate

New Combat Dagger Build

Taken directly from an email conversation:

If you want to own DM up, the most important thing, beside l2p, is spec all the high DPS buffing talents. So lets look at the DPS gained from the arguable talents (raid buffed DPS, using Tier 3 gears. Numbers roughly got from Chalon's current DPS calculators):

Adreline Rush (Direct-scaling):
Assuming you are doing 1400 expected/average backstabs, AR is 150 energy, or 150 / 60 * 1400 = 3500 damage, over 300 seconds, or a mere 11.7 DPS per talent point.

Murder (Direct-caling):
Assuming you are doing 750 DPS, murder adds straight 15 DPS when it applies, or 7.5 DPS per talent point.

Ruthlessness (Semi-scaling):
Assuming you are using SnD only, every 30 seconds, the actual CP/s = 0.6 / 30 = 0.02 CP/s
SnD DPS is around 110 of the overall 750 DPS, so each CP is worth 110/5 * 30s = 22 DPS/CP * 30s = 660 D/CP

0.02 CP/s * 660 D/CP = 13.2 DPS, or 4.4 DPS per talent point

Relentless Strikes (Direct-scaling):
Assuming you are using SnD only, every 30 seconds, so its an extra 25 energy every 30 seconds.

25/60 * 1400 = 583 damage, over 30 seconds = 19.4 DPS per talent point

Lethality (Semi-scaling):
Assuming 40% Crit, and Backstab DPS assumed to be 233. Working backwards, Backstab DPS is 122 ( 0.3 * 122 + 0.7 * 122 * 2.3 = 233).

So Lethality = 122 * 0.3 = 36.6 DPS per 5 talent points, or 7.3 DPS per talent point

Improved Poison (Non-scaling):
Assuming no VP, 15% Hit, 2.0 speed MH and OH, Backstabbing rogue.
20% * 130 * (90% * 1 + 95% / 4) = 29.575 ~ 30 DPS per 20% proc rate.

30 DPS per 20% proc rate => 3 DPS per 2% proc rate, or 3 DPS per talent point

Conclusion:

1. (Assasination Tier 2) 3/3 SnD is absolutely needed for combat daggers. Murder produces better DPS/talent point compare to Ruthlessness, so 2/2 Murder.
2. (Assasination Tier 3) Lethality is 7.3 DPS per talent point vs. Relentless Strikes' 19.4 DPS per talent point. 1/1 Relentless Strikes + 4/5 Lethality.
3. (Assasination Tier 3, Combat Tier 7) AR is 11.7 DPS/talent point, but would require 3 talent points investment (2 fillers), so its actually 11.7 DPS/ 3 talent points. The other choice is 1/5 Lethality @ 7.3 DPS + 2/3 Ruthlessness @ 4.4 DPS each, netting you 16.1 DPS/ 3 talent points.

The resulted build is:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues2/talents.html?005223105000000005325000055010020005000000000000000

Overall efficiency: 2/2 Imp SS, 3/3 Imp Gouge, 2/2 Imp Sprint as fillers (total of 7). The rest are all DPS producing talents, vs. 15/31/5 build with total of 9 fillers.

Hope this helps. Feel free to correct my errors.

World of Rangecraft and Rogues

Since 1.11 is in public beta and 1.12 is on the horizon, its a good time to bring up some of the issues thats detrimental to the rogue class (and my feral pussy cat).

1. Vanish
Oh ya, when is blizzard going to fix this shit. Nothing beats vanishing and knocked right out due to mid-swing attacks, heat-tracking arcane missles, and pet of all seeing. Vanish was working at an acceptable level during 1.8 to 1.9 and now its broken as fuck similar to pre 1.7. What the fuck is this.

And vanish is almost useless in PvE raids as combat pulses will knock you right into combat. Nothing beats seeing hunters getting up from FD after a raid wipe. I disenchanted my Jumper Cable XL.

I suspect vanish bug is due to.....

2. Location Validation Bug/ Server-Client Dissync
This is the worst shit ever. No other class can imagine how bad this is. It's comparable to, say, a mage casting Arcane Explosion right on top of a rogue and yet the rogue is not getting damaged. It's completely bullshit.

Blizzard doesnt seem to be aware of this shit since they play test on Intranet servers. But all rogues living outside of Orange County and has a ping above 30ms should have experienced "Your target is too far away" error messages of some sort.

And on top of this, you have the lag issue that kills all rogues. Sure lag effects all classes, but a 1 second cast Arcane Explosion will still hit a rogue, but a 1 second cast Kidney Shot will be "Your target is too far away" or "You are facing the wrong way". Range classes simply suffers minimally from lag compare to melee classes.

3. Damage Mitigation Scaling
So we are rogues. We fight in melee range (5 yards). We wear leather armor of value ranging from 1500-2500. Fine.

But why the fuck are hunters wearing mail and fight at 30 yards? It's not like any melee class can kill a hunter in PvP even if they wear cloth. So what's the logic here? Making an impossible-to-kill class to invincible?

And the caster armor scaling just perplexes me. A good PvP caster can have around 3000-4000 armor with 4000-5000 HP self buffed. That's roughly 35% melee damage mitigation. And rogues only have 1500-2500 armor. Something is wrong here.

Further, melee damage mitigation increases as melee DPS, but magical damage mitigation does not increase as magical damage increase? WTF is wrong with Blizzard designerss fuck up brain? Sure I can wear FrostR to counter frost damages, but I would still get pwnt by the mage with his pom pyro and fireballz. Comparatively, a mage can wear high armor set and wtfpwn rogues AND warriors. I woulda kill for a single set that has high stam/high ap AND resist to all schools of magic by 40%.

4. Stats Points Valuation
So why are we getting so much strength? Why not just translate the fucking strength into AP for us. It's exactly the same thing and yet cheaper. Even higher armor will be better. It's as dumb as putting strength on hunter's mail or putting agility on priest's cloth.

BTW translate the 1% dodge on BF boots/shoulders into Agi or Stamina please.

5. Damage Scaling
Oh hey dumbfucks, 1 damage/healing increase caster damage by 1. 1 attack power increases rogue damage, uh, by 0.07. So what's the situation here? Rogue's burst DPS is way lower than warlocks at the moment. Sure we can ambush->backstab for a godly 2500-3000 damage, and we would be kited to death from 100->0.

Ya sure, we can do 100->0 stunlock combo when the hour/minute/second hands of the clock overlap, but that would take us more than 15 seconds to do so. How long does a warlock/mage need to kill a rogue? 10 seconds max.

Every other class can burst DPS, and they all burst DPS better than rogues. Well, perhaps not paladin but they can't even be killed anyway.

More on Sword Spec Modeling

There has been some discussion and validation of Sword Specialization mechanics on the Rogue forum recently, and the results are exactly the same as I stated in both 3/2/06 and 3/3/06 post.

1. Sword Spec proc off only swords.
   
2. OH sword spec proc triggers an instant extra MH attack.
3. Special attacks triggers an instant extra MH attack.
4. Sword spec proc is an normal mainhand attack and will cancel attack-in-motion and resets your MH attack timer.
5. Sword spec will NOT proc off enchant/weapon/poison procs.

There are 3 cases that will trigger a sword spec proc: 1. MH normal attack 2. OH normal attack 3. Special attack. And it will be the determining factor in modeling sword spec proc dps.

Case 1: MH normal attacks

MH attack triggers another instant normal attack from sword spec. No swing timer is "wasted" as the sword spec proc is instant. Thus you gain 100% of the damage.

Effective MH sword spec proc damage = 100% * MH damage.

Case 2: OH normal attacks

OH attack triggers an instant MH normal attack.

t=0: Attack initialized. Both MH and OH swing at the same time.
t=OH_Speed: OH attacks. Procs sword spec. MH attacks instantly and resets the swing timer.

Thus, swing timers will reset to initial engagement state everytime OH attack procs sword spec, with the wasted MH swing time equal to OH speed.

Effective OH sword spec proc damage = [1 - (OH Speed/MH Speed)] * MH damage

Yes, your OH sword spec proc will do less effective damage, as the only "time"/"damage" you gain is the part you get for free but not yet swung. i.e. MH speed minus OH speed.

Case 3: Special attacks

Similar to OH proc modeling, assuming you aint doing anything stupid like SnD/Evis/Rupture.

Effective MH sword spec proc damage = [1 - (MH Speed/4)] * MH damage

Example:

2.8 Speed MH, 1.8 Speed OH.

MH Sword Spec Proc = 100% of MH damage
OH sword spec proc = 36% of MH damage
Special sword spec proc = 30% of MH damage

The overall sword spec proc effective damage (weighted average) will be 54%.

Tier 3 Rogue Set, Bloodelf Racials, and Naxxramus Items

I've been so fucking busy over the past few months with company earnings and various conferences so cbf updating this blog. But here comes E3.

BoneScythe, 9 piece Rogue Tier3 Set.
Set Bonuses:
2 Piece: Your normal melee swing has a chance to invigorate you, healing you for 90 to 110.
4 Piece: Your Backstab, Sinister Strike, and Hemorrhage critical hits causes you to restore 5 energy.
6 Piece: Reduces threat caused by your Backstab, Sinister Strike, Hemorrhage, and Eviscerate abilities.
8 Piece: Your Eviscerate has a chance per combo point to reveal a flaw in your opponent's armor, granting 100% critical hit chance for your next Backstab, Sinister Strike, or Hemorrhage skills.

Bonescythe Helm
+28 Strength
+30 Agility
+29 Stamina
+2% Chance to Hit
+2% Chance to Crit

Bonescythe Ring
+30 Agility
+10 Stamina
+1% Chance to Hit.

More here.

Analysis

2 piece:
Godly. It's effectively a free Crusader enchant without the AP buff or cracked up Lifestealing enchant without the 30-45 damage.

4 piece:
O M F G. Crank in some numbers. Assuming a 30% crit rate and no special attacks, the energy regen rates (energy regened per second) are:

Hemo: 5 energy/3.5 seconds * 30% = 0.43 E/s
SS: 5 energy /4.0 seconds * 30% = 0.38 E/s
BS: 5 energy /6.0 seconds * (30% + 30%) = 0.5 E/s

Although a fixed energy regen appears to favor abilities that costs less energy, it actually benefits Backstab the most after factoring the crit rate from Improved Backstab.

No special attacks involved is a pretty valid assumption when Ruthlessness (R) and Relentless Strikes (RS) are factored into the situation; 25 energy finishers becomes effectively free.

Eviscerate, only 35 energy finisher, is also free when you factoring in the energy regen. Assuming a typical 20 second to build up 5 cp for SF dagger builds and 30 second to build up 5 cp for non-SF dagger builds, the energy regened are 10 and 15, making Eviscerate effectively 25 and 20 energy respectively, inline with other finishers.

So this 4 piece set benefits Seal Fate builds tremendously, with a 5% energy regen rate per attack. Further, it would turn the 25 energy finishers into 15 energy finishers. Combined with R and RS, you would actually GAIN energy when they proc!!!

6 piece:
Junk. Who needs reduced aggro anyways when you can vanish. On top of that, we can feint when we are running too high on damage meters. BTW, according to the test server data mining, it reduces the threat generated by specials by 8%.

8 piece:
Nice for rogues, but it would be best paired with SF builds where energy/combo point generation dominates the DPS output.

Overall I would think 4BS/5DD would rock in PvP.

Naxxramus Items

King's Fall (105-158 Damage, 1.80 Speed)
+16 Agility
+1 Chance to Crit
+1 Chance to Hit


The Hungering Cold (138-257 Damage, 2.70 Speed)
+15 Stamina
+40 Attack Power

Hammer of the Sun (104-194 Damage, 2.00 Speed)
+4 Agility
+4 Strength
+4 Stamina
+10 FR
+10 SR
+1 Chance to Crit

BloodElf Racial

• Arcane Affinity - Enchanting increased by 15
• Arcane Torrent - Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you gain 20 Energy, Mana or Rage for each Mana Tap charge currently affecting you.
• Magic Resistance - All resistances increased by 5
• Mana Tap - Drains 50 mana from your target and charges you with Arcane energy until cancelled. This effect stacks up to 3 times.

AoE silence that centered around the player. God damn. That's going to be OP for Rogues/Warriors. Stun/Charge + Arcane Torrent. Godly.

Melee Attack Ruleset

Miss + Dodge + Parry + Block + Crit + Hit = 100%

For example, if I have 30% Crit, +0 Hit and my target has 5% Dodge, 5% Block, 5% Parry, then in ONE DICE roll,

00-04 Miss (5%)
05-09 Dodge (5%)
10-14 Parry (5%)
15-19 Block (5%)
20-49 Crit (30%)
50-99 Hit (50%)

so if the magical Blizzard dice rolled 35, it will be a crit, and so forth.

Now what happens in a Coldblood Evis? The Crit chance is increased to 100% but anyone who plays rogue for more than 2 hours knows CB Evis misses like fuck. So here is what happens,

00-04 Miss (5%)
05-09 Dodge (5%)
10-14 Parry (5%)
15-19 Block (5%)
20-99 Crit (80%)

So your Evis will Crit 80% of the time.

Wait, but isn't CB a 100% Crit? Yes, but here is the deal. There are precedences for each one of these attack/defense types. Crits only eats Hits. +Hit items only eats Misses. Nothing eats Dodge/Parry/Block (besides themselves and weapon skills).

Thus the precedence order is,

Miss > Dodge/Parry/Block > Crit > Hit

So what about Dodge/Parry/Block's precedence? Well, here is my speculation.

Dodge > Parry > Block

Dodge has precedence over block/parry because your target won't need to parry/block when he dodges soemthing.

Parry is higher than block because, well, everything parry and above is 100% damage mitigation.

Block is lower than all the 100% damage mitigation actions but better than taking a hit.

EDIT: creeps cannot parry or block (supposely) from behind after patch 1.3, so it is advantagous even for sword rogues to attack doggy style. I will try to transcript patch 1.3 notes when WoW is back up. (3/21/06)

Energy Regeneration Oddities

Well, if you ever played a rogue, you know your energy is rarely a multiple of 5. So here it is.

Sinister Strinket = 40 energy (45 before talents)
Backstab = 60 energy

Missed SS costs 7 energy.
Missed BS costs 11 energy.

These numbers are gathered from Kurinnaxx fight in AQ20. His sandblast reduces your hit chance by 20% (or some retarded amount like that), so I was able to keep on missing SS/BS and record at the energy penalty.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Now for my speculation on Blizzard's implementation of Energy regen/penality.

If you look at the energy lost from missed strikes per energy cost,

SS: 7/40 = 17.5%
BS: 11/60 = 18.3%

it can be save to assume its either 17.5% or 18% energy penality for missed specials.

So,

SS miss -> 40 * 0.175 = 7.0 energy (rounded to 7)
BS miss -> 60 * 0.175 = 10.5 energy (rounded to 11)

SS miss -> 40 * 0.18 = 7.2 energy (rounded to 7)
BS miss -> 60 * 0.18 = 10.8 energy (rounded to 11)

This is part of the reason that energy is rarely at multiple of 5.

Also, from my experience, energy rarely drops to 0, but only to 1.

I am suspecting the energy regen isn't perfect at 20 per 2 seconds but probably a odd number like 19.7 per second thus contributing to sometimes 21 or 19 energy regen ticks.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Some might question my "theorycraft", but what I have done here is no more than reverse-engineering to emulate/model Blizzard's internal calculation code, with some speculations and rounding errors.

A Preview of My Next Version of DPS Calculator. Dynamically Updated (some bug of course)

			Main Hand Enchant
	DPS Chart	<= OH Poison DPS	None	Deadly Poison V	Instant Poison VI	Dense Sharpening Stone	Elemental Sharpening Stone
	MH Poison DPS =>		-	25.4	16.2	6.6	5.2
OH	None	-	-	25.39	16.18	6.57	5.25
	Deadly Poison V	20.9	20.91	46.30	37.09	27.48	26.16
	Instant Poison VI	13.3	13.33	38.71	29.50	19.90	18.57
	Dense Sharpening Stone	2.1	2.05	27.44	18.23	8.63	7.30
	Elemental Sharpening Stone	5.2	5.25	30.64	21.43	11.82	10.50
Temporary Enchant DPS =		46.3

			Main Hand Enchant
	DPS Chart	<= OH Poison DPS	None	Superior Striking (+5 Damage)	Agility (+15 Agility)	Crusader	Lifestealing
	MH Poison DPS =>		-	4.1	3.3	4.0	3.4
OH	None	-	-	4.11	3.30	3.98	3.37
	Superior Striking (+5 Damage)	1.3	1.28	5.39	4.59	5.27	4.65
	Agility (+15 Agility)	3.3	3.30	7.41	6.61	7.29	6.67
	Crusader	3.3	3.25	7.36	6.56	7.24	6.62
	Lifestealing	2.5	2.46	6.57	5.76	6.44	5.83
Weapon Enchant DPS =		7.4

Now I learned Copy and Past from Excel into Blogspot will have formatting problems. :S

1.10 Darkmantle Set

Here is a link to the new 1.10 Darkmantle Set.

The set graphics looks great and the stats fits very well between Nightslayer and Shadowcraft. The 4 piece set bonus of +35 Energy proc sounds extremely promising. I am particularly interested in DM Boots due to the stealth bonus.

5/5 MoD gives 15 Stealth Skill Points.

DM Boots gives 8 Stealth Skill Points according to WoWGuru.
NE Racial gives 5 Stealth Skill Points.
Stealth Enchant gives Lesser Stealth (5 Stealth Skill Points).
So DM Boots + NE Racial + Stealth Enchant = 18 Stealth Points, better than MoD 5/5.

Haven't I argued that MoD is useless since last January?

None of the speed enchant bonuses stacks besides Camo thus valuing 5/5 Camo higher than 5/5 MoD simply due to the unavailability/un-stackability of speed improvement enchants/gears.

On a side note,

1. We got to C'Thun phase 2 on our third week of AQ40. 15 min corpse run + buffs between attempts fucking sucks.
   
2. Each BS miss consumes 11 energy while each SS miss consumes 7 energy.
3. My Excel spreadsheet calculator has progressed smoothly and should be ready *soon*.
   

I Slap Myself in the Fase. 1% Chance to Gain Extra Attack = 1.5% Hit

I retract my eariler statement that +2% Hit and +2% Chance for an Extra Attack have no material differences after some discussion with Pj. We have come to an agreement that 3% Hit = 2% Chance to Gain Extra Attacks. This is some logic flaw on my part. My apologies.

So 5/5 Sword Spec is effectively 6.5% Hit. HoJ is effectively 3% Hit + 20 AP.

My 03.03.06 post regarding my calculation assumptions still holds true, except flawed logic in interpreting the results.

On a side note, grats to my guild Eminence on Twin Emp kill. Gate opened 02/27/06. Twin Emperor down on 03/03/06. Good progress. Now where the fuck is me on the group shot. :S

My Excel Calculator v0.4.3 is well in progress. Now I just have to make the Data Table work so they display the correct value. > <

HoJ/Sword Spec Procs? Pfft. Get +Hit

First of all, I've shown a 0.5% increase in DPS from 2% hit to 2% for an extra attack. That's far from 50% improvement from the comment.

1. 2.4 MH and OH Speed Assumption I assumed 2.4 speed for both MH and OH. Most MH sword speed ranges from 2.6 to 2.9. There are only 4 epic sword that has speed less than 2.4: Blackguard(craftable), Ravencrest's Legacy(AQ Gate Quest), Maladath, Runed Blade of the Black Flight(BWL), Warblade of the Hakkari(ZG). Most uses Brutality Blade(MC) for OH. 2.4 speed for both hands is a fairly reasonable assumption.
   
2. Sword Spec or HoJ procs are additive and will slightly decrease total number of MH attacks as they cancel out attack-in-motion. And although you gain more chance to proc extra MH attacks through HoJ/Sword Spec, but you also have less chance to miss on BOTH your MH and OH attacks for +2% Hit.
3. Aggression won't change the results. Extra 6% damage on SS does not have anything to do with extra MH attacks gained through +Hit or +Chance to attack.
4. Slice and Dice won't change the results either as it benefit both the same way. Neither will Blade Flurry skew the results.
   
5. Duel Wield spec will only reinforce my argument further. OH DPS weights 75% instead of 50% of the white DPS, thus the damage from MH extra procs will be reduced as a % of overall damage.

Extremely minor details I should say.

+2% Chance for an Extra Attack Has No Material Benefit Over +2% Hit

Known Facts:
HoJ procs off both special attacks and normal attacks.
HoJ can proc on another HoJ proc.
HoJ proc triggers an extra Main Hand attack.

Now assume a normal 5% hit 30% crit rogue (20% miss rate on normal attacks, 0% miss rate on special attacks) SS spamming over the course of 100 seconds using two 2.4 speed weapons. Further assume 250 non-crit white attacks and 318 non-crit SS for simplicity.

Default:
Total # of white attacks = (2*100/2.4)*(100%-20%) = 66.7
Damage from white attacks = 66.7 * (250+250*0.5) /2 * 1.3 = 16,258
Total # of SS = 25
Damage from SS = 25 * 318 * (0.7+0.3*2.3) =11,051
Total # of attacks = 91.7
Damage Total = 27,309

2% Hit:
Total # of white attacks = (2*100/2.4)*(100%-20%+2%) = 68.3
Damage from white attacks = 68.3 * (250+250*0.5)/2 * 1.3 = 16,648
Total # of SS = 25
Damage from SS = 25 * 318 * (0.7+0.3*2.3) =11,051
Total # of attacks = 93.3, or 1.74% more attacks than the original.
Damage Total = 27,699, or 1.43% improvement over the original.

2% Chance for an Extra Attack:
Total # of white attacks = (2*100/2.4)*(100%-20%) *1.02 + 25 * 0.02 = 68.5
Damage from white attacks = 16,258 + (68-66.7+25*0.02)*250*1.3 + = 16,843
Total # of SS = 25
Damage from SS = 25 * 318 * (0.7+0.3*2.3) =11,051
Total # of attacks = 93.5, or 1.96% more than the original, or 0.2% over +2% Hit.
Damage Total = 27,894, or 2.14% improvement over the original, or 0.7% over +2% Hit.

I have ignored proc on proc since those have very marginal benefit (2% for proc, 2.04% for proc on proc, 2.0408% for proc on proc on proc, etc).

Conclusion:

• Is +2% chance for an extra attack better than +2% hit? Yes.
• Is the difference significant? No, unless you consider 0.2%/0.7% more swings/damage material.
• For modeling purposes, it's easier to proximate +2% chance for an extra attack to +2%
  

AQ Item Wish List

Now that AQ gate is finally opened on Blackrock and Eminence is up to Huhuran (NR cockblock), here is my wishlist for AQ40/AQ20 in the order of desire:

Deathsting - C'Thun(?)
Anubisath Warhammer - Trash Mobs
Blessed Qiraji Pugio - AQ40 Boss Drop
Sand Polished Hammer - Ossirian the Unscarred
Deathdealer Vest - C'Thun
Deathdealer's Boots - Princess Huhuran
Ring of the Qiraji Fury - Battleguard Sartura
Barbed Choker - Fankriss the Unyielding

Yes, I am looking forward to replace my Dal'rend's set so I can grind more efficiently than using my daggers. I am not planning to dump my 5 NS bonus at the moment.

With active trinket nurf in 1.10, Earthstrike + ZHM combo won't be viable, but RCoT is still the best PvP trinket out there.

Active Trinket DPS modeling done (except ZHM is using lazy mode).

SnD/Rupture and Finisher Efficiency - by Kalman (Updated 03.01.06)

Link to original post by Kalmam. And my apologies for spelling the name wrong twice. :(
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-rogue&T=918191&P=2

There are 3 common SnD specs: 0/3, 1/3, and 3/3 Improved. 2/3 specs are rare.

With 0/3, your timers are 9/12/15/18/21.
With 1/3, your timers are 10/14/17/21/24.
With 3/3, your timers are 13/17/22/26/30.

A 1 CP SnD is modelable as 20 energy, 0.4 CP cost.
A 2 CP SnD is modelable as 15 energy, 1.4 CP.
A 3 CP SnD is modelable as 10 energy, 2.4 CP.
A 4 CP SnD is modelable as 05 energy, 3.4 CP.
A 5 CP SnD is modelable as 00 energy, 4.4 CP.

(assumes Relentless/Ruthless)

Energy efficiency is defined as the percentage of your energy being used on damage skills (SS/BS) divided by the total energy required. It is unrelated to Imp SnD, except insofar as higher patterns may not be sustainable without it.

Energy efficiency is simple: energy spent on damage / total energy spent.

E.G., the 4 CP cycle for sword rogues is:

(3.4*40)/((3.4*40)+5) = 96%.


Energy efficiency: swords (1 CP = 40 energy)

All patterns are sustainable for a sword rogue.

1: 44% (56% wasted)
2: 79% (21% wasted)
3: 91% (9% wasted)
4: 97% (3% wasted)
5: 100% (no wasted energy, )

Energy efficiency: combat daggers (1 CP = 60 energy)

1: 54% (46% wasted)
*all higher patterns are unsustainable at 0/3*
2: 85%
*all higher patterns are unsustainable at 1/3*
3: 93.5%
4: 95%
5: 100%

I don't feel like dealing with SF daggers, but the CP/energy is easily calculable.

At 1/3, dagger specs pick up the 2 CP cycle as sustainable. At 3/3, all cycles are sustainable.

For a sword rogue, the 1 CP pattern is simply useless. You'll wind up wasting energy, or using CP on something other than SnD (and if you're going to do that, why aren't you using 5 CP to do it?).

For 3/3 Imp SnD, a sword rogue should be cycling:

5 SnD, 5 Rupture, 3 SnD, repeat. Overall efficiency for the cycle: 98%. SnD uptime? Constant.

5 SnD gives 30 seconds of SnD. 17.6 (average) will be spent getting to 5 Rupture. Rupture is zero-energy. Leaves 13.4 seconds to build to 3 pt SnD. Happily this requires 130 energy to do in worst case, technically averages at 106.

(Occasionally you'll wind up with bad misses, or unlucky on your Ruthless/Relentless procs. Adjust your cycle as needed, but the 5/5/3 cycle is very, very good.)

A combat dagger rogue at 3/3 will cycle:

5 SnD, 1 CP Rupture, repeat. This cycle is almost perfectly sustainable (30.45 seconds SnD. 4.4 average for the 1 CP Rupture, 26.4 average for the 5 CP SnD, means there's 0.35 un-SnDed. Drop the Rupture if you need to.) Energy efficiency here is effectively 100%, as Rupture energy is damage as well, but if you want to count Rupture as inefficiency, efficiency is 93.5%. I.E. as efficient as a 3 cycle, with a slight DPS boost from the rupture.

Unless you didn't improve SnD, 1 CP SnDs are wasting energy.

- Post Made by Kalman on Rogue Forum, Taken for My Personal Note.

Trinket DPS Calculations

It's really hard to compare active trinkets (ZHM, VT, etc) to passive trinkets (DFT, BB, etc) using some reasonable basis. Quality can only be compared when you can quantify their effects and that's what I've been trying to attempt.

Drake Fang Talisman

Listing the DPS for DFT for comparison basis. Since I am trying to use Excel spreadsheet to model DPS, I am going to do it in lazy mode by simply adding 2% hit and 56ap to my model and take the difference in DPS.

With my current set-up, DFT contributes about 11.5 DPS.

Hand of Justice

Listing the DPS for HoJ becuase this trinket is generally being overvalued by the public. "2% chance on hit to gain 1 extra attack" is extremely similar to +2% hit. Yes, 2% hit to gain 1 extra attack is slightly better. No, the difference is not material to use different numbers for either of them.

Earthstrike
Use: Increases your melee and ranged attack power by 280. Effect lasts for 20 sec.

Since I am trying to use Excel spreadsheet to model DPS, I am going to do it in lazy mode. Calculating each individual attack's benefit from ES is a major pita and varies dramatically depending on specs.

DPS = Damage Dealt / Time
= (Total DPS after +280 Attack Power - Total Original DPS) * 20 / (120 for sustained, 20 for burst)
~ 6.6 DPS sustained
~ 39.8 DPS burst, according to my gear set-up

Another method of calculation is to pro-rate it to its cooldown. So +280 attack power for 20 seconds every 2 minutes can be scaled into 47 attack power over 2 minutes. So Earthstrike can be treated as a 47 attack power trinket for sustained damage purposes.

Renataki's Charm of Trickery
Use: Instantly increases your energy by 60.

DPS = Average Backstab Hit / (Trinket Cooldown for Sustained)
= 1000 / 180
= 5.6 DPS

The Burst DPS for Renataki's Charm of Trickery is meaningless due to its instant nature. 1000 damage / 1 second = 1000 DPS anyone?

Venomous Totem
Use: Increases the chance to apply Rogue poisons to your target by 30% for 20 sec.
Simple and straight forward calculation

DPS = Total # of Landing Hits * 30% * Poison Damage / (Trinket Cooldown for Sustained | 20 Second for Burst)
= { [(Activating Energy + 20*10)/(Hemo 35 | SS 40 | BS 60) * 30% * (130 | 150 Viled Poison) * [100% - max(5% - Hit Rate, 0)] + [(20/MH Weapon Speed) + (20/OH Weapon Speed)] * 30% * (130 | 150 Viled Poison) * [100% - max(24% - Hit Rate, 0)] } / (300 | 20)

Example: Assuming 1.8 Speed MH, 1.6 Speed OH, 5% hit, Backstab and duel wield Instant Poison VI with no Viel Poison talent and activate trinket at full (100) energy.

VT Sustained DPS = [5 * 0.3 * 130 + (11.11 + 12.5) * 0.3 * 130 * 0.81]/300 = 3.1
VT Burst DPS = [5 * 0.3 * 130 + (11.11 + 12.5) * 0.3 * 130 * 0.81]/20 = 47.1

Zandalarian Hero Medallion
Use: Increases your melee and ranged damage by 40 for 20 sec. Every time you hit a target, this bonus is reduced by 2.

Worst active trinket to proximate DPS. Period.

However, I am a lazy fuck and I adhere to KISS principle, so here is the very proximate evaluation of ZHM:

Total Damage Added ~ [(1+20)*10/2]*2 = 210
Total Damage Added after Crit/Hit Effects ~ 210 * [(1 - Miss Rate + Hit Rate) + 2 * Crit Rate)]

Assuming 5% Hit and 27% Crit
Total Damage Added after Crit/Hit Effects = 281.4

DPS = 281.4 / (20 for burst, 120 for sustained) = 14.1 burst DPS or 2.3 sustained DPS

Since this method ignores special attacks and all the talent perks, I will give it a 2x ratio to make it 28.2 burst DPS or 4.6 sustained DPS.

Two New Toys Since September 2005

Well, I have finally picked up some new toys last weekend after a long slump. Striker's Mark from Magmadar in Molten Core and Polished Ironwood Crossbow from Emeriss for my Nature Resist. There is simply no better range weapon that will provide the same amount of DPS increase as Striker's Mark.

Nightslayer Boots still won't drop. And ZG +60 Energy Trinket is still a long way to go.

My Microsoft Excel version of Rogue DPS Calculation has been completed with most of the Epic/Rare items added into a Excel-List based database. Please email me for it. I will work on verification and add in armor reduction before I start porting it to a web-based program.

Useful Rogue Macro (Updated 03.02.06)

Weapon Switch
/script PickupInventoryItem(16);
/script PickupContainerItem(3, 17);
/script PickupInventoryItem(17);
/script PickupContainerItem(3, 18);

Auto Bandaid
/script if (UnitCanCooperate("player","target")) then TargetUnit("player"); end UseContainerItem(3, 1); if(SpellIsTargeting()) then TargetUnit("player"); end
/script TargetLastEnemy();

Use Trinket Slot
/script UseInventoryItem(13);

Auto Riposte Macro
/script if (UnitMana("Player")>=10) and (IsUsableAction(Key#)) then CastSpellByName("Riposte");end;SpellStopCasting();if (UnitMana("Player")>=40) then CastSpellByName("Sinister Strike(Rank 8)"); end

SnD Macro
/script GCP=GetComboPoints();if (GCP < style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255);">CastSpellByName("Sinister Strike(Rank 8)") else CastSpellByName("Slice and Dice(Rank 1)"); end

PvE Raid Evis + Feint Macro
/script CN=CastSpellByName;GCP=GetComboPoints();if UnitMana("Player")>=20 and IsUsableAction(Key#) then CN("Feint");end;if (GCP>=5) then CN("Eviscerate");end;if UnitMana("Player")>=60 then CN("Backstab");end

Smashable Stealth
/script if not(string.find(GetShapeshiftFormInfo(1), "Invis" )) then CastSpellByName("Stealth"); end

Vanish Naked with Itemrack
/script CastSpellByName("Vanish(Rank 2)"); EquipSet("Naked");

ZHM Spam Macro
/script if (UnitMana("target")>=60) and (GetInventoryItemCooldown("player", 13)==0) then UseInventoryItem(13); end; SpellStopCasting(); CastSpellByName("Backstab(Rank 8)");

CB Eviscerate
/script CN=CastSpellByName; CN("Cold Blood"); SpellStopCasting(); if (GetComboPoints()>= 3) then CN("Eviscerate(Rank 8)");end

Todo:

1. Write a smashable shadowmeld+stealth macro
2. Write a smashable SnD + Feint + Rupture macro. Need to detect self buff for this.
   

Temporary Weapon Buff DPS

Instant Poison DPS
= MH Poison Procs + OH Poison Procs + Special Attack Poison Procs
= Poison Damage/MH weapon Speed + Poison Damage/OH Weapon Speed + Poison Damage/Time in between Special Attacks (HM Only)
= Poison Damage * (MH Weapon Speed + OH Weapon Speed) / (MH Weapon Speed + OH Weapon Speed) + Poison Damage / (4 SS | 6 BS)
= (20% | 30% Improved IP) * (130 | 150 Viled Poison) * {[100% - max(24% - Hit Rate, 0)] * (MH Weapon Speed + OH Weapon Speed)/ (MH Weapon Speed * OH Weapon Speed) + [100% - max(5% - Hit Rate, 0)] / (4 SS | 6 BS)}

Example:
Assuming 5% Hit, BS, no Imp IP, no Viled Poison, Duel Wielding Instant Poison, 1.8 Speed MH, 1.6 Speed OH:
Instant Poison DPS = 29.2

Deadly Poison DPS
DPv5 is 136 Damage / 12 seconds, with 30% proc rate and stacks up to 5 charges. This shit is complicated. Time to do some Unit Algebra. Assuming 1.7 Speed Weapon.

(1 attack / 1.7 second) * ( 0.3 proc / 1 attack) = 0.176 PPS (Proc per second) or 5.67 second per proc. (10.6 PPM)

Over the course of 12 seconds, DPv5 will proc:

12 second * 0.176 PPS = 2.1 times

Thus DPv5 DPS = 2.1 * 136/12 = 23.8


Dense Sharpening Stone DPS
= DPS gained from +8 Damage
= 7.04 DPS (MH only)

0.88/0.28 is the DPS gained from +1 MH/OH damage using sensitivity analysis from my Excel calculator on 27% Crit, 6% Hit, 830 AP. It will vary on different spec but should stay roughly at around 2.8.

Elemental Sharpening Stone DPS
= DPS Gained from +2% Crit
= 5.56 DPS

2.78 is the DPS gained from +1% Crit using sensitivity analysis from my Excel calculator on 27% Crit, 6% Hit, 830 AP. It will vary on different spec but should stay roughly at around 2.8.