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...