Burn DPS in raids (HoT edition)

[Hzath]

Some people have been talking/asking about how our burn strategy has changed with new abilities since House of Thule has launched, and since Inphared is a quitter and can't revise his post from this thread http://beastlords.org/index.php?topic=8362.0 I'll try my best to write an updated version.

The ideal group is the same for us.  You need a shaman and a bard to be remotely competitive (like all melee classes), and zerker and enchanter auras are needed to truly maximize your dps.  Enchanters aren't common in melee dps groups so often we'll be without twincast aura.  It's still beneficial to try to get mana reiterate from them, the real stuff if you can manage but take the new manastorm or a tonic of resonant elemental if they're unwilling.


At the start of a burn you'll want to make sure a things are in place before you go to town.
1) You want  Shaman epic, Auspice of the Hunter, Bard Epic buffs on you - (you can include your own BP click and First Spire in these pre burn buffs)
2) You want Bestial Vivisection, Rush, Feral Swipe, Flurry of Claws all to be ready
3) The tank has sufficient agro that you don't expect to flip the mob and die in 20 seconds

~~~MELEE~~~

When it's time to go click Bestial vivisection, Bestial Alignment, Nature's Fury, and Bestial Bloodrage (if he doesn't already have it).  

When those have all taken hold click your damage abilities Rush/Feral Swipe/Flurry of claws and click them as soon as they pop.  When Nature's Fury has almost no time left activate Frenzy of Spirit.  Frenzy of spirit and nature's fury both has hundredhands effects on them which is just a fancy type of haste that is very powerful, but like other haste buffs only the larger takes effect so we don't want to use them at the same time.  

When Bestial Alignment is starting to fade you'll want to activate Empathic Fury. Bestial Alignment has a large damage modifier than Empathic Fury so that's why it gets used first with the larger hundredhands effect.  Empathic fury has a couple of additional effects but they are either minimal or we gain the effect from another buff.  Also take note that the discipline Bestial Vivisection is clicked off BEFORE you try to activate Empathic Fury or it will not take hold and be wasted.

When Empathic Fury fades activate Group Bestial Alignment and resume clicking Bestial Vivisection as it pops.

~~~SPELLS~~~

The old philosophy on spell casting was more.  Don't stop casting ever and cast everything as often as possible.  For the most part this is true with one slight change.  Due to increased melee capabilities and weapon ratios I suggest NOT casting Shout of the Moon during the BA+NF portion of the burn, all other times I recommend casting it.  To help in this situation I recommend casting shout of the moon just before the starting phase of your burn so it will be greyed out most of the time anyway.  The old philosophy still holds true with nukes (and DoTs), more more more.

The casting order for nukes I recommend is to weave a Frozen Venin in as every other spell, and other than this go from highest damage to lowest damage.  I tend to avoid DoTs due to their high resist rates, but do use them when everything else is down.

A sample casting order of what I strive for during a burn looks like this, with melee stuff falling in place as I described above:

MGBs and Epics fire + cast shout at the moon
during the global refresh activate melee crap (BP+1st spire+BA+NF+BV) and hit melee damage abilities
Kron's Maelstrom
Frozen Venin
Sarsez' Bite
Frozen Venin
Glacial Lance
Frozen Venin
Spinechiller Blood  (depending on lag, I usually don't get this in)
Kron's Maelstrom
**CLICK FORCEFUL REJUVENATION** (Refresh all nukes so I'm not tempted to cast shout, big benefit of back to back Kron's casts)
Kron's Maelstrom
Frozen Venin
Sarsez' Bite
Frozen Venin
Glacial Lance

Whenever Nature's Fury fades I begin to weave the werewolf pets back into the casting order.  

~~~SPECIALS~~~

Glyph of the Cataclysm - Everyone has access to this, it's expendable and costs 5 AAs.  It increases critical spell and melee damage done by 75%.  The time to click this is at the start of the burn with BA+NF, all +crit chance modifiers for melee and spells should be active at this time so our critical rates should be highest giving us the most benefit.

Intensity of the Resolute (7th year veteran reward)- This one is tricky, it's a 55% damage modifier and a +50% spell critical chance modifier.  The damage modifier won't help during BA or EF because it is lower, but the +spell crit chance will help always.  My general strategy is that if I expect the fight to last shorter than 2 1/2 minutes I will click 7th at the start with BA and NF.  If I expect the fight to last around 3+ minutes I will wait until EF fades to click it and save GBA until 7th fades.

Circle of Power clickies - These give both an increased chance to crit with melee, and with spells.  The +melee critical portion is less powerful than the version on auspice of the hunter and they don't stack, the +spell critical portion stacks with everything so this is somewhat tricky like 7th year.  Luckily, circle of power clickies are more common than they used to be so ideally there are enough people with one to have it going the entire fight.  If you're the only person that actively clicks it I would suggest treating it like 7th year, if you expect the fight to last less than 3 minutes click it before the burn so you take advantage of the +spell critical portion but if you expect a longer fight (or have bad rangers) click it after the auspice chain has faded.
Deagro Abilities - Bite of the Asp, Chameleon Strike, Roar of Thunder.  With so many things to activate these days I don't have room for these on spam hotkeys anymore so they get hit manually again.  My advice is to wait until you've unloaded a few nukes before hitting the deagro abilities so you actually hate some hate to drop.  The second thing is that during the middle of the burn, try to click them during global refresh times of spell casts instead of when spell gems are up.

[Sikkem]

Great post Hzath thanks a lot.

Reposted it onto my guilds website for my own and our one other beastlords reference if you don't mind.

What returns are you personally getting from NF?

To specials you might want to add CoP clickies. I usually click mine when Auspice expires I believe I got that idea from here somewhere.

I also save EF for when our Berserker hits Ancient Cry of Chaos... that probably isn't so important these days with the new Frenzy.

Have to rush sorry

Thanks again good read :)

[rhaug]

i miss circle of power 1 2 3 clickers? they are also clicked before start right? can you put them into your first post
and frigidlance rk3 i miss? maybe that has a reason its 1992 basic dmg

thanks a lot

[Hzath]

Added circle of power in the special section.  I don't use frigid lance anymore.  Even if/when I have room for an additional dps spell I add shiverback endemic, even though I don't like DoTs I think it's better than frigid lance both in terms of dps and the fact that it will trigger the higher level gift of mana procs.

[Orbus1]

I like the post, I have found that binding all the nukes to a key helps on the burn also. I only use it on burns since I am not conserving mana.

I still use frigid in groups just because most mobs don't last long enough for any dot to even wear. I have been utilizing spinchiller on raid burns exactly as you described, after everything else is grayed out, is the new endemic spell still getting resisted out the ass?

[Katlipso]

the only prob i have found is not enuff bard/zerk/sham to go around on raids so like my self i get put in groups who just have a druid .. or maybe just a sham .. But i try what i can .. im glad someone pointed this out though  maybe i can work a little harder on my dps an get that down to a science ..

[Khauruk]

Indeed there aren't enough of them around.

[Katlipso]

I'm curious though . sorry that tend to run in my race .. anyways Furry of claws that's an ae swipe isn't it ? an that's why i have pretty much never used it as it will hit multiple  mobs  not just one . unless they some how tweaked it ..  I'm just very cautious on raids on what to use an not to cause i don't want to be the one the blame  for whipping the raid ..

Also with natures furry wouldn't you want as many pets up as possible as it helps them flurry ? sorry curious again

[Mazame]

 Furry of claws  is an AE effect but if very small area and the cone  on it is small as well.  meaning if a mob is to the side of you it not going to get hit this  effect is one of our best dps melee attacks and is worth using. the best thing to do is go to a low level zone where mobs wont auto aggro you and  play around with it test it out so you can see where mobs will or will not get hit.  also remember that if you have floors above or below you  you need to test it out to see if it aggros.  test it out untill you feel good about knowing how to face where to stand etc and then you can use it on raid cause you will know it limits.

natures furry  to my understanding wont land on swarm pets. so more pets out will not matter.

[Striffa]

Thanks for this. I finally got to start using glyphs andwow the difference. Finally parsing over 35k now.

[lermure]

Any have information yet, on Burn with Beastlords with VoA?

[kindarring]

We really did not get anything new.... Just a ton of upgrades to stuff thats been long over due. I would say YOU do the same thing as top post has but with the VOA spell/disc line and you will be on target. I have not heard any different since we got really nothing new at all. All my disc/spell sets and burn keys all the same with just the new line in.

[lermure]

ok thanks  for the info.

i know we get a new AA effect that is a group one if i remember right. But i think its seam to be like NF line.

Its call : New burn ability Bloodlust, which gives you 100% proc rate for 18 secs.

So i dont know if this one is stack with NF line, or have to be use before or after NF.

Also maybe there is more AA that i have not spot right now?

[kindarring]

Its a proc so I use it with frenzy or NF as far as I can tell it stacks with both. I just do not have it tied to a hotkey I hit it when it's up. But sorry I forgot about that.

[Nusa]

Bestial Rending (upgrade for Bestial Vivisection) goes in the short-buff box rather than discipline box, so you really can run it ALL the time during combat without blocking other disciplines.