Post by Sokanon on Apr 17, 2011 11:59:03 GMT -5
NOTE: New guide The Raiding Inquisitor v1.2
Abbreviations:
BoJ - Bolt of Judgement
BoD - Bolt of Depravity
SD - Spiritual Deficiency
SH - Sanction Heretic
AoD - Armor of Devotion (3% crit)
AoT - Armor of Treachery (3% damage)
AR - Aggressive Renewal
SoP - Sigil of Power
SP - Spell power
L&D - Life and Death Concord
CP - Corporal Punishment
RoJ - Ritual of Judgement (36+ points spent in Inq)
The Testing Data:
Duration: 4minutes and 20 seconds
Iterations: (for each spec) 20
The Split: 5 BoJ + AoD, 5 BoJ + AoT, 5 BoD + AoD, 5 BoD + AoT (20 tests per spec)
What this means is I tested BoJ rotation with each armor, and BoD with each armor, 5 times for each armor.
My Stats:
18.76% crit (without AoD, 21.76% with it)
976 SP
174 Focus (though I never missed once... my guess is the Boss Dummy doesn't require as much)
The Rotations:
BoJ rotation- ST + Fanaticism + Sanction Heretic + Vex + BoJ spam until BoD proc or I had to refresh DoTs/ST.
BoD rotation- ST + Sanction Heretic + Vex + Fanaticism + BoD spamming until I need to refresh dots. There were times where casting BoD would cause an over 1second drop in my DoTs, I would use BoJ to fill these errors and refresh dots as they dropped.
Fanaticism Usage[/u]:
In a BoJ rotation, Sanction Heretic is the best use of Fanaticism because it benefits from RoJ, and BoJ is already a weaker spell. Saving Fanaticism for a BoD proc would lower your DPS because it is RNG based. Using Fanaticism on CD will allow for the biggest net increase in DPS.
In a BoD rotation, using Fanaticism on BoD is better because it naturally hits harder than SH, even with the RoJ added bonus. My highest SH crit: 1432, Highest BoD Crit: 1659.
Spec 1
46/15/5 Inq/Cab/Sent
The 36point Inq (Ritual of Judgement) adds 4% additional spellpower bonus on Vex and SH for each point spent in Inquisitor after 36 (aside from the 5% base it gives you). Out of a total of 60% bonus spellpower, 46 points gives you 40% bonus, so this spec only misses out on 20% bonus SP on those specific spells.
It allows you to pick up Stroke of Genius (cab) and Watchful Gaze (sent) for a total bonus of 10% spellpower, Entropy (cab) for a 5% increase on DoT and channeled spells, and Death's Grasp (cab) for a 5% increase in spell damage.
BoJ + AoD average: 556 DPS
BoJ + AoT average: 544 DPS
BoD + AoD average: 558 DPS
BoD + AoT average: 545 DPS
Questions and Conclusions:
1) Why is BoD averaging higher DPS?
a) Casting BoD allows for you to maintain the DoT portion of it with about an 88% uptime ratio, whereas using BoJ you only have a chance to proc via L&D, and it's currently shaky. THIS IS BEING CHANGED. If the Devs were to increase the proc rate 2% it would push BoJ use over BoD in this spec.
2) The Crit armor is averaging higher, why?:
a) It probably averages higher due to my low crit rating. After much testing, I feel the armor usage is a bellcurve and not a sloping curve. What this means is that at low-low levels of Crit, you would do more damage with AoT. At mid-levels of crit you would be better off using AoD. However, once you neared or passed the crit soft-cap, AoT would again be the best for DPS.
3) How was your mana consumption?:
a) Throughout all of these tests I had a Bard friend using his cost reduction ability (lowers cost by 13%) and his Verse of Joy on CD (mana return). Without using my own cooldowns (which lowered my DPS by about 50 per AR OR Decay... Obliterate would bring it back up in burst though) using BoJ you can expect to go OOM within the first 1-2minutes of the fight. I CONSTANTLY had to use a potion to maintain enough mana to keep testing.
To clarify: In NONE of my tests did I use AR or Decay+Obliterate+SoP combo. I wanted to test pure DPS so I avoided anything that lowered it.
b) Using BoD rotation I could infinitely keep it up in a raid, without even going into my mana CDs. BoJ is just too mana costly over the course of most raid fights, which would force you to either potion on CD, or ask for "innervates", which would take away from the healers.
Spec 2[/u]:
51/10/5 Inq/Cab/Sent
51 point Inq allows for the full 60% SP bonus on SH and Vex (20% more than the previous spec). Entropy over Death's Grasp for the obvious reason that with 51pt Inq, SH and Vex are your two of your largest sources of damage. Using Death's Grasp over Entropy nets a 10+ DPS loss judging from previous testing, though having more people test this would be a good idea. I maintain the 5% SP from Sentinel because dropping it netted a 40 DPS loss.
BoJ + AoD = 560 DPS
BoJ + AoT = 559 DPS
BoD + AoD = 562 DPS
BoD + AoT = 570 DPS
Questions and Conclusions[/u]:
1) A BoD rotation seems to be the best, especially when combined with AoT, is this true?
a) Judging from my data, yes. A BoD + AoT rotation using this spec seems to be the best for sustainable DPS. A lot of the trouble I had while testing was finding outliers. If I got a lucky string of crits, I could be upwards of 600-700 DPS, however for my data I threw these out before I averaged the rest.
2) It looks like 51pt Inq is still the way to go, were you surprised?:
a) Not really. I was more surprised at how well the 46/15/5 spec kept up with the 51pt Inquisitor. The first spec also does slightly more AoE thanks to Death's Grasp.
Commonly Asked Questions[/u]:
1) What other specs did you try?:
a) See below for the "Raid Spec", also provide the numbers to support it.
2) How do you feel the upcoming changes will alter your guide?:
a) As previously stated, in my opinion, if the Devs were only going to give us a 2% increase in L&D procs, I believe it would push a BoJ rotation over BoD rotation indefinitely.
b) The changes in the upcoming armor will be interesting to say the least. Armor of Awakening will most likely generate the best PvE numbers.
3) This obviously does less DPS than a Shaman or Druid build, why would you play this in a raid?
a) I've been MMO'ing and seriously gaming for 10+ years now, and I've ALWAYS played melee. As is shown with numerous boss encounters when WoW introduced Cataclysm, Rift seems to be taking a similar stance, making it a giant flustercuck and in some cases detrimental for melee to be in on a fight.
b) Inquisitor offers a different playing style. Not everyone wants to be melee. At the current DPS rates, and upcoming changes, I feel Inquisitor could become more competitive in a raiding environment.
4) Intellect vs. Wisdom
a) Wisdom gives us mana regen, whereas INT provides mana pool and crit. Currently this is debatable. EDIT: Added slightly more info in #6.
5) Cloth vs Chain
a) Since Chain currently gives no outstanding bonuses for wearing it, cloth is viable. How viable will require further testing that I am intending to do when I can gather some useful cloth. NOTE: Patch will make it so you can only wear chain.
6) Stat weights
a) My thoughts currently are Crit > SP > Int > Wis. Spellpower because it effects all of your spells, and Vex + SH gain a huge bonus from SP. Crit to maintain CP uptime. Int over Wis because it adds to mana pool and crit, rather than just regen. However, as with the statement on cloth, it will require further testing.
I apologize for the long guide, but hope it helps those of you who wish to play a more ranged oriented DPS cleric. I will edit my guide as the changes go live, and will be happy to answer any/all questions pertaining to it. I will also add the good community questions into the guide so that people don't have to search down the pages to find the answers.
Raid Spec 51/10/5 Inq/Sent/Warden
This is reportedly the best single-target raid DPS spec available. More testing needs to be done concerning the number variants, but enough people have reported its superior DPS that I have included it here.
Benefits:
-Destructive Tide provides for harder initial hits of Sanction Heretic (whether crit or noncrit)
-Waterjet is an instant cast and provides DPS while moving, very useful for raid environments where movement is paramount (Not too far behind BoJ damage either)
-The extra 20% critical damage from Sentinel provides better DPS so long as your crit is fair
-Armor of Devotion is preferred until about 40% crit raid buffed, where AoT >should< overtake it
NUMBER CRUNCHING
Here's some numbers I got earlier:
51/10/5 Inq/Cab/Sent
Sanction Heretic Initial: 902-906 non crit, 1475 crit
Vex Initial: 197, 335 crit
SH tick: 202 normal, 334 crit
Vex tick: 197 normal, 335 crit
51/5/10 Inq/Cab/Sent
SH Initial: 873 normal, 1666 crit
Vex Initial: 191 normal, 363 crit
SH tick: 196 normal, 373 crit
Vex tick: 191 normal, 363 crit
51/5/10 Inq/Ward/Sent
SH initial: 894-899 normal, 1696 crit
Vex initial: 197 normal, 375 crit
SH tick: 201 normal, 383 crit
Vex tick: 197 normal, 375 crit
NOTE:
-All tests were on the target dummy
-All tests were completely unbuffed
-All tests were purely using SH and Vex in these specs, no SD was applied
Conclusions:
-Vex is unaffected by Stroke of Genius (5%sp, Cab tree) OR Destructive Tide (10% increased instant damage)
-Sanction Heretic's initial hit is higher (non crit) with 10 points in the Cab tree for 5% sp and 5% dot dmg
-Subsequent Vex or SH ticks are higher with 10pts in Sent for the 20% increased Crit damage (for a total of 40%)
-Movement fights favor Warden spec due to Waterjet being spammable during movement
On the dummy it appears that Inq/Cab/Sent hits harder, which for normal hits, is true. However, when you crit (and hopefully your crit is decently high), it ends up doing more damage overall.
1) Example Inq/Cab/Sent (51/10/5):
SH hits 902 initial, 202 normal tick, 334 crit
2) Example Inq/Sent/Ward (51/10/5):
SH hits 894 initial, 201 normal tick, 383 crit
3) Example Inq/Sent/Cab (51/10/5):
SH hits 873 initial, 196 normal tick, 373 crit
-SH ticks every 3 seconds, over 15 seconds, total of 5 times. Let's assume 1 out of every 5 ticks is a crit (approximately 20% crit chance).
1 SH cast (non crit initial + subsequent ticks, 1/5 being crit):
Spec 1: 902 + (202*4) + 335 = 2045
Spec 2: 894 + (201*4) + 383 = 2081
Spec 3: 873 + (196*4) + 373 = 2030
What I was able to conclude based on the data, was that 10 points in Sentinel are the make/break of the 51pt Inq builds. The DPS difference between 5pts Cab or 5pts Warden is negligible. HOWEVER, it appears given the post I linked that Vex is unaffected by the 5% spellpower, it seems to only be effected by EITHER the Sentinel, or the Cabalist 5% increase, not both. Given this information, one can conclude that the 10% instant damage increase provided by Warden, on top of the mobility Waterjet gives you during movement fights, will place this build ahead in a raid environment.
WARDEN vs. CABALIST
Interesting information, I'll go ahead and retest when I log on today.
Tested. All tests were performed on the dummy without buffs.
51/10/5 Inq/Sent/War
Vex noncrit = 192 Vex crit = 364
SH initial noncrit = 862 SH initial crit = 1643
SH normal tick = 195 SH crit tick = 370
51/10/0 Inq/Sent/0
Vex noncrit = 180 Vex crit = 342
SH initial noncrit = 810 SH initial crit = 1540
SH normal tick = 183 SH crit tick = 347
51/10/5 Inq/Sent/Cab
Vex noncrit = 185 Vex crit = 352
SH initial noncrit = 839 SH initial crit = 1603
SH normal tick = 189 SH cirt tick = 359
Warden vs. Cab:
Vex initial: (192-185) = 7 / 185 = .037 = 3.7% increase
Vex crit: (364-352) = 12 / 352 = 0.34 = 3.4% increase
SH initial hit: (862-839) = 23 / 839 = .027 = 2.7% increase
SH initial crit: (1643-1603) = 40 / 1603 = .024 = 2.4% increase
SH normal tick: (195-189) = 6 / 189 = .031 = 3.1% increase
SH crit tick: (370-352) = 11 / 352 = .031 = 3.1% increase
Average result: (3.7+3.4+2.7+2.4+3.1+3.1) / 6 = 3.06% increase in DoT damage Warden vs Cabalist
Abbreviations:
BoJ - Bolt of Judgement
BoD - Bolt of Depravity
SD - Spiritual Deficiency
SH - Sanction Heretic
AoD - Armor of Devotion (3% crit)
AoT - Armor of Treachery (3% damage)
AR - Aggressive Renewal
SoP - Sigil of Power
SP - Spell power
L&D - Life and Death Concord
CP - Corporal Punishment
RoJ - Ritual of Judgement (36+ points spent in Inq)
The Testing Data:
Duration: 4minutes and 20 seconds
Iterations: (for each spec) 20
The Split: 5 BoJ + AoD, 5 BoJ + AoT, 5 BoD + AoD, 5 BoD + AoT (20 tests per spec)
What this means is I tested BoJ rotation with each armor, and BoD with each armor, 5 times for each armor.
My Stats:
18.76% crit (without AoD, 21.76% with it)
976 SP
174 Focus (though I never missed once... my guess is the Boss Dummy doesn't require as much)
The Rotations:
BoJ rotation- ST + Fanaticism + Sanction Heretic + Vex + BoJ spam until BoD proc or I had to refresh DoTs/ST.
BoD rotation- ST + Sanction Heretic + Vex + Fanaticism + BoD spamming until I need to refresh dots. There were times where casting BoD would cause an over 1second drop in my DoTs, I would use BoJ to fill these errors and refresh dots as they dropped.
Fanaticism Usage[/u]:
In a BoJ rotation, Sanction Heretic is the best use of Fanaticism because it benefits from RoJ, and BoJ is already a weaker spell. Saving Fanaticism for a BoD proc would lower your DPS because it is RNG based. Using Fanaticism on CD will allow for the biggest net increase in DPS.
In a BoD rotation, using Fanaticism on BoD is better because it naturally hits harder than SH, even with the RoJ added bonus. My highest SH crit: 1432, Highest BoD Crit: 1659.
Spec 1
46/15/5 Inq/Cab/Sent
The 36point Inq (Ritual of Judgement) adds 4% additional spellpower bonus on Vex and SH for each point spent in Inquisitor after 36 (aside from the 5% base it gives you). Out of a total of 60% bonus spellpower, 46 points gives you 40% bonus, so this spec only misses out on 20% bonus SP on those specific spells.
It allows you to pick up Stroke of Genius (cab) and Watchful Gaze (sent) for a total bonus of 10% spellpower, Entropy (cab) for a 5% increase on DoT and channeled spells, and Death's Grasp (cab) for a 5% increase in spell damage.
BoJ + AoD average: 556 DPS
BoJ + AoT average: 544 DPS
BoD + AoD average: 558 DPS
BoD + AoT average: 545 DPS
Questions and Conclusions:
1) Why is BoD averaging higher DPS?
a) Casting BoD allows for you to maintain the DoT portion of it with about an 88% uptime ratio, whereas using BoJ you only have a chance to proc via L&D, and it's currently shaky. THIS IS BEING CHANGED. If the Devs were to increase the proc rate 2% it would push BoJ use over BoD in this spec.
2) The Crit armor is averaging higher, why?:
a) It probably averages higher due to my low crit rating. After much testing, I feel the armor usage is a bellcurve and not a sloping curve. What this means is that at low-low levels of Crit, you would do more damage with AoT. At mid-levels of crit you would be better off using AoD. However, once you neared or passed the crit soft-cap, AoT would again be the best for DPS.
3) How was your mana consumption?:
a) Throughout all of these tests I had a Bard friend using his cost reduction ability (lowers cost by 13%) and his Verse of Joy on CD (mana return). Without using my own cooldowns (which lowered my DPS by about 50 per AR OR Decay... Obliterate would bring it back up in burst though) using BoJ you can expect to go OOM within the first 1-2minutes of the fight. I CONSTANTLY had to use a potion to maintain enough mana to keep testing.
To clarify: In NONE of my tests did I use AR or Decay+Obliterate+SoP combo. I wanted to test pure DPS so I avoided anything that lowered it.
b) Using BoD rotation I could infinitely keep it up in a raid, without even going into my mana CDs. BoJ is just too mana costly over the course of most raid fights, which would force you to either potion on CD, or ask for "innervates", which would take away from the healers.
Spec 2[/u]:
51/10/5 Inq/Cab/Sent
51 point Inq allows for the full 60% SP bonus on SH and Vex (20% more than the previous spec). Entropy over Death's Grasp for the obvious reason that with 51pt Inq, SH and Vex are your two of your largest sources of damage. Using Death's Grasp over Entropy nets a 10+ DPS loss judging from previous testing, though having more people test this would be a good idea. I maintain the 5% SP from Sentinel because dropping it netted a 40 DPS loss.
BoJ + AoD = 560 DPS
BoJ + AoT = 559 DPS
BoD + AoD = 562 DPS
BoD + AoT = 570 DPS
Questions and Conclusions[/u]:
1) A BoD rotation seems to be the best, especially when combined with AoT, is this true?
a) Judging from my data, yes. A BoD + AoT rotation using this spec seems to be the best for sustainable DPS. A lot of the trouble I had while testing was finding outliers. If I got a lucky string of crits, I could be upwards of 600-700 DPS, however for my data I threw these out before I averaged the rest.
2) It looks like 51pt Inq is still the way to go, were you surprised?:
a) Not really. I was more surprised at how well the 46/15/5 spec kept up with the 51pt Inquisitor. The first spec also does slightly more AoE thanks to Death's Grasp.
Commonly Asked Questions[/u]:
1) What other specs did you try?:
a) See below for the "Raid Spec", also provide the numbers to support it.
2) How do you feel the upcoming changes will alter your guide?:
a) As previously stated, in my opinion, if the Devs were only going to give us a 2% increase in L&D procs, I believe it would push a BoJ rotation over BoD rotation indefinitely.
b) The changes in the upcoming armor will be interesting to say the least. Armor of Awakening will most likely generate the best PvE numbers.
3) This obviously does less DPS than a Shaman or Druid build, why would you play this in a raid?
a) I've been MMO'ing and seriously gaming for 10+ years now, and I've ALWAYS played melee. As is shown with numerous boss encounters when WoW introduced Cataclysm, Rift seems to be taking a similar stance, making it a giant flustercuck and in some cases detrimental for melee to be in on a fight.
b) Inquisitor offers a different playing style. Not everyone wants to be melee. At the current DPS rates, and upcoming changes, I feel Inquisitor could become more competitive in a raiding environment.
4) Intellect vs. Wisdom
a) Wisdom gives us mana regen, whereas INT provides mana pool and crit. Currently this is debatable. EDIT: Added slightly more info in #6.
5) Cloth vs Chain
a) Since Chain currently gives no outstanding bonuses for wearing it, cloth is viable. How viable will require further testing that I am intending to do when I can gather some useful cloth. NOTE: Patch will make it so you can only wear chain.
6) Stat weights
a) My thoughts currently are Crit > SP > Int > Wis. Spellpower because it effects all of your spells, and Vex + SH gain a huge bonus from SP. Crit to maintain CP uptime. Int over Wis because it adds to mana pool and crit, rather than just regen. However, as with the statement on cloth, it will require further testing.
I apologize for the long guide, but hope it helps those of you who wish to play a more ranged oriented DPS cleric. I will edit my guide as the changes go live, and will be happy to answer any/all questions pertaining to it. I will also add the good community questions into the guide so that people don't have to search down the pages to find the answers.
Raid Spec 51/10/5 Inq/Sent/Warden
This is reportedly the best single-target raid DPS spec available. More testing needs to be done concerning the number variants, but enough people have reported its superior DPS that I have included it here.
Benefits:
-Destructive Tide provides for harder initial hits of Sanction Heretic (whether crit or noncrit)
-Waterjet is an instant cast and provides DPS while moving, very useful for raid environments where movement is paramount (Not too far behind BoJ damage either)
-The extra 20% critical damage from Sentinel provides better DPS so long as your crit is fair
-Armor of Devotion is preferred until about 40% crit raid buffed, where AoT >should< overtake it
NUMBER CRUNCHING
Here's some numbers I got earlier:
51/10/5 Inq/Cab/Sent
Sanction Heretic Initial: 902-906 non crit, 1475 crit
Vex Initial: 197, 335 crit
SH tick: 202 normal, 334 crit
Vex tick: 197 normal, 335 crit
51/5/10 Inq/Cab/Sent
SH Initial: 873 normal, 1666 crit
Vex Initial: 191 normal, 363 crit
SH tick: 196 normal, 373 crit
Vex tick: 191 normal, 363 crit
51/5/10 Inq/Ward/Sent
SH initial: 894-899 normal, 1696 crit
Vex initial: 197 normal, 375 crit
SH tick: 201 normal, 383 crit
Vex tick: 197 normal, 375 crit
NOTE:
-All tests were on the target dummy
-All tests were completely unbuffed
-All tests were purely using SH and Vex in these specs, no SD was applied
Conclusions:
-Vex is unaffected by Stroke of Genius (5%sp, Cab tree) OR Destructive Tide (10% increased instant damage)
-Sanction Heretic's initial hit is higher (non crit) with 10 points in the Cab tree for 5% sp and 5% dot dmg
-Subsequent Vex or SH ticks are higher with 10pts in Sent for the 20% increased Crit damage (for a total of 40%)
-Movement fights favor Warden spec due to Waterjet being spammable during movement
On the dummy it appears that Inq/Cab/Sent hits harder, which for normal hits, is true. However, when you crit (and hopefully your crit is decently high), it ends up doing more damage overall.
1) Example Inq/Cab/Sent (51/10/5):
SH hits 902 initial, 202 normal tick, 334 crit
2) Example Inq/Sent/Ward (51/10/5):
SH hits 894 initial, 201 normal tick, 383 crit
3) Example Inq/Sent/Cab (51/10/5):
SH hits 873 initial, 196 normal tick, 373 crit
-SH ticks every 3 seconds, over 15 seconds, total of 5 times. Let's assume 1 out of every 5 ticks is a crit (approximately 20% crit chance).
1 SH cast (non crit initial + subsequent ticks, 1/5 being crit):
Spec 1: 902 + (202*4) + 335 = 2045
Spec 2: 894 + (201*4) + 383 = 2081
Spec 3: 873 + (196*4) + 373 = 2030
What I was able to conclude based on the data, was that 10 points in Sentinel are the make/break of the 51pt Inq builds. The DPS difference between 5pts Cab or 5pts Warden is negligible. HOWEVER, it appears given the post I linked that Vex is unaffected by the 5% spellpower, it seems to only be effected by EITHER the Sentinel, or the Cabalist 5% increase, not both. Given this information, one can conclude that the 10% instant damage increase provided by Warden, on top of the mobility Waterjet gives you during movement fights, will place this build ahead in a raid environment.
WARDEN vs. CABALIST
Interesting information, I'll go ahead and retest when I log on today.
Tested. All tests were performed on the dummy without buffs.
51/10/5 Inq/Sent/War
Vex noncrit = 192 Vex crit = 364
SH initial noncrit = 862 SH initial crit = 1643
SH normal tick = 195 SH crit tick = 370
51/10/0 Inq/Sent/0
Vex noncrit = 180 Vex crit = 342
SH initial noncrit = 810 SH initial crit = 1540
SH normal tick = 183 SH crit tick = 347
51/10/5 Inq/Sent/Cab
Vex noncrit = 185 Vex crit = 352
SH initial noncrit = 839 SH initial crit = 1603
SH normal tick = 189 SH cirt tick = 359
Warden vs. Cab:
Vex initial: (192-185) = 7 / 185 = .037 = 3.7% increase
Vex crit: (364-352) = 12 / 352 = 0.34 = 3.4% increase
SH initial hit: (862-839) = 23 / 839 = .027 = 2.7% increase
SH initial crit: (1643-1603) = 40 / 1603 = .024 = 2.4% increase
SH normal tick: (195-189) = 6 / 189 = .031 = 3.1% increase
SH crit tick: (370-352) = 11 / 352 = .031 = 3.1% increase
Average result: (3.7+3.4+2.7+2.4+3.1+3.1) / 6 = 3.06% increase in DoT damage Warden vs Cabalist