Entries Tagged 'Theorycrafting' ↓

I’ve been busy with http://livestream.com/anki lately. Hoping to get videos up of every boss my guild is currently killing. I’m enjoying broadcasting the live raids for those folks in the guild who get stuck on the bench. Post to follow on how to do that for your guild. Hint: It’s REALLY easy.

With 3.2 I’ve been trying to figure out how I want to rank my gear. I’ve been using a modified version of BobTurkey’s scale. Post on that to follow, with links to Bob’s original work.

I’ve also been working on my ShadowPriest DPS spec. My guild has another Disc priest now who’s VERY good, and I’m finding it very easy to raid with two disc priests in 25 man (hint: we split up the groups for who shields what). We’re even doing 5mans together a lot, though I go shadow for that (I”m shadow/disc and he’s holy/disc). Post on THAT to follow. Gear wise i’m using formulas from shadowpriest.com, links and post to follow.

In non-priestly news I’ve also been doing some work with my Resto/Balance dual specced Druid. Maybe posts on that later. Not sure.

No. Article over.

Oh, my logic? Ok, fine…

As Disc a solid amount of our “healing” is actually prevention … and as such does not generate threat. We may well be generating half the threat that a holy priest does right out of the gate.

Once I dropped this talent I never looked back. Even in 5mans.

Oh, so I’m reaching for a movie quote in the title.

What I really want is my credit for the 3% raid damaged blocked by my Renewed Hope!

Let’s first assume that I keep this effect up, because, seriously, I cast PWShield quite a bit more often than every 20 sec.  So it’s up if I am.

Some quick math based on the ‘Damage Taken’, I can make a rough estimate that my Renwed Hope 3% damage reduction prevented 2 million damage.

Say it with me … with the doctor evil accent … two … million damage.

2 mil damage unaccounted for raises my effective healing to around 11 million damage.

That’s a significant amount of ‘healing’, it’s 100% efficient and basically costs me nothing.

More importantly, as it serves to fan my ego, this puts my effective healing somewhere around 15%, keeping pace with my paladin cousins.

So, Disc Believers, don’t forget to factor in your Renewed Hope ‘effective healing’ when you look at your numbers.  It can be quite significant!

http://www.wow.com/2009/05/20/spiritual-guidance-tools-to-evaluate-a-discipline-priest/

Great article on tools for evaluating Discipline Priests!

http://wowwebstats.com/v6gm4xgrron63

Now … how the heck much did I shield!!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?!??!

Research lead me first to http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?action=printpage;topic=47146.0

And the answer seems to be … no, there’s not really a way.

/sigh/

However WWS still looks like a nicer way for me to share my healing other than recount…

If I agree with those linked posts, why am I doing all of this math?

Well, apples to oranges is what recount really gives you, the way a lot of people use it.  That’s the problem I have with Recount.  (well, ok, ONE of the problems).  If anyone is looking at my recount effective healing and comparing my Disc Priest to it’s closest cousin (IMO), a Holy Paladin, they’re going to need to do some math to even get close to a fair comparison.

So, here are a few reasons that you WILL want to look at ‘the meters’

1. Effective Healing and Theorycrafted Healing can be wildly different things.  If I see my HpM for Penance lower than my HpM of Flash Heal, I may want to look into why.
2. No matter whether or not it’s a good idea, some people are going to judge you by your effective healing.  You do have options here:
   1. Show them some math to help them factor in your mitigation. (i.e. I should add X% to account for PWShield and Aegis)
   2. If educating them fails, Learn how to pad your numbers!

Now, some folks are going to poo-poo point 2.2 … padding your numbers.  Well … some people you just can’t educate.  Sometimes you just need to appease the morons.

Sure, if the boss is beat, everybody wins, regardless of numbers.

But I would argue that you should look at your Raid Seat the same way.  If you get to keep your seat, by padding your numbers, guess what … you’re still in Ulduar.

Thankfully, for me, the people I need to ‘impress’ in my guild aren’t morons.  But I’ll be trying to include info on padding your numbers for those of you with nitwit RL’s/CL’s/etc.

And, of course, I’ll also be focusing on that elusive bridge between theorycrafted numbers and what actually happens inside the instance.

That being said, tonight will be my first night evaluating my raid experience with WWS!  I’m definitely excited!

http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/05/17/forum-post-of-the-day-be-disciplined-about-healing-meters/

http://ducttape.etherjammer.com/2009/05/step-away-from-the-meters/

Comments from Tsark have me taking a look at PoH and HPS numbers.  Since the servers are down I can’t run my faceplant testing, I’ll focus on PoH a bit over lunch.  HPS review once the servers come back up, and then I’ll be planning some testing to do tonight in Ulduar.

Factors that effect PoH:

Talents and Gear that all Priests are likely to have (or can get):

• Holy Specialization: +5% crit to Holy
• T8 2pc bonus: +10% crit to PoH
• Forethought Talisman: Chance for 3572 HoT over 12 sec … can only hit one target every 45 sec, so not as much effect here as I’d thought
• Glyph of PoH: +20% PoH heal value added as a HoT over 6 sec
• Inner Focus: +25% Crit Chance and a free cast

Talents and Gear that Disc Priests enjoy exclusively:

• 6% Haste from Enlightenment
• 25% Haste from Borrowed Time (potentially)
• +4% Healing from Focused Power
• +3% Crit from Focused Will
• Aspiration for more Inner Foci (focuses?) and PI
• Divine Aegis for 30% of crit value as shields when we crit

And, sadly some Talents we miss out on that are in Holy:

• Holy Reach for bigger Radius
• Spiritual Guidance for more SP
• Spiritual Healing for +10% healing
• Serendipity for up to 36% spell haste
• Test of Faith for potentially +12% healing
• Divine Providince for +10% healing

So … yeah we have a few factors that will effect PoH.

Net effect (if you count HoT’s and Divine Aegis as ‘healing’), assuming you’re using it Glyphed:

Disc Priests:

• +18% Crit Rate (+43% with Inner Focus)
• +24% Healing (+54% on a Crit)
• +6% Haste (+31% after a Shield)

Holy Priests:

• +15% Crit Rate (+40% with Inner Focus)
• +40% Healing (+52% if below 50%)
• +0% to +36% haste after 0-3 Flash Heals

So, PoH is much less ‘Holy Oriented’ than I’d thought.  Disc finds it easier to haste-up it’s long cast time, helps it crit a bit more, and then gains more when it does crit.

I had assumed that the Holy Priest in my guild would have a significantly higher base crit than I … nope, his 14.74% to my 14.57%

I’ll definitely be doing some PoH testing.  (how many targets I’ll be able to regularly hit will be a BIG factor).

I’ll also be using a modified version of tsark’s macro:
#showtooltip Prayer of Healing
/cast Inner Fire
/cast Berserking
/cast Prayer of Healing

I have a similar one for Penance that I use when the tank takes a big dip in health suddenly.

Using WoWWiki to snag some good data on PoH and PWShield.

Doing some Faceplant Testing here, in addition to use of actual math (Faceplant testing is where I mount my flying carpet, fly up a few stories, and then plummet to the pavement below.  Then I heal myself.  Repeat as needed.)

PoH Items of note:

• Way to go WoWWiki, this is a good combo with Inner Focus.  I need to use Inner Focus more anyway.
• And, of course, with the longer casting time this spell gains good benefit from Borrowed Time after a PWShield cast.
• Groups with pets could see bigger ‘returns’ as it heals group members + pets.
• To further complicate things, there’s a Glyph, though I don’t use said glyph, and can’t imagine using it as Disc.
• Each target will be healed 2091-2209 +42.85% of your +Healing.
• As my +Heal is 2780, this would be an average of 3341.23.  Faceplant testing puts it at 4300.  Will have to revisit that later.  Using Faceplant Testing Value for now.
• Cost is 1854 Mana

PWShield

• The math, with all my talents, to figure out sheild value is obnoxious.  Faceplant testing puts mine at a 6500 shield + 1300 pt heal for 7800 total.
• Cost is 666 Mana with my talent set.  Evil.

So, let’s assume that both spells are used to their fullest.  PoH will heal all 5 targets, and PWShield will prevent the full value of it’s shield before expiration.

PWShield is 0.085 Mana per Health.

PoH is 0.086 Mana per Health.

So, they’re pretty even.

If I think PWShield is going to absorb, I’ll go with that.

Now … from other testing, I’ve got Penance at 0.06 M/H, and Flash at 0.12 M/H…

PoH goes to 0.11 H/M at 4 targets, 0.14 at 3 targets, 0.22 at 2 targets, and 0.43 at 1 target.

So, assuming no more damage is incoming right away (because I’d just shield away)…

• Assuming I can hit a full group of 5, PoH looks like a great heal (Assuming someone doesn’t heal any group members to full during it’s 2+ sec cast)
• Assuming I can hit 4 people in the group … eh, Flash Heal is slightly more efficient.  PoH does get it done almost twice as Fast though…
• Assuming I can hit 3 people in the group … I may as well just switch to Flash Heal at this point.  IMO anyway.
• And Assuming I can hit 2 people in the group … forget about it, it’s Flash Heal time.

Recent review of my single target effective healing leads me to review these three spells.

I’m doing some somewhat less than scientific testing where I buffed myself (flask of the frost wyrm, firecracker salmon, and Inner Fire) and repeatedly hurled myself off of my flying carpet a few stories up at the landing pad in Dalaran.  Oddly enough nobody seemed supprised to see me repeatedly faceplanting.  Perhaps they’ve met me before.

Anyway, my +Healing was 2780.  Here’s my math (Excel Time!), where I get the numbers I EXPECT for efficiency:

• Penance: 9900 Healing for 618 mana, 0.06 Mana/Health
• Flash: 4150 Healing for 521 mana, 0.12 Mana/Health
• Shield: 1313 Glyph Healing for 666 mana, 0.50 Mana/Health OR 0.08 Mana/Health assuming full prevention from the shield

So, for Penance to be less effective healing per mana than flash heal, I need to be doing some serious overhealing with it.  In fact a majority of my penance healing must’ve been overhealing.

Lesson learned?  Don’t fire off Penance just because it’s cooldown is up.