Cloudiz
05-06-2011, 01:55 PM
***This discussion is for players, who want to maximise every ounce of damage they can dish out in the most efficient way possible. Casual players can take comfort in knowing the new GCD of 0.25 would mean the rotation hardly matters to the casual***
Skill combos for birds.
If you do it the Physiologic way, his debuff string is as follows:
Break Armor -> Root - > Blinding Shot
I used to do Root - > Break - > Blind
I recently changed it to match Physiologic's method after reading his post on how there is a hit cap, but not necessarily a crit cap(unconfirmed).
Root causes a 30% dodge debuff. When the fight starts, people are firing away. Presuming, for players at AO2 and above level, you guys are all hit capped (i.e. at least 100 hit %)
Players have an unalterable 15% miss chance regardless of whether your hit is 160 or 135(again read Physiologic tables http://www.spacetimestudios.com/showthread.php?16817-Guide-to-Advanced-Mechanics-in-PL-DPS-Crits-etc. for the breakdown)
**
XI. Algorithm for a Successful or Failed Attack
When you attack an enemy, the game follows a specific algorithm that determines the outcome of the attack:
STAGES (if you pass stage 1 then you get to stage 2 and so forth)
1. You will MISS the attack
2. The enemy will DODGE the attack
3. You will damage the enemy
4. You will critically damage the enemy
**(Credits to Physiologic for this)**
Presuming you don't miss and fall within the unlucky 15% miss proc(Stage 1), you will still have to face the mob or boss's dodge factor(Stage 2). You might, at this point, not land your shot at all if the mob dodges.
Your shot will therefore not even reach stage 3 or 4 - chance to crit or not.
I have thought about the benefits of an early break armor. Instead of hoping the mob does not dodge, the advantage of an early Break Armor, I think, is to quickly down bosses such OverLord, who can give a whopping the longer the fights drag.
Instead of talking boss specific setups, let us examine the debuff theory in general, of Mob Dodge vs Burst Damage.
My method encourages the player attacks to reach stages 3 or even hopefully 4(the crit proc). Also at the beginning of the fight, the tank is meant to be wailing on the boss, and building aggro. At this stage most debuffs are applied. A reduced boss dodge might help some teammates land their debuffs.
I would presume though, that right at the outset everyone will be spamming their debuffs -- so you, the Bird player, if you play in any similar fashion to Physiologic or myself, will be moving with the tank, and sometimes ahead of the tank to cast early Thorn walls/roots, thus setting up reduced dodge stage 2.
Physiologic's method is also plausible. If the boss, like some threads have observed, have a weird aggro table which refuses to be quenched until someone hits a higher number, or if the tank resets it with Taunt, then one might as well burst away?
If that were so, then setting up an early increased damage will potentially wield a strong burst damage scale on the boss until the next cooldown. This is presuming no one misses, and the boss does not dodge. (stage 1 and 2)
Yet something seems amiss. If the start of the boss fight has most people applying debuffs, those debuffs are usually not damaging to warrant a 5 second armor-reducing Break Armor.
By the time the real damage comes in, such as Lightning, or Cruel Blast, or Nature Strike etc, the debuff would have been in its final 3 seconds(out of total of 5sec). The first 2 seconds of the debuff will be in effect, only serving to *increase any damaging debuff* the team members would apply onto the boss, which is to say, isn't a lot :(
To put the whole issue in perspective, now that the GCD is 0.25 sec, these two skills could come one right after the other. I am still undecided which should come first.
Thorn Root lasts only 3 seconds. Break Armor has a 5 second duration. The key point in my conclusion would be for someone to confirm whether Break Armor stacks onto itself, from the player bird, so that it stacks much like how Taunt would stack, giving 26x2 (52 armor debuff).
If this is true, then applying Break Armor first is a good alternative.
If not, then I do not see a huge benefit to applying it before Thorn Root.
In summary: Thorn Root, sets up lowered boss dodge with a 3 second window so that all your party debuffs will not be dodged.
Following that, in a short GCD, the Break Armor would arrive in tandem with the BIG outgoing damage the whole team will unleash onto the boss. This sets up a good even damage distribution for the Archer. Most of the time the boss will come onto you. If you do not ensure your mates do not miss, then the only person hitting the boss for FAT DAMAGE will be YOU in the initial burst(Focus adds high hit. Keep in mind the developer's changing patches and balance means your FOCUS has a reason for its hit %).
Which means AGGRO MAMA!
*Good news 08/05/11: Credits to Eversor for confirming that an archer can stack his own Break Armor. That means with another bird you guys can do for brief moments, -104 armor on the boss, which is lean mean cutting machine. I have not yet tested it with Mooger, but once we do I will post final confirmation. This looks promising... Archers can now be really helpful in reducing time on boss runs. Think Sand Storm, Plasma Pyramid and Victory Lap!*
Skill combos for birds.
If you do it the Physiologic way, his debuff string is as follows:
Break Armor -> Root - > Blinding Shot
I used to do Root - > Break - > Blind
I recently changed it to match Physiologic's method after reading his post on how there is a hit cap, but not necessarily a crit cap(unconfirmed).
Root causes a 30% dodge debuff. When the fight starts, people are firing away. Presuming, for players at AO2 and above level, you guys are all hit capped (i.e. at least 100 hit %)
Players have an unalterable 15% miss chance regardless of whether your hit is 160 or 135(again read Physiologic tables http://www.spacetimestudios.com/showthread.php?16817-Guide-to-Advanced-Mechanics-in-PL-DPS-Crits-etc. for the breakdown)
**
XI. Algorithm for a Successful or Failed Attack
When you attack an enemy, the game follows a specific algorithm that determines the outcome of the attack:
STAGES (if you pass stage 1 then you get to stage 2 and so forth)
1. You will MISS the attack
2. The enemy will DODGE the attack
3. You will damage the enemy
4. You will critically damage the enemy
**(Credits to Physiologic for this)**
Presuming you don't miss and fall within the unlucky 15% miss proc(Stage 1), you will still have to face the mob or boss's dodge factor(Stage 2). You might, at this point, not land your shot at all if the mob dodges.
Your shot will therefore not even reach stage 3 or 4 - chance to crit or not.
I have thought about the benefits of an early break armor. Instead of hoping the mob does not dodge, the advantage of an early Break Armor, I think, is to quickly down bosses such OverLord, who can give a whopping the longer the fights drag.
Instead of talking boss specific setups, let us examine the debuff theory in general, of Mob Dodge vs Burst Damage.
My method encourages the player attacks to reach stages 3 or even hopefully 4(the crit proc). Also at the beginning of the fight, the tank is meant to be wailing on the boss, and building aggro. At this stage most debuffs are applied. A reduced boss dodge might help some teammates land their debuffs.
I would presume though, that right at the outset everyone will be spamming their debuffs -- so you, the Bird player, if you play in any similar fashion to Physiologic or myself, will be moving with the tank, and sometimes ahead of the tank to cast early Thorn walls/roots, thus setting up reduced dodge stage 2.
Physiologic's method is also plausible. If the boss, like some threads have observed, have a weird aggro table which refuses to be quenched until someone hits a higher number, or if the tank resets it with Taunt, then one might as well burst away?
If that were so, then setting up an early increased damage will potentially wield a strong burst damage scale on the boss until the next cooldown. This is presuming no one misses, and the boss does not dodge. (stage 1 and 2)
Yet something seems amiss. If the start of the boss fight has most people applying debuffs, those debuffs are usually not damaging to warrant a 5 second armor-reducing Break Armor.
By the time the real damage comes in, such as Lightning, or Cruel Blast, or Nature Strike etc, the debuff would have been in its final 3 seconds(out of total of 5sec). The first 2 seconds of the debuff will be in effect, only serving to *increase any damaging debuff* the team members would apply onto the boss, which is to say, isn't a lot :(
To put the whole issue in perspective, now that the GCD is 0.25 sec, these two skills could come one right after the other. I am still undecided which should come first.
Thorn Root lasts only 3 seconds. Break Armor has a 5 second duration. The key point in my conclusion would be for someone to confirm whether Break Armor stacks onto itself, from the player bird, so that it stacks much like how Taunt would stack, giving 26x2 (52 armor debuff).
If this is true, then applying Break Armor first is a good alternative.
If not, then I do not see a huge benefit to applying it before Thorn Root.
In summary: Thorn Root, sets up lowered boss dodge with a 3 second window so that all your party debuffs will not be dodged.
Following that, in a short GCD, the Break Armor would arrive in tandem with the BIG outgoing damage the whole team will unleash onto the boss. This sets up a good even damage distribution for the Archer. Most of the time the boss will come onto you. If you do not ensure your mates do not miss, then the only person hitting the boss for FAT DAMAGE will be YOU in the initial burst(Focus adds high hit. Keep in mind the developer's changing patches and balance means your FOCUS has a reason for its hit %).
Which means AGGRO MAMA!
*Good news 08/05/11: Credits to Eversor for confirming that an archer can stack his own Break Armor. That means with another bird you guys can do for brief moments, -104 armor on the boss, which is lean mean cutting machine. I have not yet tested it with Mooger, but once we do I will post final confirmation. This looks promising... Archers can now be really helpful in reducing time on boss runs. Think Sand Storm, Plasma Pyramid and Victory Lap!*