New PTR Patch

Synopsis
New things on the PTR's latest patch; t8 bonus calculations and enchant.
Warning if you are weak on math, don't break your head over this, just assume the numbers are true!

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As posted by Karthis there is a new PTR patch available at the moment (mmo champion)

Before joining in on the tier 8 bonus I'd like to make 2 remarks on other things in the patch.

• Faerie Fire (Feral) now deals [15% of AP + 1] damage. (Up from [5% of AP + 1])

So instead of about 250 damage it will do 3 times the damage =~ 750. No idea why this is done. I don't know the other tanking classes that well, but I don't think other tanks have something similar to begin with. The only explanation I can give to this increase is that now there is a smaller chance healer agro will overagro you thus giving you an extra "taunt-like" thingy to grab early agro on mobs. It will probably make swipe and positioning a bit easier but it is by far an answer to a 360 degree agro thing.

• Enchant Weapon - Blood Draining *New* - Permanently enchants your weapon to sometimes grant Blood Reserve when striking an enemy or inflicting damage with bleed attacks. When you fall below 35% health, Blood Reserve restores 1750 to 2250 health. This enchantment requires the wielder is at least level 75.

Finally there will be a choice for feral tanks in the enchant on their weapon. The 75 stamina thing was shot down and left us with mongoose only (or the 35 agi one if you preferred that). Is this weapon enchant better? Hard to say. Are tanks much under 35% health? On some bosses yes, often. On others... you better find yourself some better healers! So initially looking great it is a bit of a downer if you look at it closer.
However, depending on the exact workings of this enchant it could be really good when you have 2 weapons!
Start of the fight you equip the Blood Draining (BD) and you get the buff. Once you have it press a macro and switch to the Mongoose Weapon. As soon as the buff is gone (this can either be that you dropped below 35% or the buff timer is done) re-equip BD again till you have to buff.
2 ways this would not work, would maybe work, but would be too much of a hassle to do.

1. The buff is removed when you have no weapon with BD equipped.
2. The buff only lasts a couple of seconds (10 or so). This would mean too much switching.

It also all depends on the proc chance of BD. I will do some testing on it on PTR (whenever I have the time) and also do a dps test which I promised a couple of posts ago.
On a side note, I am also still unable to research new glyphs. I now even get a message I have no target (probably a placeholder message to not waste research materials when you research while nothing is available).

So, now to the tier 8 bonus sets as they are currently (everything can change on PTR) available.

• 2t8: The periodic damage dealt by your Rake, Rip, and Lacerate abilities has a chance to cause you to enter a Clearcasting state.
• 4t8: Increases the duration of Savage Roar and Survival Instinct by 8 sec.

For bear this means nothing. Our set bonusses on 2t7 were not that super, these are neither. 2t8 gives more threat as 2t7 did and 4t8 will increase our survivability by a minimum margin. The 4t7 was better, not much, but as bear you will most likely equip the t8 items anyway. More armor, more stamina, more agility, more everything.

Now Cat get a huge boost from the 2t8 bonus. No question about that. The real thing we have to look at here is: does 4t8 outweigh 2t7 buff.

With the new shred glyph Rip would last 22 seconds instead of 26. It has to be up at 5CP always (preferably). 100% uptime means no loss in DPS, it only means that you have 4 seconds less to gather 5 CP to renew Rip.
As can be seen from the calculations below (**) you can see to need 5 CP you need an average of 3.5625 CP generating abilitities. I take an average of energy needed for one ability of 40 (some are a bit above, others are below).

Thus to do Rip you need 3.6525 * 40 + 30 (Rip itself) = 172.5 energy.
Loosing 4 seconds on Rip we would need now 172.5 * (26/22) = 203.86 energy to keep Rip up the same time.
That is an energy loss per second of (203.86 - 172.5) / 26 = 1.21 energy lost per second.

Now the 4t8 bonus would give 8 seconds on SR. At the moment most people use a 4 CP SR (see below *) rotation. A 1 CP SR rotation would last to short to safely do a Rip. With the 8 seconds longer SR I'll take a look at both.

A few things up front: (wee below **).
The average CP generating abilities needed to do 1 CP SR = 1. With a proc chance of 50% it will eaither be 1 CP SR or 2 CP SR. It will thus last an average time of (0.5 * 14 + 0.5 * 19 =) 16.5 seconds (not counting 4t8).
The average CP generating abilities needed todo 4 CP SP = 2.875. With a proc chance of 50% it will be either 4 CP SR (68.75%) or 5 CP SR (31.25%). It will thus last an average of time of (0.6875 * 29 + 0.3125 * 34 =) 30.56 seconds (not counting 4t8).

Using no 4t8, below we see that 1 CP SR is more energy efficient then 4 CP SR.
1 CP SR = 16.5 sec / (40 * 1 + 25 energy) = 16.5/65 = 0.254 sec uptime per energy.
4 CP SR = 30.56 sec / (40 * 2.875 + 25 energy) = 30.56 / 140 = 0.218 sec uptime per energy.
The ratio is 0.254 / 0.218 = 1.164 = 16.4% more efficient.
However as said 1 CP Sr can't be used reliably.

Using new 4t8 we can add 8 seconds to the duration.
1 CP SR = 16.5 + 8 sec / 65 energy 24.5/65 = 0.377 sec uptime per energy.
4 CP SR = 30.56 + 8 sec / 140 energy = 38.56 / 140 = 0.275 sec uptime per energy.
The ratio is 0.377 / 0.275 = 1.369 = 36.9% more efficient.

Now not having unreliable 1 CP SR uptime and a efficientce of nearly 37% vs 4 CP SR you would be stupid not stay using 4 CP SR.

But now what does that mean for engergy save vs the energy lost.

4 CP SR costs 140 energy (see above). 4t8 gives a 38.56 sec duration vs 30.56 duration.
Without 4t8 it would cost 140 / 30.56 = 4.58 energy per second.
With 4t8 it would cost 140 / 38.56 = 3.63 energy per second.
4.58 - 3.63 = 0.95 energy per second gain.
This does not weigh up to the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.

Since we are gonna use 1 CP SR let's see how that does;
Without 4t8 it would cost 65 / 16.5 = 3.94 energy per second.
With 4t8 it would cost 65 / 24.5 = 2.65 energy per second.
3.94 - 2.65 = 1.28 energy per second gain.
This does weigh up to the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.

So this proves the 4t8 bonus next to the better stats is already better for people who were using (for me) unreliable 1 CP SR.
But if you were using 4 CP SR the bonus is huge!
4.58 - 2.65 = 1.93 energy per second gain.
This completely obliterates the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.

In conclusion this makes me say definitely go for 4t8! It makes the rotation so much easier ( I suspect it does, it will be months before it is thoroughly tested) and more energy efficient!

Any input on this is welcome.

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* Why 4 CP and not 5? If you go for a 5CP SR you have the chance of critting while you are at 4 CP. Meaning it is a wasted crit! You only get 1 CP anyway. Therefore when you are at 4 CP, use SR, don't go for a 5th. If you are at 3 and you crit you might be at 5 CP anyway, but at least you did not waste a crit!

** The ways to get to 4 CP are:
Situation => Chance on situation => Sum of moves

Hit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Hit + hit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Hit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Crit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Crit + crit => (50%^2) = 25% => 2
Sum percentages = 100%

Average finishing moves needed = 2.875
Percentage of 5 combopoints: (12.5% + 25% + 25%) / 2 = 31.25%

The ways to get to 5 CP are:
Situation => Chance on situation => Sum of moves

Hit + hit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^4) = 6.25% => 5
Hit + hit + hit + crit => (50%^4) = 6.25% => 4
Hit + hit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Hit + crit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Crit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Crit + hit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Hit + crit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Crit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Sum percentages = 100%

Average finishing moves needed = 3.5625