EQZerker73

Can anyone please post a response or a link to some direction of how a raid Zerk casts his CA order to get maximum DPS in raids?

I use a programable keyboard and I cast all my CAs in order, I will post the order once I get home from work so I can get some high end Zerkers opinion about the way they are cast.

If anything I shoot most CAs so fast with a .50 to .90 delay between each cast that I dont leave any time for Auto Attack to swing. I will have to better evaluate my parses to get a hold the best delay between CAs would be. I use the standard Zerk build of Sta Int Str. Currently my weapon has a 4 second delay, I am maxed in the Int line of haste, and have 25% worn haste.

I am still learning the mechanics of our CAs so I am not claiming to be an expert, I just want to learn to play the class well.

I thank everyone for their input.

Buuncha Muskuls

A 4 second delay weapon is to slow to be chaining your Combat arts.

If you parse yourself consistently over a week long period and average it out your auto attack damage is going to amount to the greatest % of your damage if your doing things right.

I'll try to break this down without overcomplicating it too much. I failed

Your DPS is going to consist of 3 things; variable DPS, fixed DPS and random DPS.

Your combat arts are your fixed dps. The reason I call it fixed is that your Combat arts have a fixed cast time, a fixed median for damage and if they are up, you can cast them. If you chain cast your combat arts or cycle them appropriately the damage done by them over a given period is going to remain constant. It's mathematically possible to determine the range of damage your CA's are going to contribute without knowing your haste/crit/DA percentages.

Your autto attack damage is your variable dps. It is variable because depending on how you utilize your combat arts this dps can change drastically across a fairly large range.

Your random dps is the damage generated by item procs/ripostes/damage shields/item effects/buff procs.

So you have a dps equation of A+B+C = Dps

Since your combat arts is your fixed dps the only way to really manipulate this part of your equation is to look at how one combat art might carry a buff or debuff that lets following arts do more damage. Take into account cast times and reuse timers to create the best casting order for your weapon choice and playstyle.

Once you have your fixed dps tweaked out you need to adjust your playstyle to maximize the % ratio of your variable dps(auto-attack) vs your fixed dps(combat arts).

If you chain your combat arts with a 4 second delay weapon you'll probably find your parse to be 40% autto attack damage, 50% combat art damage and 10% random dps but the overall DPS number will be much lower then it should be.

As you adjust your combat art timing and order to better suite your weapon you'll slowly see your combat art dps drop to 35% of your dps, random dps about 10% and your autto attack jump to 65%. You will also find your overall DPS number to be significantly higher.

In conjunction with maximizing this dps formula you can try and increase your random dps number by finding the best items with those effects on them that contribute to this dps. This is primarily the realm of mages but it can contribute to melee dps as well.

ACT is your friend, you should get accustomed to use it to examine your parse data in greater detail to make decisions on how you are playing the game.

Most of all, if your not having fun, then it's not worth it.

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Buuncha Muskuls

I wanted to throw this in a different post so that it didn't get lost in my freaking dissertation I posted, sorry.


As far as CA vs Auto attack timing you have to look at the breakdown of what is happening. So you have a 4 second delay weapon that on average hits for 750-1100 damage. If you don't have any haste at all that means you should be swinging at the rate of 1 swing every 4 seconds. That gives you 3 seconds of time between swings to do something else. With most combat arts having a cast time of 1 second and about .5 seconds to be able to cast another combat art, you should realistically be able to cast 2 combat arts in between swings without interrupting your swing cycle.

If you chain your combat arts your potentially getting the exact same number of combat arts used, but interrupting your swing cycle so often that you lose a large percentage of those. At 750-1100 damage a pop, that is a lot of lost dps.

It is much more specific number wise then that but I hope you at least get the picture of what I am trying to say.

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Lizerd Keng

With Int2 and Int5 you should easily be able to get 3 CA's in between 4 second delay weapon. With max haste on this 4.0 delay weapoon, you should still be able to get 2 CA's in between each auto attack. Remember you can autoattack during recovery.

Lizerd Keng

but to answer OP question, I like to cast turmoil on incoming because of the long cast time, and maybe even ow for haste. Juggernaught once tank has aggro, or if I'm the tank once the debuffs are in (if needed). I like to throw in the dot/haste debuff soon, frenzy, the couple harder hitting ones first. But it depends a little bit on how fast your raid gets the mitigation/defensive debuffs in. If you wait to throw the bombs until all the debuffs are in, you can gain some. You don't want to be waiting for CA's to refresh or hitting the low damage ones when the mob is debuffed the most. Also depends on how fast the MT can establish good aggro. If it takes thema few more seconds to have it solid, then you may want to wait a few more seconds before juggernaught,hah

pulseox

This is VERY helpful information. I have been working on maximizing my auto attacks as well, and I use ACT.

I have not yet been able to figure out how to time my auto attacks. How can I tell when an auto attack has fired and that I am free to fire off a couple of CAs? When do I know when to stop hitting them and wait for the auto attack?

Thanks.

Lyger

don't forget about racial abilities, kerrans for example have a physical mitigation debuff and that goes in first since its a 1 min duration and 1 min recast.

Fonil

If im tanking on the pull ill cast turmoil jugg and OW if they are up the huge spike locks aggro pretty well.

As far as casting order slow,ikar racial dot, hate, int2, invasion, exec strike, big hit, big hit

I try and get the big hits in as soon as dispatch has landed to maximize how many times i get to throw it, after that the rest of them. and until recently if i were to get knockbacked mid fight i would throw turmoil again if its up but i got star darkened longbow so ill just take a good bow shot instead hehe. 12k bow Shots are suuweeeettt

Vydar

Here's two things my guild does for timing Auto Attacks.

Those that don't mind the annoyance set ACT so it beeps every time they auto attack, THEN they mash a CA.

I personally don't like this method. I turn off the damage numbers for everyone else, so I can ONLY see my own, so its pretty easy to pick out. Plus, with my epic weapon and a lot of haste, I normally just get in an auto attack during recovery time between every ca anyway.

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EQZerker73

Thanks for you help all, if anyone has any more suggestions on casting order of CA i will take it.

Vydar how do u set up ACT to beep when the Auto Atack goes off?

It looks like i am going to need two sets of macros one for raids and one for solo play since I will have diferent amount of haste.

I will have to find the formula of how haste effects delay. Since we can have up to 200% haste it just doesnt make sense, but I have seen a formula before that should explain it.