First of all, let's take a look at the DPS of the different rotations for a standard 5/5x/6 spec:
DPS:
TPS:
I've put lines at 3162 DPS and 8181 TPS, which are the baseline values for the default 969 with Judgement and SoV glyphs. These lines will remain at those values for the rest of the plots, so we can see how things compare to that basic benchmark.
There are a few things to notice here:
- Exorcism on cooldown and Holy Shield substitution rotations always win out for both DPS and TPS. As we'll see soon, this will remain true for all of the specs we'll be looking at today.
- Judgement substitution is only better if both Judgement and SoV are glyphed, though it's always better than a 969 without the Judgement glyph.
- Consecration substitution is weaker even if glyphed, and worse yet if it goes unglyphed.
- Both 6's substitution schemes are just poor all around. The alternating 6's one is so bad it's off the bottom of the chart
Just as a sanity check, let's compare it to a 0/5x/15 spec that picks up conviction:
DPS:
TPS:
Nothing here should be a surprise:
- The conviction spec does slightly higher DPS, slightly lower TPS.
- The Consecration substitution rotation gets a little boost here by replacing a spell that can't crit with one that can, but still lags the default-spec 969 in TPS.
- Judgement substitution is better in both cases as long as Exorcism is glyphed.
If we now look at a Ret subspec that goes 18 into Ret for Sanctified Seals, we notice a big change:
DPS:
TPS:
First of all, we see a noticeable increase in both DPS and TPS across the board. The relative differences within this spec are pretty much the same though, with the JSE Exorcism-on-cooldown rotation edging ahead by a little over 100TPS
Next, Ret subspec that goes 18 into Ret for Crusade:
DPS:
TPS:
Again, an across-the-board increase in both types of output, and again, relative rankings haven't changed, though the Exor-on-cooldown rotation is now closer to 150TPS ahead.
And finally, for the obsessive-compulsive in each of us, the 0/51/20 spec that picks up 3 in Crusade and 2 in Sanctified Seals:
DPS:
TPS:
Again, an increase across the board. The Holy Shield replacement strategy is finally OVER NINE THOUSAND threat. But overall, this graph looks exactly like the other ones I've posted so far.
Some take-home thoughts from this:
- Consecration substitution, which looked advantages from a mana expenditure point-of-view, always lags a standard 969, regardless of what spec you pick. As such, it's never the answer, even glyphed.
- Neither of the 6's-substitution schemes ever hold a candle to standard 969, because HotR and ShoR are two of our biggest threat moves, so replacing either with a weaker one is always going to trail a rotation that keeps both of those skills on cooldown.
- Judgement substitution can boost both DPS and TPS as long as Exorcism is glyphed - without it there's no noticeable gain.
- Exorcism on cooldown is always the best DPS and TPS output, and performs best when Judgement and Exorcism are both glyphed. I haven't tested without the SoV glyph yet, but since we've narrowed down the rotations we're interested in, I can look into this a little further in a later post.
- Holy Shield replacement is by far the best DPS and TPS boost, at the expense of Holy Shield uptime. This is likely to be our new prot-dpsing rotation, as well as the rotation we should use against casters that do not melee (or at least, not hard).
- Note that all of these graphs assume the 1% Sense Undead bonus, but don't assume Exorcism is automatically a critical. I should have taken off the Sense Undead modifier, but frankly I forgot, and since it's a flat 1% bonus, it won't change anything except the final numbers.
- I intend to test with some version of Exorcism auto-crit later on to see if that helps either of the 6's replacement strategies. However, they're so far behind in most cases that it may not be enough to save them.
