Which 6969?

Hi guys, first post I'm Matt for anyone that cares enough to read this post
I'm currently sporting a 6969 rotaion that goes: -

Holy Shield
Consecration
HotR
Judgement of Wisdom (for Mana)
*Shield Bash*

and I've seen a couple of other floating round with different orders, wondered if it makes a difference to threat because I'm having a little trouble holding aggro atm.

Thanks in Advance

Matt

Hi Matt,

what you describe here is no real 969.

Holy Shield and Cons are both 9ers. It should go like this:

Holy Shield
ShoR
Judgement of Light/Wisdom
HotR
Consecration
ShoR
...

Edit: Maybe you wanna take a look at this: http://www.wow-pro.com/class_guides/tan ... king_guide

The basic concept of the 969 is in alternating a 9 second cooldown ability with a 6 second cooldown ability. The only true 6 seconds abilities are ShoR and HotR.

Although Consecration and Holy Shield is an 8 second cooldown, but due to the Global cooldown being 1.5 secs, you don't be able to use it until the 9 second mark due to the earlier available GCD slot would be at the 7.5 seconds mark. Thus for the rotation purposes, Consecration and Holy Shield are considered 9 second abilities.

Judgement at base is on a 10 seconds cooldown, but any tankadin worth their salt will put at least 1 point in improved judgements to take it down to 9 secs.

These 5 abilities (HS, ShoR, HotR, Cons, Judge) form the basis of your 969 rotation skillset.

The typical rotation would go something like this;

9 - Holy Shield
6 - Shield of Righteousness
9 - Judgement
6 - Hammer of the Righteous
9 - Consecration
6 - Shield of Righteousness

etc.

The exact order of each respective CD skill is not too important, as long as a 6 secs CD and a 9 secs CD skills are always used alternatively back to back. By following this rule, you will naturally fall into the 969 rotation as previously used abilities will not be off the cooldown and thus they will naturally mesh together as long as you don't break up the rhythmn.

I have hammer and shield bound to keys 1 and 2, HS, judgement and consecrate 3-5. I always try to alternate betwen 6s and 9s cooldown ability, what exactly would it be doesn't really matte much as you'll get into rotation in a matter of seconds. It is possible to macro it into two buttons but it won't be as flexible then.

Makaijin wrote:The basic concept of the 969 is in alternating a 9 second cooldown ability with a 6 second cooldown ability....
The exact order of each respective CD skill is not too important, as long as a 6 secs CD and a 9 secs CD skills are always used alternatively back to back. By following this rule, you will naturally fall into the 969 rotation as previously used abilities will not be off the cooldown and thus they will naturally mesh together as long as you don't break up the rhythmn.

Hi Matt, I bolded the important answer to your question for emphasis. =) Knaughty's tanking faq (I believe?) linked a great video. The only manner in which I feel order is important is that I prefer to do my initial rotation so that I have a judgement before my ShoR -- that way, I get a libram proc for extra threat.

1) Pick an available 9 second cooldown: (Holy shield, Judgement, Consecration)
2) Pick an available 6 second cooldown: (ShoR, HotR)
3) Repeat.

hoho wrote:I have hammer and shield bound to keys 1 and 2, HS, judgement and consecrate 3-5. I always try to alternate betwen 6s and 9s cooldown ability, what exactly would it be doesn't really matte much as you'll get into rotation in a matter of seconds. It is possible to macro it into two buttons but it won't be as flexible then.

Yep. Additionally, I have a bar set up where the two 6-second abilities are grouped together, and the three 9-second abilities are grouped together, kind of like in that tutorial video. It makes it VERY easy to tell at a glance which ability you should be using at any given time, as you just bounce back and forth between the left and right groups using whatever ability is up in each one.

EDIT: The wow-pro.com guide shows that quite well.

Cheers for the rotation advice, the thing is Im using the Block Value Libram and well would it not be better to use Judgement and then SoTR for the added Damage as threat?

Thanks

It doesn't matter because your rotation is...rotating. If you save your ShoR (not SoTR there's no "The" in the spell name) to wait for a judgement, then you aren't using it as often as you can, and ultimately are worse off.

To illustrate, take a look at each 18 second interval. First look at the scenario where you follow every judgement with an immediate ShoR:

00.0 Judgement
01.5 ShoR + libram
...
09.0 Judgement
10.5 Shor + libram

In this scenario you get
Judgementx2
(ShoR+Libram)x2

In the 96969 you get:
00.0 Judgement
01.5 ShoR + libram
...
07.5 ShoR
...
09.0 Judgement
...
13.5 ShoR + Libram

here you get
Judgementx2
(ShoR+Libram)x2
ShoR

Which is the same as before, only you get an extra ShoR

hoho wrote:I have hammer and shield bound to keys 1 and 2, HS, judgement and consecrate 3-5. I always try to alternate betwen 6s and 9s cooldown ability, what exactly would it be doesn't really matte much as you'll get into rotation in a matter of seconds. It is possible to macro it into two buttons but it won't be as flexible then.

You can actually macro it to a single key, and it's what I do when tanking heroics and such. Technically speaking if you aren't subbing Exo or AS you can pretty much use it on everything since it's the optimal rotation anyway.

Serrah wrote:Cheers for the rotation advice, the thing is Im using the Block Value Libram and well would it not be better to use Judgement and then SoTR for the added Damage as threat?

Thanks

I do agree with jere but there is a way to put your judges before your ShoR if you must, until 3.2 that is. This takes a little more thinking but if you are up for it you can always sub a exo or AS in your rotation. It would make your rotation a little more complicated but it will work until of course exo becomes a 1.5 sec cast >.>

In aoe trash you can swap hammer and ShoR in your rotation so u build threat on more mobs faster...

Sephirothian wrote:

Serrah wrote:Cheers for the rotation advice, the thing is Im using the Block Value Libram and well would it not be better to use Judgement and then SoTR for the added Damage as threat?

Thanks

I do agree with jere but there is a way to put your judges before your ShoR if you must, until 3.2 that is. This takes a little more thinking but if you are up for it you can always sub a exo or AS in your rotation. It would make your rotation a little more complicated but it will work until of course exo becomes a 1.5 sec cast >.>

... which lowers your overall threat. I asked this somewhere and got a Theck analysis showing that, given how little threat exo and as provide compared to ShoR, delaying ShoR for any reason lowers threat.

Indeed, I've done a lot of analysis on rotations, and have yet to see one that consistently beats 969 without sacrificing Holy Shield uptime. This post from way back in 3.0.x looked at weaving Exorcism into the rotation, and included the Libram of Obstruction (LoO) buff. The LoO buff is so strong that it makes substituting Exorcism for Judgement a threat loss.

Pretty much the only way you'll ever get a threat increase from Exorcism is to substitute for Holy Shield, or to run 3 DPS glyphs (Judgement/Vengeance/Exorcism) and weave it into a 9's slot by pushing back the next cycle (i.e. your 9 second slots would rotate through Judge/Cons/HS/Exor). Unfortunately, both of these result in HS downtime, and the more complicated rotation only barely edges out default 969 with only two threat glyphs.

Or you can use the Vexaz libram, and Exorcism instead of every other judge for a threat boost.

(well, until 3.2)