planet_J Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 I leveled as watchman and recently switched to combat at the behest of a guildie for raids... I am doing like 400 less dps as combat, so what is the preferred opener? I have read the priorities...but my main question is...other than masterstrike after precision and bladerush 6x after Zen...are there any other things I should be mindful of? I could use some guidance as I know watchman well...combat seems to be something I am missing somewhere. Still working in cauterize here and there on cooldown...but I think I must be missing a proc somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keypek Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 You didn't mention blade storm, I'm assuming you just forgot to mention it but if you didn't then you should definitely be using it off CD with the auto crit proc up. That's a good chunk of guaranteed damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planet_J Posted January 25, 2013 Author Share Posted January 25, 2013 (edited) You didn't mention blade storm, I'm assuming you just forgot to mention it but if you didn't then you should definitely be using it off CD with the auto crit proc up. That's a good chunk of guaranteed damage. Ahh...what auto crit proc? What attack gives it auto crit? Precision? Edited January 25, 2013 by planet_J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keypek Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Ahh...what auto crit proc? What attack gives it auto crit? Precision? Well ataru procs proc combat trance which is in the 4th tier of combat and lasts for 6 seconds. Also in the 4th tier is immaculate force which you spec into just after combat trance which causes 100% crit chance on blade storm while combat trance is active. So for instance, use blade rush which auto procs an ataru form strike which in turn puts in you combat trance for 6 seconds so then use blade storm which will crit. I don't really have a set rotation with mine as things change and you have a lot of leadway depending on situations and interupts as to what you want to do. But obviously the bread and butter of combat revolves around precision slash. Everything hits harder when you bypass 100% armor obviously. I try to get a master strike and blade storm off within the 4 seconds of the precision slash debuff. Which to get the auto crit will use blade rush first, then precision slash, right into master strike, and blade storm. After that it's about what's up and what isn't... obviously dispatch if under 30%. If you have zen up by the time precision slash is off CD again make sure you got near full focus (use zealot strike if necessary) and then pop zen, hit with precision strike, do 3 blade rush and blade storm to finish out precision debuff and then another 3 blade rush to finish off zen. Of course throwing in dispatch if available. Master strike can only be used every two precision slash CDs. And someone might have a better rotation here which is fine. But the basics of combat is setting up precision strike and using it off CD. And when you use it either follow with master strike and blade storm or if able zen enabled blade rushes with blade storm in middle. And have these abilities keybound if possible. Precision strike acts a little funny like it doesn't follow the GCD to me... you can use it and immediately go into master strike or use another ability without waiting a CD for it. So everything should be flowing fairly fast during this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planet_J Posted January 25, 2013 Author Share Posted January 25, 2013 So, I was losing dps from blade storm every rotation by not using it after blade rush...and every other precision by doing the blade rushes instead of squeezing in a blade storm...wow...that's probably 200-300 dps right there and that sounds a lot more like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngusFTW Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 (edited) Basically, what you wanna do for combat pve dps is get the most out of your precision windows as possible so what you wanna aim for is in one precision window to have master strike up and in the other have zen up. This way you can have one precision window with ps>ms>auto crit blade storm and then have a second precision window with zen that gives you 3 blade rush into blade storm. What you do in-between this is up to you as long as you get the focus built up for these precision windows. You will mainly be spamming blade rush although using cauterize in your rotation as well is becoming increasingly popular in combat spec. Also you wanna make sure you use blade rush before a precision window so combat trance is active so that when you use blade storm its still auto crit after the ms. Ie a basiic starting rotation for combat for ms would bd leap>zealous> blade rush> precision slash> master strike > blade storm. Although if you watch your procs you wont ALWAYS need the blade rush its just to be on the safe side. Edited January 26, 2013 by AngusFTW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stealios Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Also never ever ever use slash anymore when in combat spec. Blade rush is the replacement for slash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planet_J Posted January 30, 2013 Author Share Posted January 30, 2013 (edited) Also never ever ever use slash anymore when in combat spec. Blade rush is the replacement for slash. Yeah...I had the gist of it...just was sure I was missing something...now I have it figured out and dps is back where it should be. Thanks for all the help. Edited January 30, 2013 by planet_J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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