Cool down management

[Bilirubin]

When raiding in WoW it proved crucial to eek out every last ounce of DPS to beat the various enrage timers in a way I don't recall necessary running the first three OPs in TOR. The proper timing of offensive cooldowns was a critical bit of the math to down a boss. In my readings to get back into things in TOR I have been going over the reasoning behind our priority queue but have seen little in the way of discussing when to blow which cool down. They were a bit of a black box to me before, now I'd like to understand them better. Edited July 12, 2013 by Bilirubin

[KeyboardNinja]

When raiding in WoW it proved crucial to eek out every last ounce of DPS to beat the various enrage timers in a way I don't recall necessary running the first three OPs in TOR. The proper timing of offensive cooldowns was a critical bit of the math to down a boss. In my readings to get back into things in TOR I have been going over the reasoning behind our priority queue but have seen little in the way of discussing when to blow which cool down. They were a bit of a black box to me before, now I'd like to understand them better.

 

There is really only one offensive CD that you have as a shadow tank, and that is Force Potency. The way in which you use this CD is essentially on cooldown, before Telekinetic Throw when you have 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows. After that, what you do is a bit subjective, but I like to fish for the Particle Acceleration proc before I use another force attack (unless that fishing takes more than 3-4 GCDs). Thus, the sequence might look something like this:

 

Slow Time (gain third stack)

Force Potency

Telekinetic Throw

Double Strike

Shadow Strike (assuming proc)

Project (on proc, consuming second stack)

 

Potency is a pretty good offensive CD, given that it massively increases the damage dealt by your two heaviest hitters. Unless there is a very, very good reason to save it (like incoming movement), I really do use it nearly exactly on cooldown.

 

Defensive CDs are another matter, and extremely situational. Learn the fight mechanics and know when the hardest hitting abilities of a particular damage/attack type are going out (e.g. Force Leach). For really tight fights, work with your healers and cotank to find the best time to ease the healing burden (e.g. when a lot of raid damage goes out and the healers need to catch up). And of course, if all else fails, pop a CD when you get really low on health.

[Bilirubin]

Thanks for this KBN. The defensive cool downs make a lot more sense to me but the clarification on the offensive ones are greatly appreciated. What about Battle Readiness? I know its partially defensive, but it also seems to have a good offensive upside.

 

I forget but are we talented so we don't need to use shadow strike from the side or rear as tanks?

 

(Man my config is a mess right now...)

[Kitru]

What about Battle Readiness? I know its partially defensive, but it also seems to have a good offensive upside.

 

The offensive upside on it is *tiny*. For 15 seconds, your Technique deals double the damage and has a higher proc chance. The Technique *already* deals miniscule damage so doubling it doesn't really *do* anything. If anything, the increased proc chance is nice but *that* is inhibited by the ICDs. Honestly, I think that Battle Readiness is the *worst* of the "DPS CDs" and always has been. Even the mediocre "auto-crit with charged burst" and "your next resource consuming cast is free" are better because they provide some degree of value through their controllable nature.

 

As a tank, Battle Readiness should *only* be used as a survivability CD. In fact, right now, it's our best because it's our *only* source of additional damage reduction.

 

I forget but are we talented so we don't need to use shadow strike from the side or rear as tanks?

 

Yes, but only when it procs. It also reduces the cost of Shadow Strike by 50% so that it's not going to completely gib your resource management. If you're tanking, just use it whenever you would use DS if it happens to be lit up at the time: same cost, better damage, and a trivial decrease in your TkT cycle time (because it's only 1 hit rather than 2, so less likelihood of procing PA).

[Bilirubin]

Thanks, and also for your post in the tanking forum. Its all starting to come back to me now, slowly but should have this down in no time.