Replies: 17
[spoiler title = "Change Log"]
8/15/16 – Updated gear descriptions
8/23/16 – Updated rotation and skill bars
9/2/16 – Superstar addon image added; skills changed along with skills description; fixed rotation
9/8/16 – Character sheet image updated; champion point distribution changed, along with description
9/15/16 – DPS Parse Added
[/spoiler]
Intro: We’re going to put the NASTY in Duck Dynasty, as in you’re dps is going to be sick if you follow this guide (maybe a slight exaggeration, but it makes the name work). Without Maelstrom weapons and subpar CP allocation/gear you will still likely be able to break 20k DPS, and with an optimal set up and clean rotation you will be able to pull 30k – 40k+ single target. Please note that this guide is intended to help you with dungeons and trials only and is not meant for vMA or other solo play.
Shout-outs: I would like to thank all the many theorycrafters out there who have been putting in work long before I became involved in endgame content. These people include, but are not limited to – @FearTurbo, who has a great guide out there that first helped me with my initial foray into Stam DK; @Asayre, who’s thread and website have been invaluable; @Nosferatuzod, who has been a resource and muse; and of course the fine folk at Requiem and From the Dust who have allowed me to raid with them and grow as a player.
CHARACTER SHEET
[img]https://s17.postimg.org/yjpqjil3z/Screen_Shot_2016_09_08_at_11_16_11_AM.png[/img]
Race: I’m an Orc, because that’s how I wanted to roll on Day 1 and that’s not going to change, Race Change Tokens be damned. If you want to be pro, you’re ideally going to choose a race that gives you more substantial passives. The Khajiit crit bonus is OP and makes them a great choice for this build; if you never want to worry about sustain issues over longer fights then Redguard is great as well.
Attribute Points: All into Stamina.
Mundus Stone: Thief – you want as much crit as possible. If you are running TBS (see below) then you also want the Shadow Mundus stone.
Champion Points
Warrior: For true optimization, you would shift these around depending on the trial. If you don’t want do that, you’ll be fine splitting your points between Elemental Defender and Hardy, maybe with some into Hardy as well. You can be kind to your healers too and put a little bit into Quick Recovery.
Thief: Max out cost reduction, then put the rest into recovery.
Mage: I currently run 80 Mighty, 50 Thaumaturge and 47 Precise Strikes. This may change slightly for you depending on your gear and raid buffs, so I encourage you to check out Asayre’s website and do your own dps test to find your optimal distribution. The general idea is that all our damage is either physical or poison/disease (with Standard being the exception), and the vast majority of our damage is coming from DoTs (everything except our medium attack weaves). In raid situations, you will also have considerable boost to your crit damage, making Precise Strikes very important as well.
Gear
I believe that 7 medium pieces is better than 5/1/1 as the increased crit is worth it. Either way, run Divines on everything with Stamina enchants. Make sure that your armor is at least purple quality, and if you can afford it, gold your sets out.
Head & Shoulders – Velidreth. This new set is best in slot and a must have for our build. It will boost your dps in both single target and AoE situations. If you don’t have these 2 pieces yet, run Mephala instead and modify your skill bars and rotation appropriately, incorporating Molten Armaments.
Jewelry – I currently run Vicious Ophidian with Weapon Power enchants. But if you haven’t farmed that yet, Alkosh or Robust Agility will do fine, just make sure to enchant them with Weapon Power. For a great thread discussing the differences between all these jewelry sets, go here.
Other 5 Pieces – this will vary depending on your situation. For my trials team, I run Night Mother’s – you always want one person running this set in your squad for the 5 piece penetration bonus. If someone in your raid is already using NM, then you can use TBS instead (while being sure to pick up the Shadow Mundus stone). The dps difference between NM and TBS is minimal, however, TBS is nice in that you get a health bonus of about 1k. Note: TBS wins out in an optimal raid setting where warhorn is consistently on cooldown. If you are not in an optimized raiding team, or if you are simply doing a dungeon, using NM is fine.
Weapons: Sharpened vMA Dagger, Sharpened vMA Axe, and Sharpened vMA Bow. If you don’t have vMA weapons, then crafting up NM or Hundings will do fine in the meantime. Just make sure that they’re Sharpened and golded out. You get the greatest return on investment by upgrading your weapons to gold, as opposed to any other piece of armor. So even if you’re cheap GOLD OUT THOSE WEAPONS!!! If you then have the funds left over, upgrade your armor as well.
If you are going to craft your weapons, you will want the Weapon Damage enchant on your bow and one of your main bar weapons, on the other you will want poison damage. The poison enchant will be increased by your CP, and having Weapon Damage on both your bow and other weapon helps ensure greater uptime (note: due to the cooldown, both WD enchants cannot proc at once.)
Food: Blue Health and Stamina.
Potions: Essence of Weapon Power. Ideally you want to have these on cooldown and be 3/3 in Medicinal Use so that you have constant uptime on your weapon damage bonus.
Skills
Bar 1 (DW): Rapid Strikes | Venomous Claws | Rending Slashes | Camo Hunter | Rearming Trap/Flex Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker
Bar 2 (Bow): Endless Hail | Caltrops/Flex | Poison Injection | FOO | Acid Spray/Vigor Ultimate: Standard of Might
Your flex spot will be dictated by your group needs and the situation. As a DK, be prepared to run chains for your group. As a stam user, you may be expected to run rapids if your team is going for competitive raid scores. If you don’t need to run either, slotting Vigor is a great option. Caltrops is a worthwhile skill to run on your back bar if you have the room as it will net you about a 1k dps increase; be aware that same morphs of caltrops do not stack, however, the 2 different morphs and the unmorphed version do (for a total of 3 potential caltrops in play at once), so coordinate with your raid team accordingly. I run Anti-Calvary Caltrops since I also run 5 pc. NMG, so I have a chance to proc the debuff on multiple enemies.
I used to run trap on my back bar instead of acid spray, and had steel tornado on my front bar. This is a fine option for AoE and many of you will be comfortable doing this. As @AlphaRahl pointed out, however, the above set up provides us with an additional Fighter’s Guild skill on our main bar, increasing our dps, while also allowing us to stay ranged when dealing with mobs. In case it’s not obvious, this is why we have Flawless on our front bar – you will essentially never use this, but it’s there for the passive damage increase – always continue to generate ultimate until you can pop Standard, unless it’s at the very end of a fight or you’re desperate for resources.
Rotation: I medium attack weave (MA) before all my front bar DoTs except for the first Rapid Strikes.
Starting on your back bar: FOO > Hail > Caltrops > Injection > Bar Swap > Rapid Strikes > MA Claws > MA Rapid Strikes > MA Rending > MA Rapid Strikes > MA Trap > rinse and repeat, dropping Standard as needed.
The general idea here is that you want to alternate Rapid Strikes with your other front bar DoTs to empower them via your MA weapons. Furthermore, by adhering to this rotation you will be empowering your Endless Hail as well. You want to reapply FOO every other rotation, and caltrops every 3rd rotation. To maximize dps, drop Standard after having applied your back bar DoTs for the second time – this will ensure that all your DoTs are up and Standard will hit the hardest. To see this rotation in action, check out Alcast’s video.
Since DKs don’t have an execute, you will essentially run this rotation for the entire duration of the fight. The exception is at the very end of a boss encounter, as you will spam Rapid Strikes when it is clear that your next rotation of DoTs will not be able to fully run their course.
For trash and AoE situations, simply keep up Trap and Hail while weaving Acid Spray. For fights where you need additional ranged damage, feel free to slot Snipe. Focused Aim is likely the morph you want since it will give your group Minor Breach; if you have a Stamplar on your team or if someone else is already running Focused Aim, then you want Lethal Arrow.
DPS PARSE
Bloodspawn, 38.1k
[img]https://s9.postimg.org/sh8lh1hvz/Screen_Shot_2016_09_15_at_9_48_12_PM.png[/img]
That is all, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reply below. I’m always open to feedback and look to improve my build whenever possible.
Happy Gaming,
Duck
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Duckbutta.
