Change weapon during stampede

[SonnyA]

<p>I'm thinking that since stampede procs on every attack, it might be an advantage to switch to a super fast autoattack weapon. Since you can switch weapon/shield midfight, it would be easy to make a macro that will equip a super fast weapon.</p><p>When stampede has run its duration, you click your standard gearset macro or whatever item set you want.</p><p>Anyone know of a good fast weapon for this purpose?</p>

[Banditman]

<p>I too have thought about something like this, but I'm still not sure it would really pay off.  I know what you're seeing, because I see it too.  More hits = more damage.  It's true!  Weird!</p><p>The problem I foresee is that on a faster weapon, you also risk more.  What happens if you need to heal during that time?  Or even debuff?  You stand to lose more attacks than you gain because your casts don't fit so neatly in between your swings anymore.  Imagine the lost attacks if you have to cast your Group Ward.  Ouch.</p><p>When you step back and think about it, it should really apply all the time, if it were to apply at all.  I mean, CoB is "pretty much" always up right?  Wouldn't it therefore stand to reason that you'd get more damage from a faster weapon "all the time"?</p><p>It's our hybrid, multi purpose nature that defies common sense sometimes.</p>

[Hene]

<p><cite>SonnyA wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I'm thinking that since stampede procs on every attack, it might be an advantage to switch to a super fast autoattack weapon. Since you can switch weapon/shield midfight, it would be easy to make a macro that will equip a super fast weapon.</p><p>When stampede has run its duration, you click your standard gearset macro or whatever item set you want.</p><p>Anyone know of a good fast weapon for this purpose?</p></blockquote><p>If i'm about to cast stampede I usually unequip my slow 2hander and requip my eneverated myth except on fights where I will probably need to heal; i see a good bonus to stampede for myself, sadly I don't know of any <em>really </em>fast weapons, like 1.6 sec delay I used to see at low levels...</p><p><cite>Banditman wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I too have thought about something like this, but I'm still not sure it would really pay off.  I know what you're seeing, because I see it too.  More hits = more damage.  It's true!  Weird!</p><p>The problem I foresee is that on a faster weapon, you also risk more.  What happens if you need to heal during that time?  Or even debuff?  You stand to lose more attacks than you gain because your casts don't fit so neatly in between your swings anymore.  Imagine the lost attacks if you have to cast your Group Ward.  Ouch.</p><p>When you step back and think about it, it should really apply all the time, if it were to apply at all.  I mean, CoB is "pretty much" always up right?  Wouldn't it therefore stand to reason that you'd get more damage from a faster weapon "all the time"?</p><p>It's our hybrid, multi purpose nature that defies common sense sometimes.</p></blockquote><p>You won't lose more attacks than you would gain, but you could lose overall DPS; it depends on how heal/debuff intensive the fight is</p><p>Also, if you generally cast spells, a very fast weapon pretty much loses its benefit because you cannot get in any/as many spells between autoattacks without interrupting the autoattack which decreases auto atk dmg, which is ~10 times more overall than CoB; but when stampede is up, it does a considerable amount of dps; imo worth while toswap for stampede, not for cob</p>

[Banditman]

<p>While it's true that the overall damage on Stampede is more than CoB, the point is that CoB is "always" up.  If you look across time, I'd bet that CoB with a fast weapon would do more damage than Stampede with a fast weapon.</p><p>Obviously, it's a theoretical exercise, since you'd end up with a much harder to use weapon when any amount of healing was required.</p><p>Look at it this way:</p><p>Over 20 seconds of Stampede, you're going to swing a 4s delay weapon (a hasted 2H) 5 times.  You're going to swing a 2s weapon 10 times.  Let's say the 2H hits for 10k and the 1H hits for 5k and Stampede hits for 5k.  Yes, I'm making this really easy on myself.</p><p>Just raw numbers, 2H = 75k damage (3750 DPS) and 1H = 100k (5000 DPS) damage.  This assumes PERFECT execution of the 1H weapon.  If you start delaying things by debuffing, healing or whatever you start knocking off swings, at the rate of 10k per swing (5k Stampede, 5k Weapon).</p><p>Just one lost swing with the 1H weapon though, and you lose 500 DPS.  Given knockbacks, heals, cures, debuffs, etc . . . I dunno, I think it's a lot of trouble to go into.</p><p>If you're really interested in min/max'ing to this extent, you ALSO need to do the same thing when Peace of Mind is up.  I'm not saying I don't do it for trash mobs, I've certainly been guilty of swapping a weapon when I know PoM or Stampede is going to be up.  It's just not something I do very often.  There is (relatively) little trash these days.</p><p>For someone trying to make the difference between 5k DPS and 10k DPS, this is not your answer.  There are other more effective avenues for pursuit.  This is something you do to make the difference between 14k and 17k DPS.</p><p>I would rate this particular tactic "Expert" if I was using the Apprentice / Journeyman / Adept / Expert / Master scale that spells use.  If you don't have the Apprentice, Journeyman and Adept tactics down, this one won't feel as effective.  Once you have that foundation, this may help you reach that next level.</p>

[Hene]

<p>I agree that a shorter delay increases dps from cob and stampede; but my point was that the likelihood of you being able to 'slack' on casting for 24 sec To get in all auto atk hits for stampede is much greater than 'slacking' on casting all the time for maximizing cob. if cob adds 20% to each auto attack hit, in order to have any benefit, assuming your weapon does the same damage over time as a slower one, you need to 'lose' fewer than 1 in 6 hits. It really depends on how much your auto atk hits for, what group you are healing, what other procs you are getting/missing out on (keep in mind that tribal rage procs on melée too), etc</p>

[Hene]

<p>And no, cob with a fast weapon will see no more benefit, proportionally, than stampede with a fast weapon aside from possibly missing a hit from timing problems.</p>