I see folks on both sides of the fence. I see neutral parties give out warnings that, “Hey, you may have to adjust on the fly.”
But you know what, unless it’s on a piece that gives an overall dps increase, I don’t believe in Hit and Expertise. I’d rather pump out what damage I can and adjust on the fly. I will not regem or reforge for it, again, unless it’s in the best interest of my DPS to do so.
But all you hit cappers out there, have fun with that too. No hard feelings. 🙂
Feral Instincts 
October 18, 2010 at 4:07 pm |
Personally, I optimize around Hit and Expertise for two reasons:
1) I have always done more damage when I am within 1% of the Hit cap. I’ve tried ignoring it, and I’ve always been disappointed with my results.
2) I hate pressing a button and having it not respond. When I miss, I waste a global cooldown. If I am Hit/Expertise capped, I have the greatest control over my toon. I know that, if lag and game mechanics allow for it, I’m going to do the best damage that I can do whenever I use an ability.
Hitting the caps allows me to play my toon while seeing what’s going on in the bigger picture, and to concentrate on boss mechanics and environment. I can rely on my timing and update my debuffs according to plan, because I can use an ability with certainty and move on to the next one.
However, I have seen cats do insane damage with 113 Hit Rating and 76 Expertise Rating, without the old Primal Precision talent. It’s all about how you play best (and enjoy doing it). To each his own, most definitely!
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October 19, 2010 at 3:27 am |
I’m another hit/exp cappers. For raw DPS, I know that agi everywhere beats everything, but unless you have 0 latency and your fingers already adapted to the new queue system, dealing with miss/dodge all the time is VERY annoying. It means that every time you’re about to apply rip, you need to check that the last shred really gave one CP, same for FB, same for SR. I definitely prefer to keep my attention on the fight, survival and correct execution always matter more than raw DPS.
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October 19, 2010 at 7:56 am |
“I definitely prefer to keep my attention on the fight, survival and correct execution always matter more than raw DPS.” I agree wholeheartedly, but I disagree that
You seem to be projecting your own way of managing your timing on others. I don’t assume that my next shred/mangle/etc is going to land. I worry about how many combo points I have when they occur. Then a quick assessment 5 CP, SR has X seconds, Rip has Y seconds, Z is the best use of my time right now.
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October 19, 2010 at 8:58 am |
Hit/Exp vs. agi is all fine and dandy for tank/spank stand and fight type of encounters. But more and more we are going to have to move. Heck in ICC there was lots of that going on, and in Cata I hear there is even more movement mechanics.
With movement that means rip/rake fall off. It also means we may not even be behind tthe target at times. What we don’t know is how long we get to DPS a mob to say get a rip up. That will be the key. I’m guessing, and it’s just a guess, that many fights will be to get rip up leave to add or force movement and then hopefully get back around time rip is falling off.
Which brings up interesting talent picks. Maybe something like stampede will be important. What I can say for sure is that the hit/exp/agi debate translates into at most 1% dps. So till we know more save yourself some money and don’t constantly reforge/regem and go with what you have. After all a few days after Cata most of our gear will be scrapped anyway.
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