When to drop gear for the set bonus [Updated 6.1]

[Chev]

There has been some talk on IRC on when it would be a good idea to drop your Highmaul Mythic gear to replace with the Blackrock Tier items for the 2 / 4 set bonus. I know some work has been done on this in the general threads but I wanted to do something specific to Arcane.

To give you an idea on what the 2 bonuses do for your DPS, below is a sim showing the exact same gear sets, but the 2 & 4 set bonuses have been disabled.



As you can see, the 4 set adds around 8% extra DPS when dressed in BR Mythic BiS. Below are some simulations showing someone dressed in HM Mythic BiS and if you were to replace your head & chest piece for the 2 set, or the head, chest, shoulder & legs for the 4 set on each of the different gear levels to make a set bonus.



As you can see, it is worth it to get the set bonuses via normal gear, even if you are fully mythic geared and especially if you are still pushing mythic or HC.

A few notes about this sim:
The sims have been run using SN, RoP, PC as the talents with 450 sec (+/- 20%) fight length. Single target & light movement.

[Wilderness]

Thanks Chev, that's good to know. I suspected as much after seeing the spreadsheet someone posted yesterday with how much tier bonuses helped the different specs, but its nice to have concrete numbers.

[Razzik]

do the arcane sims consider that the 4pc can proc from AO?

[Chev]

No. These sims are using PC. Below are the results for SN_RoP_AO

[Komma]

do the arcane sims consider that the 4pc can proc from AO?

Since the 4T17 is RPPM based, it doesn't really matter what it procs from.

[Batar]

Anyone know what the proc rate is? Can we bank charges?

[Komma]

Anyone know what the proc rate is? Can we bank charges?

1.25 RPPM. No, you cannot bank charges.

[Caimion]

I'm just curious, why does everyone default to simming SN_RoP_AO instead of NT_RoP_AO, when NT comes out ahead in both single target and cleave? Is there a distaste for NT?

[Chev]

I'm not sure which Sims you are looking at but the single target sim are always run using SN,RoP,PC because that is the best for single target because you can put charges of SN into PC where you can only get one NT. NT,RoP,AO is used for 3 target sims because NT has the highest sustained AoE and AO can generate charges a lot faster with multiple targets and has a chance for proc'ing AM for each target hit as well.

Keep in mind these sims see 3 targets standing on top of each other for the whole fight and the player has very little movement (hence why all use RoP). If the fight has additional targets which are only up periodically, such as the extra add on Imp, then the burst AoE from NT is probably better. On the flip side, on a fight like Brakenspore, then NT will be best because that will benefit from the Blue Mushroom haste buff but SN wont (ignoring the reduced GCD).

[Pixelexip]

I'd be interested to see where NT comes out above SN. SN does far to much burst into crystal and is just to much of an asset for your single to even consider another single target choice for Arcane. It's just like how you should always take LB as Fire for multitarget, due to LB ending all at the same time across affected targets and dumping a ton of damage into your primary target. It's not that one is worse marginally than the other its the fact that the spec has specific demands and they are met by X. For Arcane that is on demand burst and for Fire that is massive amounts of cleave from primary target and aoe. Think of the reasons you pick a specific spec for a fight. "I need to do the best single target I can do to kill this boss, that means that Arcane is the better spec for this."

[Chev]

NT will come out on top in fights like Brakenspore where the Blue Mushroom will be increasing your haste allowing you to get more ticks into a single application. SN is an instant so other then the GCD being lowered is not affected by increased haste.

[Chev]

I have updated the OP with results from 6.1 sims. The results are pretty much the same but the DPS figures are a bit higher as the sims now use 125 stat food.