Evocation - why 50%?

[Alzer]

Hey

I have a question about evocation, why do we do it at 50%?

Currently, I am evocating at about 65% mana, because that will bring me right back to my standard mana levels with one evocation tick, if i hold my evocation until I am at 50% mana, I will have to channel for two evocation ticks otherwise I will be stuck at like 75% mana.

Obviously this does not apply to bloodlust, were you get full mana from evocating at 50%.

Do the extra 4 charge ABs below 65% mana really justify standing and casting evocation for an extra tick?

[Blue]

This thread tho.....

What is the logic behind evocation at 50%!?

My burn phase can go twice as long if I don't (with AM proc luck).

Also in a burn phase if AB is higher dmg why use AM at all unless at 3 procs, especially on PC.

The logic is 50% gives a good alround result where you get the extra damage from casting more AB x4's but you don't lose too much damage from your damage bonus from the Arcane Mastery which depends on mana levels. If you keep burning further you will lose damage from your mastery bonus, if you don't burn enough, you lose damage from not casting enough ABx4's. 50% is not hard and fast. As you will see below, it is not the end of the world if you go a bit further or finish a bit earlier.



AB is not higher damage than AM. AM will always do more damage than AB, but you want to save these where possible until you have 4 stacks of AC to make sure you are getting the most from AM (unless you get to 3 stacks and risk over writing the stacks). Another reason you want to use AM on PC over AB is AM is a channel compared to AB which has a cast time. If you manage to get 4 hits onto PC from AM before the crystal de-spawns, that is better than getting to 90% of your AB cast and then the cast being canceled as you no longer have a target.

P.S. Here is a sim showing the difference between using Missiles during a burn and not using missiles.

[Chev]

In addition to the thread that Blue has quoted, the Arcane APL has recently changed so that you only use your AM procs when you are below 70% if you reach 3 stacks of AM (to prevent procs being munched). The logic behind this is you will get from 70%-50% mana faster and so have a shorter total burn phase. This will help to sync your later burns with your CD's

[Alzer]

Alright, that thread didn't mention specifically having to cast evocation for a longer time, but I guess it doesn't matter.

Thanks

[Setia]

I've always thought that, beyond the diminishing returns of the burn phase through lower mastery bonus, another reason is the smaller returns to the latter ticks of Evocation itself

Before considering haste, Evocation ticks at 0, 2, 4 and 6 seconds. Due to the global cooldown, even a 0-second evocation (for 1 tick) will take 1.5 seconds away from the DPS spells. The second tick @ 2 seconds takes 0.5 additional seconds (total 2 ticks in 2 sec); the 3rd and 4th ticks take 2 additional seconds each. Thus, the mana per second of the first two ticks taken together is double that of the latter two.

Due to this reasoning, I actually aim my own evocations to be "2 ticks bring me back to full". Under normal conditions, that's ~50%. Under Bloodlust, I can go below ~40% and two ticks will bring me back to full (I made the exact calculations in a spreadsheet, but I don't have it with me at this time). While I'm quite confident in the reasoning, I have not simulated it nor recall reading about other people simulating it; perhaps someone who's better at simcraft could do it. The difference is possibly insignificant.

I am not sure, but it's possible that if we have movement, stopping the burn phase after only spending enough mana for one tick of evocation (~70-75% outside of bloodlust), then casting a "0-second" evocation on the move, might be profitable if Ice Floes isn't available.

[Berlinia]

With 4xAC you can regenerate the mana needed for 93% in one tick. Burn is a gain

[Trustbucket]

With 4xAC you can regenerate the mana needed for 93% in one tick. Burn is a gain

Well depends how much haste you have when you evo and you don't need quite 93%. 93% is the amount you can cast an AB and ABarr and rebuild stacks without capping mana, I'm pretty sure if you evo to 93% you will cap mana when you are rebuilding to 4 stack.

[Alzer]

Does your evocation % depend on your mastery? For example, at very high mastery do you evocate at a higher %? I'm not quite sure how to simc that.

[Chev]

Yes, but it is not a big enough impact to alter the target percentage by that much. E.g. You wont see someone aiming for 85% before using Evo because they have higher mastery and another person to be able to go to 40% because they have less mastery. If you are changing the percentage that you Evo at, it will be due to fight mechanics or to sync your burn phase with other CD's.

[Dutchmagoz]

Does your evocation % depend on your mastery? For example, at very high mastery do you evocate at a higher %? I'm not quite sure how to simc that.

Yes, but it is not a big enough impact to alter the target percentage by that much. E.g. You wont see someone aiming for 85% before using Evo because they have higher mastery and another person to be able to go to 40% because they have less mastery. If you are changing the percentage that you Evo at, it will be due to fight mechanics or to sync your burn phase with other CD's.

It doesn't really affect it, simply because 50% mana -> evocation tick (and initial gain) = 93%+ mana. You could do it on anywhere 50-55% and get the same end result really, full mana after your first AB cast after evocation.

[Gourdin]

Hmmm, I'm a bit surprised because even if these numbers are theoretically right, in practice it's more as I have two choice :

- Start evocation at ~60% -> 1 tick -> ~90% mana
- Start evocation around 30/40% -> 2 tick -> ~90% mana

Which one should I choose ?
In a burn phase with BL, I just burn mana until 0,5s BL and start casting evocation with the haste buff and I stop it just before 90% or at 100% if mana was too low, resulting in a bit of mana/time waste.
The second burn phase is less random without BL so I can evocating when I want, but I would rather choose with Math than Instinct !

Or maybe I'm missing something... in all case sorry for my pitiful english ^^