[SimC] WoD Frost SimC Disucssion

[Frosted]

I found what appears to be a couple of significant bugs with the code that computes icicle damage. I was looking at some sim results and wondering why icicle damage did not match the expected [ie. (FB+FFB) * mastery%]. In particular, icicle damage was noticably higher than expected, which should be impossible with no dynamic mastery buffs.

The 2 issues I found were:

1) Versatility is being applied to icicles. Icicle damage is computed based on final FB/FFB damage, but when calculate_direct_amount() is called for icicles, it applies the versatility multiplier again. One easy fix is:

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CHANGE: // Icicles do not double dip on target based multipliers double amount = state -> result_amount / state -> target_da_multiplier * p() -> cache.mastery_value(); TO: double amount = state -> result_amount / (state -> target_da_multiplier * state -> versatility) * p() -> cache.mastery_value();

I went through and confirmed the first fix. It looks to be the correct way to do it while avoiding other complicating modifiers getting involved. The fix will be in the next public release. Thanks!

[elovia]

Robomage's 2 piece buff "Ice Shard" is not triggering when Thermal Void is talented and NumEnemies > 1.

[Komma]

A fix was applied to make Icicles work correctly with Splitting Ice and multiple target (or Prismatic Crystal).

Robomage's 2 piece buff "Ice Shard" is not triggering when Thermal Void is talented and NumEnemies > 1.

O_o. Will investigate.

[elovia]

~Sorry, you also need to have Frost Bomb talented in order for it to break; IN/TV/2Targ appears to work as intended.

[Komma]

~Sorry, you also need to have Frost Bomb talented in order for it to break; IN/TV/2Targ appears to work as intended.

I think I have a rough idea why it might be happening. We'll get it fixed before next release.

[Breaktheice]

I had a question on the Water Jet initialization portion of the SimC APL.

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# Water Jet initialization actions.init_water_jet=frost_bomb,if=remains<3.6 actions.init_water_jet+=/ice_lance,if=buff.fingers_of_frost.react&pet.water_elemental.cooldown.water_jet.up actions.init_water_jet+=/water_jet,if=prev_gcd.frostbolt actions.init_water_jet+=/frostbolt

Is this starting a Water Jet cast right after a Frostbolt cast, or right with one?

[Frosted]

Both.

[Breaktheice]

So if Water Jet comes off cooldown at a time where there are >3.6s left on Frost Bomb and no FoF proc on hand ... and if the next used GCD is Frostbolt, it will use the 2 spells (Frostbolt + Water Jet) together?

[Frosted]

SimC doesn't know the next GCD. If your previous GCD was a frostbolt, and you already skipped over the above actions due to them not being true, then water_jet will be cast.

Water_jet trigger no GCD for the mage though, so it'll then go through the APL again, see WJ is on cooldown, get to the next line (frostbolt), and cast frostbolt.

The end result is WJ and Frostbolt begin casting at the same time.

[Breaktheice]

The end result is WJ and Frostbolt begin casting at the same time.

Right, this is what I feared. Given how most of the time mages are placed at the "back" for Simulation purposes, starting a Water Jet with a Frostbolt cast usually results in the mage being unable to land 2 x Frostbolts onto the target during Water Jet because of Frostbolt's travel time to the target itself.

Assuming 0 Haste, if the Water Jet is used with right with Frostbolt, then it will start when the first Frostbolt has 1 second left to finish its cast (as the Water Elemental needs 1s to start it). This will leave just 3 seconds to both cast the second Frostbolt and have it land onto the target, which will not happen if the mage is at or near max range.

This is why I don't understand why guides like the one at Icy Veins say the goal is to cast 2 x Frostbolt into a Water Jet. That's not the goal. The goal is to land 2 x Frostbolts into a Water Jet. On Kromag for example, the transit time of the Frostbolt is so long (because the spells travel to his head) that you have to start it just as a Frostbolt is about to end, so that one Frostbolt is already in transit when the spell starts, and you use the remainder of the time to cast and land just 1 more Frostbolt on him.

[Komma]

Assuming 0 Haste, if the Water Jet is used with right with Frostbolt, then it will start when the first Frostbolt has 1 second left to finish its cast (as the Water Elemental needs 1s to start it). This will leave just 3 seconds to both cast the second Frostbolt and have it land onto the target, which will not happen if the mage is at or near max range.

That's the whole point of why Water Jet is initiated immediately after a first Frostbolt.

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actions.init_water_jet+=/water_jet,if=prev_gcd.frostbolt

The above line is meant to explicitly address what you just said.

[Breaktheice]

Assuming 0 Haste, if the Water Jet is used with right with Frostbolt, then it will start when the first Frostbolt has 1 second left to finish its cast (as the Water Elemental needs 1s to start it). This will leave just 3 seconds to both cast the second Frostbolt and have it land onto the target, which will not happen if the mage is at or near max range.

That's the whole point of why Water Jet is initiated immediately after a first Frostbolt.

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actions.init_water_jet+=/water_jet,if=prev_gcd.frostbolt

The above line is meant to explicitly address what you just said.

Cool! Ty

That's why I asked

"Is this starting a Water Jet cast right after a Frostbolt cast, or right with one?"

I was slightly confused on how it was working

[Frosted]

I mean, it's both. WJ is started if the previous GCD is Frostbolt, and then the init_WJ sub-APL will be called again and frostbolt will be cast - which is why I said it does both. You end up with something like frostbolt cast -> Frostbolt complete -> WJ cast start+Frostbolt start -> Frostbolt impact -> WJ channel begin -> Frostbolt Complete -> Frostbolt start -> frostbolt impact -> etc etc.

[Komma]

~Sorry, you also need to have Frost Bomb talented in order for it to break; IN/TV/2Targ appears to work as intended.

Fixed.

[Komma]

Also fixed Water Jet - it was being affected by mastery in the simulation when it shouldn't be. This was found during last week when I compared non-crit, multistrike-filtered ability average damage against a WCL log, where all of the Frost abilities except for Water Jet had nearly perfect matches to SimC's average damage.

[Komma]

A few minor updates were made to the APL. Most of these were changes that were on the back of my mind and should have been applied after beta, but the urgency wasn't there since Robofrost was playing pretty well already.
1. Casting Frozen Orb after PC spawned, instead of before. This wasn't done previously when Prismatic Crystal only had a 10 second duration.
2. Making sure that the second Ice Nova gets used on PC even if you got a million FoF/BF procs. Oops.
3. Better Water Jet usage that takes into account target distance.
4. Some other weird edge cases.

These changes added ~350 DPS at mythic gear levels.

[Frosted]

Frozen Orb now loses ticks based off distance from target (erring on the side of losing less ticks rather than more).

But Frost profiles using PC now correctly default to 20yrds from the target.

Effect: frost gained a small amount of DPS.

[Frosted]

Fixed an issue with the Enhanced Frostbolt perk being applied far too many times. Lowered frost DPS by about 1k.

[Preheat]

Testing the viability of frostbolt weaving (with tome) into prismatic crystal:


SimulationCraft 620-01
for World of Warcraft 6.2.0 Live (build level 20157)
Timestamp: Sun Jun 21 22:19:36 2015
Iterations: 25007 // Fight Length: 360 - 540 // Fight Style: Patchwerk

Results here:





Changes have comment lines above and below:

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# Actions while Prismatic Crystal is active actions.crystal_sequence=frost_bomb,if=active_enemies=1&current_target!=pet.prismatic_crystal&remains<10 actions.crystal_sequence+=/prismatic_crystal actions.crystal_sequence+=/frozen_orb actions.crystal_sequence+=/call_action_list,name=cooldowns actions.crystal_sequence+=/frost_bomb,if=talent.prismatic_crystal.enabled&current_target=pet.prismatic_crystal&active_enemies>1&!ticking ############################################################################## actions.crystal_sequence+=/frostbolt,if=t18_class_trinket&buff.fingers_of_frost.react>=2+set_bonus.tier18_4pc*2&!in_flight ############################################################################## actions.crystal_sequence+=/ice_lance,if=buff.fingers_of_frost.react>=2+set_bonus.tier18_4pc*2|(buff.fingers_of_frost.react>set_bonus.tier18_4pc*2&active_dot.frozen_orb>=1) actions.crystal_sequence+=/ice_nova,if=charges=2|pet.prismatic_crystal.remains<gcd.max actions.crystal_sequence+=/ice_lance,if=buff.fingers_of_frost.react actions.crystal_sequence+=/frostfire_bolt,if=buff.brain_freeze.react ############################################################################## actions.crystal_sequence+=/frostbolt,if=t18_class_trinket&buff.fingers_of_frost.react&!in_flight ############################################################################## actions.crystal_sequence+=/ice_nova actions.crystal_sequence+=/blizzard,interrupt_if=cooldown.frozen_orb.up|(talent.frost_bomb.enabled&buff.fingers_of_frost.react>=2+set_bonus.tier18_4pc),if=active_enemies>=5 actions.crystal_sequence+=/choose_target,if=pet.prismatic_crystal.remains<action.frostbolt.cast_time+action.frostbolt.travel_time actions.crystal_sequence+=/frostbolt

[Frosted]

Pushed an APL update to improve Frostbolt/Ice Lance weaving on PC.

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73157 50.2% Mage_Frost_T18H_weave2 72493 49.8% Mage_Frost_T18H_weaving

My APL is slightly different from Preheats.

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# Actions while Prismatic Crystal is active actions.crystal_sequence=frost_bomb,if=active_enemies=1&current_target!=pet.prismatic_crystal&remains<10 actions.crystal_sequence+=/prismatic_crystal actions.crystal_sequence+=/frozen_orb actions.crystal_sequence+=/call_action_list,name=cooldowns actions.crystal_sequence+=/frost_bomb,if=talent.prismatic_crystal.enabled&current_target=pet.prismatic_crystal&active_enemies>1&!ticking actions.crystal_sequence+=/frostbolt,if=t18_class_trinket&buff.fingers_of_frost.react>=2+set_bonus.tier18_4pc*2&!in_flight actions.crystal_sequence+=/ice_lance,if=buff.fingers_of_frost.react>=2+set_bonus.tier18_4pc*2|(buff.fingers_of_frost.react>set_bonus.tier18_4pc*2&active_dot.frozen_orb>=1) actions.crystal_sequence+=/ice_nova,if=charges=2|pet.prismatic_crystal.remains<gcd.max actions.crystal_sequence+=/frostbolt,if=t18_class_trinket&buff.fingers_of_frost.react&!in_flight actions.crystal_sequence+=/ice_lance,if=buff.fingers_of_frost.react actions.crystal_sequence+=/frostfire_bolt,if=buff.brain_freeze.react actions.crystal_sequence+=/ice_nova actions.crystal_sequence+=/blizzard,interrupt_if=cooldown.frozen_orb.up|(talent.frost_bomb.enabled&buff.fingers_of_frost.react>=2+set_bonus.tier18_4pc),if=active_enemies>=5 actions.crystal_sequence+=/choose_target,if=pet.prismatic_crystal.remains<action.frostbolt.cast_time+action.frostbolt.travel_time actions.crystal_sequence+=/frostbolt

The primary difference is that I moved up the "frostbolt if you have a FoF appear and no trinket buff" 2nd line above the "fire an ice lance if you have FoF" line. This should lead to more "complete" weaving on PC, and is responsible for the DPS gains I show above.

Weaving2 is my profile, _weaving is Preheats.

Thanks for the help so far