Link to my character on AskMrRobot.com or my region / realm / name: US - Thorium Brotherhood - Howly
This is in regards to Shadow Priest.
I ran this log with a Single Target script and I noticed something that should be changed. Mind Sear should never be used. If Mind Sear is being used instead of Mind Flay, then there is going to be a lower damage output. This should be changed in the simulation because if there is a single target we would never use Mind Flay.
Also, can it be verified that choosing the Lingering Insanity talent is increasing the tick rate on our DOT?
As far as I can tell, the rotation seems fine. Mind Sear is used only if you get a proc of your azerite trait “Thought Harvester” which increases Mind Sear damage by 150%. This causes Mind Sear to do more damage than Mind Flay, although you lose out on a couple Insanity.
I guess in my opinion gaining the 2.5K damage over the duration isn’t worth losing the 9 insanity. With how the rotation plays out, you’re probably going to have to spend another GCD in order to get into your next Voidform.
I basically have my rotation down to where I can get into Voidform right after my Mind Flay. If I’m switching to Mind Sear just for the extra 2.5K damage it doesn’t seem worth it because I’m delaying my Voidform. This could just be on a case by case situation though and might not be applicable to everyone.
I tested it out when they changed Thought Harvester, and it is actually a DPS gain to use the procs even against a single target, so I put it in the rotation. I’ll run some more thorough tests to see if it holds up across more gear sets, but a few tests I tried out showed it to be worth doing, even though it is a tad counter-intuitive. One thing to make note of is that if you do use a though harvester proc, you shouldn’t cancel the mind sear, you should let it go the full duration.
It all makes sense, and yea it definitely seems counter-intuitive which is why I’m questioning it. But I have much less resources to test it and this is just anecdotal.
Thanks for taking a look at it, I appreciate the effort!
I did a thorough test of this last night across all major talent/azerite/stat combos and it looks like it is, on average, DPS-neutral to use the Thought Harvester proc against a single target (95% of cases). There are a few cases where you get a tad more damage, and a few cases where you get a tad less damage by doing so.
I’ll probably end up removing it from the single target rotation because I prefer to keep the rotations as simple as possible.
