Cabalist ST DPS Theorycrafting [Feedback Req.]

[Trilkin]

Just to get this out of the way:

YES I KNOW THE OTHER THREE MAJOR DPS SPECS ARE BETTER SINGLE TARGET THAN CABALIST. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TELL ME. THIS IS JUST TO SQUEEZE AS MUCH OUT OF CABALIST AS POSSIBLE FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE THEMSELVES AND WANT TO PLAY THE SPEC.

Okay, anyway:

http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#n8hE/EkkGl5iai4/Ug8

Here's the spec I'm currently working with. The first thing that might strike somebody as odd is 'why Siphon Vitality?' Simply put, from my math, it's a DPS gain for the GCD it costs to cast it versus the DPS gain any of the other talents would give me. Here is the opening rotation I am using when Sign of Asias is down (with Obliterate on, of course):

Tyranny of Death -> Disintegration -> Tyranny of Death -> Sanction Heretic -> Curse of Discord -> Dark Water -> Vex -> Dark Water -> Tyranny of Death -> Dark Water -> Siphon Vitality

From here, my priorities are the following:

Keep Dark Water up
Keep Tyranny of Death up
Use Disintegration on cooldown if ToD has >3s remaining
Refresh DoTs as appropriate
Fill with Marrow Harvest
Fill with Shadow's Touch or Bound Fate on the rare chance I have a GCD to fill and Marrow Harvest is on the mob. BF is 'safer' in lag, but ST is super gosu min/max max DPS.

With Sign of Asias, I'm usually able to pop all of my DoTs on the target before Tyranny resets after the second cast. From there, my priorities are exactly the same except nixing Shadow's Touch entirely and only using Bound Fate as filler (Sign of Asias reduces GCD to 1s and BF is instacast, sooo...)

This has seemed to produce the best consistent DPS with the spec so far. Dropping any of the DoTs seems to be a DPS loss. Ignore Marrow Harvest as a filler also seems to be a DPS loss. Outside of something I may have missed, the only thing I am not entirely sure of is whether or not it's best to let my non-DW DoTs drop off of a target while Sign of Asias is up and instead just spamming Bound Fate. Math tells me 'no,' but practical situations may say otherwise.

I appreciate any feedback on both my spec and the rotation to try to squeeze out as much ST DPS as possible from this soul.

[Stokesey]

What context would this build be used in? Raiding, Open World, Experts, PvP?

If the goal is to maximize ST DPS as Cab, wouldn't 51 points be enough? Thinking something along the lines of: http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#n8h0/Ekkua58F8g/Ugg

Rotation would be similar to what you posted, sans Siphon Vit and open with CoD as it increases dmg taken from you by 10%.

On fights that you are moving a lot and the boss is stationary adding WoS may be a dps gain. Not sure what else I can think of.

[TheGrinnz]

I did use a 6 Defiler cab build at one point for the higher ST DPS but after a bit I realized sacrificing even a tiny bit of Tyranny of Death was stupid because why would you build cabalist for ST.

[Kriptini]

I did use a 6 Defiler cab build at one point for the higher ST DPS but after a bit I realized sacrificing even a tiny bit of Tyranny of Death was stupid because why would you build cabalist for ST.

I imagine the purpose of this build is for clearing trash in the raid zones. AoE the groups of mobs down until you're stuck with that last mob that has way higher health than any of the others, so you have to ST him.

[TheGrinnz]

I imagine the purpose of this build is for clearing trash in the raid zones. AoE the groups of mobs down until you're stuck with that last mob that has way higher health than any of the others, so you have to ST him.

I'd rather max the AoE potential and thus fun, otherwise might as well use shaman, it's not like there's an enrage timer on trash. But to each their own.

[Trilkin]

I imagine the purpose of this build is for clearing trash in the raid zones. AoE the groups of mobs down until you're stuck with that last mob that has way higher health than any of the others, so you have to ST him.

Pretty much this as well as laziness during 5-mans where I don't want to change spec for a boss.

What context would this build be used in? Raiding, Open World, Experts, PvP?

If the goal is to maximize ST DPS as Cab, wouldn't 51 points be enough? Thinking something along the lines of: http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#n8h0/Ekkua58F8g/Ugg

Rotation would be similar to what you posted, sans Siphon Vit and open with CoD as it increases dmg taken from you by 10%.

On fights that you are moving a lot and the boss is stationary adding WoS may be a dps gain. Not sure what else I can think of.

I wanted to keep 58 points at least for Curse of Anarchy since it is intended to be used as a 'I'm feeling lazy during trash/5-mans and don't want to change specs' spec. Maelstrom would be nice to keep too, but I can always grab a point from somewhere else for it. I still might try this - is the loss of CoA that big of an AOE DPS loss?

[TheGrinnz]

Pretty much this as well as laziness during 5-mans where I don't want to change spec for a boss.



I wanted to keep 58 points at least for Curse of Anarchy since it is intended to be used as a 'I'm feeling lazy during trash/5-mans and don't want to change specs' spec. Maelstrom would be nice to keep too, but I can always grab a point from somewhere else for it. I still might try this - is the loss of CoA that big of an AOE DPS loss?

It's not huge but the more AoE you lose the less point there is to play cabalist at all. In most situations the majority of your damage is from Tyranny regardless.

I've described my ST rotation in my cabalist guide but it's far from optimized I'm sure.

[Trilkin]

It's not huge but the more AoE you lose the less point there is to play cabalist at all. In most situations the majority of your damage is from Tyranny regardless.

I've described my ST rotation in my cabalist guide but it's far from optimized I'm sure.

That was basically my thought. I'm PRIMARILY using Cab for AoE, but while I'm in the spec, I might as well figure out how to squeeze as much damage as possible from it - even if it ends up ultimately just being a mental exercise. I used your guide as a template, actually and tried figuring it out from there.