Bneal's 2.7 PVP Cabalist Guide

[Bneal]

Hi everyone,

I've been getting a lot of requests for a Cabalist guide and given how lost many people seem to be with the buffs that came in 2.7 I decided to pull the trigger.

Cabalist is now the premier ranged DPS spec for Clerics in both Warfronts and Conquest. The ST damage is comparable to Inquisi and its utility is amazing. You'll be able to easily switch back and forth between ST and AOE DPS and hopefully have a lot of fun doing it. Let's get to it.


The spec:
61/12/3 Cab/Inq/Defi


If you don't have the Storm Legion Souls pick up Purifier and use Symbol of the Torch to pre-shield.


Before going into the rotation you'll need to understand the Obliterations. One of Focused, Condensed, or Unbounded Obliteration should always be active. I recommend you track which one you have active, more on that later. As you'd expect, Focused Obliteration will provide the best ST DPS, Condensed for 3-5 enemies, and Unbounded for 8 or more enemies. I'm not going to go into too much detail now on which Obliteration you should have active when, but suffice it to say that if they've got AOE healers and you want to actually kill something you'll tend towards Focused and Condensed Obliterations.


AOE Rotation:
Begin your AOE rotation by checking that Condensed or Unbounded Obliteration is active until this becomes a habit.

Sigil of Spirits* -> Curse of Anarchy -> Well of Souls -> Tyranny of Death -> Unleash Oblivion OR Disintegrate -> Tyranny of Death -> Bound Fate until COA drops off


ST Rotation:
To begin your ST rotation check to see that Focused Obliteration is active until this becomes a habit.

Sigil of Spirits* -> Curse of Anarchy -> Well of Souls -> Tyranny of Death -> Unleash Oblivion OR Disintegrate -> Tyranny of Death -> Sanction Heretic -> Shadow's Touch until COA drops off

*Forgo casting Sigil of Spirits if you're planning on casting Sigil of Catastrophe within the next 15 seconds as SoC will apply it anyway.


Important skills that are not part of either rotation:
Howling Death
Sigil of Secrecy
Sigil of Catastrophe
Sigil of Ruin
Sigil of Binding
Dominion
Dark Passage
Shadow Breach
Ravaging Darkness
Purge
Mass Reversal
Reversal of Fortune
Sigil of Woe
Maelstrom
Esoteric Estimations

All of these skills are important. Read their in-game tool-tips. Notice that with the Cab rotations you can pepper in any of your non-rotation skills without worrying about losing stacks or throwing your timings off. (The one exception is to maintain your 3 stacks of Darkness when that's relevant.)


Buffs:
Sign of Asias
Armor of Devotion
Rage Blight


Tips:
-If Tyranny of Death is about to Expire, instead of popping it with Unleash Oblivion or Disintegrate, cast Bound Fate/Sanction Heretic/Shadow's Touch (depending on whether you're doing AOE or ST) until it expires, then cast Tyranny of Death and pop that one.
-Bound Fate, when cast on an enemy with Tyranny of Death, will spread ToD to nearby enemies. This is preferable to casting ToD directly.


Macros:
#show Disintegration
suppressmacrofailures
cast Tyranny of Death
cast Disintegration
cast Bound Fate

#show Tyranny of Death
suppressmacrofailures
cast Tyranny of Death
cast Bound Fate

#show Sanction Heretic
suppressmacrofailures
cast Sanction Heretic
cast Shadow's Touch
cast Bound Fate

#show Sanction Heretic
suppressmacrofailures
cast Sanction Heretic
cast Dark Water


If you have any questions/comments/feedback please reply below.

[haybale]

I do not pvp a lot but I will say it's single target is not comparable to inq. It is 15-20% behind and lacks extended burst. It did really gain a lot function though and it's single target was drastically improved from before.

I suspect you are using Sanction in the Shadow's Touch macro to load up another dot? It is essentially dps neutral with Shadow's Touch spam and i would recommend putting it below in the macro for movement.

[Bneal]

I do not pvp a lot but I will say it's single target is not comparable to inq. It is 15-20% behind and lacks extended burst. It did really gain a lot function though and it's single target was drastically improved from before.

I suspect you are using Sanction in the Shadow's Touch macro to load up another dot? It is essentially dps neutral with Shadow's Touch spam and i would recommend putting it below in the macro for movement.

Sanction Heretic does more damage than Shadow's Touch. I will agree that it belongs below ST in the macro for the choice of casting it or not.

By my parse Cab is within 5% of Inq DPS before Inq's reset. Using the reset the second it's up to maximize DPS does widen the gap to 15%, and that isn't something you do that much (maximizing Judicial Privilege is more important).

[Bneal]

Better pic of the spec:
http://s13.postimg.org/5pi51o6av/cabspec.jpg

[haybale]

Sanction Heretic does more damage than Shadow's Touch. I will agree that it belongs below ST in the macro for the choice of casting it or not.

This is inaccurate as Shadow's Touch benefits from a 10% higher crit chance. The tooltip value doesn't tell the whole story.

By my parse Cab is within 5% of Inq DPS before Inq's reset. Using the reset the second it's up to maximize DPS does widen the gap to 15%, and that isn't something you do that much (maximizing Judicial Privilege is more important).

You are not getting an accurate value if you are only parsing Cabalist and Inq for 20 seconds. which is approximately how long it takes to get off the opener + cooldown block. Regardless, burst is king in pvp and Cab is significantly behind in that area along with sustained. It isn't really comparable.

[TheGrinnz]

More importantly, Shadow's Touch applies or reapplies a stack of darkness with every cast. Sanction Heretic on the other hand is instant which is notable for PvP.

[Bneal]

You are not getting an accurate value if you are only parsing Cabalist and Inq for 20 seconds. which is approximately how long it takes to get off the opener + cooldown block. Regardless, burst is king in pvp and Cab is significantly behind in that area along with sustained. It isn't really comparable.

Let me be clear, Cab's DPS is not on par with Inquisi. Its 1v1 prowess, however, and I may be overextending a bit with this, 2.7 has been out one day, is close to that of Inquisi.


I ran the numbers and yes, Shadow's Touch deals more damage than Sanction Heretic. My mistake.

[usman]

Cabby burst is fairly impressive if you have the opportunity to set it up right. Combining upto 8 or 9 hits at the same time. (5 Nukes+4 Ticks)

Well of souls > Marrow Harvest > Tyranny > Curses > Shadow's Touch > Bolt of Radiance > Disintegrate.

Requires long range to all combo together properly, spec - 61 cab/12 defiler/3 justicar.

[Bneal]

Forgot to include something; remember your Shroud of Agony buff.

[Bneal]

IMPORTANT CORRECTION TO THE AOE ROTATION:

Sigil of Spirits* -> Curse of Anarchy -> Well of Souls -> Tyranny of Death -> Bound Fate (to Spread ToD) -> Unleash Oblivion OR Disintegrate -> Tyranny of Death -> Bound Fate until COA drops off

*Forgo casting Sigil of Spirits if you're planning on casting Sigil of Catastrophe within the next 15 seconds as SoC will apply it anyway.

[Meaghanne]

Freelancer gear in about a ~10 min match running his spec. Yeah, it kinda works.

[Caeus]

If you are going to focus on ST damage, why not drop the level 61 and go 58 Cab, then 16 Inq so you can get 5 points in Agent of Affliction?

[haybale]

If you are going to focus on ST damage, why not drop the level 61 and go 58 Cab, then 16 Inq so you can get 5 points in Agent of Affliction?

That is true but if you are going to focus on single target damage you shouldn't be in cab. Even if you expect only a short burst of aoe, 61 cab is good since you can keep UO available at all times as a tyranny trigger. Disintegration is too important to the single target rotation to leave it out for that purpose. UO on the other hand is lackluster on a single target and, in my opinon, should be saved for that time when a ToD trigger is needed.

[Bneal]

If you are going to focus on ST damage, why not drop the level 61 and go 58 Cab, then 16 Inq so you can get 5 points in Agent of Affliction?

If you're going to focus on ST damage you should run shaman or inquisi. I wouldn't give up 3 points in cab for any reason. Eccentric and Mass Reversal are both > Agent of Affliction.

UO can help your ST damage, but as haybale pointed out, exercise discretion because it would theoretically be much more useful for AOE damage.

Here's another macro:
#show Unleash Oblivion
suppressmacrofailures
cast Tyranny of Death
cast Unleash Oblivion

[Bneal]

Better spec:
[img=http://s1.postimg.org/pqindg163/cabspec.jpg]
Everything works the same.