Results for Warrior Test Parse: Maintain a Beast Gauge of 50

Hi,

I initially posted this question http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...st-gauge/page2 and did some comparison parses to see the changes for myself. Here they are.

CONSTANTS:
Duration: 5:04~ mins
Rotation: Heavy Swing -> Maim -> Storm's Path (combo) - Fell Cleave - Repeat

Test A
Build Beast Gauge to 50-60 then Fell Cleave
Max Beast Gauge = 60
Min Beast Gauge = 0

• DURATION = 5:08 seconds
• AVG DPS = 785.39
• CRIT = 13%

Test B
Build Beast Gauge to 90/100 then Fell Cleave ONCE, then Build Gauge back up to 100. Beast Gauge never goes below 40/50
Max Beast Gauge = 100
Min Beast Gauge = 40

• DURATION = 5:14 seconds
• AVG DPS = 818.27
• CRIT = 21%

Test C
Build Beast Gauge to 100 then Fell Cleave to 0
Max Beast Gauge = 100
Min Beast Gauge = 0

• DURATION = 5:21 seconds
• AVG DPS = 803.46
• CRIT = 15%

reserved coz of limit....

TEST A - Beast Gauge to 50 then Fell Cleave to 0, repeat.

http://i.imgur.com/jsDwrW6.png

TEST B - Beast Gauge to 100 and maintain 40/50 Beast Gauge

http://i.imgur.com/wuymVcp.png

TEST C - Beast Gauge to 100 then Fell Cleave to 0, repeat.

http://i.imgur.com/OG2GJ4J.png

RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS

• Around 8-10% Crit chance gained by keeping yourself above a Beast Gauge of 50. In these tests, it equated to around 33 more DPS than a rotation that does not maintain a 50 Beast Gauge
• I feel like most players will tend to gravitate towards Test C where you Build your Gauge to 100 then dump it all down to 0 and build it back up again. In these tests Test B did 15 more DPS by maintaining a 50 Beast Gauge compared to C which dumped it. If these parses prove to be consistent then you will be missing roughly 6, maybe 8% more crit chance. The DPS loss will build the longer the fight.

Here are some videos from other players similar to Test C.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWWBCo5DDgk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gNnSvkyszk

Priority List Rough Draft
1. Beast Gauge = 50
2. Maim debuff/Storm's Eye buff
3.1 If Beast Gauge is 70 = Storm's Path Combo
3.2. If Beast Gauge is 80 = Butcher's Block
4. Fell Cleave/Onslaught/Upheaval/Etc.

And here's a link to my gear. I would assume the difference in DPS will only go higher with better gear.

http://i.imgur.com/Mhm7Z4l.jpg

TLDR: Maintain 50 Beast Gauge to maximized sustained DPS.

Interesting fact but a bit irrelevant since our berserk phases pretty much dictates our gauge management.
I.e. Build full gauge then spend all during berserk (with upheaval/onslaught to regulate), repeat.

I'm confused as to how you dps is this low. Maybe I'm not understanding what you mean by average dps? After three 5 minute parses I was between 3000 and 3100 dps on each parse.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paoweeotter

Priority List Rough Draft
1. Beast Gauge = 50
2. Maim debuff/Storm's Eye buff
3.1 If Beast Gauge is 70 = Storm's Path Combo
3.2. If Beast Gauge is 80 = Butcher's Block
4. Fell Cleave/Onslaught/Upheaval/Etc.

---

Isn't it a DPS loss to use BB combo instead of path combo? I assume you're saying this in your priority because the BB combo has a higher weapon damage potency and gives 20 gauge to reach 100. However the Path combo is an overall higher potency due to the gauge it builds. When your beast gauge is 80 and you're starting a combo, should't you start the path combo, and then after maim (90 gauge) you would do one of the following in priority order, Upheaval (if off cooldown, but this should be used on cooldown anyway), Fell Cleave (if there's enough time to build back up before zerk/IR) or Onslaught (if zerk/IR is coming up soon and Upheaval is already on CD). Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Felorr

Isn't it a DPS loss to use BB combo instead of path combo? I assume you're saying this in your priority because the BB combo has a higher weapon damage potency and gives 20 gauge to reach 100. However the Path combo is an overall higher potency due to the gauge it builds. When your beast gauge is 80 and you're starting a combo, should't you start the path combo, and then after maim (90 gauge) you would do one of the following in priority order, Upheaval (if off cooldown, but this should be used on cooldown anyway), Fell Cleave (if there's enough time to build back up before zerk/IR) or Onslaught (if zerk/IR is coming up soon and Upheaval is already on CD). Please correct me if I'm wrong!

---

This exactly. Butcher's block is very selectively used because while it has higher base potency it's effective potency is much lower than storms path. Using it is going to be a dps loss 99% of the time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dizzy_Derp

This exactly. Butcher's block is very selectively used because while it has higher base potency it's effective potency is much lower than storms path. Using it is going to be a dps loss 99% of the time.

---

I can't think of a situation where you want to use a BB combo (unless something went wrong and you need a lot of aggro). But in true progression/speedruns, I imagine you'd have optimized around the fight to never use BB.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Felorr

I can\\'t think of a situation where you want to use a BB combo (unless something went wrong and you need a lot of aggro).

---

It's almost exclusively due to mechanics, for example, in Susano ex if you have the boss when he comes back into 2nd phase (which i like to do so i can build my stacks on the sword before he drops and still maintain eye buff) I often come down with 60 beast still have around 14 seconds left on eye but want to cap my gauge for the internal release window coming up. So I go straight into block to push myself to 80 and then to eye to refresh the buff before my ir window because using path would put me at 90 gauge before the eye so there is no effective potency to be gained from using path at that point so in the situation the added standard potency of block is a dps increase. my co tank and I utilize shirk so there is never an aggro issue in using the 1 random block, So like I said just very very situational.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dizzy_Derp

It's almost exclusively due to mechanics, for example, in Susano ex if you have the boss when he comes back into 2nd phase (which i like to do so i can build my stacks on the sword before he drops and still maintain eye buff) I often come down with 60 beast still have around 14 seconds left on eye but want to cap my gauge for the internal release window coming up. So I go straight into block ...

---

Except this is a dps loss as well. Using Eye twice would result in more dps in that situation because the eye buff would buff the 2nd eye combo. Not to mention you get slashing debuff up later if u use butchers block combo first.

Which isn't to say block is useless. There are many times for me where I have 60 gauge and enough time for 2 combos before a berserk. As long as slashing and the eye buff are up with 60 gauge left the bb combo is preferred to use first with eye after to get to 100 gauge before berserk.

Oh, very nice, thanks for the numbers and calculations!