Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

   After the moment when I choosed a druid as my main character I often asked myself - which ability I need to use and why. With my love to the rogues in past there were some obvious decisions for me.. But during waiting of confirmation I decided to shed the light on my own. Not only to verify my predictions, but also to enjoy better understanding of the class I'm playing. So the main discussion I'm leading to is choise between [Ferocious Bite] and [Rip] - two main and only finishing moves of the druid in cat form.

   It's obvious that we need exact description of both spells. Unfortunatelly I couldn't find any usefull info about Vanilla theorycrafting. There are too few and not valid sources in internet. Also I have tried to find any formulas in source codes of such addons like Theorycraft - unsuccessfully.

   [Rip] is going first.
   All recieved information is pretty similar with the next one, except the formulas keep in mind - we use 1.12 spell data base

   With the help of ItemRack addon I created more than 40 item sets where my attack power in cat form varies between 350 and 850. Here you can check the base for further calculations.

   Here are my measured control values there were a lot more of them, I left the most usefull ones

   For [Rip] rank 6 ability, applied after 1 combo point is generated, I got next result:

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[RIP, r6, 1cp, 399ap] = 48(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 288
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 400ap] = 49(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 294
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 499ap] = 49(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 294
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 500ap] = 50(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 300
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 599ap] = 50(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 300
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 600ap] = 51(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 306
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 699ap] = 51(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 306
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 700ap] = 52(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 312
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 799ap] = 52(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 312
[RIP, r6, 1cp, 800ap] = 53(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 318

   As you can see we recieve +6 dmg per 100 ap. It's an arithmetic progression where initial term is 270. So the formula looks like 270 + 6 * ( ap / 100 ) By (ap/100) I meant the number of hundreds of ap. The result of devision is rounded down. For example: 1454 / 100 -> 14; 32 / 11 -> 2; 5.68 / 2 -> 2
   In this case if you have 723 ap your formula for 1cp [Rip] looks like 270 + 6 * 7 = 312. This also means that you will not recieve damage improvement untill you gather atleast 77 more ap. Each step is 6 dmg. Plot of dependence between damage and ap looks like stairs, not the line

   [Rip] rank 6 ability, applied after 2 combo points are generated:

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[RIP, r6, 2cp, 399ap] = 80(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 480
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 400ap] = 81(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 486
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 499ap] = 82(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 492
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 500ap] = 83(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 498
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 599ap] = 84(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 504
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 600ap] = 85(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 510
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 699ap] = 86(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 516
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 700ap] = 87(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 522
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 799ap] = 88(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 528
[RIP, r6, 2cp, 800ap] = 89(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 534

We recieve +6 dmg per 50 ap.
The formula is 438 + 6 * ( ap / 50 )

   [Rip] rank 6 ability, applied after 3 combo points are generated:

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[RIP, r6, 3cp, 399ap] = 112(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 672
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 400ap] = 113(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 678
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 499ap] = 115(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 690
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 500ap] = 116(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 696
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 599ap] = 118(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 708
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 600ap] = 119(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 714
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 699ap] = 121(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 726
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 700ap] = 122(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 732
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 799ap] = 124(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 744
[RIP, r6, 3cp, 800ap] = 125(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 750

We recieve +6 dmg per 33.(3) ap.
The formula is 606 + 6 * ( ap / 33.(3) )

   [Rip] rank 6 ability, applied after 4 combo points are generated:

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[RIP, r6, 4cp, 399ap] = 144(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 864
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 400ap] = 145(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 870
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 499ap] = 148(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 888
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 500ap] = 149(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 894
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 599ap] = 152(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 912
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 600ap] = 153(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 918
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 699ap] = 156(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 936
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 700ap] = 157(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 942
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 799ap] = 160(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 960
[RIP, r6, 4cp, 800ap] = 161(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 966

We recieve +6 dmg per 25 ap.
The formula is 774 + 6 * ( ap / 25 )

   [Rip] rank 6 ability, applied after 5 combo points are generated:

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[RIP, r6, 5cp, 399ap] = 172(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1032
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 400ap] = 173(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1038
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 499ap] = 176(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1056
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 500ap] = 177(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1062
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 599ap] = 180(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1080
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 600ap] = 181(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1086
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 699ap] = 184(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1104
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 700ap] = 185(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1110
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 799ap] = 188(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1128
[RIP, r6, 5cp, 800ap] = 189(damage per tick)x6(ticks) = 1134

We recieve +6 dmg per 25 ap. Same as previous one
The formula is 942 + 6 * ( ap / 25 )

   Update #1:
   Ability is affected by druid's talent - Natural Weapons. Total outcoming damage of [Rip] is multiplied by 1 + 0.02 * [number of talents invested in Natural Weapons]. After attack power applying, but before further modifiers like warrior's shield wall.
   Tested on Nostalrius, 07.12.2015

   My Conclusion:

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[RIP, r6, 1cp] = ( 270 + 6 * ( ap / 100 ) ) * ( 1 + 0.02 * [number of talents invested in Natural Weapons] )
[RIP, r6, 2cp] = ( 438 + 6 * ( ap / 50 ) ) * ( 1 + 0.02 * [number of talents invested in Natural Weapons] )
[RIP, r6, 3cp] = ( 606 + 6 * ( ap / 33.(3) ) ) * ( 1 + 0.02 * [number of talents invested in Natural Weapons] )
[RIP, r6, 4cp] = ( 774 + 6 * ( ap / 25 ) ) * ( 1 + 0.02 * [number of talents invested in Natural Weapons] )
[RIP, r6, 5cp] = ( 942 + 6 * ( ap / 25 ) ) * ( 1 + 0.02 * [number of talents invested in Natural Weapons] )

   Tested on Nostalrius, 06.20.2015
   Feel free to search for mistakes. That's the main reason I post this information.
   PS Few more parts of theorycrafting inc

I've always heard that a 4 point rip is just as good as a 5 point, from an efficiency standpoint. In fact, if you have 2/2 blood frenzy, then you should always rip at 4 points so that an extra combo point is not wasted should you crit on your next attack.

It seems like a fairly moot point because you can't use rip in raids, and 5-man bosses die too fast to worry about maintaining rip for optimal dps.

How do you conduct these tests?

Thanks,

mtp1032 wrote:How do you conduct these tests?

Thanks,

   Well I invested lot of time to recieve few first control values. I was supposed to be sure that result wasn't varying with the changing of my targets. Actually RIP is a physical bleed effect, so it's not affected by target's armor or magic resistances. No crits, no dodges or misses after your target recieved this effect, no matter which lvl your target is. Rip deals constant damage in dependance of rank, generated cp and your ap.
   Anyway I choosed Slave Workers as my final training dummies, just in case - they have no armor, no resistances, no abilities to use.
   With the 25ap increament for every test and two-three tries for every ap value - I got my numbers for ability, affected by ap between 400 and 600 (400, 425, 450, ..., 575, 600). Result was not so obvious, so I made same tests for 399, 424, 449, 474, 499, 524, 549, 574, 599 (ap). At this point it was clear enough for me but I still made further tests for values you can see in first post. To be honest I skipped some steps after 600 and only one try was made for every ability using since I didn't notice any variations before.
   Macro was used to detect target's condition of armor and resistances -

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/script u=UnitResistance y="target" a=u(y ,0) h=u(y ,1) f=u(y ,2) n=u(y ,3) fr=u(y ,4) s=u(y ,5) z=u(y ,6) p=(a/(a+400+85*UnitLevel(y))*100) SendChatMessage(p.."%Arm "..h.."Ho "..f.."Fi "..n.."Na "..fr.."Fr "..s.."Sa "..z.."Ar.", SAY)

   It's similar with any of this type macro, I only modified it to see target's armor in %

Rip should also be affected by the talent Natural Weapons so you can get a 10% bonus to the damage

Cool info, thanks for posting.

Stalk wrote:Rip should also be affected by the talent Natural Weapons so you can get a 10% bonus to the damage

   Thanks a lot for this reply sir. I really forgot about that, mostly because I had no chance to test it - was a healer few days ago. You don't need to worry - the result above was recieved without these talents. But now as a feral I can confirm this information. Will update the first post.

Takefive wrote:  By (ap/100) I meant the number of hundreds of ap. Not sure how to say on english correctly. The devision without remainder. For example: 1454 / 100 -> 14; 32 / 11 -> 2; 5.68 / 2 -> 2 [/color]

"Rounded down".

1482 / 100 = 14.82, rounded down it is 14.