Thursday, September 17, 2009

My mind just exploded.

I kid you not. What follows is an epiphany I recently had while reading about 969 rotation for Pally Tanks.

I've not been having as much fun on my Pally tank and much of that has been due to frustration with threat (i.e. making me feel like a horrible tank). I admit that I do not currently use the 969 rotation that many believe is optimal threat in most situations. This is because I couldn't wrap my head around it. It's just too long of a rotation for me to memorize.

Then it happened. I was fishing around for what the 969 rotation was (since I had forgotten it) and finally found it at Raider101. But it wasn't complete. Here's the important part of that page:
# Judge(9)
# Shield of Righteousness (6)
# Consecrate(9)
# Hammer of the Righteous(6)
# Holy Shield(9)
# Shield of Righteousness (6)
# Judge(9)
The last Judge loops to the first Judge and you should be able to start the rotation over. But SoR won't be up because you just used it. So you have to switch to HotR instead and continue on. The complete loopable rotation is actually this:
# Judge(9)
# Shield of Righteousness (6)
# Consecrate(9)
# Hammer of the Righteous(6)
# Holy Shield(9)
# Shield of Righteousness (6)
# Judge(9)
# Hammer of the Righteous(6)
# Consecrate(9)
# Shield of Righteousness (6)
# Holy Shield(9)
# Hammer of the Righteous(6)
# Judge(9)
Which is the rotation I remember reading about.

Ok, so what?
Here's the epiphany. You can separate the 9 and 6 parts of the rotation. I'm going to assign what I will use as keybinds to the abilities so as to abbreviate.

The 9s
1- Judgement
2- Consecrate
3- Holy Shield

The 6s
Q- Shield of Righteousness
E- Hammer of the Righteous

The above rotation becomes this:
1Q2E3Q1E2Q3E1

Notice how the numbers and the letters have a mini rotation relative to themselves.

Here's a more pronounced version
1-2-3-1-2-3-1
-Q-E-Q-E-Q-E-


Short version - This is a new way of looking at the 969 rotation that may be easier for some people to wrap their heads around. I know personally remembering 1-2-3, Q-E is going to be much easier to remember than the longer sequence.

Corollary - With this in mind two macros could be developed, namely a 9s rotation and a 6s rotation that you would then alternate, simplifying the overall rotation to 1-2-1-2. As with all macros, you will lose flexibility by doing this.

7 comments:

  1. I use these binds:

    1. Judgement
    2. Shield of Righteousness
    3. Holy Shield
    4. Hammer of the Righteous
    5. Consecration

    Then my rotation is just 1-2-3-4-5, over and over. I just realized this technically isn't 9-6-9, as you have two nines in a row (when you go from 5 to 1), but it seems to hit everything right as it comes off cooldown, and I have no threat issues with it. I guess I should try it the standard way and see how it goes.

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  2. So what would the macros look like?
    <--- Macro Noob

    Lana

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  3. @Argon: I will vary up the order I use things. For example on trash mobs or bosses with adds, I'll still lead off with Judgement (just to get the debuff up) then follow up with HotR, then Holy Shield, then SoR. The earlier HotR gives me a good early spike of threat. Another option is pulling with AS, then laying down consecration followed by HotR when they are in range, then Judgement.

    @Lanashara: For most macros I've seen for the 96969 rotation they have a "short cooldown" macro and a "long cooldown" macro.

    The short one will have the two commands for SoR and HotR in it while the long one will have the commands for Judgment, Holy Shield and Consecration.

    As they are all currently on the GCD, by pressing the button once, you will cast the first spell you have listed, while the other(s) will not cast since pressing the macro will trigger the GCD. You alternate pressing these two macros, and the next time you press the first macro it will skip past the first listed spell (since it'll be on cooldown), and instead cast the second spell.

    My issue with using one of these macros is what Crofe mentioned, which is a loss of flexibility. As I said above, I will alter my rotation when pulling depending on what and how many target's I'm facing. By using a macro, you're limiting yourself to whatever order they are written in there, but it's much easier, so you can keep track of other things like the enemies spells or attacks, or if adds appear. So depending on the situation both approaches can have their uses.

    For the exact method of making these macros, check out: http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/forum/index.php?p=392010&rb_v=viewtopic#p392010

    (PS: Ignore the bit about Exorcism as that post was written before Exorcism was given a casting time).

    ReplyDelete
  4. here's another link that explains the macros:
    http://sacredduty.com/?p=5

    and another link with a very detailed (pre-exorcism change) explanation of the rotation:

    http://www.wow-pro.com/class_guides/tannyrs_paladin_tanking_guide

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  5. my personal choice for the keybinds is:
    Q: Hammer of the Righteous
    1: Shield of Righteousness
    this has both of the 6 second abilities pretty much under the same finger
    then,
    2: Judgement [with modifiers to select which]
    3: Consecrate
    E: Holy Shield

    Same keys as yourself, just different usage; so my rotation is typically along the lines of:
    2-Q-E-1-3-Q-2-1-E-Q-3
    I did initially have Q/E as my 6-secs and 1/2/3 as the 9s, but I found it more confusing

    I then have the button to the left of 1 as my Hammer of Wrath

    ReplyDelete
  6. My binds are
    1 - holy shield
    2 - Hammer of the Righteous
    3 - Judge
    4 - Shield of the Righteous
    5 - Consecrate

    my rotation is 12345 21 432 54, repeat

    On a pull where I need snap aggro i tend to start with hammer of the righteous, then holy shield, so I start in the middle of my rotation really.

    Works for me, though I'm looking to go to a binding set that incorporates Q and E (I actually keyboard strafe which is 1 bad away from keyboard turning ;)

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  7. I have a pair of macros:

    #showtooltip
    /castsequence reset=9 Judgement of Wisdom,Consecrate,Holy Shield

    and

    #showtooltip
    /castsequence reset=6 Shield of Righteousness,Hammer of the Righteous

    One of them is bound to 2, the other to 3. And you can just alternate between the two macros. Works like a charm. You have to keep all the spells on your bars and handy though, just in case you need something in a pinch.

    ReplyDelete