Beta Feedback, Part 2.5

It was recently discovered that the "average combo" counter is counting every empty GCD as its own individual 0-length combo.  If our intention is to count only unbroken chains of attacks towards this statistic, the average combo for all videos should be significantly higher than displayed.

So I went ahead and rerecorded all six tests.  Even the not-so-fun tests.

Average combo no longer tracks downtime in its calculations.  For those of you who prefer Skada-style tracking, I added a "pessimistic average combo" display which continues to treat empty GCDs as separate combos.

There's also a new "GCD combo" display which tracks only GCDs filled, instead of button presses.  You'll see "GCD combo" pull ahead during Fists of Fury, and fall behind during heavy Brew usage.  Some players may consider it better than actions taken for tracking uptime.


Videos

Live Proving Grounds:

 Beta Proving Grounds, APM:

 Beta Proving Grounds, DPS:

 End of Mists:

 End of Warlords, APM:

 End of Warlords, DPS:

Results

Not much changed.  Average combo has roughly doubled.  Of particular interest is that I got fairly lucky with the new Live Proving Grounds test and my average combo there was higher than End of Warlords -- in fact, nearly twice as high.  A little more downtime on live, but so much less stop-and-start clunkiness.  End of Mists, meanwhile, remains leaps and bounds faster and more fluid than End of Warlords.

Anyway, thanks for putting up with this little intermission.  In Part 3, we'll take a look at 45 Jab, and +20% Ascension... if it still exists...

Beta Feedback, Part Two: End of Expansion

EDIT 09/03/2014: New videos with better accuracy have been uploaded to part 2.5.

EDIT 08/14/2014: It was recently discovered that the "average combo" counter is counting every empty GCD as its own individual 0-length combo.  If our intention is to count only unbroken chains of attacks towards this statistic, the average combo for all videos should be significantly higher than displayed.  We will aim to redo these simulations before proceeding with Part 3 of the test.

Last time, we used an interactive monk simulator to see how the changes would play out between live and beta.  We concluded that beta monks are slower (measured in APM) and less fluid (measured in average consecutive actions) than their live counterparts, despite having more haste.

Those comparisons were made under Proving Grounds conditions, with 3000 haste rating, in start-of-expansion gear.  This time, we'll look at how monks will play in end-of-expansion gear, with 12000 haste rating.

Here's how my live monk plays in the gear I'm wearing right now.

* there is one very significant thing I've failed to mention, but we'll talk about that next time.

After ten minutes, my live monk has 56.3 APM and an average combo of 7.7.  Note that, despite using Fists of Fury and Energizing Brew regularly, I still have 7.2% downtime due to lack of energy.

For comparison, at 3000 haste, I had only 48.7 APM, average combo of 3.4, and 16.9% downtime.  The extra 9000 haste made a palpable difference in terms of fluidity.  Average combo has more than doubled.  Even though I'm still not 100% GCD-limited, I'm still stringing together twice as many actions on average, and I'm waiting half as long between combos!  This is Fun.  Windwalkers are the Fun class.

We will remind you that the simulator was set to Live.  We will now set the simulator to Beta.

After five minutes, my beta monk has 52.5 APM, average combo of 3.7, and 10.7% downtime.  For comparison, at 3000 haste, I had 46.7 APM, average combo of 2.8, and 17.7% downtime.

We can see right away that average combo (fluidity) did not improve much at all when we added 300% additional haste.  That's a problem.  Recall that 3.7 average combo is just barely higher than the 3.4 average combo we had in live start-of-expansion gear.  This is Not Fun.

Recall also that if we wanted to be invited to raids, we would use Chi Brew and Chi Explosion instead.  This is what Chi Brew + Chi Explosion looks like at 12000 haste:

I don't even last five minutes this time before giving up.  44.5 APM, 1.6 average combo, and 27% downtime (up from 39.4 APM, 1.3 average combo, and 32% downtime with 3000 haste).

Final thoughts:

It's been fun.  Emphasis on "been".  Maybe I'll see you in-game on my freshly rolled Enhancement Sha--

.@gameshunter Two other big highlights... 5% extra haste for Frost DKs, and 45 energy Jab for Windwalkers.
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) August 13, 2014

...

...Well then.  Part 3 to follow.

Beta Feedback, Part One: The Simulator

EDIT 09/03/2014: New videos with better accuracy have been uploaded to part 2.5.

EDIT 08/14/2014: It was recently discovered that the "average combo" counter is counting every empty GCD as its own individual 0-length combo.  If our intention is to count only unbroken chains of attacks towards this statistic, the average combo for all videos should be significantly higher than displayed.  We will aim to redo these simulations before proceeding with Part 3 of the test.

Celestalon writes:

.@Keltori Don't worry about giving us others' feedback; worry about giving us YOUR feedback. That's what's valuable to us. Thanks!
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) July 24, 2014

I haven't received a beta invite yet, but I still wanted to give feedback on the changes in the beta patch notes.  So I built my own interactive monk simulator.  Really.  Here it is in action:

That video is a playthrough using my live monk, scaled down to 5.4 Proving Grounds (i.e. entry-level raid gear).  I spent quite some time making sure the simulator plays just like the real game, or close enough that a rookie like myself can't feel the difference anyway.

I kinda forgot Xuen, but he's not on the GCD so I don't have to rerecord all this.  Just add 0.3 APM if you are so inclined.

Next, let's look at the same monk at level 100 in 6.0, with the same amount of haste from gear.  In the following video, I use Celestalon's suggestion of taking Ascension and Serenity:

Historically, though, monks have benefited more from Chi Brew than Ascension, and Ascension has been weakened even further in 6.0, so I made a third video showing a Tigereye-Brew-focused build I might use if I wanted to be invited to raids:

First Impressions:

Gosh this is Not Fun.  Windwalkers are supposed to be the Fun class.

Fewer actions per minute on beta, despite higher haste.

Even with the new 5% haste buff and Ascension, my level 100 monk in entry-level raid gear can't keep up with my level 90.

It's just as easy to make mistakes on beta, and doing so is even more punishing.

There's a tense moment just before FoF is about to come off CD when I'm trying to keep my chi between 3 and 5 (or 6) and energy below 50, without letting any buffs fall off.  In the worst case scenario, I spend nine seconds recovering enough chi to cast FoF.  This is Not Fun.

I look forward to Rising Sun Kick on live.  I dread Fists of Fury on beta.

RSK didn't have any of those problems.  RSK is Fun To Press.  I just hit it instead of BoK once every eight seconds.  Trying to hit RSK the very instant it comes off GCD without stopping to jab first is Fun.  Doing the same for FoF is Not Fun.

Fewer consecutive chained abilities on beta.

Despite achieving a 41-hit combo on beta with serenity, my average combo count was much lower on beta than live.  I'm scared to hit multiple buttons in a row on beta for fear of wasting resources, whereas on live it's no big deal.

Conjecture: This "fluidity" -- not just APM or uptime -- is what makes live Windwalker so much fun to play.

Much like how Balance Druids get to use rapidfire starsurge procs, or Destruction Warlocks get to watch their chaos bolts hit for seven figures, Windwalker Monks are rewarded with the soothing rhythm of Jab > Kick > Jab > Kick for as long as they can manage their energy.  That's much more difficult to do on beta.

Chi Brew + Chi Explosion is very slow indeed and must never become optimal singletarget DPS.

1.3 average combo, 32% downtime, and 40 APM are all unprecedentedly slow for Windwalker Monks and would be more suited towards a different class altogether.

More to follow...

We've barely started talking about the Windwalker spec, in fact there are some big issues I haven't mentioned yet, but further discussion will have to wait until next time.  More testing is required first!