TrainingGrounds 21531 update

TrainingGrounds has been updated for build 21531.
http://wow.curseforge.com/addons/traininggrounds/files/2-training-grounds-demo-2016-04-21a/

We've updated Strike of the Windlord's attack power and cost, and we've also changed the order SotW and FoF appear in the tutorial.

(SE&F was already using build 21531 mechanics.)

...

Additionally, we've gone back and updated the old Spinning Crane Kick calculator with the latest numbers and mechanics.

TrainingGrounds demo

We've created a playable demo of TrainingGrounds.
TrainingGrounds is a combat simulator addon which is played inside of World of Warcraft.

It is currently uploaded to http://wow.curseforge.com/addons/traininggrounds/files/2-training-grounds-demo-2016-04-21a/.
Place it in your addons folder, move to a safe place in-game, and type /tg to play.

This demo may be relevant to you if:

• you do not currently have access to the Legion alpha, and you do not mind playing a crude approximation of 7.0 Windwalker Monk with mechanics only as accurate as Wowhead's datamined tooltips.
• you do have access to the Legion alpha, but you would like to see how you play at 50% haste with the as-of-yet unreleased changes to SE&F.

The demo is designed for players who are already familiar with the Warlords Windwalker Monk rotation.  There is a "tutorial" which explains the basic controls, but no attempt is made to teach you how to play effectively.

There are many other features missing from the game.  One such feature is actionbar customization.  You cannot rearrange spells on your actionbar.  Sorry about that.  We wanted to get this demo into a playable state as soon as possible, and this wasn't a priority.

If you decide to play this demo, let us know if any of the existing abilties or game mechanics feel wrong or inaccurate.  (For example, we're not sure if the recent change to Roll is just a tooltip error.)  Our top priority at the moment is fixing any broken class mechanics.

Known issues

Automatic shutdown on Lua Error

The current build will automatically shut down if it detects a Lua Error... even if that error didn't originate from TrainingGrounds.  We recommend using the "Display Lua Errors" option in the Interface > Help menu.

Misaligned text

Occasionally, a fontstring will become misaligned.  In the example shown, the text is incorrectly centered instead of left-aligned.  There is some evidence that this is a bug in World of Warcraft, so we may have to find a workaround instead of fixing it.

Aspect ratio distortion

The game was designed for windowed mode.  Depending on the aspect ratio of your monitor, the game window may appear distorted when World of Warcraft is played in fullscreen mode.

Where do we go from here?

There are a lot of things that need doing before we can pretend this addon is even remotely feature complete.  At the very least, we want to implement the remaining Windwalker abilities (defensive cooldowns), allow actionbar customization, and rewrite the program to be more class-agnostic.  Our long-term goal for this addon is to support different classes and specializations, including specializations that do not, technically, exist.

Spinning Crane Calculator

If You're Reading This, The Page Hasn't Broken (Yet)

Big change to WW rotation recently. We made this calculator. We were bored.

- Disclaimer -

This calculator is designed to tell you whether you could press Spinning Crane Kick in lieu of another button at some hypothetical point in time when you already have an arbitrary number of stacks.  We make no statement on whether it is a good idea to acquire those stacks if you do not already have them.  Because that's starting to sound like Actual Math.

Fill out this form according to your current situation, or just leave in the default values if they sound close enough.  Then click Calculate.

Haste:	%
Mastery:	%
SCK cost (chi):
SCK base damage:
FoF damage:
SotW damage:
WDP damage:
RJW damage:
RSK damage:
BoK damage:
CB damage:

Results

Use the following "damage per chi" table to determine when it becomes economical to substitute SCK for one of your other attacks.
The attack to be replaced appears in the left column.
The number of targets to be hit with SCK are displayed in the top row.
The numbers in the grid represent the number of stacks (read: "unique targets hit within the last 15 seconds") required before SCK is worth using in place of the other attack. A red cell indicates there aren't enough unique targets available to justify using SCK over the ability in the left column.

So, for example, if you didn't change any of the numbers in the form, and you're fighting 7 enemies at once, you could use SCK instead of SotW if you had 6 (or more) stacks.  But you'd never use it in place of RJW unless you had somehow attacked 9 (out of 7) unique enemies.

By the way, Whirling Dragon Punch here is considered to be a 2-GCD attack consisting of RSK+WDP. We're not entirely sure if WDP by itself lasts 1.0 seconds, 1.5 seconds, or 1.5 seconds reduced by haste. Let us know if we need to fix it.

SCK stacks - priority: damage per chi	Number of enemies grouped up for AOE
Ability to be replaced	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Fists of Fury - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Whirling Dragon Punch - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rushing Jade Wind - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Strike of the Windlord - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rising Sun Kick - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Blackout Kick - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you mouse over any of the numbers in the middle of the grid, a little tooltip should pop up with the damage numbers used in the calculation.

Use the following "damage per second" table if you somehow have unlimited resources and can afford to spam SCK without losing out on any of your other abilities. I don't know, maybe Serenity makes it to 7.0 without any further changes. Anyway, this chart is very much like the previous chart, except it's tracking damage per second instead of damage per resource.

Some of the grid cells contain two numbers. The number on the left refers to how many stacks you'll need with Combo Strikes, and the number on the right refers to how many stacks you'll need without Combo Strikes. A yellow cell indicates there are enough enemies to use SCK with Combo Strikes, but not enough to use SCK twice in a row.

For example, using the default values in the form, if you had unlimited resources and 5+ stacks, you could spam SCK to the exclusion of all else, at least until your stacks dropped off.

SCK stacks - priority: damage per second	Number of enemies grouped up for AOE
Ability to be replaced	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Fists of Fury - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Whirling Dragon Punch - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rushing Jade Wind - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Strike of the Windlord - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rising Sun Kick - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Blackout Kick - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Chi Burst - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Go on, mouse over something!  Those tooltips want to pretend they're useful.

---


Join us next time, when we'll work on a "when should you press SEF" calculator.  Or not.  Maybe we have something else planned for next time.  Ooh, the anticipation is kil[Lua Error: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)]

Progress report

It's been a few weeks since our last video and we figured this was a good time to post an update regarding addon development.

That's all for now.

Posthaste

Haste is now assuredly more consequential

We were never a fan of Haste in build 21215.  You might have noticed already, but all the videos in the previous post were recorded with 0 haste.  As we'll discuss further down the page, haste was the stat to avoid, just as mastery is currently the stat to avoid in Warlords.  There wasn't much point in showing you our rotation at 30% or 50% haste if doing so would compromise our throughput.  (After all, who* wants to push more buttons and deal less damage?)
* ...okay, but besides me, who wants to do that?

It turns out the developers didn't think haste was all that great either, and they overhauled it for quite a few classes.

For Monks, Haste now decreases the cooldown of Fists of Fury, Whirling Dragon Punch?, Rising Sun Kick, and Rushing Jade Wind*.

* It already decreases the cooldown of Rushing Jade Wind.

To explain how much of a difference this makes, we compiled a table of every haste benefit we could think of, spanning from Warlords to Legion ... to Legion again.

We should mention that we are bad at designing tables, so we hid this one away inside this spoiler tag that may or may not work when you click on it.

Haste benefits

	Warlords	Legion, build 21215	Legion, build 21249
Faster autoattacks	Depending on the encounter, autoattacks were worth 15-20% of our damage in entry-level gear, and 10-15% of our damage in full HfC gear.	Autoattack value unknown	Autoattack value unknown
Faster channeled spells and DoT effects (does not affect total spell damage)	Fists of Fury, Rushing Jade Wind	Fists of Fury, Spinning Crane Kick, Rushing Jade Wind	Fists of Fury, Spinning Crane Kick, Rushing Jade Wind
Faster Energy generation	Increased benefit from the Ascension talent. Additional Spinning Crane Kicks (weak AOE).	Increased benefit from the Ascension talent	Increased benefit from the Ascension talent
Additional Jabs/Tiger Palms (as a consequence of faster Energy generation)	Jab does weak damage but may proc free Tiger Palm (maintenance buff) or Blackout Kick / Chi Explosion, worth 1-2 Chi	Jab does weak damage but may proc free Blackout Kick, worth 1 Chi	Jab does weak damage but may proc free Blackout Kick, worth 1 Chi
More Chi (as a consequence of additional Jabs/Tiger Palms)	Additional Blackout Kicks / Chi Explosions.  These attacks do moderate damage and generate Tigereye Brew stacks.	Additional Blackout Kicks / Spinning Crane Kicks.  These attacks do light damage and have no additional effects.	Additional Blackout Kicks / Spinning Crane Kicks.  These attacks do light damage and have no additional effects.
More Tigereye Brew (as a consequence of additional Blackout Kicks / Chi Explosions)	Tigereye Brew stacks are consumed to temporarily increase all damage by up to 60%	N/A	N/A
Reduced cooldowns	Rushing Jade Wind (moderate AOE)	Rushing Jade Wind (moderate AOE)	Rushing Jade Wind (moderate AOE), Whirling Dragon Punch? (strong AOE), Rising Sun Kick (moderate ST), Fists of Fury (strong all-purpose)

Don't want to look at all that?  That's okay, we probably got the details wrong.  We'll summarize the important stuff:

In Warlords, we get more Blackout Kicks/Chi Explosions (moderate attack) and more Rushing Jade Winds (moderate talent).  That alone increases our damage by a fair amount, but we also generate Tigereye Brew more often (as a side effect from BoK/CHEX).  TEB stacks are consumed to temporarily boost all damage by 60% -- that includes the damage from our strongest attacks, which are otherwise unaffected by haste.

So, Haste didn't let us use our strongest attacks more frequently, but in return we got to amplify their damage more often, and so it stayed useful to us.  We reluctantly admit that doesn't sound much like "haste".  In fact that sounds like a more active version of our existing Mastery*. 

* which is kind of amusing because our original Mastery back in Mists was a more active version of our Haste

In Legion build 21215, we get many more Blackout Kicks (which is now a weak attack) and slightly more Rushing Jade Winds (moderate talent)... and that's it.  Tigereye Brew is no longer linked to how many BoKs we use, and haste doesn't affect any of our other abilities.

There was some talk recently about how Feral Druids (in Warlords) avoid haste because it doesn't affect their bleed damage at all, and their direct damage isn't strong enough in comparison to take haste over another stat which does affect bleed.  Replace Shred+Ferocious Bite with Blackout Kick and you have an idea of how this works out for monks.

In Legion build 21249, we get many more Blackout Kicks/Spinning Crane Kicks (weak attacks) and slightly more Fists of Fury (very strong attack), Rising Sun Kicks (moderate attack), Whirling Dragon Punch?es (strong talent), and Rushing Jade Winds (moderate talent).

So, Haste finally lets us use our strongest attacks more frequently.  And if that sounds familiar, there was going to be a stat in Warlords that did the same thing -- Readiness -- but they ultimately shelved it because it "doesn't compare well* against [other] secondary stats".  Combining it with haste sounds like a nice compromise.

* In its place, we got Versatility.  Do I sound bitter?  Tryin' to sound bitter here.

What's our maximum APM?

Pop quiz!  Let's say I mistype a number in the monk simulator and give myself 50% Haste.  Also, the cost of Tiger Palm mysteriously drops to 30 while nobody's looking.  What's our maximum APM?

It's not 60.  I've heard some of you say it's 60, but it's not 60.  Each individual tick of Fists of Fury does not count as its own action.  Off-GCD abilities do count as their own actions.

(Standard Disclaimer: everything written in Dagnerous Padna's bolg is based on napkin math and may contain glaring inaccuracies.)

(Special Disclaimer: the following message is based on napkiner math and may contain glaringer inaccuracies.)

At 50% Haste, cooldowns and channel times are reduced to (1/1.5) = ⅔ of their normal amount.
Fists of Fury lasts for 2⅔ seconds at 50% Haste
Each Fists of Fury is 1⅔ APM "lost" (because we're not taking any actions while it channels)

How many Fists of Fury do we use per minute?
Fists of Fury has a 16 second cooldown at 50% Haste

If we don't take Serenity, we simply use Fists of Fury 3.75 times per minute
for a total of 6.25 APM lost
If we're hitting a button every second we're not channeling FoF, that brings us down from 60 APM to 53.75 APM (on GCD)

But if we do take Serenity (and if our goal is maximum APM, we really should), we use 7 Fists of Fury every 96 seconds (delaying each Serenity 6 seconds so we can fit two FoFs inside the 10-second buff)
7 FoFs per 96 seconds is the same as 4.375 FoFs per minute.
4.375 times per minute, we lose 1⅔ APM
which is a total of 7.2917 APM lost
If we're hitting a button every second we're not channeling FoF, that brings us down from 60 APM to 52.7083 APM (on GCD)

Now we add in our off-GCD abilities:
If we take Serenity, we'll use it every 96 seconds: +0.625 APM
If we don't take Serenity, we'll use Tigereye Brew instead: +⅔ APM
If we take Xuen: +⅓ APM
If we take Energizing Elixir: up to 1 APM
Touch of Karma: up to ½ APM

There are plenty of other ways to gain additional actions: Diffuse Magic, canceling SE&F or Flying Serpent Kick, Rolling in between GCDs, etc.  (Then there's interrupts, potions, extra action buttons, and so on -- but those actions aren't exclusive to Monks, so you might not consider them part of your rotation.)

So, depending on our talent choices and encounter details, we can expect our top speed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 53-55 APM.

Of course, we can also lose APM, either through mistakes in rotation, or in situations where the enemy is unattackable.  Diffuse Magic's nerf and Nimble Brew's removal may finally get us to back off when the boss does something nasty.

Finally, this model assumes we have unlimited resources.  In practice, we won't have enough resources to fill every single GCD, even at 50% haste.

Next time...

That was a lot of words just now.  We were going to talk about "interesting" vs "boring" artifact traits this week, but we'll save that for later.

Tier 19

Today we're going to examine how the upcoming Tier 19 set bonuses might appear in your rotation.

* Specifically, we're going to examine how they might appear in your rotation if Strike of the Windlord's cooldown were 45 seconds instead of 40 seconds, because we're just that bad at reading numbers off Wowhead.

This first video shows off the fastest singletarget build we could come up with.  It's anyone's guess whether this talent setup is actually worth using; we just wanted to maximize singletarget APM.

We managed 36 APM with Serenity.  In Warlords, we had about 46 APM.

Our second video shows off a typical AOE build.

Even without Serenity, we managed 38 APM here.
Windwalker AOE is considerably faster than ST.

The third video shows off the slowest possible playstyle we could come up with.  Pay special attention to how many times we use Strike of the Windlord and (non-Combo Breaker) Blackout Kick.

28 APM.  Quick reminder that some classes get 40 APM baseline.

Set bonus details

(2) Set: RSK cooldown reduced by 2 seconds.

We can now easily fit three RSKs in between every FoF.  That's about all the nice things we can say about it.

Against a single target, this effect chews up an additional 5 chi per minute, when we're already starved for chi.  As we saw in the above video, some talent combinations can't even afford the extra RSKs without dropping some other spell (SotW) from the rotation entirely.  (It is possible to afford RSK+SotW if we take Energizing Elixir, though we don't believe this distinction will survive the first balancing pass.)

Against multiple targets, this effect is almost worse than nothing.  Consider that in AOE fights,

·          we prefer RJW over RSK as our primary chi consumer;

·          we want to take SDS; and

·          reducing the cooldown of RSK only makes SDS harder to use.

(4) Set: Using three sequentially different abilities increases Mastery (damage multiplier) by X%.

This appears to be an enhanced version of Combo Strikes, and it presumably wears off as soon as the player uses the same attack twice in a set of three.  This is an intimidating set effect, and we don't yet know whether the damage bonus kicks in for the third attack, or after the third attack.  

If it's the former, then our rotation is hardly affected at all and we can simply enjoy the damage bonus for our strongest attacks; the only thing we want to avoid is TPing twice in a row before a strong attack (and if we took Hit Combo, we're already looking out for that).

TP > BoK > TP > (bonus activates) FoF > (bonus ends) TP > (bonus activates) RSK >

On the other hand, if the damage bonus doesn't apply until after the third attack, this makes our rotation considerably more difficult.  Our 3-chi abilities become very tricky to use, as we need to plan about 4 moves ahead in order to gain the damage bonus.

TP > BoK > CW (bonus activates) > TP > FoF > (bonus ends) TP > RSK (bonus activates) >

Hopefully this isn't the case.

Either way, mind you, this is probably the nail in the coffin for Serenity. 

If somebody asked us for suggestions, we'd say...

Windwalker Monks can't afford either set bonus.  We desperately need an additional source of energy and/or chi (super-rare legendary gear drops don't count) before we even take set bonuses into account.  We would remind you that we are a single-minded blog concerned only with Fasts Per Minute.  So, how would we adjust the effects while keeping them in the spirit of the original?

2pc set bonus: increase the cooldown of RSK by X%, and also increase the damage of RSK by Y%.  This still increases the effectiveness of RSK overall, while leaving us more chi with which to furiously press buttons, and it doesn't impair our AOE rotation.

4pc set bonus: Using three sequentially different abilities increases Haste (instead of Mastery) by Z%.  The 4pc set bonus is going to be a pain no matter what; any time we have to stop and think about what buttons to press is ... well, it's more time thinking and less time pressing buttons.  So if we have to do that, at least give us a fun reward.  Haste is more fun than Mastery, and it would be nice to get haste from a set bonus as we'll be avoiding it on gear.

Next time, we'll talk about what makes a stat, talent, or artifact trait "interesting" vs "boring", and we'll talk about why Haste is the new Mastery.

Intermission

It's been a few months.  Here's what's changed, in order of severity:

Inner Peace now increases maximum energy by 30 at rank 3.
We now have 130 max energy after upgrades, not counting relics.

Hit Combo doesn't actually proc from what we think of as "combos"; we have a full ten seconds of leeway between attacks.
This is concerning because without rewarding us for making back-to-back chained attacks, there is little imperative for the devs to give us a fast rotation.

Tornado Kick has been redesigned and is now a boring damage increase to RSK.  It no longer counts as a separate ability from Blackout Kick.
This makes Serenity considerably less useful, and it makes the Hit Combo+Serenity combination nigh useless.

Strike of the SkyWindlord now deals damage equivalent to Rising Sun Kick in a cone-shaped area of effect.
This ability is finally worth using ... which means we lose another 3 Chi every 45 seconds ... and we're already starved for Chi.

Artifact traits no longer reduce the cost of Fists of Fury.
The reduced cost of Fists of Fury was interesting because it made the ability more comfortable to use, and it softened the penalty for mistakes in our rotation.  I am sad to see this go.

Serenity replaces Tigereye Brew and reduces cooldowns.
There are two major consequences which stem from Serenity halving the cooldown of Fists of Fury:
1) we occasionally have to hold off on FoF for up to ten seconds while Serenity recharges or risk missing out on a free FoF.  Since FoF is a major energy refund, not only do we hold off on FoF but we often hold off on all other attacks as we have no energy to use them.  The irony is that we take Serenity to use faster attacks but we end up waiting around anyway.
2) we have to FoF during Serenity.  This means we press 7 buttons instead of 10, which is a big loss in the button-mashing department.  Don't try to hold FoF until the end of Serenity either, as then we'll lose the TEB damage bonus.

Tigereye Brew (but not Serenity) has multiple charges, and Strength of Xuen now increases the duration of Tigereye Brew (but not Serenity).
This makes Serenity even less appealing.

Next time, we'll post some videos.