Quote:Why would you wait on Consecrate? It has already gone down prior to it coming up in your rotation. You get to it every 9 secs, but it is available every 8 secs. Waiting on HS doesn't work too well in practice either due to client/server disagreements. It generally is at risk of going down even when you're looking to jump on it as soon as you get off of GCD and it is up next. At best, there is some extra time there, but not 1.5 secs worth of it, and any time spent waiting to cast HS at the latest possible time before it drops off is time not spent continuing with the other abilities. There certainly isn't a free GCD anywhere in 969. When you need a Divine Plea or whatever else, you make room for it by dropping something out of the regular rotation.
I'm not saying that you should wait on consecrate. I'm saying all the macro's that I have seen have a 'stop gap' in them to ensure that the 969 is preserved (I don't understand Blizz's macro language enough to understand what they mean by that, I just understood it to mean that it kept you on the 9's and 6's).
I will take your word if you are saying that there isn't a free GCD. Maintankadin theorycrafters are claiming that you get the free GCD after at best 2 rotations, but more than likely in the 3rd or 4th rotation.
As I haven't tanked anything meaningful since the week after 3.0 as prot, I can only rely on what the theorycraft says. If the TC is wrong, then it's wrong. I have only recently been getting back into tank theory because of dual spec. I originally planned on going holy with the second spec (and probably still will) but I figured I would check out the idea behind the new tank style.
Quote:Macroing is not the way to go for the rotation either, I agree with you there. How you open varies on the type of pull, and macroing means you run it the same way, which isn't ideal. Plus, there are numerous types of interruptions (stuns, movement, etc.) that give you a choice on where to start again in your rotation. Macroing it removes that choice and limits how effective you can be. If you come out of Vortex on Malygos and use Consecrate as your first "nine" when really should have put of HS, or used Hammer instead of ShoR when both are off cooldown, then you're not maximizing your threat. In a similar multi mob scenario, you are more optimal to use Hammer first and then ShoR.
100% agree.
---------------------------
I will edit my combat timer and see if I can get it to print out the 969 rotation. I'm curious why they are sticking with the idea of the free gcd if it doesn't work in practice. Currently I only have it going for ret Cooldowns, Dk rune timers, and half heartedly on affliction spells. It's just a pet project I'm trying to get modeled for my programming portfolio.
nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright