Couple of Questions about the 5.0.4 Rotation

[Biggby]

For some reason, I’m really struggling with the new rotation. I haven’t been at it long, though, so I’m confident I’ll get it down. But I’ve got a couple of questions that I’m not quite sure about. At this point, I’m not trying to maximize my dps and I’m not trying to weave in cooldowns. I’m just trying to get the basic rhythm down, and then I’ll start improvising. So, here’s what I’m trying to do – cast sacred shield, run to my target, Hammer of the Righteous, then start my CS > X > X rotation with a priority of Judgement, Avenger’s Shield, Consecration, Holy Wrath. Whenever I have 5 holy power, I hit Shield of the Righteous. (Well, I try to. For some reason, it was a lot easier for me to keep up with three holy power. I’m sure I’ll get there.)

So, that’s it. Here are my questions:

* Sacred Shield. Driving me fricking crazy. There is something that it doesn’t do for the first six seconds it’s up, so I need to keep it up all the time, right? Does that put it at the very top of my X talent priority list when it is about to fall off? Or is it more important than anything else (other than a life-saving cooldown) if it's about to fall off? It feels like I have a lot to pay attention to now, so I'm struggling a little to keep my eye on the Sacred Shield timer.

* Is it still Hammer of the Righteous for multiple targets and Crusader’s Strike for single targets? Everything I’ve read lately seems to only talk about Crusader’s Strike, so I’m wondering if I should just tab-target with Crusader’s Strike rather than using HotR.

[theckhd]

Sacred Shield: Try to keep it up as much as possible, but don't prioritize it over HP generators. I generally suggest you slip it in after AS/Cons in the rotation, depending on how much DPS loss you care about. Putting it behind Cons is lower uptime on SS, but higher DPS. Bumping it up ahead of Cons costs more DPS, but gives you more uptime.

HotR is still your multi-target attack. It's only a DPS increase on 3+ targets, but on 2 you'll probably want to use it for threat on the second target anyway.

[Mozen]

Tagging on to the question, why would you only use ShoR at five holy power? Don't you want the uptime on the damage reduction as high as possible? Or is it just so that you always have 2 HP ready for emergencies?

[daishan]

As you say It's for emergencies, so that you're never more than 1 holy power from a SotR or a 3 holy power WoG.
You can build up to 5 holy power at the start of a fight or while the other tank is tanking. I find that once you know the rhythm of a fight you can build up 5 HP in low dmg portions of the fight, like when the boss is casting stuff during tank switches ect, then use all of your hp when you need it.

[Koatanga]

Wouldn't we still want to use HotR on single targets at least once every 30 seconds to maintain the debuff?

And with SS, even though you have no vengeance at the beginning of the fight, you can still toss it on prior to the pull for small damage mitigation while you build up your other things (and vengeance).

[theckhd]

Wouldn't we still want to use HotR on single targets at least once every 30 seconds to maintain the debuff?

Usually, yes. In a raid though, your other tank may take care of it, or for that matter your DPS (I found out during raid this week that apparently enhancement shamans put the debuff up as part of their single-target rotation).

And with SS, even though you have no vengeance at the beginning of the fight, you can still toss it on prior to the pull for small damage mitigation while you build up your other things (and vengeance).

Yep. My pre-pull is basically SS during countdown and pull with J->AS. A lot simpler than Cata, though less bursty (no Inq/Exo or initial SotR).

[Nooska]

Also, a hunter can bring a bird of prey pet, and that will keep up the WB on its target, so unless the hunter has to bring some other buff, WB may be the go to pet.

[JoeBravo]

Also, a hunter can bring a bird of prey pet, and that will keep up the WB on its target, so unless the hunter has to bring some other buff, WB may be the go to pet.

elemental shamans provide it just like enhancement does. First earth shock comes at 10-15 seconds into the fight generally. need to build up lightning shield charges.