Sigil of Awareness vs. Sigil of the Hanged Man + ArP Gems

[ryeguy]

Hello folks,

I just need some assistance finding which of the two is best for me, i am a frost DK and STR stacking and i have attempted both sigil's each gave me the same exact dps on the h dummy. Now i assume that the sigil of the hanged man would be better for me because of my STR multipliers etc. on the other side would that mean sigil of awareness better if i was ARP stacking?

On a side note, i have heard many good things coming from arp stacking but i am not to sure if i am ready to switch my gems ( gear wise ) here -> http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal'Ganis&cn=%C3%98m%C3%A6ga is a link to my armory, i calculated that i will be about 1049 ARP if i switch my gems which is about 70 something percent i believe. Should i or shouldn't i? I understand that there is a loss of dps aoe wise but a gain in single target and general damage, but is it worth it for me quite yet? im not to sure maybe you can help me.

thank you in advance.

[scaff666]

I think before you start gemming Arp you should try to get at least 23 expertise on your OH too and then switch it to MH, and i will quote what zYN said in another topic that i completly agree:

"Go whichever way you prefer. I'm probably going to just stick with my ArP gemming for now.

Strengths of +str gemming:
-Significantly superior in AoE situations or fights
-Frost Strike gains nothing from ArP. So situations with abnormally high RP generation is skewed towards +str build (also might want to get rid of CotG then)
-Unholy off-spec doesn't get screwed

Strengths of +ArP gemming:
-Slightly higher single-target DPS
-ERW at <35% gains even more bang, up to a point where you're tempted to wipe the raid on trashpacks or pull some extra so that it's up in time for the next boss too"

I think is a matter of playstyle and what fights you are doing, i would say if youa re attempting LK 25 HM you should stay with str for the AoE that is much required on that fight.

[zYN]

I'd wait some time with the ArP gemming if I were you.

When it comes down to the sigil choice, you definitely want to be using Sigil of the Hanged Man in general. The silly stuff that's been circulating about Virulence being better because "SotHM just drops off all the time" etc is just plain bad info. Only encounter where it makes a difference (not really counting Gunship & Valithria here, which are the other two where it _can_ drop) is heroic Lich King's last phase during the bomb room. At that point, you can easily just swap to Awareness and enjoy the extra damage on Obliterates.

[Mitranim]

On the OP subject.

I've run a couple of simulations on Kahorie for a Saurfang-like fight to compare overall DPS between three sigils. For both ArP and strength setups, it shows Awareness to be roughly equal to other two. Given SoA+ArP dominance in top Saurfang parses, I suspect that sim might be somehow undervaluing it.
If it doesn't, then regardless of gemming your choice should be SoV/SotHM for AoE, SoA for <35% boss (thanks for the tip Synti !) and either of those for the rest.
Also, the sim shows that between ~0.5—1.5 min time mark strength sigil is always superior.

I've also found that it takes >70 seconds for SotHM to beat SoV. Digging through August WoL logs of our respectable SotHM proponent, you can see on, say, Deathwhisper, Council or TLK that SotHM buff dropped often enough for it to be no better than SoV would be.

[zYN]

Fair enough points. I'm all for keeping the theorycraft on a level where you don't have to play absolutely perfect every single time such as if you were able to slow down the game by 800%. However, the logs and stuff that you might be looking at right now are a bit silly for most parts when compared to the time of progress. There's bosses where people try to put out the perfect performance occasionally, then there's fights such as Council and Deathwhisper where it's more or less just people nuking each other during MC and being asses in general.

I definitely do think that SotHM stack will keep up during normal, focused play on majority of the bosses. I also think that should be the premise for theorycrafting.

Deathwhisper might be an exception, depending on what the DK will be doing in that fight. We've got very lazy mages and hunters, so it's often needed for me to run around and grip stuff. Were we to use the better tactic of everyone sitting on the wall-side of Deathwhisper (and the DKs not running around like retards), I most definitely wouldn't have the stack dropping in that fight. I'd use that as the basis, instead of the playerkilling during MC/ghost trailing/asscockery with an inferior tactic that we're doing nowadays. 8]


LK has also gotten a bit silly with the +30% buff and people nuking the ghouls like mad. I suppose if the situation is like that, then SoV will prove to be superior there. I'm stuck on the old mindset and how the fight was during progression, instead of thinking how the fight is nowadays. Back then it would've been very easy slamming a ghoul on the way out with an extra Obliterate and keep the stack up until a spirit spawned. And there definitely wouldn't have been a lull in the DPS coming off of the edge phase back onto LK himself.

I guess I should just update my own view on some of the fights and not be as stuck-up on some of the stuff for no good reason.