Apart from these raiding tips, the most important aspect of maximizing your DPS is how you time your cooldowns. Some would argue that you should dump everything at once for the best outcome, which is partially true, but there are also a few tricks for squeezing in a little bit more.
First of all, know your fight – the dumbest thing you can do is to blow all your cooldowns during a knockback or when you need to reposition.. The best case scenario is waiting for the first knockback for example and then going all in. That way, chances of pulling aggro are slim and you would hopefully have 100% uptime with CDs. Knowing the length of the fight may also help you with using them in even smarter ways. For example:
- The fight is under 2 minutes, allowing you only one use of BF and AR. It follows that the ideal time to use them is when at least one of your Mongoose enchants procs. If there is going to be a Bloodlust and you don’t have Mongoose up, wait a couple of seconds as BL lasts for 20s while your CDs are 15s, allowing you to have a few hits to get a proc. If you are unlucky in the first few seconds, blow your CDs…
- The fight is over 2 minutes, allowing you to have 2 BF and 1 AR. In this case, you can wait for mongoose before you pop BF+AR, all the while ensuring that you don’t rip the threat forcing you into a Vanish or a Feint as well as having the time to use your second BF before the end of the fight.
- The fight is over 5 minutes – with 2-3 BFs and 2 ARs one can make wonders. Pop them asap in these cases. It is better to use AR twice in suboptimal conditions than using it only once in optimal ones. Again, make sure to not pull aggro and dump the threat if you have to.
To recap, use your CDs and consumables asap and simultaneously, because you may not always make it to the end. In fights executed flawlessly, there is room to play around and split tests to find the best opportunities to use your stuff.