*snip*
3.5% weapon damage per second for level 1, 5% per second for level 5.
Using my napkin math from above gives us these two comparisons.
Choice A: is SC and only level 1 HC, then it should be approximately 119.68%+7% weapon damage
Choice B: which is AS and level 5 HC, which should be approximately 106.48%+10% weapon damage
You cannot add those terms together in this form as the weapon damage from the bleed does not have a chance to crit.
The difference between Head Crush 1 and 5 is painfully small, it is always going to be a gain over lower levels of it, but the margin is tiny.
Edit: Just in case I wasn't clear. The choice is still sort of nebulous. Until we know for sure we can get the AS/Bash/Bash rotation above the point in haste we need for it to be better, SC at level 5 will be more dps.
*snip*
I did do the approximate math on HC5 versus HC1 rotation under the contested circumstances. The DoT ticks do not appear to be affected by haste (if they are it will make a difference in output, but not in a comparison), and this was assuming the interval for the skills takes place within the assumed 1.7-2 seconds we believe Shield Cannon takes to cast. Essentially, Level 1 HC is 3.5% weapon damage per second and Level 5 HC is 5% weapon damage per second, this makes our approximation such that you can simply add 3.5% weapon damage for however long your interval is. Just remember this is theory and that the DoT only ticks every 2 seconds, so if you're fighting something and it dies before the 10 second mark it will skew the expected weapon damage per second of HC. Though, over a long enough interval (5-6 minutes) it should be very close to the predicted 3.5-5%.
Regarding the AS/B/B or SC choice, I can't really endorse either angle yet, but, I would point out one thing I've been spending a small bit of time on and see if it makes sense to anyone else...
Aura Strike skill hits for substantially harder than the individual ticks of shield cannon (45% vs 29.33%), so what happens if we can assume the below:
(Recall the 1.36 multiplier used above to establish a pseudo-average over the course of an encounter, numbers without a *1.36 are unable to crit for the scenario.)AS Hit, Bash Hit, 1/3rd Bash Hit
45% + 25% + 8.33% = 78.33%AS Crit, Bash Hit, 1/3rd Bash Hit
(45%*1.36) + 25% + 8.33% = 94.53%AS Hit, Bash Crit, 1/3rd Bash Hit
45% + (25%*1.36)+ 8.33%= 81.83%AS Hit, Bash Hit, 1/3rd Bash Crit45% + 25%+ (8.33%*1.36)= 81.32%SC Hit, Hit, Hit 29.33% + 29.33% + 29.33% = 88%SC Crit, Hit, Hit 39.88% + 29.33% + 29.33% = 98.54.3%This could indicate that if AS would always crit, then it would over take an SC by a small (6.5%) margin even if the B/B portion were completely unable to crit. However, due to the balanced nature of the SC's damage if even one of the ticks are able to crit, it will overtake an ASCrit/B/B.
The only immediate implication I can really think of regarding this behavior is the reinforcement of my recommendation to dump AM procs into AS and only use Auras to cast shield cannon. I have a visual of my reasoning, but I'm finding a lack of words for it at the moment, I'll try to illustrate or graph it out and submit it here for feedback later on.
Unfortunately, I found this thread while thoroughly exhausted so I apologize if it is incoherent, but I wanted to put my two cents in on the HC1 vs HC5 discussion...
I, personally, would not invest more than the initial point in to head crush. The damage increase per point spent for the DoT is really lackluster. If I were to build a Knight focused on dps, I would do something like
this. Having Aura Shield at that level would allow you to save auras by preventing the need to cancel Concentration due to incoming damage and if you did need to cancel it, the cd would be substantially more potent. At the simplest level the difference in damage from HC5 to HC1 is approximately 1.5% over the course of a fight. I would rather have the survival cooldown that could save my auras for offensive skills instead of refreshing a cancelled concentration.
