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Combustion GCD's

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GCD’s in Combustion

Overcap Prevention

Overcapping anything is always bad, as you lose CDR and thus uses of a spell throughout a fight. Overcapping Fireblasts is the worst thing you can possibly do. Preventing this is very simple. If you are about to overcap Fireblast charges, use a Fireblast>Pyroblast. This may commonly be needed at the very beginning of Combustion or in very high haste scenarios. Otherwise, following the rules and 3GCD combo playstyle outlined throughout the guide will outright prevent the issue.

The 3GCD Combos:

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Here’s the magic trick! Using these frequently allows you to follow all of your prios, maintain your buffs, and use your procs without a super brain as you can commit these to muscle memory. This playstyle drastically reduces the mental load required to perform your rotation as you’re making decisions once every 3GCD’s for the most part, where as with the more fluid playstyle you frequently have to make snap decisions GCD to GCD.

Deciding which set of combos to use is very simple, and Just like the Scorch combo taught earlier, these assume (and you should) you have Heating up when you start them.

When should I use these combos? (HINT: MOST OF THE TIME)

The Combos:

FA_combo

ib>pyro>pf>pyro combo

pf>pyro>ib>pyro combo

Found earlier in the guide

SKB Odd/Even Track

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We will always have either odd or even amounts of SKB stacks while in Combustion, and it’s important to make note of this. We will simply play as normal preventing overcap, and using the 3GCD combo’s until we’re at 7 or 8 SKB stacks. If you have 8 just enter Sun King’s Blessing. If you’re at 7, use one of the below 1 Pyroblast combo’s to track swap to 8. Our prefrence here would be Phoenix Flames>Pyroblast if it’s available and we are not talented into Alexstrasza’s Fury, although we more commonly use Scorch>Pyroblast; and albeit uncommon, if we’re lucky and flush on Fireblasts we can use Fireblast>Pyroblast.

pf>pyro combo

scorch>pyro combo

ib>pyro combo

The anatomy of Combustion

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The typical anatomy of Combustion is similar to playing with legos. It’s made up of various small combinations that we can commit to muscle memory. We use cursory information just by glancing at our bars once during our entries or 3GCD combos and quickly and effeciently decide on what to do inside our Combustion while freeing up bandwidth for mechanics and more!

Typically it looks like this:

bust_anatomy

5SKB_stack_bust_entry_example

Overall Combustion will always result in you obtaining at-least one Sun King’s Blessing and sometimes more, depending on how many stacks you started with as long as you have 25% or more haste.

Finishing Combustion/SKB

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Because of the way fire’s spells are coded we can consume a Hot Streak with Pyroblast or Flamestrike on a partial GCD and it still get the full Combustion buff on impact regardless of travel time. This works similarly for casted spells, as long as the cast has finished before Combustion has ended, the spells will have the Combustion buff regardless of elongated travel time or them impacting outside of Combustion. Do note, Phoenix Flames is unique in the aspect that it is calculated on impact, not when it leaves.

What this means, is that every Combustion should end with it’s last whole or partial GCD being a consumed Hot Streak, or a Sun King’s Blessing being hardcast and thus extending it. Every Sun King’s blessing or extensions, should end with it’s last whole or partial GCD being a consumed Hot Streak.

This can be a little tricky at first, luckily a good friend of mine has the perfect weakaura for this! Check out Forgy’s Final Bust GCD Helper, read the description, and leverage it to it’s full value!

GCD Math

Combustion when talented into Improved Combustion gives 12 seconds of Combustion. Sun King’s Blessing gives 6 seconds of Combustion. We can calculate out how many GCD’s we get for each of these at any haste levels with some simple math. (Time/(GCD Base/(1+haste)))

Full breakpoints:

The GCD can only be reduced to 0.75s and not any further. This means that after 100% Haste, you no longer gain any GCD’s in Combustion or Sun King’s Blessing.

As mentioned earlier, because of the nature of fire’s spells, we can abuse the way they are coded to take advantage of partial GCD’s. All this means is if i’m at 30% haste, I still get 11 GCD’s worth of spells in Combustion and 6 GCD’s worth of spells in Sun King’s Blessing.

While it’s not imperative to your performance, this knowledge is how we’re able to break the gameplay down into easier combos and formats for you to use!

Sun King’s Blessing Anatomy

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SKB’s anatomy follows the very same format as Combustion with a bit more focus on the partial GCD at the end. Whether the partial GCD needs one last Fireblast>Pyroblast will change as gear values increase or decrease through tiers, but i’ll keep this section updated with current normal gearing thresholds.

Typically it looks like this:

skb_anatomy

You should be getting an exact amount of Pyroblasts out of your stand-alone Sun King’s Blessings. You should get 5 from a Sun King’s Blessing you entered with Heating up and 4 from one you entered without Heating up. If you’re using Meteor with your Sun King’s Blessing you will only get 4 Pyroblasts with a Heating up SKB and still 4 with a no-hu SKB. Remember when you have haste buffs from mechanics, Time Warp, Power Infusion, etc you’ll get more GCD’s thus more Pyroblasts !

Examples: