Spiker writes:

“basically use all your shots that do damage in the order listed above then repeat ad infinitum. You will do a LOT more DPS using that rotation,”
Somwhere someone mentioned due diligence. At minimum this means the authors claims should add up. Suggesting we do things in a particular order to achieve a specific result hinges on those options being available, at least for the first rotation. .In this case KS is unavailable till the final rotation.
leaving us with less DPS than promised.
Let me say, thanks for taking the time to research and write the article while providing us with additional sources to learn from, but the authors theory does not stand primarily due to a lack of due diligence.
Gavin Says:

Spiker, this is not a case of lack of due diligence.  The fact is that there is no way of knowing when KS will be available, so we can’t publish a shot rotation that looks like this:

SpS/MS/AS/SS/SpS/MS/AS/SSSpS/MS/AS/SS/SpS/MS/AS/SS/SpS/MS/AS/SS/SpS/MS/AS/SS/SpS/MS/AS/SS/SpS/KS/MS/AS/SS/SpS/KS/MS/AS/SS

That would just be ridiculous, so instead you have to truncate the rotation.  Even the above ‘full’ list of shot ‘rotation’ will not always be the case.  On a 75 mob in Zul Drak you might never get to use KS at all, while on Thaddius you might have to repeat the SpS/MS/AS/SS portion 20 times before KS becomes available.

This is not the fault of the listing in a priority based rotation.  Neither does it show a lack of understanding or even poor thinking and representation.  It’s that there is no clean way to say for sure exactly which buttons YOU are going to push in every single fight in the game.  It can’t be done.

So any “rotation” for any toon will always be very situational.  The priority based lists above are as good as you can get.  Use KS when you can in that particular spot in the rotation.  In other words, you go SpS/MS/AS/SS until KS is available and then prioritize KS over MS but after SpS just like we said.

To put KS anywhere else when it IS available would be a nerf to your DPS.  Lawbringer even mentions this in another part of the thread when someone took us to task about the subject of AimS vs. MS.  There is no single perfect rotation, there is no way to write one out for every single fight you will ever be in.

So the premise does hold plenty of water.  The problem is that there is more water than there are buckets.  This is also not our direct theory, only our review of a fabulous spreadsheet for testing DPS.  When we review a headphone set, it doesn’t mean we didn’t do our due diligence in recommending it because someone has an enormous melon and they hurt his huge head.

So in a way, you are correct.  You cannot use KS every time through, in this way you cannot achieve max DPS as listed.  However, you have to mention KS in there somewhere in order to get max DPS when it is available.   So what would you have us do?

So for kicks, here is a redo of the portion of the article you took issue with us on, hopefully formatted and reworded in a way that meets your personal tastes.  Parenthetical references denote changes.

The Shot Rotation – (SpS/MS/AS/SS)

It’s basically use all your shots that do damage in the order listed above then repeat ad infinitum, (until KS becomes available and then it will change to this:)

SpS/KS/MS/AS/SS

You will do a LOT more DPS using (these) rotations.

I still think this is an unnecessary construct, and probably most people understand a priority based listing of skill usage.  Almost everything has cooldowns that must be taken into account.  When you look at ‘best DPS’ rotations for ele shamans you end up with the same quandary.  The cooldowns never match up quite perfectly so you might add and extra LB in the standard rotation every 2 or three times through, but you might not if you are moving or any number of other variables.

We only ask that you read between the lines a little bit with us on things.  We’re not writing a book of scriptures here.  If we tried to think up and write down every possible itty bitty detail the articles would be four times as long and not really offer better and more complete information.

So you’ll have to excuse us if we abbreviate, condense and/or distill things from time to time in the interest of brevity.  It certainly doesn’t mean we didn’t follow through.  When we don’t feel comfortable giving advice we don’t.  When the advice is solid we do and you can be sure we did plenty of due diligence both in research and in-game testing on every single thing we do.

-Gavin