Optimizing Your Wings - Squeezing The Most Out Of Avenging Wrath

A comment by Fedaykin98 on my post Wednesday sparked some thought. Here's what he said:

When exactly do you pop [Avenging Wrath]? Ideally, one would pop it when your cooldowns are all coming up, but I haven't really been doing that.

If I pop it at the beginning, I'll likely pull threat off of some of the non-pally tanks out there. If I pop it on Judgment's first CD, I won't get the most bang for my buck because some things won't be off cooldown for a bit. If I wait until a later, more optimal CD to pop it, I reduce the chances of using it multiple times on one boss.

I guess the thing to do is to use it on the 2nd Judgment CD (meaning, after using Judgment twice, popping AW right as Judgment is becoming available) on short boss fights to maximize it's effectiveness, and as early as is safe on longer fights. Or do you try to make it overlap Hammer of Wrath?

Meter chasing Retadins want to know! =)

I generally use my wings as soon as threat is solid and Vengeance is stacked, which, broadly speaking, is sometime around the 10-15 second mark. It's all feel with me.

Now, Fedaykin is a tank, so he's speaking from the perspective of a protection paladin. However, asking about when in relation to his rotation he should pop his wings got me thinking. Is there an optimal rotation while inside of Avenging Wrath? Is there one combination of buttons that can get the most cooldowns crunched inside of 20 seconds? I mathed it out, here's what I came up with. All of the following assume the boss is above 20% health, the paladin has Glyph of Consecration equipped, zero latency, and starts with everything off or nearly off cooldown. First, let's consider cycles with 4 pieces of tier 7 equipped:

CS > Judge > DS
0.0 Avenging Wrath
0.0 Crusader Strike
1.5 Judgement
3.0 Divine Storm
4.5 Consecration
6.0 Crusader Strike
7.5 Exorcism
9.0 Judgement
10.5 Holy Wrath
12.0 Crusader Strike
13.5 Divine Storm
15.0 Consecration
16.5 Judgement
18.0 Crusader Strike
3 Judgements, 4 Crusader Strikes, 2 Divine Storms, 2 Consecrations, 1 Exorcism, 1 Holy Wrath

Judge > DS > CS
0.0 Avenging Wrath
0.0 Judgement
1.5 Divine Storm
3.0 Crusader Strike
4.5 Consecration
6.0 Exorcism
7.5 Judgement
9.0 Crusader Strike
10.5 Holy Wrath
12.0 Divine Storm
14.0 Crusader Strike
15.5 Judgement
17.0 Consecration
20.0 Crusader Strike
3 Judgements, 4 Crusader Strikes, 2 Divine Storms, 2 Consecrations, 1 Exorcism, 1 Holy Wrath

Judge > CS > DS
0.0 Avenging Wrath
0.0 Judgement
1.5 Crusader Strike
3.0 Divine Storm
4.5 Consecration
6.0 Exorcism
7.5 Crusader Strike
9.0 Judgement
10.5 Holy Wrath
13.5 Crusader Strike
15.0 Divine Storm
16.5 Judgement
18.0 Consecration
19.5 Crusader Strike
3 Judgements, 4 Crusader Strikes, 2 Divine Storms, 2 Consecrations, 1 Exorcism, 1 Holy Wrath

No matter how you slice it, you're going to pack 13 cooldowns into 20 seconds with zero latency. I didn't consider leading with Divine Storm, as it leads to a lot of cooldown clash. However, it seems the rotation with the most wiggle room for latency is CS > Judge > DS with 4-piece T7 equiped and while under the effects of Avenging Wrath.

Now, let's consider rotations without 4 pieces of tier 7:

CS > Judge > DS
0.0 Avenging Wrath
0.0 Crusader Strike
1.5 Judgement
3.0 Divine Storm
4.5 Consecration
6.0 Crusader Strike
7.5 Exorcism
9.5 Judgement
11.0 Holy Wrath
12.5 Crusader Strike
14.0 Divine Storm
15.5 Consecration
17.5 Judgement
19.0 Crusader Strike
3 Judgements, 4 Crusader Strikes, 2 Divine Storms, 2 Consecrations, 1 Exorcism, 1 Holy Wrath

Judge > DS > CS
0.0 Avenging Wrath
0.0 Judgement
1.5 Divine Storm
3.0 Crusader Strike
4.5 Consecration
6.0 Exorcism
7.5 Holy Wrath
9.0 Crusader Strike
10.5 Judgement
12.0 Divine Storm
14.5 Consecration
16.0 Crusader Strike
18.5 Judgement
3 Judgements, 3 Crusader Strikes, 2 Divine Storms, 2 Consecrations, 1 Exorcism, 1 Holy Wrath

Judge > CS > DS
0.0 Avenging Wrath
0.0 Judgement
1.5 Crusader Strike
3.0 Divine Storm
4.5 Consecration
6.0 Exorcism
7.5 Crusader Strike
9.0 Judgement
10.5 Holy Wrath
13.5 Crusader Strike
15.0 Divine Storm
16.5 Consecration
18.0 Judgement
19.5 Crusader Strike
3 Judgements, 4 Crusader Strikes, 2 Divine Storms, 2 Consecrations, 1 Exorcism, 1 Holy Wrath

Without 4 pieces of tier 7, as long as you start with Crusader Strike before Divine Storm in your cycle, you'll get the same 13 cooldowns in 20 seconds. However, again, you get a tiny bit more wiggle if you go with CS > Judge > DS.

The bottom line in all this is that there isn't one wings rotation that really sticks out as the best of the best. If you time it when either your Judgement or Crusader Strike are coming off cooldown just as or just before you hit your wings, and the other will not be far behind, you're good to go.