With the intro out of the way, let’s get down to business. The spec that I run for maximum dps is 2/8/36. The Extra dmg on OH hits is extremely valuable and rage management, if done correctly, renders the use of Enraged Slash redundant.

Being the only tree able to pick up brutality without any major sacrifice (since its in the tree obviously), the 15% surge buff and a vicous throw in each Cascading Power window, Rage has the best execute phase in comparison to Annihilation and Carnage. (Also verified by KeyboardNinja.)

Hopefully I will be able to popularise the spec beyond the use of dailies all the way to even single target boss fights.

Battering Assault/BA

Bloodthirst/BT

Dual Saber Throw/DT

Force Crush/FC

Force Scream/FS

Obliterate/OB

Ravage/RV

Rupture/RU

Smash/SM

Vicous Slash/VS

Vicous Throw/VT

This one will be quite simple: no crit, full power. I have in fact done the calculation for myself and full power turned out to yield the best dmg output. The smash autocrit is such a big part of ur dps that losing any bit of guaranteed dmg will reduce ur statistical potential even with the 15% extra surge on every other ability too. And hey, who does not like to see 5 digit smashes

Accuracy: at the 180/Dread Forged lvl u will want to have 4 accuracy pieces (make it unoptimised 180 if u absolutely have to) and 2 purple lvl55 accuracy augments. This will put u at exactly 100.07% melee accuracy and allows u to pick up an extra surge enhancement for even bigger smashes.

At the Dread Master gear lvl, if u can get 3 or 4 accuracy pieces, then u can safely drop 1 of the accuracy augments. If u have three acc pieces, ull have 99.97% melee accuracy that I have run for some time personally and netted me seeing a total of one resist on a force crush tick. IMO the extra bonus dmg is quite worth it. Once u have 4 186 acc pieces ur back up to the golden 100.07% melee accuracy, good job!

Side note on crit. You are not a noob if you run some crit in rage. If u get a nice optimised crit mod or enhancement which would be an upgrade for you, go ahead and use it. I do advise against stacking too much since then ur smash will start to suffer greatly.

How about alacrity? You may laugh but yes I tried a piece or two. For rage it’s a horrendous idea as it completely messes up ur rage cycle if u use abilities precisely on the global cooldown. Don’t do it! ... Okay you can try it out just so u can laugh at urself.

Set bonus: 8% more dmg by ravage and 4% dmg buff for 15 secs after use of Berserk. Obtain the 4 piece set bonus as quickly as u can. I don’t care if u need to sacrifice a 180 might armouring for an arkanian set bonus armouring if it gets u the 4 piece. Having 4 arkanian armourings just for the set bonus is better than 4 180 might armourings, the set bonus is just that good.

Relics: Power and Primary Stat proc. If u need to pvp some to get the proc versions (they r very good placeholders) then do it and use those. Im not a fan of clicky relics to be honest, its an extra thing to click when there is already a fair amount going on (I remember I always used to forget to use it hehe. However, UW, KD and DF Boundless Ages are excellent for precasting b4 a fight if ur tank is nice enough to give u a countdown. Click it and swap back to ur power proc relic as the countdown is going on. Soon as ur clicky is over ur power proc is about to kick in (there is a 30sec proc lockout on the proc relic after u put it on).

At the dread forged lvl all of the marauder tokens have a full power option, and every single enhancement is the good power surge and accuracy power. We r quite lucky there unlike pretty much any other AC.

The tricky part about rage is that the rotation is reliant on continous going berserk for resource management (neither ani nor carnage need this). Therefore, start with full stack of fury (unless in an operation u need to use bloodthirst right away or within the next 2 min and 15 secs, I shall discuss that opener too later on).

Here is the catch: u don’t force charge in. You use obliterate first. In an operation setting I use my force camo to get within the 10m range while the tank does his countdown. On a dummy, just stand right next to it. If you cannot do this, or r uncomfortable or someone face pulled, just use force charge instead.

Another catch: u don’t smash right after. You use ur rupture. Couple reasons for this. U get a much better chance on getting both relic procs by the time you activate smash next (yes its ur third GCD), and the lion’s share of the bleed effect will also be buffed significantly right after the smash.

Starting with obliterate however, you need to go through an initial cycle where u recover a bit of rage and get into ur regular fury building rotation.

Without further ado, here is the opener I actually use whenever possible:

Frenzy precast (or out of combat fury build up), Berserk  OB RU  (adrenal, relic if clicky, BT)  SM  FC  RV  FS BA  OB  SM  VS  RU  Berserk  VSx2  OB SM FC DT VS FS  BA  OB  SM  RU  Berserk  RV  VSx2  OB etc

Then u can go into the fluid rotation where u get to go berserk right after every second smash.

Opener without full stack of fury

force chage and BT right off the bat (so that u can gain fury from FC which is the next move) if u need to use ur frenzy for that then: FC  BA (adrenal, relic)  SM  RU  RV  FS  assaultx2  OB  SM (yes without buff)  DS  FC  BA  VS  RU  OB  SM  berserk  VSx3  FS  OB  SM  DS  RV  FC  BA  RU  OB  SM  berserk etc....

Then u need to work with an overall low lvl rage till u get to ur next berserk VS RV FC combo with which u can fix everything right up and be in the fluid rage flow. Note that u need to work FC in earlier and earlier such that eventually it appears in the first GCD after smash. This opener is dmg wise not necessarily the most optimal but it gets u to the fluid roation more easily with FC being in the right place and not awefully delayed to later on in ur rotation.

There is no RNG!!!! Hurray!!!

There r four in the tree: Shockwave, Battle Cry, Cascading Power and Dominate. Shockwave stacks decrease the cost of ur smash and up its dmg (basically almost double dmg on ur smash while also free, nice eh?). Berserk grants u 3 stacks right away, while force crush ticks grant u 1 each. Battle cry makes ur next force scream free. Free SM and free FS r huge parts of the resource management. Battle Cry should be up all the time when u need it, but if by some wierd chance it’s not, don’t use force scream, it’s too expensive. Dominate comes from force charge and obliterate rendering ur next SM an autocrit. U gain Cascading Power right after smash for 6 secs, which is a solid 9% dmg buff to everything u do. More on this later in the rotation section.

Rage is very much about properly capitalising on ur Cascading power buff. It gives u technically 4 GCDs’ worth of time, but we must resort to tricks to make the last move we use land within that dmg buff window. I will expand on how u can do this below.

OB and SM back to back and on cooldown since they share the same timer. Why OB b4 SM assuming auto crit buff is already there after force charge? It gives you much better flexibility as to what to do in ur Cascading Power window after SM (although don't do force charge then OB then SM back to back, just save ur OB till SM is off of cd again). Also if there r gaps in which u cant dps, u can make absolutely sure that ur SM will auto crit.

Pair up FC and DT as close as u can. They also share the same timer and individually outperform a vicous slash. If ever they get separated, it should only be by ur RV (or VT sub 30%). The next time around u need to use them again, they should be both off of cooldown however. FC is always my first move right after smash, since it does its dmg over 2 GCDs and since ravage is always fit into the second and third GCD, in which case DT is the fourth GCD.

Don’t FS on cooldown. Its widely known that u can clip RV at 2.7 secs on the channel and get the full dmg. If u can do that right, u r able to land a melee attack after ur RV and still get the Cascading dmg buff on it (MH hit only, OH hit generally lands too late). So my general rule of thumb: if I am doing a RV I don’t use FS if I have enough rage to use a VS/VT (or just a free DT). If I don’t RV, I just go ahead and use FS in the fourth GCD since it lands much faster than a melee attack. So for example if u do VSx3 then FS exactly on the global cooldown, that FS will be buffed. You can verify in a combat log on torparse.

RU is very important for Rage. It only costs two rage, allowing you to do a stable non negative resource management, and it also outperforms a single VS in comparison. Once ur in the general fluid rotation, u will ideally end up using RU right b4 OB (why not right b4 SM? this is explained in detail in a different section) and 3/6 bleed ticks of it will be buffed by SM afterwards. This is what u do above 30% with a slight change in the execute phase, since then VT enters the picture. Sub 30%, RU is used within the cascading power window, as early as possible. This is because when u would use RU b4 OB above 30%, u use a VT instead for higher dmg. But we still need to use rupture to keep resource generation fluid.

Sub 30% VT enters the equation and u need to make sure to use it as often as u possibly can. However, if ever u have OB and VT off of cd, use OB first then SM then VT. If u do this, u can VT where u would normally do RU b4 OB, then u can VT again within the next Cascading power window. Sub 30% VT usage will often push ur FC out of the Cascading Power window. When that happens, u use it where u would use RU above 30% and its last tick will be buffed by SM.

The use of RV. It’s in the second and third GCD of the Cascading Power window. Always. If u do things right, u will be able to use it exactly on cooldown. There is one tiny exception when u need to delay it by 1 GCD to make it land in that slot. There will be times when ur berserk will line up in such a way that u get to do SM, berserk then RV right after. DO NOT RAVAGE. U need to use a VT/VS in that scenario to not to starve urself of rage after u gained 12 rage with berserk, since u will need to use 2 VSs in order to make OB come off of cd. Since ur more than likely to go over rage cap anyway, go ahead and burn 3 on a VS/VT while u can spare it, then use RV starting in the second GCD.

AOE Rotation: Go ahead and keep doing what u do single target, except replace every vicous slash with sweeping slash (its a better move than u think) if u r able to hit more than 1 target with it. So long as u do FS and BA after, you will be able to go into ur next smash and then Cascading Power window.

Retaliation: yes you can use this whenever u get to use it and not be worried about how much rage you have! Ur best bet is to squeeze it into the Cascading Power window. Keep in mind that its only usable for 8 secs after its use in enabled, so if u wait too long, you may just miss out on it. I generally avoid using it while berserk charges r consumed since I cannot benefit from the fury gain of it, so in such cases it lands somewhere after the second GCD (since by then 3 secs of berserk buildup will have passed and fury can be built again).

These r the combos I find myself using:

- VSx3(any three replaced by VT sub 30%)  FS

- FC  RV  DS

- FC  DS  VS

- VS/VT  RV  FS

- VT  RU  VS  FS

- VT  FC  DS

- VS  RV  VT

- RU  VTx2/VT  FS

RU in third GCD is a bad choice, just save till b4 ur next OB or GCD1/2.

It is by all means a dps gain. I find doing it the easiest by listening to the end sound animation of the ravage. When the last tick is about to land, there is this sort of “wuush” sound, sorry can’t describe it well but I hope u know what I am talking about. Soon as I hear it I can safely activate my next ability without fear of clipping too early.

This is the combat log tied to the

I checked in my log and the last tick of FC at the very end did not get buffed. It is still the next best place to put it outside of the Cascading Power window, since u need 1 GCD after its use b4 u can use smash at 3 stacks of shockwave. Who knows, might get lucky other times .

Credits to leto_cleon for this one. He made a very nice, easily accessible spreadsheat of my leaderboard parses, looking at my rotation in detail and in blocks starting with FC. Its very simple to gaher what im actually doing without all the extra data that there is in the combat log otherwise.

1m Dummy Parse starting with Frenzy+Berserk: http://bit.ly/VdDmWt

1.5m Dummy Parse starting with prestacked fury, and frenzy+BT at the start: http://bit.ly/1oYIHfH

They also track the weaponmaster and cascading power uptime visually during the rotation, I think thats pretty sweet! (there r seperate tabs for Republic and Imperial terms)

You may notice not using ur frenzy other than for BT right after going berserk (btw, always pair up berserk with frenzy and BT in that order, if you frenzy and BT arbitrarily u can lose out on a lot of fury and screw ur rotation having to resort to a bunch of basic attacks). So what to do with it? Ding, Predation!! Its an amazing raid wide buff and even better if situation needs movement. So I just generally pair my berserk with frenzy then predation soon as I get to 30 fury and BT is roughly half way through on its cd. It's essentially a free move (although in a rather tight window) and the benefits r pretty much never wasted on the tanks (10% defence). You might also end up popping it at a very opportune moment which you may not have even thought of till after u used it.

Alternate use of frenzy: soon as u get full stack of fury and SM, pop ur frenzy. Continue ur regular rotation as normal, but u go berserk again after ur next SM. Following this, where u would normally use FC and DT, u ignore those abilities and use RV, VT/VS depending on availability. Ignore BA after Cascading Power is over. Your third SM thus becomes ur "second SM" in the rotation, where u use FC and DT and BA for rage generation. What does this do for you? U get slightly more uptime on weaponmaster set bonus buff from berserk, and u can ignore a weak BA rage builder. Its better than nothing, though not nearly as noticeable a dps buff as in Annihilation where u can make an extra 6 dot ticks auto crit. In a raid environment predation would win out though due to its utility IMO. Use either or at ur discretion.

How to dual throw when more than one damageable target is around? Think Brontes and the Khephess clones for example. You have just smashed ur on the boss and DS is off of cd. Tab target quickly to the clone while positioning urself such that brontes is right in front of you (or diagonally in front of you also seems to work, heck u can even stand in brontes and still dmg her with it XD) then u DS, then tab target back to the boss during the gcd, then FC on the boss. Huge dps boost. Tab targetting is important as its hard to get the angle right if ur targetting something very close by and also trying to hit something at like 25m range.

Position urself for ur smash so that u can hit as many targets as possible. Brontes example again, 6 finger phase: u can in fact smash two fingers if u r midway the two, then FC, then run to the side finger, while targetting the furthest one then DS all three.

Dont forget about force choke! Should it happen that u need to stay out of melee range (e.g. exploding subteroth on NiM Draxus) just choke them from 9m. It does better dmg than 2 assaults (its force dmg so hits pretty hard in Rage along with 6% crit buff to it) and gives u 3 rage which afterward u can convert into a deadly throw or vicious throw depending on health lvl. Hey I know deadly throw sucks, but dmg is better than no dmg!

Okay so I have devised a rotation where rupture can be used exactly b4 SM and OB is right after SM each time. Here r sample parses for the alternate rotation and my original rotation in the guide. Both r with pretty crappy crit rates.

Here is the gist of it: with less critical dmg my rotation in the guide did considerably better than the alternate rotation.

What did I do in the alternate rotation, and why do I think it's fundamentally worse? First off you must open with force charge, no other way to buff SM if OB comes right after it (unless u feel lucky and just naturally crit lol). Since now OB is in GCD1 (otherwise would screw up ravage too which is even worse) of Cascading Power every time, the use of FC gets really funky, since that is exactly where I would put it above 30% every time in an ideal case.

This is a big problem. FC is a much stronger move than RU and like this it hardly ever gets buffed for the entire parse, whereas it's buffed every time above 30% and sometimes sub 30% in my original rotation. What do we gain instead? 4/6 (u can check in the logs, albeit very very very close to 5/6 ) ticks of rupture buffed instead of 3/6 (when used b4 OB then SM). Very very bad tradeoff.

What else? U can see further problems with this rotation sub 30%, since the placement of OB will interfere with a VT placement and hence mess up how many times u can use it in the execute phase. Therefore what I decided to do is swap to my original rotation sub 30%. Basically when I used VT after the Cascading Power window as a filler, both SM and OB come off of CD, so I just use OB first then SM. What is the problem here? Your entire rotation gets delayed by 1 GCD while u do this swap. Also not good.

Another thing, more PVE reated. Since OB is used after SM, that SM has a 19 sec window to be used. Say there is a gap in the fight long enough such that ur buff wears off and u dont get to force charge. U lose out on an auto crit unless you revert to the OB SM version.

I am glad I have done this test though, it has given me (and hopefully you ) much better insight into why the rotation in the guide works so much better and why its not ideal to do RU SM throughout the parse.