I'm currently working on getting my damage up in virulence right now, but I'm coming up with a major issue: I can't keep my energy up to save my life. I can be hitting upwards of 6800 but then run completely out of juice when both Adrenaline Probe and Target Aquired are down. I am currently using the rotation of the 3rd highest virulence parser on Parsely.

 

I have noticed that my Takedown seems to be the main culprit of my energy depletion, as it gets used very often. I know that back in 3.0, we had the reduced cost for takedown, but I didn't play sniper in 3.0, so I don't have that gear. Are the top parsers still using the 4-peice set bonus from 3.0 or is there some hidden mechanic I have been missing?

Edited May 1, 2016 by Bruinir

Upload your parse please, it's really hard to compare or look further in detail into your rotation to find faults without actually having the numbers and statistics, regarding your questions tho, no I don't hardly think anyone of them are using the old setbonus. Edited May 1, 2016 by RikuvonDrake

Funnily enough, I'm the 3rd highest virulence parse at the time of this posting. All I can say is that my parse as well as the other high virulence parses have extremely lucky dot crit rates and timings. Dot crit timings can drastically change your rotation so never attempt to copy one of the high virulence logs, those rotations were under rare circumstances.

 

That being said; don't write off bad parses as poor dot crit timings. It's my personal belief that every parse you do is practise for a raid environment and in a raid you have to live with it if you're not getting god crits in a pull. Knowing how to make the best out of a bad situation is one of the best results of parsing.

 

With virulence it's mainly a matter of maximising filler efficiency. In your typical parses you won't have enough energy to make every filler a lethal shot, takedown, or SoS. Roll generously, if you don't energy cap and you used roll, you've used it correctly. The maximum dps in fillers will burn you out of energy so you need to recover energy with as minimal dps loss as possible. Don't be afraid to rifle shot. The challenge of the spec is completely pushing your energy to its limit. Start safe and don't worry about energy capping and then gradually be more offensive with your fillers and you'll improve.