The journey continues...

I went from a hard spec to an even harder spec for my rogue. I really haven't been satisfied with my dps so I decided to do some more research to answer a lot of questions I was having on the matter. Here's what I found out so far:

The nature of the mutilate spec is very dynamic due to crits which makes it very hard to form a standard rotation cycle. Part of the complication lies in the high cost of the Mutilate ability and the necessity of having high crit rates to build energy. This isn't much different than a combat daggers spec to start with. Factor in keeping up slice and dice and things are still pretty much the same. This was basically all I did was spam backstab and keep up SnD. I never had enough energy to get rupture going unless I got a lucky proc from ruthlessness while adrenaline rush was up. Now, for my current build I have to focus on rupture and hunger for blood. Luckily I can use eviscerate or envenom to refresh my SnD but this isn't enough. This is a very unforgiving spec. If SnD drops I have to spend a lot of energy to get it back to full duration. If HfB drops, again I'm spending a lot of energy to get it back up to 3 stacks. There are times when I don't have the ability to keep rupture in the cycle if there was an actual cycle. In a perfect world relentless strikes would proc all the time. If I build 5 combo points I am guaranteed some energy return, but the way mutilate works it is often that I build 4 combo points or 6. I end up wasting energy or missing the proc. Ruthlessness is even more random. I would love to get that extra combo point after a finishing move all the time, so I wouldn't have to worry so much about SnD.

Basically, I'm now forced to micro-manage my combo points, energy, dots, and buffs while maintaining the proper positioning to maximize my dps. This is a huge change and may make the mutilate spec very undesirable for many rogues used to the mindless combat swords spec. So far it hasn't offered the dps gains for the hassles it presents.

This poster on Elitistjerks.com says it well:

My point in this post is to give rogues who are a little bit lost with this "new" talent tree (Assasination/HfB-Mutilate) and how they should be playing it. I'm not claiming to be the best or that I can't be wrong. That said, I've kept up to date with this thread (and its predecessors) and have been playing the rogue class at the highest level of raiding for quite a while now. As always, I welcome discussion on the cycle mechanics and such, especially if you think I'm wrong or could improve upon my analysis.Basically you just need to play Mutilate as a priority system:-Never let SnD fall (via CttC Envenoms)-Never let HfB fall-Use a finisher at 4+ combo points.Basically you end up with 2 seperate but simultaneous rotations: a simple one where you refresh HfB every ~29 seconds and another for Mut/finishers.Have a timer which shows your HfB buff with time remaining very clearly. Watch it and take note when it has less than ~5 seconds left that you'll need to put some energy into that soon - plan your other moves accordingly.Have a timer that shows your SnD buff with time remaining very clearly. Also, have a debuff timer which clearly shows your Rupture and your Deadly poison stacks with time remaining. Mutilate 'till you have 4 or 5 combo points. Check your SnD timer (and HfB timer) if you think you can't fit in a finisher and get back to 4 combo points before SnD wears out, use Envenom. If for whatever reason you don't have a deadly poison stack up, wait until you are at ~80 energy and Evis if you still don't have a deadly up (is Shiv/Enven a better option at this point.. how much does Envenom beat Evis by?). If your SnD has enough time on it (generally ~10 seconds is a decent mark), check your rupture timer. If you don't have a rupture up, hit rupture. If you do but its only got 2-3 seconds left.. wait. Don't let your energy cap out - if you're nearly capped on energy and rupture is still up - hit another Envenom.In practice this generally means you end up doing 4+ Enven, 4+ Rupture when you don't get Ruthlessness or a Crit on any of the Mutilates. If you get a couple Ruthlessness procs in a row with Crit mutilates you'll often have time to fit in a second Envenom. I'd recommend also being able to clearly see your Enveom buff so that you don't Envenom while it is already up unless you would otherwise cap out on energy. As an example, this week on Brutallus I had 59 Rupture ticks and 11 Envenoms in a 2:30 kill. 59 Rupture ticks works out 79% rupture uptime and 1 envenom every 13.6 seconds. 59 Rupture ticks means I hit rupture 8 times, a majority of the time with 4 combo points.I'd further recommend that if you're new to Mutilate and want to improve - try the test dummies out for a bit. HOWEVER, keep in mind a few things. First, raid buffs will change stat weightings and even your cycles. On the test dummy you'll be roughly 10-15% crit behind what you'll get in a raid. This means fewer single-mutilate finishers via Ruthlessness + Crit-Mut. Don't do a 3 minute test with 1 set of gear then a 3 minute test with another set of gear and pronounce set A better than set B in a raid - use the dummies to get a feel for the cycles.Also, keep in mind that this is more related to lvl 70. At lvl 80 our Rupture will last longer (Glyph). This leads to a much higher chance that Rupture will still be up after an Envenom + Mutilate to 4 combo points. You will likely find at 80 that you run into a 4+Rupture, 4+Enven, 4+Enven cycle. This was mentioned a while back by Ald (I think :S). Basically, maintaining a cycle which is at most 23 seconds long (SnD length) and at least 20 seconds (rupture length) with an energy bar only 100 big, just isn't possible long-term. You'll certainly run into the scenario where it does happen that way, but fitting in multiple Envenoms between ruptures will be more even common.

A lengthy quote but appropriate nonetheless...