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Basic DPS Comparison

As a lot of people asking about the best rotations for certain situations I have taken my time to dig into accurate numbers for this.
In general I want to mention that most of the Force Shielder Skills are situational Cooldowns and so we only have a small amount of Skills we can really work with in a rotation.

In addition I have posted you a comparison about the DPS of the Force Shielder Skills regardless of their Cooldown. In addition, more important for PvP and Bossfights than basic PvE, the Animation/Casttimes of all the Skills.

Please note: I only use the first and second skill of our basic consecutive chain as using the third and fourth hit results in a decrease of 5% total DPS. In addition I recommend everybody not to learn those skills, while you still be able to Combo from the 2nd hit of the BC (Basic Consecutive) into another Skill – the moment you do not have any other Skill to combo in you would break your combo because of the delay between the 2nd and 3rd hit before you can use the 1st hit again.
Still breaking your combo instead of using the 3rd hit of your BC is still more total DPS as you only use the 5% combo bonus on the first hit of the BC.

Our, currently, highest DPS Skill is Punishment I, the 3rd hit of our Retribution chain (Shield Spin), yet to use this skill we need to use the 1st and the 2nd hit of this chain as well. In addition we have a 20s Cooldown on it.
Because of this I have also compared the total DPS of a full chain.

While the DPS of Punishment I is 25% higher than the DPS of Rend IV if we compare the full chains against each other the difference in DPS is on 3%.

In addition the animation rooting of the Retribution chain is much higher so we have more problems using situational skills the moment they are needed.

The longest animation rooting of our BC is 1,6, without Attack Speed, allowing is to use our situational Skills like Judgment more accurate.

Another thing that is speaking against Retribution in our rotation is the fact that it can be used on range with the effect to pull a pack of enemies together increasing its value as a situational Skill as well, in addition it is AoE DMG.

Which other Skills do we have that fit into a rotation?
Based on the cooldowns and the DPS we have e.g. our AC (AoE Consecutive), Charge IV into Thunderstorm and Blockade Strike. While we do not need to discuss about the fact that our BC is superior against a single Target our AC is the main DMG source of our AoE DMG. Before we compare our AC against Retribution we will stick to our single Target rotation.

While Thunderstorm having a nice DPS the problem here is: We have to use Charge before and we do not want to use Charge for DPS as it stuns/interrupts our enemy while applying the full 10s Stun DR.

The last Skill we could add to our single target rotation is Blockade Strike. While the DPS of Blockade Strike is clearly inferior to our BC, using a Conquest Vendor Gem, we can add a 12s DoT effect to it.
Is Rupture worth the Gem Slot?
Depending on the situation Rupture is worth to be equipped.
But first things first.
While the DoT DPS and the overall DPS of Rupture is really low its effective DPS is as high as Punishment I or the Retribution chain as well as the our BC.

– Please do not say anything about “Snapshotting” people who trying to explain you that “Snapshotting” is so powerful while increasing your DMG did not understand what “Snapshotting” actually is –

In what Situation Rupture is effective?
In general we can say, as long as the fight is longer than 9s, Rupture become effective and viable to use but Rupture is mostly shining in fights with a lot of movement and target switching involved e.g. PvP situations. Once applied, and not removed, the damage is ticking, even when you die or you have to switch to another target – applying pressure on the enemies Healer as he has to heal. As fast double switch onto a 70% target is more likely to be successful than on a 100% target.

Yet for fights where you are able to DPS without moving other Gems might provide more use than Rupture. We have to also think about Utility Gems increasing other qualities we have.

Conclusion on the single Target rotation:
Our basic, highest DPS, rotation is to use the 1st and the 2nd hit of our BC.
Low animation rooting for situational Skills e.g. Lightning Trap or Judgment/Vanishing Cloak together with the high combo efficiency, increasing our DPS for additional 5%, making this the superior rotation if you just want to dish out the highest DPS possible without using the Battlemode.

Rend > Shield Slam > repeat

AoE rotation incoming!
While we currently have a 0.9s time window before we can use our AC again (Nova Explosion @ Lv50 OP!) we can e.g. use Shield Clash. We could also combo into our Retribution chain if it is up. However keep in mind the situational benefits that Retribution is taking along. Yet if there is nothing to worry about in terms of pure DPS – use it!
But: Keep in mind while our AC is a AoE circle Attack the AoE DMG of Retribution is dealt at the Targets position and not yours.

Full DPS AoE rotation:
Annihilation > Retribution > Annihilation > Shield Clash > Annihilation Shield Clash / Retribution is up again

DPS in the Battlemode should be clear for everybody – Spamming BC1 (“Reskill”) in Burst Situation you want to use Skill Nr. 3.