#0 - June 21, 2007, 2:11 p.m.
There has been much speculation on the 3 second Windfury cooldown (don't bother looking for it in the patch notes, they didn't put it in there). There is a lot of confusion (do to the almost complete lack of communication by Blizzard). I hope to clear up a lot of that confusion. This post is current a of 2.1 Live.
A quick history of Windfury and cooldowns. There was a short cooldown added (less than one second) as the first fix for Windfury self-procs. When they recoded Windfuy as yellow damage, they took the cooldown off because there was no need. The only way people knew there was a cooldown (aside from the lack of self-procs), and its later removal, was the ability to get a Windfury off of a Storm Strike and an Auto Attack at the same time. A 3 second cooldown was implemented in patch 1.11 (we don't know why) and removed in patch 1.13 or 1.14. The cooldown we currently have was in a more recent patch, we guess it at 2.0 (though because it's an undocumented change, we can't be certain, and Blizzard doesn't bother to update old patch notes with accidental omissions).
One of the workarounds (and because Blizzard wouldn't talk to us, we didn't know the cooldown was intended) for the cooldown was using staggered ranks while Dual Wielding. This meant that each weapon had it's own Windfury cooldown, instead of sharing the same cooldown between weapons However, there were scattered reports of 28% Windfury proc rates with this setup.
Numerous tests off of the 2.1 PTR (where the staggered ranks workaround has been fixed) show a proc rate between 17% and 19% (slow weapons). This is higher than suspected, based on what we know of the cooldown.
However, there have been calculations made. Assuming a 36% Windfury proc rate (I'll get to why 36% later), and a 3 second cooldown, you get around a 27% Windfury proc rate using staggered ranks. With a shared cooldown, the proc rate drops to around 18%. This seems to show that while Dual Wielding with Windfury on both weapons, you get a 36% proc rate.
Why 36% though? That's because each weapon checks both buffs every time it swings (0.2 + (1-0.2)*0.2 = 0.36)! The bug where a single swing would yield 4 Windfury hits was when both Windfury buffs proc'd (4% chance, 0.2*0.2 = 0.04). The 3 second cooldown was to counter-act the high proc rate, and prevent double-procs.
Instead of recoding Windfury so only the enchanted weapon is affected, they slap a 3 second cooldown on. It's an emergency solution. It also beaks Windfury. Windfury scales poorly with Haste effects, is worse with faster weapons, and has a 17% proc rate while wielding a single weapon enchanted with Windfury (or Dual Wielding with only one Windfury enchant). Heck, with fast enough weapons even assuming the 36% proc rate you get a severely reduced proc count (below 15% for each weapon!).
Data
Screenshot of two double-procs (2.0 Live):
http://geocities.com/californication696969/Test_WF5_WF1.jpeg
Because geocities got Pwned (2.0 Live):
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/251/testwf5wf1ca0.jpg
I used the Mag'har Fury Brand MH and Hand Axe OH. MH had WF5, OH had WF1. You'll notice on both quad-procs that it jumps from around 90 to around 120 damage, and that they hit twice in a row for each. This confirms that the double-procs are a result of a single weapon proccing both buffs at one time. Which supports the rest of the theory.
Links (2.1 PTR):
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=95979842&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=95983611&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=96122465&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=96051650&sid=1
Here is my simulator for non-staggered rates:
http://geocities.com/californication696969/WFSim2.java
And here is my simulator for staggered ranks:
http://geocities.com/californication696969/WFSim4.java
I have done some PTR (2.1) testing, attacking a Servant of Allistarjj for ten minutes while watching my Combat Log for a specific even (which did not occur). The 3 second cooldown still remains. However, when a weapon pocs Windfury, it uses the AP bonus of the Windfury enchant on the weapon. Windfury has been recoded slightly so that it always uses the weapon's own AP, and linked the cooldowns between all ranks.
Addendum: Regarding Tseric's "scary DPS" comment: It is my belief that his comment was made based on the glitched, pre-cooldown Dual Wield Windfury. It should be noted that under those conditions, it would have the equivalent of a 40% proc rate, which would result in ridiculous DPS. So while it isn't fair to mock him for the comment, it is Tseric's fault for not saying "My bad, the statement was erroneous because it was based on a bug."
