Edit: I totally forgot about the stacking damage debuff as I have this supressed on my UI. Popping it late is the only way to go.
OP:
This is for pugs/progression.
I was thinking Hero on 30%, his enrage is a significant jump in damage.
But more I think letting everyone tee off in the beginning might make the fight short enough to be valuable. Or at least it’s a lot closer than I thought.
What I would really like is numbers, because with hero in the beginning everybody can pop everything and I’d like to objectively compare that to say fourth pillar.
I also realized that the stun doesn’t really last that long…it’s like 5 GCDs, maybe 6 with hero? As opposed to just teeing off for the first 40 seconds.
Plus I think in the beginning it’s way easier to have 100% uptime as the floor isn’t covered in rubble everywhere. For guilds/pugs just learning it, running out of room is actually the real enrage. I bet more organized groups can keep the floor much cleaner.
Finally although hero benefits healers a lot too, if the fight is 15-30 seconds shorter…well even if the end takes longer that’s still a lot of mana saved.
Pros of popping immediately:
Floor is clean
All CDs are up
Everyone’s alive
Really high uptime
Sets up cooldowns predictably for later in the fight
People don’t tunnel and stand in fires during a later hero
Cons
Doesn’t help healers, low damage phase
Doesn’t benefit from stun
No Hero during execute phase for Shadow Priest/Warrior